Up & Coming Artists #2: The Metros

The Metros
Libertine Rivivalists or Indie Saviours?

The Metros are a five-piece snarling filth-riden punk spewing Libertine-eaque punksters from the ever so famous but not so nice Peckham in South-East London. Already my heart is calling out to me to hail my heritage and sink into "Oh South London...".
Having heard a lot from forums and other bloggers, and general discussion around university, I felt ashamed that I knew next to nothing about their 'pornstars-on-tour' live performances. The band is made up of one drummer, one bassist, two guitarists and one frontman - who from pictures I've seen over the past few hours - looks like he is always got a line in reserve.
I also enjoyed reading a rare treat from the Guardian's 'new band of the day guru', with his take on how the band "like The Subways, missed a trick when they didn't call themselves The Undergrounds or The Tube", how very fucking witty and zany; supposedly from years of Journalistic experience...
The result of one of London's hottest new bands is an array of sexual tension and educatative hypertension boils down into the quality of Foals-esque string picking, yet the seriousness of Jimmy Carr. However, maybe they just don't give a fuck, and why they're former name was The Wanking Skankers, hardly the most formal of address is it, you can imagine the Queen standing up at the Royal Variety Performance all in to give them a hand, I'm sure.
They describe their sound as Funk, Punk and Rockabilly, the latter can only mean to me they're this modern band version of Elvis with skinny jeans and drums, but what do I know.


Their debut single 'Education Part. II' says and does exactly what it says on the vinyl, Education, Education, Education. However, John Major obviously didn't have the same kind of vision for back-to-basics teaching as these lads did.
"Educations overrated" states frontman Sauly Adamczewski - I've no idea how to pronounce it - the track leads into a feast of filthy indie goodness that culminates in the utter destruction of everything in the studio
They're clearly quite a way away from the mainstream at the moment but with a tidy sum of festival slots over the summer including Glastonbury, Zoo Thousand, T in the Park, Oxegen, the Japanese Summersonic Festival and Reading & Leeds; they'll surely whip up a storm of indie crazed teensters.
I can see them releasing an album some time during the beginning of next year, and as long as they keep up their current style then i'm sure it'll sell well.

If there's any criticisms I've got of them, is the durability of their sound, they could easily do very well this summer, release the album, and then just burn up like some of the past year's one record wonders. Only time will tell.

Storming The Charts #2: The Last Shadow Puppets

The Last Shadow Puppets
The Age of the Understatement

When I look at pictures of Alex Turner and Miles Kane together, I can’t help but think their new band was some idea thought up after a night of heavy drinking and strip poker.
Firstly there are the people that see Turner finally stepping out into the limelight to lap up the celebrity lifestyle, and cash in on his success with the Monkeys’ by releasing a duet album with his new best mate. Then there are also the people that think Kane is using this project to stir up some interest for his in-hype but struggling for popularity band The Rascals.
However, when you throw all those equations out of the window and take the time to sit down and listen to their debut album, that’s when you can start making comparisons to the great duos of music history.

Their debut single 'The Age of the Understatement' was released this week in the run up to the release of their debut album, also named The Age of the Understatement.
Firstly I'd like to point out, that its in no way similar to any of the past new 'indie-band' music thats been chocking out airwaves over the past couple of years. Its fresh, its poppy and its downright brilliant, but its also just very darn British. I doubt I'd ever see Dave Grohl teaming up with Brandon Flowers, to create a dipiction of the changes of music in America over the past thirty to fourty years to be honest. Musical duo's are just very British. Think of Lennon and McCartney, Ike and Tina Turner, The Everly Brothers; Their just a handful of some of the great duos of the past. Although it may take most people to cotton onto the idea, or for the Monkeys' to take over America and for The Rascals to create a masterpiece album; before most people really know who they truly are. I mean if Damon Albern and Noel Gallager were to put aside their differences of the past and make a duet album right now, Matt Bellamy and Thom Yorke were to do the same, then the world would shit a solid black brick of holy terd on George Bush's oval office desk!

Now that that explananation has gotten out of the way I can concentrate on ripping apart this little treat of a tune, that clocks in at just over three minutes flat. The vocals are bright and edgy, the guitar work is sublime and the drumming is second to none. Turner and Kane's vocals play off of each other like a a beautiful symthony played along to the nutcracker. Think of how well Chemical Brother's 'Electrobank' was played out to Sofia Coppola's amazing gymnastics; this is right up there.

Riding high in the charts within the top 10 this week, its set the album a high bench mark to pass, but I'm confident the album can do an even better job!

Five Songs You Must Hear... #4

This week see's some pure classics get given the respect they deserve. Also included is Orbital's 'P.E.T.R.O.L'; another one of my immensely favourite tracks from the 90s break-beat era to quench your rave thirst!



