UK Music Jobs office radio regulars, We Have Band, have announced the release of their debut album ‘WHB’ on April 5th 2010 through Naive. Before the album they’ll be releasing a new single ‘Divisive’ on March 22nd, which just got its first exclusive play on BBC Radio 1 last week.
Check out the video of their recent single ‘HoneyTrap’…
Tickets are also on sale now for their UK album tour (below). Dates for the rest of the world are also expected to be announced soon. Check their Twitter or Myspace for updates!
UK ALBUM TOUR:
20 Feb – Belfast – Ulster Hall (Free Show)
26 March – Sheffield – Bungalows and Bears (Free Show)
27 March – Brighton – Coalition
28 March – Cardiff – Cardiff Arts Institute
31 March – Birmingham – Hare and Hounds
01 April – Manchester – Sound Control
02 April – Liverpool – The Kazimier
06 April – Glasgow – Captain’s Rest
07 April – Edinburgh – Sneaky Pete’s
08 April – London – Kings College
09 April – Nottingham – Bodega Social Club
10 April – Bristol – Thekla
The 2010 BRIT Awards are just around the corner (16th February), and we thought we would hold a little poll to see who our Music Jobs members and blog readers deem worthy of titles in some of the main categories.
Nominees
This year being the 30th Anniversary of the BRIT Awards, they are holding a category for the best BRITs Album of 30 Years. Some real classics in this one, making it possibly the toughest (and most argument-inducing) poll!
One last thought… Outstanding Contribution this year has been awarded to Robbie WIlliams. Do you Agree or disagree? Who else deserved to be honoured this year? Who do you think missed out in the other categories that should have been included in the nominees?
Post your comment below…
Can’t wait to see the BRITs? Check out this short video of Pixie Lott performing at the 2010 launch party.
What is reactive music? Well, it is music that responds to it’s surrounding environment and manipulates the sound accordingly. A simple example, is whilst playing music through your iPhone, you can effect the sound with different swinging and shaking movements. Essentially, it enables you to remix songs live and create a different recording every time.
RjDj is an iPhone app and web platform operated by the team at Reality Jockey Ltd. They hope to create a buzz around reactive music and turn it into a consumer format. The startup launched its own free app last year that offers an ever-changing variety of tracks and effects. Below is a video explaining some of the options.
In this collaboration, RjDj took three different tracks from Little Boots’ recent album and involved them in an app with various reactions. On one track, you can apply different effects using your mobile device’s sensors and microphone i.e. jumping around with it in your pocket or talking will affect the sound output. Another uses the microphone to overlay sounds of your surroundings into the music.
While RjDj is not making any outrageous claims of being the saviour of the industry, it is doing something forward-thinking by involving fans and music consumers and giving them an active part in the music playing and listening experience. This kind of thinking and involvement is definitely going to play a huge part in the coming years.
Here we go with a run down of what was hot this year in music…
10 – Patrick Wolf – Hard Times
Patrick Wolf was not on my radar before I caught his performance at this year’s Great Escape Festival. Hard Times was the 2nd single release from his album ‘The Bachelor’ and makes a statement with lyrics like “mediocrity [is] applauded” and “ignorance is still adored” against a backdrop of rock guitars, celtic strings and electro beats. Wolf is creative, original, musically accomplished and always has something interesting to say.
9 – Frankmusik – Better off as Two
Better off as Two is one of many excellent tunes on Vincent Frank’s debut album ‘Complete Me’. Showcasing his falsetto vocals this also benefits from quirky production and a rousing chorus. He’s also brilliant live and was arguably one of the highlights of Bestival 2009.
8 – Hockey – Song Away
Hailing from Portland Oregon Hockey have been making waves on the festival circuit in Europe throughout the summer and this track is the 3rd release from their debut album ‘’Mind Chaos’’. It might be blatantly commercial but it’s neatly peppered with references to the 80’s and a real toe tapper. I love this band and this track never gets dull.
