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'I love you more than Tony Soprano…'
If that isn't one of the best lyrics ever written, then we
don't know what is. Like all the best bits of Pulp, Happy
Mondays and Echo and The Bunnymen, The Hours twist genres
and turn the styles they imitate completely on their head.
And all with lyrics that are catchier than a netball team
and melodies that you're humming along to before the end of
your first listen.
The band have been championed since their inception by the
likes of Zane Lowe and Jarvis Cocker and their bizarre, psychedelic
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artwork was created by none other than Damien Hirst. They're
playing two sets at Glastonbury, and have recently headlined
the legendary Shepherd's Bush Empire, as well as finding
time to guest on Later with Jools Holland. And recent single
Love You More was an underground smash - a twisted, contagious
slice of art-pop genius.
'They understand what music is for - it's for human beings
to communicate with other human beings. It's that simple,
it's that important. Let them into your life. You won't
regret it' - Jarvis Cocker
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Switches were formed by Brit-pop freakster and child
prodigy Matt Bishop who, from the age of four, was rocking
out hits on his guitar and recording rough and ready, T. Rex-style
'demos' on his dinky, Fischer Price tape recorder.
Like Franz Ferdinand with more sex and glamour, their sound
is swathed in feather boas and eyeliner - stomping like Bolan
and swaggering like The Stones. If Franz Ferdinand write songs
to make girls dance then Switches write
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songs to
make them strip down to their pants and writhe around on the
floor.
Blasting out of the Southend scene alongside the likes of
The Horrors, Switches have kicked up dust in SXSW, signed
to the mighty Atlantic Records in the process and have toured
with The Rakes, Graham Coxon and Hard Fi.
'One of the finest purveyors of lip-smacking indie-pop delicacies
in the land' - NME |
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Think pure, timeless, shiny 60s pop, with big tunes
and dreamy female vocals. Then add some more pop on top. Then
some bigger tunes. Then some more pop, then make the vocals
even dreamier and then sprinkle a dash more pop on top until
the whole thing is just so dreamy it sounds like Blondie meets
The Cardigans meets The Beautiful South. Did we mention Lucky
Soul make great pop music? I think we probably did.
'Almost indecently fabulous' - The Guardian
'Should be playing the Albert Hall with full orchestral backing'
- Artrocker
'A glorious collection of pop syphonies...it's hard not to
be won over' -Uncut
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'Freeway pop at its most brilliant and shameless...this
pitch perfect record
deserves to be on the stereo all summer' - Metro
'Melancholia, heartache and existential angst. Marvellous'
- Independent on Sunday
'Well crafted and fabulously danceable, with epic flourishes
and rousing handclaps...This isn't a modish crush, but a
full-blown pop affair' - Word
'Ice cream sweet, but, like Saint Etienne or The Concretes,
they lace it with ground shards of bleak heartbreak and
sharp lyrics that'll have your heart bleeding' - NME
'Prepare to delight in this bubblegum world...with their
infectious songs Lucky Soul are impossible to dislike' -
The Observer
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Discovered by Travis's Fran Healey, Amy Macdonald
is a 19-year-old newcomer who creates wonderfully uptempo
and exciting pop-folk songs, with a little bit of skiffle
and a dash of honky-tonk.
Take all your preconceptions of sensitive singer-songwriters
- the raindrops, the teardrops, the moping and the coping
- and fling them out of the window. Like KT Tunstall or Sinead
O'Connor she has power when she sings, and there's a taste
of grit and gravel in that soon-to-be unmistakeable
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voice. T In The Park and Glastonbury are both lined up,
and her debut album is brimming with radio faves like Poison
Prince - the tapalong single that hassles her hero Pete
Doherty to forget the headlines and get back to making brilliant
music.
Amy is virtually a megastar in her native Glasgow, and Radio
1's Jo Whiley is already a major fan. It shouldn't be long
before the rest of the world is joining the queue.
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There's always a few late cancellations - it's part
and parcel of this kind of event. We usually do alright with
replacements though - remember that time iForward, Russia!
played at 6 hours notice? Well, The Displacements have had
a bit more notice than that but are sure to make a similar
impact. These lads have an abundance of attitude and
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energy, with the NME's James Jam recently claiming they
'rock like their lives might cease'. Crikey. Coming across
like The Strokes if they'd shacked up with Black Grape or
The Who if they'd existed in Leicester circa 2007, their
debut single is out in August on Stiff Records - home of
The Enemy, Elvis Costello and Madness.
