Band of the Week: Zoëtrøpe, Dana Jade, Verses and Hugh Laurie?!

What are we up to now? Three weeks of remembering to post Band of the Week? Hurray for regularity. Anyhoos, moving on to the important bits.

Let's kick off this week with the mad art punk of Zoëtrøpe. Here's the debut single from last year (I believe):

You can also check out their SoundCloud page, which has a whole bunch of other bits and pieces on it.


And now we'll have some punky rock courtesy of Dana Jade. Here's her recently released self-titled debut album:


You can also download her single Little Sister for free. Have a listen:


Next up, British rock band Verses. We're talking rock in the vein of Young Guns here. Good stuff. Actually, having said that... they remind me more of Emery. Minus the screaming. Anyhoos, I'm struggling to find a decent link for streaming, so let's have this little thing from YouTube of the track Who We Are from their new EP. I should probably point out that said EP (Come To Life) is being given away free with Rock Sound at the moment... Right, video.

You can also check out their Facebook page.

Finally, the loveliness that is the awesome Hugh Laurie singing. Y'know, Hugh Laurie of Fry & Laurie and Blackadder fame? And assorted other brilliance. Or, for American readers, House. He released an album of blues tracks last year. Much loveliness. Anyhoos, enough babbling. You can get a free download of Guess I'm A Fool from Laurie's site HERE. GO!

That'll do for this week. Check it out and pass it on.

Band of the Week: The Runaways, earthtone9 & Bitter Ruin

Soooo, first post in over a month. Not doing too well at keeping on top of this, am I? Ah well. Let's kick off this week's post with the classic all-girl punk rock group The Runaways. Y'know, Joan Jett, Lita Ford, Cherrie Curry? General awesomeness. Here's their brilliant Cherry Bomb.

Next up, British alt-metallers earthtone9. They're in the process of recording a new album, their first in about a decade. You can still donate to their PledgeMusic campaign HERE. For now, check out recent single Tide of Ambition.

Finally, indie-noir/dark cabaret duo Bitter Ruin. Deliciously dark, quirky and amazingly energetic. All of their material is available on their Bandcamp page, but for tasters, let's have the Hung, Drawn & Quartered EP/mini-album.



Only three today, that;ll do, right? Check it out and pass it on.

Band of the Week: Sleepbringer, Silver Loves Mercury and more!

Why hello thar, lovelies. Sorry Band of the Week's been a bit AWOL the last few weeks - blame revision and my parents' poor internet connection. To make up for it, let's have a nice big BotW feature, shall we?

Let's kick off with some doom metal in the form of Canadian band Sleepbringer. Check out the only music I've been able to find by them, Compendium:


Next up,Texas-based hard rockers Silver Loves Mercury. Wonderfully dirty, female fronted sleaze. Just a Facebook link for these guys - HERE. Well, there's some videos too, but they're not the best quality, so that'll have to do.

Then, because I finally got round to looking them up a few weeks back, let's have the delicious Alice In Chains. Grungy goodness. Streams of some tracks can be found on their site HERE. Let's also have a video. Here's Would? from the album Dirt.

Following on, Ivyrise - pop rock loveliness from the main support band on McFly's recent UK tour. Here's latest single Line Up The Stars from their self-titled debut album.

And finally, the most awesome With Knives, a new(ish) project from Josh Newton (of numerous bands, including Every Time I Die) and Joe Trohman (yes, that dude from Fall Out Boy). Stoner rock? Probably. Not an area I'm overly familiar with, but I've just seen a comparison (from a trusted dude) to QOTSA and Baroness. I'm going to take that as a good sign. Here's their just-released debut EP, Schadenfreude:


Will that do, or would we like more scrumminess? More?

One more. Not exactly a band, but this is from the guys at Hat Films who do gaming videos on YouTube. They make pretty much all of the music for their vids and this materialised out of a recent Minecraft video.

Hopefully Band of the Week should go back to being regular now I have a decent net connection again.

Band of the Week: more random discoveries!

Not Bandcamp discoveries this week (well, maybe a couple), but hurray for random 'net treasures.

First up (and yes, I know I've mentioned her several times before, shush), the delightful Aamir al-Loki. Goth-electro-pop. Check out her video for Don't here:

Next up, Fairy Meds. Female fronted punk rock. Another random Bandcamp discovery.

(tis free download, by the way...)

And then... let's have letlive., who I've also mentioned a couple of times before in relation to their amazing live show. Progressive post-hardcore loveliness. Here's the latest video for Muther:

Next we'll have Cloudkicker, which is another Bandcamp discovery. Instrumental metal. Great for sticking on while working, I find. Let's have Discovery, since that's the album I actually have. There's loads of them though. The title track of this one is especially awesome.