7 – Butcherd Beats feat. Kelli-Leigh – Without U
Haunting, melancholy featuring neat musical flourishes and top notch production this is my favourite dance track of the year. The vocal from terrific singer/songwriter Kelli-Leigh is subtle but typically commanding. A heartbreak soliloquy that just about anyone can identify with.
6 – Julian Casablancas – 11th Dimension
Ok so this wasn’t officially released as a single in 2009 but it has to be acknowledged simply for being the most pleasant surprise. The Strokes front man has gone all pop with sincerity and total credibility. I love that Casablancas demonstrates that pop is still pop even with a brain and a little rawness.
5 – Florence & The Machine – Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)
One of the biggest success stories of 2009, Florence and her machine had a lot of pre-release hype to live up too. It also seems she’s one of those artists you either love or hate. I’m in the latter camp and having seen her live a number of times in both the UK and US I can honestly say something magical happens when this lady takes to the stage. Not all the material is quite as accomplished but Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up) is uplifting and the baleric piano rifts make it bit nostalgic for those of us who enjoyed summers living it up in Ibiza. This track makes me truly happy.
4 – My Tiger My Timing – I Am The Sound
The best new band of 2009, in our opinion, MTMT hail from South London and create some of the most effervescent, intelligent, catchy, meaningful pop music around. “I Am The Sound” was the band’s 2nd single release of the year (we also raved about their hit “This Is Not The Fire“) and is produced by Andy Spence of New Young Pony Club. The chemistry between the members is abundantly clear in their live performance and the records personal, accessible and smart. 2010 should be the year of the tiger.
3 – Lady GaGa – Bad Romance
I take my hat off to any mainstream pop star willing to release a track and video so bat shit crazy its literally critic proof. The video is extraordinary, the song a total floor filler and it confirms that no one other artist made more of an impact in 2009 than GaGa.
2 – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix – Lisztomania
If you want to listen the best song about a 19th century classical composer ever than Lisztomania is for you. This quite brilliant French band reference the inner turmoil of Franz List as symbol of creative conflct with exciting, exuberant guitar pop. The album is also the best of the year.
1 – Jay Z featuring Alicia Keys – Empire State of Mind
A poetic love letter to the city that never sleeps, this amazing track confirms Jay Z’s status as the King of New York and quite possibly the world. The production is a seamless blend of the classic and the contemporary while Alicia Key’s contribution rounds out what is simply the best song of 2009.
Christmas songs. Some people love them, and some hate them. There are certainly differences of opinion in the Music Jobs offices as to whether Cliff Richard, Noddy Holder, The Pogues & co. are part of that warm seasonal feeling, or more likely to invoke a baul-baul assault on the purveyor of such torturous material.
We decided to make a Spotify playlist of some of the best / worst / most discussed / most amusing / most disturbing Christmas songs, and, assuming there’s no riot in the offices today, we’d love to hear your views!
Tracklist:
Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas – Stu: Best
Let It Snow – Tara: Best (I’ve included the fantastic Ella Fitzgerald version ~Lee)
Slade’s Merry Christmas Everybody – Matt: Worst; Stu: Best
The Darkness’ Christmas Time – Lee: Best
Clay Aiken’s Merry Christmas With Love – Tammy: Best
The Pogues’ & Kirsty MacColl’s Fairytale of New York – Matt: Best
John Lennon’s Happy Xmas (War is Over) – Matt: Best
John Denver’s Please, Daddy (Don’t Get Drunk This Christmas) – Tammy: Best
Cliff Richard’s Mistletoe and Wine – Stu: Worst
Rockin Around the Christmas Tree – Tara: Best (the Brenda Lee version, which will forever remind me of a young Macaulay Culkin in Home Alone ~Lee)
Special mention for Duke Ellington’s Nutcracker Suite, which I stumbled across via a twitter link this week. Although unavailable on Spotify, you can check it out here.
