Little Brother Eli – Little Brother Eli EP

You’d think with The Strypes hitting the scene there’d be a tsunami of rock and roll, and blues rock bands buzzing all over the place. Woodstock would be relived, rockstars would set their guitars on fire again and we’d start taking tabs whilst listening to Hendr…Well yeah that does seem a bit far fetched. But despite The Strypes’ recent (and possibly given to them on a silver platter for singing pretentious songs) success, there’s been a serious lack of blues bands, especially the more mature ones. If you really did want something interesting and current though, you’d find yourself all over the internet and end up at Little Brother Eli’s EP.

EP opener Animal Fair has the classic blues opener of the singer crooning with impeccable power, leading to the the fuzz of the guitar charging through the song. The riff is pretty catchy too, but the production of an unsigned band becomes quite evident here with the fuzz occasionally overwhelming the whole song, and the screeches of the guitar making me wince. The breakdown doesn’t do much to the song except propel the following solo. And oh man, does this make the song, I just wish it was longer.

From their website, Soundcloud tags, and Facebook page, Little Brother Eli make a point to tell the world their hip-hop influence. It’s not too explicit, in fact the subtlety of it is really refreshing. A lovely fusion of blues, rock and hip-hop, without sounding like Nu-Metal? Yeah I can live with that. I get a hint of Justin Timberlake in track two Awkward Positions, and who wouldn’t love that? The song flows along with a jazzy drum beat, warbling chords, and a lead that’d remind anyone of the most tempting femme fetal. There’s something special about the singer of this band, his vocal range is pretty wide and he could easily go absolutely massive with his delivery.

The EP closer When She Sings, though is the special one. The soft, feel good, reminiscent of Little Joy album closer that could soundtrack any love story. The vocals in this are just beautiful while the singer fluctuates the melody so modestly. And just for the hell of it what do Little Brother Eli do? Incorporate some ska-type guitar work to give it even more of a dance-y mood. As the song gets heavier to add more depth in places, the melody just makes it all the more sweeter when at the same time backing vocals bless the track. Ending back on the classic acoustic guitar, well, it’s almost too good to be true isn’t it?

Little Brother Eli love their classics, and this first EP bleeds classics. It’s likeable, fun to listen to, and really catchy in some places too. Although at times production is a bit rusty, and the songwriting seem a bit immature, the substance is there nonetheless. I can only see them developing into a band that’ll define their sound later on to form something very great indeed.

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Words by Saagar Kaushik

@bhench0d

6/10

 

The Forgotten Saints – The voices in my head

Intro

This is a four piece indie band who formed in June 2012 in Wigan. The band consists of Vocals + Guitar + Acoustic – Peter ,Kirwan Bass – Paul Walker, Lead Guitar – Chris Simpson and Drums – Marcus Mayes, and they’re currently on a label called Home Demo Recordings. They take influences consist of Miles Kane, Oasis, James, The Rolling Stones and The Stone Roses.

The Song

Think you should listen to it before I start talking about it, and I would also like pint out that they have another song called ‘Sinking in’, which ia a really beautiful pieces of music, the vocals and lyrics are something special.

Got to say I haven’t really heard anything like this for quite a while, it’s something quite new and fresh. The song has all these really nice sounds going on, with the bass and the drums really complementing it well, as well as they’ve added this cool affect to the acoustic guitar which I really like. Also what they’ve done is really brought the vocals straight to the front of the song, and I’m glad they did because you can really hear the lyrics and such brilliant vocals.

The vocals remind of Liam Gallagher but a more toned down version, which is not a bad thing at all because he’s got a really good singing voice on him.  Another element I really like in the song is the guitar part which just jumps in,  which first kicks in at 2.40, it’s nice part which only adds to the song, and gives it a slight edge.

