On Tuesday I went to Koko’s MTV New for 2012 gig. I went to see Lana Del Rey, but she cancelled so I was left with Charlie XCX and The Maccabees, two bands I previously felt quite sceptical about. I always thought The Maccabees were your typical indie pop outfit, and I think their first album was precisely that. But they have evolved over time and their new stuff is brilliant. They have fantastic stage presence, something I don’t say much of indie music. Check out the song ‘We Grew Up at Midnight’ which they played last and is my favourite.

Alice Jemima- Today

Ahh the gorgeous sounds of Alice Jemima. This new song is undoubtedly one of her finest. Such lovely melodies.

Mazzy Star- Fade into You

This song is really quite old, and really quite famous, but I’ve only just discovered it. I really like their sound a lot.

Hospitality- Half an Apple

Hospitality just released their debut self-titled album. It’s pretty Best Coast ish, but not as happy jolly girly sounding. I’m not that into it but I absolutely love this song. It sounds like so many great things from the 1970′s.

Sea of Bees- Broke

I love love love love Sea of Bees. I think she has such a great voice, and is such a good songwriter. Live, they are charming and graceful. Really underrated band. Their second album ‘Orangefarben’ is set for an April UK release on Heavenly Recordings. But lucky for us, we can hear one of the tracks from it now! It doesn’t disappoint, and shows a growth in sound from the first record.

Karen Dalton- Reason to Believe 

Listen here! (on good headphones if you can)

I went into Rough Trade earlier this week to buy the First Aid Kit album and came out with two other albums as well (standard). One of those albums was called Karen Dalton- 1966, a collection of lost recordings by Karen Dalton. Karens voice is one of my favourites, their are glimmers of Billie Holiday in it but it’s incredibly unique as well. This album was on one of those headphone things and I put the headphones on and pressed play and was mesmerised by the beauty of this song. It’s the line ‘Knowing that you lied straight faced while I cried’. So I purchased this album. This reason, along with many others, is why record shops need to survive. Otherwise I may never have come across the sweet sounds of this song. It’s been covered by a lot of other people from The Carpenters to Rod Stewart, but it’s only this version which gets me like the lyrics should. No one has uploaded it onto YouTube which is a shame, but you can listen to it here on hype machine.

Hannah Cohen has lived most of her adult life working as a model. She then turned behind the lens and started photography, which she was also very successful as. Music came a little later. Her ex-boyfriend, a musician, bought her a guitar and she secretly began playing and writing songs. She didn’t think much of them, and never considered herself a singer. But these songs, to others, were something very special indeed.

After soaking herself into the New York music scene, Hannah has now made an album with Thomas Bartlett, who has previously worked with The National and Antony and the Johnsons. The album ‘Child Bride’ is to be released on April 23rd via Bella Union records. The first single ‘The Crying Game’ is a dreamy and slightly disturbing track. Her music reflects Feist’s darker moments, Laura Gibson’s most acoustic moments and the orchestral beauty of Antony and the Johnsons. I really look forward to hearing the whole record.

David McCaffrey is a 17 year old lad from York, with quite a gift for acoustic-pop songwriting. He has already started making a few ripples, with Ed Sheeran tweeting about him a week or so ago, but I predict soon he’ll be making some serious waves. A live acoustic version of the song ‘Stars’ have clocked up over 23,000 views on YouTube, not too bad for someone who has never released a thing. As well as Ed Sheeran, you could draw comparisons with Benjamin Francis Leftwich, Ben Howard and Ryan Adams. He’s got such a talent for melody writing, that’s what’s special about him. And his lyrics are relatable. I think a lot of teenage girls could fall head over heels.

David is releasing his first EP entitled ‘Stars’ sometime soon, and he’s got a couple of York dates coming up. Keep an eye and an ear out for David McCaffrey.