Happy (or Harrying?) Holidays,
Lee “I can only bear to hear Christmas songs for one day, and so I do all my shopping on Christmas Eve” Jarvis
Oh the beloved Grammys. Where did it all go wrong? For a start, you have a “Best Alternative Music Album”, which, although it actually has some great and well-deserved nominees in there this year, the title alone makes it sound like it’s something that only sells 200 copies for EMO kids to listen to in their basement. Next… Lady Gaga. Have you actually listened to any of her music? Distictly average, and I’m being kind there. “Ooh, but it’s her style and character too” I hear her fans pout. Well, Roisin Murphy has been doing that for the last decade (including a great performance at Sonar 2008). “Best Electronic / Dance Album”? Let’s not even go there!
Lastly… “I’m on a Boat” was nominated for “Best Rap/Sung Collaboration”? A Saturday Night Live spin-off skit shows the most talented collaboration of RnB and Hip Hop artists? Really?!
Thankfully, you have redeemed some of your fallen reputation, helped mostly by some fantastic music being released over the last 16 months. Q-Tip’s ‘Renaissance’ album is a masterpiece (his Glastonbury 2009 show was fantastic (review)), as is much of the Kings of Leon third LP, ‘Only By The Night’. Their single ‘Use Somebody’ is epic, emotive and driving, and fully deserves to win both categories – I also had the good fortune to see them perform that and much of the album live in Chicago this summer. The Silversun Pickups also impressed me at Lollapalooza 2009. I’m happy to see them nominated for ‘Best Newcomer’, although they face some strong competition from MGMT, who are flavour of the year with the nu-rave-indie sector.
Here is a run down of the key categories, and my picks for who should win, based on musical talent, not quirky hat-wearing skills (sorry, Gaga).
Best Alternative Music Album: Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
If there’s one album this year that you can hear blasting on the radio, from car stereos, and still retains dancefloor credibility, it’s from Phoenix. Also ran: David Byrne & Brian Eno – Everything That Happens Will Happen Today; Death Cab For Cutie – The Open Door; Depeche Mode – Sounds of the Universe; Yeah Yeah Yeahs – It’s Blitz!
Record of the Year: Kings Of Leon – Use Somebody
Epic, emotive and driving. A wonderful piece of music. Also ran: Beyoncé – Halo; The Black Eyed Peas – I Gotta Feeling; Lady Gaga – Poker Face; Taylor Swift – You Belong With Me
Album of the Year: Dave Matthews Band – Big Whiskey and the Groogrux King
This is more of a default win from me, with the other albums being mostly forgettable pieces of chart pop. Also ran: Beyoncé – I Am… Sasha Fierce; The Black Eyed Peas – The E.N.D.; Lady Gaga – The Fame; Taylor Swift – Fearless
Song of the Year: Kings of Leon – Use Somebody
As above, songwriting at it’s powerful best. Also ran: Lady Gaga – Poker Face; Maxwell – Pretty Wings; Beyoncé – Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It); Taylor Swift – You Belong With Me
Best New Artist: Silversun Pickups
Although not entirely ‘new’, their songs are diverse and full of energy and charisma. Radio-sing-a-long-friendly and fresh sounding. Also ran: Zac Brown Band; Keri Hilson; MGMT; The Ting Tings
Best Rap Album: Q-Tip – The Renaissance
This had been a long time coming, and thankfully shows why Q-Tip is one of the rap-game elite. Thoughtful lyrics are layered over smooth jazzy touches to great effect. Also ran: Common – Universal Mind Control; Eminem – Relapse; Flo Rida – R.O.O.T.S.; Mos Def – The Ecstatic
Best Rap Song: Jay-Z – D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune)
One of Jay-Z’s finest pieces of work. Gritty beats and samples add to that trademark East coast feel. Also ran: Drake – Best I Ever Had; Kid Cudi – Day ‘N’ Nite; T.I. and Justin Timberlake – Dead and Gone; Jay-Z – Run This Town [ft. Rihanna and Kanye West]
For a full run-down, check out the Grammys website.
