King Tuff – Bad Thing.

I’ll be honest with you all: I have next to no idea about anything to do with King Tuff. All I do know is, thanks to lovely people over at Stereogum (which is a much,much,MUCH better place to find out about new music) is that King Tuff is the main man and lead singer behind Happy Birthday. You all remember Happy Birthday, right? If not, check out their super good single Girls FM here. So it seems that King Tuff, aka Kyle Thomas, has decided to put Happy Birthday on the back burner for a while and make a record under his own stage name. Again, I’ll be honest with you: I think this could be the best garage pop song of the year. From its scuzzed up, bastardisation of a Los Campesinos! guitar riff to the bellowing, adolescence howl of a chorus, Bad Thing is the two things that a great pop song should be: Energetic and brief. Now, remember how I told you that the folks over at Stereogum are much better at this whole music thing than me and generally just better people? Well, they also brought to my attention that you can stream the whole of King Tuff’s debut album over at You Tube. Check it out!

Blood Red Shoes – Two Dead Minutes.

One thing that I’ve never noticed about Blood Red Shoes is how good the vocals are. The band’s latest album, In Time To Voices, sees the Brighton duo use the beautiful harmonies they’re capable of creating to shift their sound into a slower, more psychedelic spectrum. Be sure to check out the track above, Two Dead Minutes, which is one of the tracks that highlight the shift in the bands sound.

Mystery Jets – Someone Purer.

Want to know what I’ve been listening to? The answer is Mystery Jet’s Radlands which is easily one of my favourite albums of the year.  Every track could be a single yet the album feels so cohesive. Seriously, alongside Cloud Nothing’s Attack on Memory, Evan’s the Death’s Self-titled debut, and Porcelain Raft’s Strange Weekend Mystery Jets have created one of my favourite albums of the year.

The Eversons – Could It Ever Get Better?

The perfect single to accompany my ever-growing fears about the future.

Silence Dogood – The Sound of Silence Ep

I really wish I had written this. The guitar sounds huge and fuzzy whilst the vocals are fun and catchy. The band are kind of like a soul version of Japandroids. Less anthemic, but more atmospheric but still just rocking the fuck out. You can download a taster of the ep at Silence Dogood’s bandcamp before the whole of the ep is released on May 31st. Enjoy

The Walkmen – We Can’t Be Beat.

Wow. Just wow.  I’m going to leave it at that because I’m pretty sure no one in the whole world could possibly dislike this track. Actually, I will mention that the track above features a contribution from Fleet Foxes front-man Robert Pecknold. So, if you’re a Fleet Foxes buff you might want to check this one out (for the ridiculously good harmonies). Also, The Walkmen are gracing Britain’s shores in October this year, so if you like what you hear be sure to check them out on these dates:

October 27th: HMV Institue, Birmingham.
October 28th: O2 ABC Glasgow, Glasgow (Tickets for this one go on sale today in fifteen minutes!)
October 30th: HMV Ritz, Manchester.
November 1st:  HMV Forum, London.

This Many Boyfriends – (I Should Be A) Communist.

Consider this my monthly ramble about how great This Many Boyfriend’s are.  (I Should Be A) Communist is This Many Boyfriend’s forthcoming single (released on the 21st of May) and sounds fantastically fresh as a result of Ryan Jarman’s production of the song. Whilst the original, we can be found on the band’s debut Ep Getting  A Life With…, had a cleaner, more delicate feel this new reworked version is dewy with reverb and is perhaps more ramshackle and hazy as a result. This is not to say that any of the original charm have been sacrificed. Jarman, and the band of course, have struck a happy medium in which the charm and character of the previous recording have been retained and been built upon to create something even better. God, I love This Many Boyfriends.  Oh! I forgot to mention that Ryan Jarman is producing This Many Boyfriends’s debut album! (not just this single) Which is a pair that can only bring about one hell of a record.Also, at 0:40 is that the new Evans the Death album? Can anyone confirm this? If it is I’m insanely proud.

Fanzine – Low.

To put it simply; Live at Leeds was fantastic.  The festival seems to be leaping from strength to strength with each passing year not just in terms of popularity but with the standard of band it is attracting.  This year, amidst the frantic power-walking from venue to venue, one band stood head height about the rest for me. That band was Fanzine. I’ve been pretty much head over heels for Fanzine’s particular take on the fuzz pop genre ever since I saw them supporting Yuck in 2010.  Their pretty much perfect single Roman Holiday  is still my go to song if I ever need picking up. Not content with an amazing guitar solo Fanzine make the rest of Roman Holiday so infectious that once picked up, it is almost impossible to put down. Now, after all these gushing remarks about Roman Holiday it may seem a bit odd that I’ve decided to use Fanzine’s first single Low above. The reasoning behind that? God knows. I think, like with the Alt-J and The History of Apple Pie posts, that I’m trying to show people that Fanzine are such a good band that they shouldn’t just be known for one painfully perfect single. But, what is there to say about Low. Well, it was Fanzine’s first single and it sums up all the elements that make the band so endearing. Low showcases how the band clearly have the know how to craft wonderfully pure pop songs and how they preserve such pop purity by encasing it in the warmth and glow of those fuzzed up guitars. God, that was a obnixous description. I’ll make you a deal, okay? Just ignore that bit of pompous journalistic nonsense and listen to anything by Fanzine repeatedly, yeah? Cheers guys, you’re so thoughtful. Bye for now!

THEESatisfaction – Enchantruss.

I’ve been meaning to post about the this track for a while now. Okay, so the above track is by a duo called THEESatisfaction and as you can see above the artwork for their recently released album, Awe Naturale, is a thing a of beauty in itself.  The hue of the yellow just gives the whole artwork this smokey feel and I just love the font used for the band’s name. I’m not sure if it’s because I have been playing a lot of Fallout 3 recently (which is a great game by the way) but Enchantruss gave a kind of postapocalyptic funk feel. The continuous garbled sample sounding to me like a broken radio in a lonely, dark void. Erm… maybe all that is just me though. If you want to check out more of the duo they have made another of their songs available for download over at Sub-Pop’s soundcloud. It’s called QueenS and it’s equally as awesome as Enchantruss but perhaps a tad more accessable. Well, hopefully this latest ramble will inspire you to check this awesome band out. Sweet. Bye for Now!

The History of Apple Pie – I Want More

Keeping true to my new a post a day schedule I bring you this fantastic video of The History of Apple Pie performing their song I Want More, a song which is yet to be released. Just as in the Alt-J post (which you should all go and check out here) I didn’t want to write about an aspect of The History of Apple Pie that had already been covered. So I decided to post this live video of the band in the hope of inspiring people to have a deeper look in the band’s music beyond You’re So Cool, Tug and Mallory. But this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t go out and look up the ban;ss much-loved single Mallory because you totally should (It has an awesome guitar riff). The shorthand of all this rambling is that The History of Apple Pie have the potential to be an awesome band. Also, this wonderful band are frequenting Live at Leeds this weekend and that is only one of the reasons why it’s going to be awesome (Faznine, Alt-J and Los Campesinos! being just three more).Good night!