(all of his albums are free downloads, if I remember rightly...)

How many's that? Four's not enough, surely?Ahh, I know what we can finish with. I rediscovered this piece of awesomeness last week and completely forgot to share. This is Pistol Youth's acoustic cover of Flo-Rida's Low. It's rather brilliant, as are Pistol Youth in general. Indie/alternative rock.

Off you pop.

Band of the Week: One-Eyed Doll (take 2)

I feel shit today. Guess what makes me feel better when I'm ill?

One-Eyed fucking Doll.

Given that it's just over a year since I first heard of them and they're still pretty much my favourite band (which is a big deal, given my fickle tastes), I thought they deserved a second Band of the Week feature. Prepare for video wall.

You're A Vampire

"Let’s go outside
And chase the squirrels
And drain their blood
Because you’re a vampire"

Nudie Bar

"Gonna rig up some propane tanks
Gonna light the fuse and kill some skanks
Gonna stand back and watch it burn
Maybe that will make him learn"

Fight

"Am I crazy
Am I deranged
Am I crazy
Or have things changed"

 

Committed

"To be a sheep; a blissful guinea pig
Ignorance is your god, too
Society awaits with open arms
We'll brainwash your demons out of you" 

Hoochie Mama

"I don't care about
How much you can lift
And I don't want to hear
Your new death metal riff "

'K, so not as video wall-ish as I intended, but I figure those 4 videos are enough to explain just how awesome One-Eyed Doll are. But just in case you need a little more persuasion, just check out how very endearing Kimberly Freeman is in this doc (and PJ aka Number 3).

Aaaaand, that has positioned weird and I can't quite work out how to fix it. Blame my on-the-verge-of-passing-out brain. Ugh, bugs.

Basically, One-Eyed Doll are most awesome female-fronted rock with an insane amount of energy and totally worth your time to check out. Keep an eye out for the new album, Dirty, which should be releasing in the next few months.

Finally, have a shit-ton of links. I wonder how much a shit-ton actually is? Does anyone else actually use shit-ton as a term or is it just me?

Shutting up now. Linkies:

Bandcamp

Last.FM

Twitter

Facebook

Youtube

Official Forums

Is that enough links, d'you think?

Review: Duchess Says at Norwich Arts Centre, 14/12/11

Duchess Says at Norwich Arts Centre, 14/12/11 (support from Throwing Up)
Genre: Indie/electro-punk

Kicking off the night's festivities are London three piece Throwing Up. Their brand of punk is pretty old school and it's a wonderfully dirty sound. Good crunchy guitars, solid riffs and catchy vocals. That said, the songs tended to sound a little samey. The crowd seemed to be enjoying it though.

Moving on from their set, Canadian electro-punks Duchess Says took to the stage. Oh my, what a set. Vocalist Annie-Claude Deschênes dances like a madwoman and she bloody well enjoys it. The audience had no choice but to get involved - although to be fair, I don't think anyone objected to dancing with Deschênes and I really doubt anyone would've declined her invitations for everyone to climb up on the stage while she danced around the floor. Topping off a set that nearly resulted in me getting throttled by a mic cable as Deschênes led an adoring crowd around the room, the encore ended out in the foyer, more than half the crowd having followed Deschênes out there. In between that and the party poppers that were handed out halfway through the set, it's hard to find fault with both her and the rest of the band's exuberant energy. The same goes for the music - amazingly good fun and very easy to dance to. In short, a brilliant set and quite possibly the best gig I've ever been to.

To end, have a couple of photos and a short clip of Duchess Says - apologies for poor quality phone pictures. The first is vocalist Annie-Claude, just after she almost throttled me (accidentally) with the mic cable.

Then a generic performance shot.

And finally a short clip of them during the stage invasion, which wasn't exactly an invasion, during the song Black Flag. Nice to see the sound recording quality is slightly better than the image quality...

I reeeeeally need to start taking my camera to gigs...

Band of the Week: super-mega-awesome feature the second

Iiiiiiiiiii... haven't posted for weeks and I don't have a good excuse. I'm also not in the mood for writing a proper Band of the Week, so we have super-mega-awesome feature (take two) instead. Yay! Moving on...

First up, the delectable Jill Tracy. Dark cabaret. Think smoky jazz clubs and that gorgeously sultry music with a sinister edge. She's got a damn good voice.

Then we have Civet. Self-styled 'femme fatale punk rock', for which read really good punk with even more awesome female vocals. Again, damn good voice.

