Here's a corker from Cork (sorry). You can download the excellent, angry, melodiously harmonious My Friend Has No Job by Former Monarchs. These Irish kings take their influences from Reuben and Oceansize. Go on, what are you waiting for? Download that shit.
Bearfoot Beware have changed much since their last release (if I remember correctly), The Elegant Philantrophist. Line-up changes have not only shaken up some musical duties, but also the direction their music has taken. From the post-punk/pop funk leanings of previous releases to the math rock/alt pop of No Face's Gold, it's safe to say their evolution has brought about the best out of them.
Tom Savini's Fake Blood starts off the record with a blaster. Enthusiastic, vibrant and quirkily jaunty, it sets the tone for the record with its shouty vocals, groovy basslines, jangly guitars and fantastic drumming. For most of the track, the energy is relentless, and then it slows down to a halt.
Gérard Depardieu then takes the torch, with its soft vocals to accompany the quiet start. As it builds up to a glorious, cacophonous wall of sound, the singer's snarky laughs throughout the track encapsulates the tone of the EP. Bearfoot Beware is angry, arrogant and confident (all in a good way), but not without its sense of humour.
Read the rest of the review, listen to and download the EP for free after the JUMP.
Here's the new music video for Brontide's new single, Matador. The single is the first track of their album, Sans Souci, which comes out on May 30th 2011 on Holy Roar.
The single itself is available for free download, and the album is shaping up to be one of the best records of the year.
Glaswegian posi-coresters (formerly fight poppers, and how do they come up with these genres?) with the nearly-unpronounceable, sometimes unspellable name (Danananananananananana-B-A-N-A-N-A-NA, this shit is bananas-aykroyd) comes back with a new single titled 'Muscle Memory.'The music video to said single should unquestionably the official music video for the London Olympics. I mean, they're already dressed in Adidas, the sports meet sponsors. Might as well, right? There's so many sports and sports boffins in the video it'd be a crime not to. Jumping on a trampoline to take a bite out of a carrot hanging from a fishing pole counts as a sport, right?
I'm in London right now, incidentally. So I haven't been updating much. I've also been trying to catch up with work, so that's a bit of a bummer too.
&U&I (pronounced and-you-and-i) have released two tracks up for free download to celebrate the birthday of two of their members, Rich and Wiz.You can listen to the new single 'Stalk This City' and then head off to their website to download it.
Is World takes its cues from the early emotional rock bands from Midwest America, and as fellow Illinois folks, counts Billy Corgan amongst its influences. In their debut EP, thick, crunchy guitars, melancholic lyrics and scratchy vocals definitely do dominate the songs as a result of this. But it's also much more to Turning EP than just that.
There are so many excellent things going on in this record, from the jangly, jaunty guitar lines of Either/Or to the anthemic Weezer-esque vigour of Stuck With Me via the heavy strings and drumming on For Now, ending with a mammoth 19-minute instrumental outro in the form of (reprise). They claim to be comprehensively educated in symphonic music and jazz, which explains why even within just four tracks (one of which is actually longer than the other three combined), Is World shows more ambition, scope and experimentation than most bands on a full album.
Read the rest of the review and listen/download the EP for free after the JUMP.
Leeds is one of my favourite places to go to for music, and with bands like Just Handshakes (We're British), who could blame me? New Adventures In Pop is twee indie pop sprinkled with infectious choruses and addictive melodies crafted beautifully together. This is the sound of blurry summer memories and half-forgotten romances intertwined with jangly guitars and upbeat synths.
The video for Falling Over Our Fear (directed and produced by Sean Gledhill of Leeds's Anthologies) perfectly complements the single, capturing that hazy, buoyant twitch the band embodies. This becomes all the more impressive since this is Gledhill's first full effort at making a music video.
Here's a new music video from Oxford band, Jonquil. Their EP 'One Hundred Suns' from which the song came from, is a delightful record littered with math rock-tinged dance folk sensibilities.
To coincide with the release of their new single, Oxford outfit Spring Offensive have unveiled a brilliant, single-shot video to A Stutter And A Start. The single is available to order through iTunes or Bigcartel for the physical copy (which includes, oddly enough, a colouring book).
Listen to another song, A Let Down, by them after the JUMP.
In an Alcopop Records-themed sort of day, it's been announced that LightGuides, alternative pop punkers from Glasgow, Scotland, has signed with the label.
I received my copy of Jumping Ships 'Heart & Hope' single this morning (their first on the Alcopop label), and it's absolutely brilliant. Punchy, anthemic, and hook-filled, give the song a listen below and buy it HERE:
I've been following Jumping Ships for a while now, and I was delighted to discover a 'lost' 5-track set from when they were recording Orientations EP. It's up for free download on their Soundcloud.
I was on Facebook yesterday, and there was an article that kept coming up in my timeline. It was an article from Rick Martin, a music writer on the NME online blog. I decided to look at it. And it made my blood boil.
If you haven't read it, then you can click on HERE to read the bollocks NME call music journalism.
"I don’t even care if I never own a physical CD or vinyl record ever again. I got rid of 90 per cent of my CD-based record collection last year, leaving behind only the records I’d paid for before becoming a music hack. I don't miss them."
Is there a reason why you only kept the ones you paid for, Rick? I'm guessing you care more about these records because you actually PAID for them with your own money.
So now that I'm in France for a few days, I thought it'd be criminal of me not to do a French special. Apes Did Ensemble is a Parisian band that plays a mixture of Math Rock and Post Rock. So they're a bit like Mimas then, I hear you shout from the back of class. Well, yeah, if you put it like that, but not quite. Here, have a listen:
Apes Did Ensemble - (Everybody Loves) Magritte
Their excellent debut EP is available to buy HERE and on iTunes. If you're not convinced yet, just listen to their EP HERE.
If you haven't figured it out, yesterday's review of Rebecca Black's Friday was an April Fool's joke. So was my announcement that I would stop blogging (C'mon, that joke's been overused more than LOLcats). But I will somewhat be taking a break from the blog as I'll be leaving for London later today and for France tomorrow.
I'll be dressed up like this:
I'll try to update as much as I can, and I'm thinking of featuring French bands, and maybe even a review of all the baguettes I'll be enjoying.
If you know any quality bands from France, don't hesitate to comment or e-mail me at admin@mujahidjohar.com. Who knows, I might get you an Eiffel tower keychain as a prize.
Much has already been said about internet phenomenon Rebecca Black. Time Magazine has named her the most influential person in music in their newly released list, ahead of Bob Dylan and The Beatles. Rock Sound called her the saviour of rock and roll, while NME hailed her as the Lady Gaga-killer. But one question remains, why has she suddenly transformed from a virtually unknown preteen to one of the biggest commodities in the music industry?