I can’t really liken it to any other music I’ve listened to say, all I can say is that it is five minutes an nineteen seconds of well written, well composed and very well produced music. After listening to their other song, I’m pretty sure that they can produce more of the same stuff. For a band that has only been together for 2 and a half months, they’ve got two brilliant songs under their belt and they deserve our support.

http://www.facebook.com/TheForgottenSaints

Feed The Kid – I love the walk – Unsigned Bands

Introduction

Another one of the bands that I have discovered through twitter, and they’ve asked me to review one of their songs called ‘I love the walk’. They’re a five piece rock and roll band from Manchester, and they originally started so they could give there mate’s gingerbread kid a future. They formed in early 2012, so still quite new for a band really, and they’ve performed their first single which is ‘I love the walk’ on Manchester’s Imagine FM. They take influences from Cast, The Doors, James and The Cure.

The Music

For their first single, and as a band that is relatively new as they’ve only been together for about 7 months, I think this song is rather good. It’s got a beautiful acoustic guitar in this song, just rolls off and is actually quite soothing. As well as the acoustic guitar it’s got some piano parts in it which I’m normally not a very big fan of, but It really suits the song in this case.

I think it’s been produced brilliantly, it’s sounds very together and it sounds like they’ve put a nice effect on to the guitar and the vocals. The singing in this which is done by Taylor are sublime, in the vocals department it’s a top class performance, and it gets better at 2.23. The lyrics are beautiful, also there’s this really nice part in there where they’re singing ‘ahhhhhhahhhhahhahhhh’ , sometimes bands do this just to fill a gap and it doesn’t seem necessary, but here it fits in nicely.

Overall

Another great song, from another great band, hopefully they will bring out some more stuff soon because this really is a beautiful piece. The least we all could do is to listen to the song and follow em’ on twitter. FEED THE KID!

Here’s their Soundlcoud – http://soundcloud.com/feedthekid

Their Twitter – @feed_the_kid

The XX – Angels

Few obvious things have happened since my last post so I thought I would just point them , went to watch The Dark Knight Rises, which was amazing, and Pete Doherty has left the rehabilitation camp because he agreed that he wasn’t serious about quitting taking drugs, so yeah two obvious things.

The XX, new song, but as usual I’ve got here late because of work and other commitments such as watching Batman, playing Batman, pretending to be Batman..What? Joke.

Here’s the tune if you haven’t heard it…

I quite like it, what I expected from The XX,  very atmospheric and chilling at the same time. Not a lot of people can get in to The XX, and I was one of these people, I think I still am because I don’t think I still fully enjoy their music. I got into The XX when I was just sitting round doing nothing, and it helped me sleep, which I think is a good thing. I couldn’t listen to it in the car because I would fall asleep.

I think this song will grown on me the more I listen to it, just feels like one of those songs.

 

The Vaccines – Teenage Icon

The Vaccines have a new track out, well not a new track because I heard it a couple of times before and at T in the Park, so basically they’ve got a new video out haha, if you haven’t heard it, here it is…

What do I make of this?

The Vaccines I think have established themselves as a band that are more than capable of writing a very catchy song, with catchy riffs and lyrics. But sometimes this isn’t enough for me, I’d like to think that bands have more to offer than something to shout out loud on your own. So have they evolved with this song, have they done something different? the answer to this is no they haven’t, they’ve stuck to what they know, and what they do well.

If you like The Vaccines first album and your looking for more music like that, I’m a 100% you will like this because  it’s pretty much a step in the same direction. I really like the solo in the song which was composed by the lead guitarist Freddie Cowan, his sort of made his own sound out of his solos and they really catch the melody of the song, it really fits together. Oh, and I think he’s getting cooler every time I see him.

I like the song, it’s good to put on and have a sing too. Just feels like there’s no substance to it, this does not mean I don’t like it what so ever. Make of it what you will, leave a comment and tell me what you all think of the new tune.

Photo’s courtesy of thevaccines.com and NME.com 🙂

and the video from NME.com

The Courteeners – Something you can’t have

Left it a few days without posts, so gonna try and have to catch up with everything that’s been happening.

