Culture, music, beer, sunshine. This weekend sees one of the ultimate offerings of all these elements under one roof. And by roof I mean ‘district’ of London. And when I say sunshine I mean more beer.

The Camden Crawl is a two day event spanning Friday 25th and Saturday 25th April, showcasing 150 bands, artists, poets and film pieces across 40 venues, ending up on Saturday Night at the Roundhouse with performances from Kasabian and Madness.

As a preview, the lovely people at The Londonist have compiled a collection of free, legal mp3s from the majority of the bands performing. There’s 65 free tracks to download, so you can select your favourites, share the love, and make sure you don’t miss out.

Before this starts to seem like a big promotional ploy or sponsorship for event or website, I’ve no affiliation with either. My reasoning is that music discovery has changed. You don’t hear ‘new’ bands on national radio anymore. Up and coming artists aren’t getting the support of CD sales that they used to, and so live events are becoming extremely important for both performer and punter. Yes, the internet is a great source of new music, but you need a very good filter or the patience of a saint to wade through the endless streams of average (and below) music.

Why the Camden Crawl? Why not? It’s today, you have nothing better to do, and the free download taster just tops it all off (oh, did I mention the beer?). Head over there now and buy your tickets before it’s too late.

Unfortunately I won’t be there this year, but you can certainly thank me at future events. I accept beer, in case you’re wondering.

Lee Jarvis.

SINGLE REVIEW
ARTIST – My Tiger My Timing
TRACK NAME – This Is Not The Fire
RELEASE DATE – Monday 6th April 2009
AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER - http://indiestore.7digital.com/silvermusicmachine

My Tiger My Timing have spent recent months making waves via their live shows up and down the country and now officially arrive with their debut single ‘This Is Not the Fire’.

Already impressing both the music press and radio, the track has been championed on Radio 2, 6 Music and playlisted by X-FM. With lyrics hinting at a disintegrating relationship, the male/female vocals give double meaning to the term ‘dual’ and take this electro-pop gem to an appropriately intense crescendo.

On production duties, New Young Pony Club’s Andy Spence adds a synth-polish to proceedings and manages to import that bands knack for coolly detached pop music that expertly blends guitar and synth.  This is My Tiger My Timing’s show though, easily side-stepping any comparisons with their contemporaries with a staccato delivery that is all their own. This tiger has hit the ground running.

– James Long

Fresh meat on the rock star radar – are The Hot Melts, a sizzling, power pop foursome, from The Wirral; Liverpool.  With influences ranging from Weezer to Eddie Cochran and Happy Days 50’s rock ‘n’ roll, bubblegum nostalgia, the Melts debut single “(I Wish I Had Never) Been In Love” captures the quartets’ unique, raw diversity, and is due for release on the 20th October through Epitaph records brand new joint venture with Wonderland. The band are already gaining support from Zane Lowe at Radio 1 and 6 music.

THE HOT MELTS

OK, I actually started typing this in July before I went on holiday, but I thought I’d post it up now anyway, as I’m feeling that there’s some great music out there at the moment, and thought I’d share.

———————————–

Ever since seeing Roisin Murphy at the St. Patrick Day’s Festival in Trafalgar square, I’ve been loving the tunes from her new album. Great and unique vocals, and extremely smooth sounds, making for a good, fun llistening album. I also checked her out at Sonar in Barcelona

Electronic-pop-cum-dance-diva.
Get it here: http://emirecords.co.uk/roisin/microsite/

———————————–

I’m also going to pick up a copy of the new N.E.R.D. album soon, being a big fan of both the band and the Neptunes remixes for many years now. Their fusion of rock band and forward thinking hip hop makes for some catchy numbers, and I’m gutted that I missed them live – I think it was at the O2 arena(?) But hopefully I’ll catch them on tour soon.