#1: Nena - 99 Luftballons


Possibly the only sound that sounds great in both English and German (well except perhaps England 5 Germany 1), and one of the biggest pop tunes of the 80s, this will keep you singing to the early hours.





#2: Gary Numan - Cars


An utter stonker of a song from the London based singer and composer from back in 1979, which was a massive hit in both the UK and the United States. The song was so popular that in many countries it completely outshadowed the rest of his career.



3: Iron Maiden - 2 Minutes to Midnight


This was the tenth single to be released by the band back in 1984. The song carried a strong anti-war message during the end of the cold war, but the only thing that matters is that its a fucking great tune that can't be ignored.



#4: Blondie - Atomic


Undoubtedly the most famous song produced by the band. It's one of the most recognisable songs from the New Wave movement and possibly the most famous song written by Debbie Harry; not a lot of people know this song was first released as a remix in 1981.



#5: Orbital - P.E.T.R.O.L


If those songs bore you to death, then grab a few listen of this hydro pump of a track. Orbital are one of the most recognisable acts from the LA 90s rave scene and this is one of the scene's most famous releases; effin' tonk!

Album Review #2: The Kooks

The Kooks
Konk

The Kooks will release their follow up to the multi-platinum debut 'Inside In/Inside Out next month, which is almost certain to be as popular as the previous, and definately certain to get the Brighton based four piece their 1st No.1 album.
The Kooks exploded onto the music scene back in 2005 when they snapped up by Virgin Records. After being quiet for pretty much all of last year, frontman Luke Pritchard told NME that the band has written "80 or 90 songs", which has been edited down extensively over the past 6 months to come up with a finished final piece two disc album entitled 'Konk' and 'RAK'. Konk is the official album which is named after the London studio that it was recorded in, with RAK being a second shorter collection of 8 other new songs, and an extra alternative song for the Konk opener called 'See the Sun'.
I've listened to the album over once, and struggled to pick it apart, however, found the whole experience rather refreshing after the onslaught of indie-dance albums from DIOYY, The Whip, Neon Neon and Crystal Castles that I've been worshipping recently.
They do strike me as quite a niche within the indie scene. Although they are undoubtedly massive! The hype stands for good reason, If he could write a song like 'Naive' at the age of 16, think of what he can do in the future. This new record does hold some juicy gems including the chirpy singalong 'Always Where I Need To Be' and the funky anthem 'Do You Wanna'.
So onto the actual review of this 12-track blast.

Review

#1 - See The Sun
From the outset of this song, and the first 30-40 seconds of the first track, its clear that the band have learnt a lot from their year on the sidelines and tours over Europe and America. I love this song already, its uplifting but not overbearing, and cheesy but not cringy. The opening lines "Oh you can have it all and wrap in the world/you can have everything/you can have love and lots of earthly things" lead into a masterful choice of lyrics that leads onto the chorus, with hey-ho, clapping, how quaint! A great opener.

#2: Always Where I Want To Be
This is a certain dancefloor filler, and has all the ingredients of a brilliant chart topper. "Du, du dedudu dede du" it's as contageous as Klamidia. Ok bad joke, but in book it's a good as true. Ok so now you think I have Klamidia, this review is going well...
Download this track now, it'll be the band's first single from the album, and it's out in the shops on Monday (31st April). It's been getting some good airplay, so it's certainly a top 10 contender, if not top 5.

#3: Mr. Maker
Not sure about this one, its definately The Kooks, but the only thing is, it sounds rather like The Hoosiers, and that's never a good thing. Can't really think of anything other to say about it either, I think I've said all I need to, moving on...

#4: Do You Wanna
This is more like it! firstly, I can't start a review of this track along without saying I EFFING' LOVE IT. The untold amount of times that young men will strut around the indie club dancefloors of Britain this year, eyeing up the finest talent just to be able to grab her arse and whisper into her ear "I Know You Wanna Make Love To Me!" And the guitar riff at 1:18 following that line is good enough for even the ugliest cunt to pull it off and follow it up with some hardcore grinding action!
That's all I have to say about that song, just listen to it, now! Forget Klamida, this time its full on Aids!

#5: Gap
I've already spent over an hour on this review now, and i'm not even half way through yet! Now that's what I call dedication! I wish I could say the same for this track though.
This album is starting to turn into a bit of an up and downer. It's great for cruises across the Atlantic, but not so much for a sunday picnic.
I fell with this track that I've heard it all before, the music is kool, but the lyrics just seem too bland for my liking.