First off, Liam Fray showed us a new song entitled ‘Something you can’t have’, It was only acoustic so the song isn’t in all it’s glory yet, but I think it doesn’t sound too bad…

Since The Courteeners first album they’ve really toned down, or perhaps grown up, writing slower songs with more meaning and depth to them, I think this song follows that because it’s not bouncy or upbeat. Personally I think this song is under developed and I know Liam Fray could do way better than  this having listened to all of his other songs. You still have the clever lines in this which make you smile, but I don’t think that’s enough. However his voice is more beautiful than ever.

Photo courtesy of NME.com

Noel Gallagher at Kerrang! Radio

Introduction

Sorry about the photos, Iphones aren’t best to take photos!

I was extremely lucky yesterday as I got the chance to see Noel play live at Kerrang! Radio at an intimate gig. There was literally only about 40 people there and I was one of them. I’m a roadie there so I got to sit in the back where he was before he played! At one point there was only about 8 people in that room and me and him were two of those people, I felt very privileged. When I saw him, he was just on his phone and seem to have this godlike genius glow to him, and he was just effortlessly cool, even though he did look shattered. It’s a day I will never ever forget, just being in the same rooms as him.

 

The Gig

His set was very heavy on Oasis songs, which I preferred because I haven’t seen him play some Oasis songs live. Off his new solo album he played, AKA…What a life and If I had a gun, I think that was it haha. But he played the old favorite It’s good to be free along with Supersonic, Half the world away, Don’t look back in anger and Wonderwall.

He also played ‘D’yer wanna be a spaceman?’ which was brilliant because he said before he played it ‘ I’ve only played this one 8 times live’, so I felt very privileged, and it was class, everyone was singing and it reminded how much of great song it is.

He went on for about 40 mins, which was longer than I expected because it was only a radio station gig.

 

Heckles

There was one heckle and it was the most obvious, I’m all for heckles only if they’re funny and haven’t been shouted millions of times. The heckle was ‘Where’s Liam?’, when it got shouted out I thought ‘F**k me? Nothing better than that?’. Noel took it well and replied with ‘I don’t know, he’s probably at home. He’s got a shot load of money…for doing very little’, which obviously got a round of applause and a couple of laughs.

I wanted to shout out something, but I didn’t want get in trouble and lose my very important job, probably one of the best jobs I could ever have. So I thought I’d leave it.

Unfortunately I didn’t get anything but I don’t mind, seeing him live was amazing. Also I wasn’t able to record any videos :/, which I would’ve loved to have done.

That’s the post for today, please comment, even if it is on my terrible photography.

The Beatles – Revolver

Introduction

The Beatles are a very special band who made a lot of great music, and Revolver is one of the shining examples of this. The record is considered to be one of their first ventures out into the weird and wonderful World of music. After spending so many years playing upbeat love songs with a basic structure, the band decided to take themselves into a complete different direct with this one.  Obviously listening back it’s easy to overlook all of the innovative musicality of it , but when you sit down and consider that this album was released back in 1966 you should be quick to realize that this was well ahead of its time. So what made this album so great?

The Album

This album was released 1966, yes, when England won the world cup so a good year for football as well as music. Considering they only released Rubber Soul only a year before this it’s incredible to think they managed to create this in only one year . Having taken LSD in 1965, this had an influence on their ,musical direction and songwriting, working undoubtedly in their favour. Of course LSD was not the sole reason for this album being what it is, but it’s hard to argue that it had no influence on it at all. George really came out in this album as he had three of his own songs in there, and I think he done himself justice, showcasing what he was capable of doing given the creative space as a songwriter.

So why this album over every other Beatles album? I think it’s because it’s the one that always sticks out in my mind whenever I think of The Beatles, immediately I think of Revolver. I’m a big fan of when The Beatles started to lean to the stranger side, and really experimented with their music (backward guitars etc.), but they also kept a bit of the material they had in their previous albums.

By this I mean you have songs like ‘Tomorrow never knows‘, ‘I’m only sleeping‘ and ‘Love You Too’, but as well as these you have songs with more melody, more simple but brilliant songs like ‘Cry for no-one‘ (Which I think is one of the most underrated Beatles songs) and ‘Here There and Everywhere‘. So this album is really versatile in that sense, with the type of songs that are on there.