Soundcloud is possibly my favourite music website. I use it at least every week for a variety of music purposes. I love the clean feel of the site and the intuitive simple functions. It is such a user-friendly and well evolved website, that it is hard to believe they are just celebrating their 1st birthday. As any kind of musician, label owner, radio / podcast show host and more, Soundcloud is a great way to send and receive music, and it provides an efficient way to distribute, privately or publicly. It is becoming a hugely popular tool, and yet their friendly nature is still seen across the site. In their words, “We’re a few people who moved from Stockholm to Berlin, found some more cool people there and set up a small company to create the best dedicated music site in the world.”
Quick Facts
* SoundCloud is an online audio platform for music professionals that makes sending and receiving music simple and efficient.
* Accounts are accessible to everyone.
* SoundCloud is in use by many of the worlds leading electronic music producers and labels.
* Some people think of SoundCloud as an email application but for music, and with a play button.
* Founded in 2007 by Swedes Alexander Ljung and Eric Wahlforss and based in Berlin–Mitte, Germany.
How Does it Work?
The easy way I can explain, is to show you via one of their friendly videos: The Soundcloud Tour.
Sharing
Using their embeddable music player is a great way to promote your music. The code is easily found once your song and details are uploaded, and simple to paste around the web. For example, here is a recent deep house remix that I produced for UK label, Lost My Dog.
Personally, I find this a much easier way than directing music fans to a (now overloaded) Myspace page, plus you are able to display the payer in blogs with ease. Using the Soundcloud Facebook App is also incredibly easy, gaining further recognition for your music on a popular social networking site. Allowing DJs, tastemakers, label owners, friends and co-artists to download your music from the site does away with the need for uploading and sending links that soon expire or FTP log-ins. As the Soundcloud guys put it, ” Music is just kind of tricky to deal with over email. So, we thought we’d change that. SoundCloud is our way of doing it.”
iPhone app
What next for the Soundcloud team? Obviously, mobile markets are going to be a huge development to most of the music industry, and so that’s where they went, announcing their iPhone App last week.
Having received endless feedback from their users, Soundcloud acted upon on of the most popular requests and have built an app allowing you to listen to your own uploaded tracks, as well those sent by people you follow, and tracks sent to your dropbox. It also lets you mark any of these as favourites, and send your tracks via email to anyone in your mobile address book.
Currently priced at €0.79 or $0.99 the app is available from the app store. Although only the first version, I’m sure they will continue to develop this the way they have the full website, and look forward to more announcements over the next year.
Kurran and the Wolfnotes debut single ‘Whatabitch’ stands as the perfect introduction to the way that this band have brought an unmistakable noughties twist to the alt-folk sound, with an playful hint of The Strokes complimenting the otherwise straight up trad-sound. With New Yorker Kurran’s faltering, heartbroken croon and textbook Isle of White Festival circa-1968 guitar jangle it’s half medieval minstrel, half basement bar sleaze.
On the subject of the title they’re quick to stress that no one’s calling anyone a bitch, and that the term is used purely in the weary expressional sense, lest the feminists gather at the gates. Kurran explains, “It might not be the most romantic title but it’s about, from a guys perspective anyway, maybe getting the shorter end of a stick. There’s always got to be one person, and in this case it’s me.”
But anyway, they’re bored of talking about how they got together and they hate explaining what their songs are about, but our wolf based icebreakers (Prime example: wolves mate facing away from each other) prompt a more enthusiastic response. So on the cusp of the release of their debut single we invite them, currently recording in a spider infested garage in North London, to ponder what the future holds. Let’s get conceptual. What will the single they release in twenty years sound like compared to this one?
“Well it’ll be after the technological singularity, so you’ll just think of a song and you’ll hear it,” says Kurran, “But then it’s always the same, whenever technology goes too far people go back to the retro thing and we’ll be there shouting, ‘Here come the luddites!’ Just like now I guess, because after nu-rave and that, shall we say blip, fiddles are hot again, which is fine with us.”
Groans echo around the table at the emergence of the term “buzz band” but there’s a general consensus that maybe if they were doing this a few years ago people probably wouldn’t have been sitting up and paying attention. But with the re-emergence of a strong Brit-folk school the luddites become the cool kids, by doing what they do best.