I first wrote about BOY back in November of last year. I feel in love with their song ‘Little Numbers’, which is catchy, summery and all round great. It’s also got a beautifully shot video. The album ‘Mutual Friends’ is being released in the UK on April 12th and they are releasing an EP of acoustic sessions at the end of this month. For now though, you can grab a free download of ‘This is the Beginning’ below. The band kindly filled out a musical profile for me, and we have incredibly similar taste in music!

My Favorite band/artist: It’s so hard to choose just one!! You’ll find many of them in my dream festival line up.

My Favorite album: Bon Iver by Bon Iver is the one I´ve been listening to the most lately

My Favorite song: at the moment: Rebellion (Lies) by Arcade Fire

My Favorite gig: I once saw Feist at a pretty small festival in Germany, about six years ago. Her band somehow didn’t make it so she went on stage all by herself and played the most amazing and impressive show.

My Favorite lyric: “People are just people. (…) People are just people like you.” (Regina Spektor)

My Favorite new band/artist: Jack Beauregard, especially this song:

My Dream festival line-up: Arcade Fire, Bon Iver, Phoenix, Jeff Buckley, Nick Drake, Suzanne Vega, Tom Waits, Radiohead, Sigur Ros, Cat Power, Feist, Rickie Lee Jones, The Broken Social Scene, Camille

My Right now I love: The flowers I bought for my apartment because I’ll be at home for longer than a week!

This week I watched the George Harrison documentary ’Living in a Material World’, which was made by Martin Scorsese. It’s a truly wonderful depiction of his life and I’d recommend anyone with an interest in George or The Beatles to take a few hours out of your life to watch it.  Watching it has sparked a lot of George Harrison listening, especially to the ‘All Things Must Pass’ album, which I have on vinyl and is one of my favourite albums of all time.

Loon Lake- In The Summer

Each year, I go through the same sort of phase in the middle of winter- a massive craving for the summer months. This song is so summery it’s untrue. Loon Lake are an Aussie band and make super happy fuzzy indie sort of stuff, it’s great I think.

Keaton Henson- You Don’t Know How Lucky You Are (free download)

Keaton Henson has been featured on a lot of ‘Ones to Watch’ lists which surprised me as his music isn’t commercial at all. This song, ‘You Don’t Know How Lucky You Are’ sounds like a classic Ryan Adams song aka wonderful.

White Denim- D

This album was on my ‘Albums of 2011′ list at No. 16. It’s such a great record, loads of psychedelic influences and flute solos and the likes. I’ve been listening to this album again a lot. I really like the last track which is called ‘Keys’, its much more chilled than the others. I think White Denim are a massively underrated band.

Jake Bugg

I came across Jake Bugg by chance the other day. He’s only a young chap, only 17, but has an incredibly unique voice and is a very talented songwriter. I’d keep an eye out.

First Aid Kit- The Lion’s Roar

Today, Swedish sisters released their second album ‘The Lion’s Roar’ in the UK. They have such a wonderful sound and it’s really developed since the first record. I love ‘Emmylou’ so much. They also play an in-store at Rough Trade East, if I wasn’t going to see Lana Del Rey/The Maccabees, that is where I would be.

Etta James

Etta James died this week, very sad, she gave us so many wonderful songs and her voice is incredible. Bit of a cliche, but ‘At Last’ is my favourite.

Everything about this is so sweet. I want this on vinyl.

There are certain albums in the world that effect a lot of people, from Joni Mitchell’s Blue, to Pink Floyd’s The Wall, to newer albums like Bon Iver’s For Emma and Amy Winehouse’s Back to Black. These albums, and so many more obvious examples, had a big effect, both emotionally and musically on a lot of people’s lives.

Some albums however, get lost in transit a little and so don’t reach the ears of millions and so don’t have this same impact and attention. But for those who do hear them, they really get something special out of that record. This is how I feel about this album, ‘Colour Green’ by Sibylle Baier. You may have never have heard of Sibylle Baier before and that doesn’t surprise me. But by the end of this I hope you will go away and maybe also find something special of your own in this record.