Then you have the classic riff of ‘Taxman‘ featuring, which I think is one of the best riffs there will ever be, it’s pure genius, and the best thing about it is that it isn’t really complex. George plays it in such a way he makes a bland riff really exciting, combining that with the treble sound it really sticks. You also have the classic riff off ‘And Your Bird Can Sing‘, I can hear it in my head now, so I think I will put the video on here.

 

As well as all the brilliant music pieces in this album, the vocals on the album are incredible. I personally think John Lennon’s voice is second to none, not a brilliant singer but his voice has just got the right amount of huskyness(no huskyness is not a word) in it.

‘Yellow Submarine‘ features on the album, whenever I hear this song on it’s own, out the blue It just makes me think of infant school, I’m sure we did something with the song there and it’s scarred me for the rest  of time. But when you put that song in the mix with all of these, I accept it because it’s a sort of break from it all and you can have a nice sing along. If you get into that song Ringo’s got another lovely little number called ‘Octopus’ Garden‘, which doesn’t get as much credit as it should. However with Ringo featuring like this, you can hear that each of the guys had their hand in it.

Finally this brings me to the simple brilliant (I hate using this cliche) ‘Eleanor Rigby’. I learnt this on guitar, it is the most simple song to play, and at the same time gives you a lot of pleasure. This one of my favorite songs on the album along with ‘I’m only sleeping‘ and ‘Taxman‘.

Overall 10.o

I don’t think you can get much better than this album, it was way ahead of it’s time, you listen to it now, still sounds fresh. For all the brilliant elements in this album, the riffs, vocal, drums, everything there’s not a thing they do wrong. One critacism…there isn’t one.

LISTEN TO THE ALBUM.

Words by Alex Wise @AJWise

Things will get Rotten on Question Time

Not the biggest of news, but definitely one of the most funniest and exciting pieces of news. John Lydon is going to appear on question time, brilliant. This could be on of the best pieces of controversial television, and if you don’t know why just have a browse at the clip below to see what they’re letting out on question time.

I found this video hilarious. Hopefully he will be this volatile on the show, and express his views because underneath all the swearing and that he actually has some good views, views that make you think and say ‘yeah, you could put it that way John, do it with one less fuck in the sentence?’.

So lets just hope this is true, it happens and they let him have his own time to say what he wants :).

Here are the Sex Pistols.

The Coral – Dreaming of you – 13/03/2012 – AW

The Coral

Probably shouldn’t writing this while I’m listening to Paul Weller’s new album ‘Sonik kicks’, which sounds promising so far, three tracks in ad quite good, it’s another step in the ‘Wake up the nation’ direction, which isn’t a bad thing just prefer his acoustic stuff, so there will probably a post about that album tomorrow, gimme chance to listen to it.

Anyway, I’m supposed to be bloggin about The Coral, yeah, well I chose to do write about this song because I heard it on the radio today and I thought, “shit, ain’t heard this in a while, this is fucking great”, and that’s when I decided to write about it. So, The Coral? They started in 1996, and are still doing stuff now, don’t think they’re doing a fat lot though because haven’t really heard about them for a while.

This is probably one of their most recognised songs, it featured on their debut album entitled ‘The Coral’, and only got to #15 in the charts, which I’m surprised about because it’s a catchy little song, which the public normally like and adhere to. They’ve got other great songs, buy the ‘best of The Coral’ and you’ll know what I mean, can’t be arsed to go through em’ all getting tired, feel like rubbish and still gotta do my 20 minutes on the bike (getting fit and that). I’m sure everyone has heard it somewhere, it’s one of those songs you’ve just heard of, whether it was when you was walking the dog and the man walking driving past has got it playing his car, an advert, your mate playing it, there is so many ways you could of heard it and you probably have. You only have to listen to one second of it, then you will be able to remember it.

The Coral