Next, Bourbon Crow, outlaw country from Wednesday 13 and Rayen Belchare (both of horror-punk band Wednesday 13). Brilliant, tongue-in-cheek country. By which I mean it takes the piss out of the genre while still being really good music.

Hmmm... who next? Nine Inch Nails hardly need plugging, they're HUGE, but hey, they're also awesome so check 'em out if you haven't.

And then go and have a listen to Dommin and their lovely atmospheric gothic rock/metal. Brilliant live and their cover of Cutting Crew's Died In Your Arms is beautiful.

Is five artists enough to count as a super-mega-awesome feature? Hmm, maybe one or two additional pieces of scrumminess...

This is EPIC:

This is Enter Shikari, by the way, covering one of their own songs. Class. And available for free download too. One sec, I'll find the link. First one on this page 'ere: http://www.entershikari.com/downloads/

And finally, this 'ere has to be one of my favourite covers ever. You know I said Nine Inch Nails are awesome? Have a listen to how awesome Japanese Voyeurs' cover of their song Closer is.


Japanese Voyeurs - Closer by ThrashHits

Much brilliance. In other Japanese Voyeurs news, their debut album is due out at the beginning of July. They're very much worth checking out. Get on it.

Current Love: Alkaline Trio - The American Scream

I have no idea why this song is currently so firmly stuck in my head. It's a beautiful track, sad as it may be. It doesn't go in for flowery lyrics, coated in metaphors. It tells it like it is. And that opening verse... says it all really. The yellow ribbon can mean a number of different things: support for troops, a sign for a lover, suicide awareness and prevention. Given the context of the song, the yellow ribbon in the opening line could be any of those three, all of them at once even. That's all I really wanted to say. Just wanted to share this beautiful song with people. You can find the audio here.

"Well they tied that yellow ribbon round the oak tree.
They've worn out all the prayer in their hearts.
All along thought they were routing for the home team,
As they're sent to the game and torn apart.

We twist this tourniquet upon the pipeline,
That he carries all the pain in the world.
As we blindly clap and cheer from the sidelines
It's clear, on a losing streak from the very start.

And that's where they found me,
In the cemetary.
A smoking gun in my hand,
Now I'm damned for the land of the free.
Sing with me,
The American scream.

They took that faded ribbon off the oak tree.
They've worn out all the hope in their hearts.
All along thought I was doing the right thing,
Now I'm lying in a pool of my blood.

And that's where she found me,
In the cemetary,
A smoking gun in my hand,
Now I'm damned for the land of the free.
Sing with me.

And that's where she found me,
In the cemetary,
A smoking gun in my hand,
Now I'm damned for the land of the free.
Sing with me,
The American scream.
The American scream.

And that's where she found me,
In the cemetary,
A smoking gun in my hand,
Now I'm damned for the land of the free.
Sing with me,
The American scream."

Current Love: My Chemical Romance - Na Na Na

First, have a listen. Now, decide a) whether you like it and b) whether you can cope with me babbling about it. Decision made? Good. Off we go.

I love it. I love it I love it I love it. It's got a lovely punk edge that was somewhat lacking on The Black Parade, which is awesome. It's also got that wonderful "stuck-in-your-head-all-day" quality that is the sign of a good song (or an annoying, very catchy one, but that's not the case here). I have waited ages for this damn single. I mean, there were faint mumblings last  year that we might get a new album late 2009, early 2010 and then obviously nothing came of it because the mumblings were wrong. It's now almost 4 years since The Black Parade came out and Na Na Na is definitely worth the wait. I love The Black Parade, but it wasn't a patch on Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge. While Na Na Na is definitely not Three Cheers-type material, it's more in that direction than The Black Parade. It's like... pop-punk, but with way more punk than pop. It'll still appeal to the mainstream, but to be honest, I don't have a problem with that. This is music that the band obviously wanted to make and they love it just as much, if not more, than their fans. So what if it's a bit mainstream? It's good music that makes you smile, makes you dance, makes you sing. And actually, this is exactly the sort of track I can see myself bouncing around to at a show, taking swipes at any scenies within reach. Oh, how I dislike scenies. Ahem... moving on.

Hmmm, what else to say about Na Na Na? Or indeed, MCR's upcoming new album, Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys. Oh, I know. I CAN'T WAIT!! I WANT IT NOW. Alas, I have to wait until November 22nd, but that's not too far away now. Happy happy happy times. Now, I think I'm going to listen to Na Na Na on repeat for a bit.

Check it out, let me know what you think, pass it on.