While their sound may lend itself to comparison to a whole host of their contemporaries Kurran doesn’t see his band as a flash in the pan. He’s never more sincere than when he says, “I look and bands like Radiohead who have amazing discographies and I want to be able to look back in twenty years and say, ‘Yeah, every single one of these albums speaks for a part of my life’ where as now, with the hype thing people just churn out songs like… it’s fucking ridiculous. We want to spend a little bit more time on the songs we’ve got, but there’s always that pressure that once the song’s there it’s done, but we want to put the care in now when it’s important. We just want to make sure we’re proud of everything we’ve done and if that takes a little longer then that’s just how it’ll be. It’s all about the music! As original as that sounds.”
“The way I think about it,” says Kurran, “There are a few special people who get the chance to do this as their career and that’s it, that’s our goal, I want to be one of those people. It’s not about fame, it’s just to be able to play music for your whole life. It’s like when I was fifteen and heard NOFX and Rancid and I thought, ‘Woah, those guys are playing and it doesn’t look that hard, friggin sweet, I could probably do that.’ So I did!” With secret influences like that, who’s going to stop him?
Kurran and the Wolfnotes will be on the road with Ex-Lovers during October/November for a co-headline tour;
November
Sun 1st- Edinburgh, Electric Circus
Mon 2nd- Glasgow, King Tuts
Wed 4th- Nottingham, Bodega
Thurs 5th- Birmingham, Hare & Hounds
Fri 6th- Cambridge, Portland Arms
Lost My Dog ‘Connect’ is an opportunity for budding DJs, producers and anybody with an interest in the dance music industry to meet and learn from some the UK finest underground House artists, alongside LMD label bosses and record shop staff.
Lost My Dog has teamed up with legendary record store Swag Records, based in Croydon, London, who have been long-time supporters of the label and who introduced artists such as Nathan Coles, Harold Heath and Nick Dare to LMD.
On the afternoon of Saturday 7th November you can hear sets from Rhythm Plate, Giom, Pete Dafeet, Nick Dare and Terry Francis as well as get their advice on music software, hardware, production tips, DJing and learn how they got their first break.
Also in attendance will be Lost My Dog label bosses Najan Ward and Ian Straker who will be giving advice on how to approach labels, things to consider if you are interested in starting your own label and all aspects of the dance music industry. And of course the hugely experienced Swag Records team will be on hand to talk to and serve up the latest hot 12”s. If you’re looking to work in the dance music industry this is a rare and free event that should definitely not be missed.
Date: Saturday 7th November 2009, 12:00 – 18:00
Location: Swag Records, 42 Station Road, West Croydon, London, CR0 2RB
DJs / Producers:
Rhythm Plate / YSE (Lost My Dog, Winding Road)
Pete Dafeet (Lost My Dog)
Giom (Lost My Dog, Aroma, Blackcherry)
Nick Dare (Lost My Dog, Reform Recordings)
Terry Francis (Fabric, Wiggle)
LMD Label Bosses:
Ian Straker
Najan Ward
Pete Dafeet
plus
Liz, Paul and the Swag Records team.
I hope some of our UK Music Jobs members can check it out!
We offer many ways to showcase and interact here at UK Music Jobs, and I thought I’d cover a little about sharing your music around the website, as well as featuring recent music added by some of our most active members.
As well as from appearing on your profile, recently added mp3s are also featured on our front page and all the key UK Music Jobs site pages – if you contribute regularly you are more likely to attract attention and earn new fans.
The members I have featured below are all fine examples of the value of keeping your profile up to date – adding mp3s, photos, videos, press cuttings and more will make your profile easy to search and attractive to other users and employers to read. Regularly adding info and media means that I am more likely to find you in our network – next time it could be your music shared here and across the UK Music Jobs online profiles!
If you would like to be featured in future UK Music Jobs blog posts, then update your profile regularly and leave a message on my profile wall (another feature that you should use for networking – look out for a future blog post!)