Sibylle Baier wrote and recorded the songs from this album in the early 1970′s in Germany, where she is from. They were never released and Sibylle chose to spend her life raising a family in America. Some 35 years later, her son found these recordings and sent them to the independent record label Orange Twin Records, who released the recordings as Sibylle’s first album ‘Colour Green’. Slowly, people began to discover this album, and praise for the record grew. Sibylle is very over whelmed by all of this and so it is still her son who runs her website etc. Since the release of the album, she has started writing music again and so a second record could be possible.

The songs on this record are dark, dreary and have a mysterious quality about them. All incredibly simply recorded and most very short tracks, it’s the level of emotion in her voice and words that gets me about this album. The songs ring echoes of troubled longing and love lost. The doubt a young woman has about her life, yet still with a hopefulness and sense of love at life. Their is also an intimacy about the tracks, it sounds like no one was ever meant to hear these songs, she wrote them for herself and so it is an incredibly honest record.

I listen to this record quite often, and at 10:05 on a Sunday evening, I had an urge to listen to these songs again, which is why I decided to share them with you. I hope you get something out of them as I do.

For the past few months I have been programming this event at the Roundhouse in Camden. It’s going to be a fantastic day and all for only £2!

The stage I’ve programmed includes Kal Lavelle, Oh Ruin, Maria Byrne and the Broken String, Rhob Cunningham, Jenny Lindfors, Alastair Caplin and Dylan Walshe. There is loads and loads of other things going on too and it’s just going to be a great day out. Come along!

Facebook Page // Facebook Event // Twitter // Tumblr // TICKETS!

One of the best ways to find new music is through bands you love. I found Like Spinning through The Staves, who posted one of her videos on their Facebook page. Like Spinning is essentially the work of singer and songwriter Kari Kamrud Jahnsen, who comes from Oslo. The band now live in East London after starting in Liverpool in 2009 where Kari studied at the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts.

Their sound is woozy dreamy alternative pop music with lots of female harmonies and floating guitar lines. Think Warpaint, Lanterns on the Lake and CocoRosie. They released an EP at the start of 2011, a self titled record which you can find on Bandcamp. They have just released a second single ‘Forces/My Window’. All the songs are exquisitely made and produced, I think they have the potential to make a really beautiful album. The band play Bristol Communion on the 5th May and The Book Club in Shoreditch, London on March 17th.

London based band Straylings have an really great sound. It’s raw, organic and very vintage. They would have fitted in nicely back in 1969. The songs are wonderfully catchy with twang’s of American country music and psychedelic rock. I thought it would be great to see what sort of music they were inspired by, having such a unique sound and so they kindly filled in a Musical Profile for me. First, listen to this song ‘Carver’s Kicks’.

My Favorite band/artist: A few big ones for us would be… Kate Bush, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Sixto Rodriguez

My Favorite album: Some that we keep coming back to are…Forever Changes – Love, Lust For Life – Iggy Pop, Bryter Layter – Nick Drake, Townes Van Zandt – Townes Van Zandt
My Favorite song: Some random faves…Free Money – Patti Smith, Wild Is The Wind – David Bowie, Psycho Killer – Talking Heads, Who Knows Where The Time Goes – Fairport Convention

My Favorite gig: Neil Young at Hyde Park
My Favorite lyric: Arthur Lee’s opening line on ‘Live & Let Live’ is quite genius – “Oh the snot has caked against my pants – it has turned into crystal”

 
My Favorite new band/artist: Mishal Zeera

My Dream festival line-up: Nirvana, Joni Mitchell, The Doors, Karen Dalton, R.E.M….that wouldn’t be too bad!
My Right now I love: In Dreams – Roy Orbison

The band have already recorded a debut album, due for March 2012 release. You can preorder it from their Bandcamp page. Grab a free download of ‘Wallpin’ below.