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Indigo Moss look like they've just walked in from
1870… all braces, pantaloons and petticoats.
They have banjos, slide guitars and a double bass, and they
play the most tripped out, weird hillbilly-indie we've ever
heard - think George Formby in a line-dancing competition
with The Zutons rocking out over an Arcade Fire backbeat…
It's fantastic.
They've just been on tour with Damon Albarn's The Good The
Bad and The Queen, and have been championed across the airwaves
by super-sized comedian and Buzzocks panellist Phill Jupitus.
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'Indigo Moss just have it' - The Guardian
'Poised for great things' - Time Out
'Not your latest raggle-taggle bunch of skinny-jeaned indie
pin-ups' - NME
'An excitingly raw rockabilly storm' - Metro
Modern, maudlin pop tunes - Indigo Moss couldn't be any
more wrong and yet, somehow, this feels so right' - Skinny
Magazine
'Could punch a hole in the fabric of the music industry'
- Drowned In Sound
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How to make a Smallwhitelight? Mix Creep-era Radiohead
with a heady mix of Libertines-style guitar, add a touch of
quiet-loud-quiet seasoning and a smattering of Kinks, bake
for twenty minutes and serve.
This is an all out pop 'n' roll assault - aural stimulation
par excellence. Rumbling bass lines, beats that sound like
a hyper-active tap dancer kicking the crap out of a drum kit,
guitars that have clearly been strummed with razor blades,
and a nasty little edge to the vocal.
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We don't
know much about these - not even sure they've got a record
deal, to be honest - but we just thought that there's a hint
of something special lurking in the handful of tunes that
we've heard so far. Jump onto their MySpace and judge for
yourself.
'Their epic, psychedelic indie-rock suits a bigger stage,
and all in black before a sequence of film projections they
effortlessly convey the sense of an Event. Shades of Radiohead,
electric Dylan and a skinny English Queens of the Stone Age
converge, but the light shines through.' - The Fly Magazine |
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Just confirmed - David Jordan to replace Kharma
45 who have moved to the 96.6 TFM Main stage slot of 12.45
- 1.15pm |
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Until recently Josh Pyke was still just doing the
rounds of New South Wales' "toilet" venues in his
old indie-rock band. Oh how things change! He recorded a demo
of some songs he'd written that didn't really fit the ethos
of his band, and within weeks he inked a deal with Ivy League
Records in his native Australia. His debut mini-album 'Feeding
The Wolves' soon found its way into the hands of Island Records
head honcho Dan Keeling and he instantly signed Josh to Island/Universal
here in the UK. It's alright for some, isn't it!?
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His beautifully
crafted acoustic tunes remind us here at Music Live HQ of
the much missed Elliot Smith and Nick Drake, with perhaps
a nod to classic Sparklehorse too. In other words, he's a
bit good like.
'It’s unfortunate that we should be suffering under such
a glut of male singer-songwriters at the moment, because ‘Feeding
The Wolves’ is truly ahead of the pack. So forget the
Gray-Blunt-Nutini Axis of Evil and burn this name into your
head: JOSH PYKE.' - New Noise
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Let's get one thing clear, The Chapman Family are NOT a cult.
This is a message the band really hit home. It's plastered
all over their Myspace, their artwork and their promo…
it's a lie of course, because after one listen to their ferocious,
blacker-than-an-asphalt-crow brand of New Wave, you're hooked.
Your eyes grow drawn and your only hunger is more, more…Chapman
Family.
Their music sounds like a speeding Jag, black on black, speeding
down Route 666 with fire belching from the exhaust and wild
eyed, raven
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haired Kingsley Chapman at the wheel yelping and howling like
a tormented beast. 'The kids are not alright!' they wail to
ricocheting drums and katana-sharp riffs.
'What strikes is the sheer momentum that the Chapmans generate.
They motor along in a blur of anger' - Artrocker
'High-speed jitter-pop destined to get every discerning indie
kid shaking their denim-clas hips. A swaggering, new-wave
call to arms… absorbing, alluring and completely contagious'
- NME |
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