#6: Love it All
0:06-0:09 reminds me of a song a song, but I can't put my finger on it. I'm gonna do a search then carry on writing. Got it! It sounds like the chorus of 'Travis - Closer'. Weird isn't it, that such a small extract from a song, can remind us of another. I think for that reason alone it makes this song good.
Looking past the lame reason I've given you though, it's definitely along the theme of 'refreshing' I gave you at the start of the review, and it's a great little tune to break the half way mark on. One thing that I've picked up on from this track, is Pritchard's range of voice, he can really hit those high notes well.

#7: Stormy Weather
Yeah, this is what I was hoping for. Something more a lot more grittier, yes its another song about love, but there can be a lot more ways to approach the subject, in lots of really 'interesting ways'. Argurably the best love song of last year was '505' by the Arctic Monkeys, but this is one of those that won't be listened to by everyone, but it's glam beats and bass make it one of the best on the record in my opinion.

#8: Sway
I'm really hoping for a decnet grand finale after this track, but until then i'm going to suffer with yet more songs about love. I'm not complaining about the quality of music at all, this is genuinly good stuff. I'd just prefer the band to have a moan at society maybe, create some banter with another band or piss off a lot of their 'lovydubby' fans with a golden nugget of masturbation. The Fratellis sing a majority of their songs about love, but they do so, in a much more fun way. Their second album will trump this like a Harrier Jump Jet trumps my grandads Volkswagon Polo down to the shops and back. for the morning paper.

#9: Shine
Yet again, I'm not really feeling this track either, it's just not something I'm going to end up putting on my iPod. It's one of those songs you'll always have on your iTunes, just because its quaint to group it with the entire album and the artwork, looking all organised and 'professional', but when you look at the play count, it's still stuck at zero.

#10: Down To The Market
At last, something that makes me want to tap my feet. I think the band have done a great job with this. The guitar solo's are electric on a tune made up of lyrics of yet more love. Although, Pritchard chucks out the old luvvydubby chords for this. I think this track would be great live, although it's a little on the short side, which was slightly disappointing.

#11: One Last Time
This song should actually be called 'One Last Love Song... I Swear Baby'. I've decided to give this one a decent listen though. Sounds corny, but eyes closed, 'closed mind' however you do 'close your mind'. I've never understood that convention, how can you only think about one thing at a time, the first second someone tells me to only think about one thing, I think about 5,000 things at once.
This is quite a short link between the 10th and 12th songs of the record, but it actually fits really well, as it leads onto something genuinely decent.

#12: Tick of Time
I love these sorts of jams, I can't play the guitar myself, but ever since going along to see The Enemy, The Wombats and Noah and the Whale, I've really been into tiny acoustic gigs. Putting the whole 'intimate gig' shite aside, its a place to just have a good sing-a-long. You could see the band sitting on the end of Brighton Pier playing out the song to a few hundred lucky souls, but the you could also see Pritchard alone, on a tropical island duetting with Otis Reading on the end of a jetty...

+Hidden Track: All Over Town
... It seems the band went all Klaxons with a nice 'pause' on the last track, and put a 'Hidden Track' at the end. I've never gotten the idea of all this 'BONUS TRACK' business, if they wern'y on all of these albums, you'd still be paying exactly the same for it anyway, so what's the whole point in forcing your own fans into a false reality mind set.
"Mum can you buy me this album, its got a BONUS TRACK ON IT. That must mean we get it for free! You know, like in ASDA when you get those 2for3 deals!" What a load of Bull**%>! How about make it the 13th track and be done with it.
Putting aside that rant, I quite like the ending. It's mellow but uplifting and really inkeeping with the refreshing feel.

Verdict

Although, I've moaned about some of the songs on the Album, none of them were crap. I just like to see more of a variety that's all. For all the good that my last year's favourite album by The Enemy was, it was still full of two or three songs that sounded very alike. However that's their debut so you can let them off. Radiohead only found their real voice on the third attempt, so many The Kooks will make a better album next time.
There's definitely some great songs there though, really am genuinely impressed, because their last effort was kind of a disappointment for me, I do hope it gets to No.1, because I think they deserve it.
Don't think of this album as 'just another indie album' think of it as, a work in progress. You know on 'Lost' and back in the old days when TV programs had 'To Be Continued' at the end of them. The Kooks haven't launched themselves to superstardom with this record, but they haven't faded out like Razorlight did. Just 'watch this space' over the next five years or so is all I will say.

6/10

Up & Coming Artists #1: Lykke Li

Lykke Li
Swedish Pop Princess

Lykki Li is most certainly the hottest new female singer in both talent and looks to come out of mainland Europe this year. Daughter of a mother music photographer and musician father, her life has always revolved around everything visually and acoutically facinating about the world. That also coinsides with the surroundings she grew up in; Stockholm, one of Europe's most stunning cities and one of the continents party capitals.