Gritty Street hip hop rock combo.
Get it here: http://www.n-e-r-d.com/

———————————–

Going underground, Mark Farina’s Fabric mix (number 40 if you are counting) is doing it for me too. It didn’t knock me over the first listen, but I thought it had a great groove, and now I can say that it really grows on you the more you listen to it. Farina’s taken this opportunity to push many new young artists, and some Digital-only labels too, but still retains his classic house groove that made him a worldwide star.

Deep and jackin house vibes.
Get it here: http://www.fabriclondon.com/label/release.php?item=fab40/mar

———————————–

A tune that hasn’t left my DJ bag for some time now is an remix EP of Alan Barratt’s ‘My kinda music’ (yes, this is the kind of noise I make regularly in clubs). The EP has four different remixes including heavyweights Inland Knights and Jason Jinx, and they are all so well produced and balance each other brilliantly, as if they were all designed for a different hour of the night. Top stuff.

Chunky rolling house music.
Get it here: http://www.juno.co.uk/ppps/products/308249-01.htm

———————————–

There’s a whole heap of talent right here on the Music Jobs website in case you haven’t realized it yet! Checking out the Soundcheck area, some artists I’ve recently come across include:-

Elipse – Futuristic funk, synthesized sounds and disco beats. Also looking for other artists to record with so check him out!

http://uk.music-jobs.com/bands/index.php?band_uid=17816

———————————–

Head-Full – Bury based quartet, playing energetic funk with a classic rock twist.

http://uk.music-jobs.com/bands/index.php?band_uid=17801

———————————–

Cornerstone – After 2 years, over 100 shows, and 300 copies of their debut E.P they also won the welsh final of the BOTB

http://uk.music-jobs.com/bands/index.php?band_uid=17904

———————————–

Don’t forget to regularly keep your profile updated so I can find you and feature you in the UK MJ blog!

Upload your mp3s today so we can check you out!

Lee.

We like to let our readers know about the latest and greatest new music about so no better time than the present to bring to your attention the fabulous  Ava Leigh.

Ava’s signed to Virgin Records and her debut album ‘Rollin’ is out later this year.  The first track from the album is  ’Mad About The Boy’ which is set for UK release on 7th July and is a very appealing fusion of reggae, dub beats and cracking vocals!  One might say a bright, breezy summer track to get you grooving…

Check out the video here

\’Mad About The Boy\’ Ava Leigh

If you’ve not left your TV, radio and internet-less cocoon for the last four weeks, then you wouldn’t have realized that Madonna has just released her 11^th studio album, Hard Candy. With all-due respect to the comeback(?) queen of pop (I guess she’s never really been away long enough for a comeback), what really caught my attention was the promotion of the album.

Madonna has always re-invented herself to the new emerging markets, physically and musically. This album is no different, and working with the biggest producers of recent years, Timbaland and The Neptunes, as well as performing alongside Justin Timberlake on the launch single, ‘4 minutes’, ensures that sales are already through the roof thanks to a fresh generation of music buyers and millions of long-term fans.

But the way that this album was also marketed to the new generation of music buyers really struck me. With the release date being 28^th April (in the UK), Warner Bros decided to market the album by releasing seven songs on the seven days prior to this, available to download via mobile phone. Myself growing up with CDs, I quite like the artwork of and album, and I like to read all the inlay notes while I listen to it for the first time (GEEK ALERT!). I’m sure people love vinyl LPs partly for the same reason. However you can’t ignore the streams of ‘yoofs’ around the shopping malls, all playing the latest pop tracks on their mobile phones – the market here is huge! Gone are the days of monotone rings, these are full mp3s, and all the major mobile companies offer various packages and download sites through which they aim to claim back some of the download music monopoly that Apple hold.

I look forward to hearing more about how the move was received by her worldwide audience, and I’m sure I’ll be bringing you more news on this very soon. I think that as much as recent years have been a rocky ride for the digital music industry, the years ahead will be filled with innovative ways to feed the revolution.

Lee.