LOS Angeles singer-songwriter Rey Villalobos has made quite a name for himself under the House of Wolves moniker. Having toured Europe and the US with the likes of St Vincent, Villagers, Fanfarlo, Avi Buffalo and Sea Wolf, Villalobos has worked hard honing his warming sound, culminating in the release of his debut album Fold in the Wind. His first single, Follow Me, showcases Villalobos' capitivating vocals in the form of a delicate whisper, spliced with atmospheric piano keys and floating guitar work, as it progresses towards its tender, uplifting chorus. The haunting Follow Me is out now, aptly via Bleek Records.
NME'S latest darlings suitably impressed the Topshop trendies at Bournemouth's O2 Academy last night (Wednesday, February 22). The venue was played host to this year's ever-popular NME Awards Tour featuring fledgling rap queen Azealia Banks, Tribes, sultry four-piece Metronomy and Northern Ireland's Two Door Cinema Club. The shows provide a steady platform for up-and-coming acts to propel themselves to the higher echelons of musical prestige, a la Florence and the Machine, The Drums and Kaiser Chiefs.Azealia Banks will be huge based on her confident, yet fairly short, set. Flanked only by a DJ, the opening act let her ferocious tongue do the talking over fluid beats. Crowd favourite 212 was a clear highlight and the seemless mixing of Prodigy's classic Firestarter sent the sold-out audience into an early frenzy.Next up, though, were Tribes. A typically mediocre UK act backed by NME thanks to their generic riffs and expensive haircuts. A hideous mix of Feeder, Suede and OK Go, washed down with a chaser of Pixies. The meticulous electro-funk of Metronomy was typically efficient as they stormed through The Bay, The Look and Everything Goes My Way, while Two Door Cinema Club's charming and infectious indie pop was energetic and captivating.So here's to next year. We can't wait to see which new acts NME will be championing next time round, and we're sure the bow-legged chino fashionistas can't either.
The formidable Jonny Pierce.THEY may have totalled hundreds of live performances in 2011, but New York City's finest The Drums showed no signs of tiring as they tore apart Portsmouth's Pyramid Centre with a typically majestic performance we've come to expect from Jonny Pierce and co. Ably supported by the Sonic Youth-meets-The-Pains-Of-Being-Pure-At-Heart act The History of Apple Pie and promising Aussie synthsters Cloud Control, pop's indie darlings launched into their polished set with the bouncing What You Were - arguably one of the finest efforts from sublime sophomore effort Portamento.The wild, "Non-committal clappers" that were the Portsmouth crowd, which bizarrely conjured a mosh pit suitable for a Sonisphere headliner, were treated to energised renditions of Best Friend, Stand outs were the songs with the most meaning for Pierce; the delectable How It Ended and sweet melancholy of I Need a Doctor. The latter may not entail the dizzying hooks that have made The Drums so alluring to many, but its bleak analogy of relationship strife awoke Pierce's playful side.Pierce's unmistakable talents as a showman are brought to the fore with emotional ballad Down By The Water, which has arguably emerged as the act's staple jaw-dropper, complete with thundering drum crashes and spine-tingling vocals. Concluding with an intimate version of Baby That's Not The Point, complete with Ben E King-esque bass riff, it led to a fitting pathway to It'll All End In Tears - the stand out hit from their 2010 debut - before Pierce, under a haunting spotlight and over Jacob Graham's warbling electronic spectrum, graciously sounded off the evening with the gloriously enchanting Searching For Heaven.Luminous Plectrum has witnessed The Drums on numerous occasions over the past two years and this has to be the best we've seen them. They're polished, slick and enjoying their success. Portamento may have been met with mixed reviews, but its simplicity and synthy tones have provided a welcome boost for the band, who can only embrace a bright future ahead.The History Of Apple Pie - Tug by The History Of Apple Pie Cloud Control by Infectious Music The Drums - Forever And Ever Amen by wwwta
COMIC hip-hop starlets Das Racist tore up a sadly depleted venue with their refreshing brand of humorous-cum-ferocious rap. The Brooklyn, New York, trio, consisting of Heems, Kool A.D, and Dap, swaggered through their internet-crazed joints Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, You Oughta Know, and new hit Michael Jackson. Here's a video we took on the night (apologies for the sound quality).
YOU'D be forgiven for dismissing Black Sabbath and Thin Lizzy as obvious influences to Wichita's Cloud Nothings, but it seems this latest mixtape - issued ahead of their Steve Albini-produced new album Attack on Memory - will shock a few of you. Cloud Nothings' Dylan Baldi has pieced together a short collection of songs that influenced the band during the recording of the upcoming release. Baldi said: “While I was writing the songs that would become Attack on Memory, I listened almost exclusively to music that was made before I was born. This is a pretty common practice for me, actually, but I took it to a new level while making the record. I more or less memorized every guitar solo on the best Thin Lizzy albums, listened to only The Wipers for about 3 weeks, and fell asleep to Black Sabbath every night. "This mix condenses my listening habits into an easily digestible 'best of', songs that strongly affected what I was thinking while writing my own music. Not to say that every song on Attack on Memory sounds like Killdozer, but I do think that the influence of these particular tracks is often obvious, and hopefully sheds some light on why the new Cloud Nothings album sounds so different from any of the past recordings.” The inclusion of Zounds - This Land was an inspired choice.
Mixtape tracklist:
1. Black Sabbath -- Supernaut 2. Nina Hagen -- Born In Xixax 3. Killdozer -- The Pig Was Cool 4. Zounds -- This Land 5. Thin Lizzy -- For Those Who Love To Live 6. The Wipers -- No One Wants An Alien 7. Bitch Magnet -- Navajo Ace 8. Swell Maps -- The Helicopter Spies Cloud Nothings "Attack On Memory" Mix 2011 by Wichita Recordings
SOUTHAMPTON embraced Cumbria's finest in warm fashion last night (Monday) as Wild Beasts smothered the transfixed crowd with a typically efficient performance.Showcasing the finest cuts from this year's stellar Smother and 2009's simply wonderful Two Dancers, the quartet consisting of Hayden Thorpe, Ben Little, Tom Fleming and Chris Talbot used their musical expertise to reaffirm why Wild Beasts are arguably the British band that are on the cusp of greatness.Highlights included Ben Little introducing crowd favourite All The King's Men as 'a song about fucking', a fitting retort after Thorpe was described as sexy by an over-amorous male fan. Oh, and of course Little's torpedo-esque shrieks of "Watch me! Watch me!" in the eponymous song. There's no denying Wild Beasts are incredible performers; entwining the experimental with electrifying guitar melodies and resonating vocal ranges. But while the songs on Smother may be their most carefully crafted and complex material to date, the album can be a difficult listen and some tracks do not translate for an entirely fulfilling live experience.We've caught Wild Beasts live a couple of times now and another negative of their live shows has to be the disregard to play anything from their first album Limbo, Panto - arguably their most exciting piece of work. Down points aside, Wild Beasts are an inspiring act and proof classically trained musicians can create alarmingly good music for the trendy knitted sweatshirt masses. Apologies for the photo quality, the lighting was extremely dark.
LOS Angeles singer-songwriter Rey Villalobos has made quite a name for himself under the House of Wolves moniker.