Sweden is the world's 3rd largest exporter of music after the US and UK. It's obviously most famous for Abba, The Cardigans and metal band Arch Enemy back in the day, but in recent years Robyn, The Hives, The Caesars, Basshunter, Placebo and Axwell who is famous for his club remix of Hard-Fi's 'Hard To Beat'. Sweden is a country with a massive music heritage and history and Lykki Li (Li Lykke Timotej Zachrisson) is no exception.

Her music is simple and soothing. She feels that overloading tracks with strings and all sorts of instruments and computer-genrated sounds takes away some of the emotion attached with music. She much prefers a simple beat, backing chords and her voice pumping simple but thought out lyrics that will always conjure up strong meaning for anyone who comes across it.

I first come across the scandanavian singer when NME featured her back before christmas 07' in their Radar section under 'everyone's talking about...', so I thought I'd check her out.
The first track I heard was 'Little Bit', which she released a vinyl single and on an EP back in 07'.It's extrodinary minimal pop, every beat and chord has a life of its own and its accompanied by her unique voice. She does sound a little bit like Robyn, but she has a much larger range of voice. I suppose you could call her a bit of a hippy, shes got all the credentials to be a massive star outside of Sweden, but thankfully she certainly no Britney.


Her debut album 'Youth Novels' was released in Sweden on January 30th and it was released in the UK on March 3rd. The record opens with 'Melodies & Desires' an introduction into Li's interpretation and understand of the world around her. Her voice is so piercing and extrodinary, I can't compare it to anyone else; this is simple music, but so very clever at the same time. Her songwriting talent cannot be called into question, and it's really evident during 'Im Good, I'm Gone'; "And if you say I'm not OK/Then that's the goal".

Her real life and soul is to be found in the upbeat 'Let It Fall' and the previously mentioned 'Little Bit'. Shes said on many occasions she doesn't want to be like Robyn and welcomes negative criticism, because in the end it'll make her a stronger person and be able to make better music for her fans.
However, don't let her slow paced music draw you away from her personality, she's a strong woman who wants nothing more than to be a global superstar, famous for her talent and ability to touch people from all walks of life rather than her good looks and famous parents, that seems to be the norm these days. She's also fed up with being compared to Robyn, stating the only things they have in common is their nationality and gender. Speaking to NME's Radar again just last month, she stated she didn't want to just be this girl on stage that danced, she wanted to have the presense of her idols Iggy Pop and Cobain.


For me, she certainly has a lot more talent than Robyn, and a better hair cut for that matter! Although, its sad to say in this day and age of the music industry, but she's not going to touch artists like Madonna, Kate Bush and Courtney Cox if she's moping around on LL Recordings and Moshi Moshi, she needs to break away and sign with a quality Label, possibly Domino, famous for signing the Arctic Monkeys, who are not primarily concerned with controlling an artist, but let them do what they want; so long as they still rake in profit, of course.

If you're looking for an artist who you can listen to practically any time of the day, while getting ready for the town or sitting depressed in bed, then Lykki Li will certainly leave you hanging high.

New Blogging Lease of Life

For anyone who regularly reads these posts, sorry I've been away for a little while, been very busy!

I had a mental case of work while I was back at home for easter break, and I've come back to even more at uni! Just been given titles for the 'Lankmarks in Journalism' part of my course. So now it's time to start researching and all that malarkee! Joy to the World.

I am also now doing two podcasts! The one that runs along side this blog and another with a mate on my course, who does the 'The Only Thing... I Know for Sure' blog. Their both music based, however this is one is quite a lot more anylitical and most dialog based, as aposed to the more music driven one that runs with this blog.

I'm hosting a night at my University's Union on Thursday (April 10th) and Monday (7th) is my flatmates 19th, so there's not going to be much time for the blog. However I'm going to write a mammoth of posts in one night, then just publish them on the appropriate day, which means I won't start to fall behind, then neglect the blog all together.

So the next blog will be up tomorrow, which will be the march playlist, then from then on there will be a blog up every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Monday's post will be featuring a new artist; Tuesday will be an album review; Every Friday will be the 'Five Songs You Must Hear' piece; Friday will be a 'Storming the Charts' and Saturday is going to be alternated. Next Saturday see's the introduction of the polished format and the first proper episode of the podcast, then the Saturday's that are in between the podcast being published there will be room for a random post. This will either be another gig-review, the monthly playlist or just a post about a random topic I want to engage with.

One other thing before I leave you is the link to my other podcast with Mike
Please give it a good listen if you can, we both want this to be really successful, we managed to sneak an interview with Frank Turner for the first one, which sort of indicates that it's not just some silly podcast, but that we've recorded it in a studio and aimed really high with artists and such.

Ears To The Skies

Lee