#106 Idiot abroad

I got sunburnt.

Yep – my SXSW consisted of 2.5 days of rain (as good as England can thrash it down) and in the 6 hours or so I was free to roam and the sun came out…I managed to toast my shoulders to a crisp by falling asleep in a park / not wearing suncream. Spring King were by far the most talked about band in my world impressing the world and their friend. SOAK (not really my thing but still) deserves a hats off for a spot on performance at our BBC Introducing showcase out there and Single Mothers rock the socks off everything and everyone.

Hop Along are a great group of mates from Philly who make happy bouncy indie tunes – American style. With a Jekyll and Hyde vocal from frontwoman Frances you have cute and smooth next to banshee roars that’ll rival the chimney’s (ie 50 fags a day lovelies like Brody Dalle / Courtney Love) and it sounds wonderful.

America’s counterpart to Violent Soho – Superheaven – are back with their first taste from their upcoming album “Ours Is Chrome”. Nice piece of rock along American post-grunge here.

Speaking of Aussie’s, I’ve dug up another one that’s making brilliant electro tunes: Life If Better Blonde. A kind of How To Dress Well meets James Blake style, but with his own individuality / influence from his fellow Melbourne music -bods seeping in.

Pale Honey offer an exaggerated option to the quiet chorus meets amped up chorus of rock / grunge tunes with their new track “Youth”. From whispers to wails it’s pretty sweet.

One of my favourite bands in the UK right now – Brawlers – are back with more material following their debut EP. “Drink & Dial” has been kicking around for a couple of months now, but there’s a new one “Windowmisser” if you fancy a google.

Polish Club have all the spirit and soul of The Black Keys with the lo-fi element of newness and minus the shoulder injury.

Really looking forward to seeing what these guys get up to this year.

Saw this band for the first time last week at a very cool London hang out with a (supposed) 24 hour bar and a group of people who were far too cool for me. Anyway – damn…it shows just how slow record labels can be on bands sometimes. Why aren’t these lot signed and spewing out records / tours like no one’s business? LISTEN TO THIS STUFF. It’s A-list. Meet Childcare 🙂

I was making a point earlier this week on twitter about it being important to have heard a track full stop, even though so many are obsessed with claiming they’ve heard  it first. This is one such band that I’m horrifically late on, but glad I’ve heard – Royal Headache – full of spirit and riffage and all things fun.

Vallee are also from Melbourne but give us some quality indie / rock. Another radio-ready anthem via our friends at Triple J Unearthed

Next week should be fun too – I’m delving into that long list that is The Great Escape. Can’t wait!

Elise x

#105 I can’t believe this is happening! SXSW 2015 is on!

Finally…after years of saying I will…I finally AM. SXSW 2015 is happening. I’ve already built my schedule up with the likes of ODESZA, Tweens, PS I Love You, Single Mothers and Spring King up there on the ‘to see’ list – but I want to get much much more in where I can. I’ll feed it all back to you when I’m back, but drop me a tweet (@EliseCobain) if you want me to check out something specific. I’ll do my best!

Now…back to the music. I don’t usually share snippets of songs. I get irritated by the fact I want to enjoy it in full. In this case however, a snippet is tease enough to keep me raving about Kelala. Alongside SZA, Kelala is a queen of future R&B and one we should be paying close attention to. She’s teaming up with the right people and (watch out traditional R&B songstresses), she’s got one brilliant set of pipes on her too.

When I was first told about Jack Ü I thought it was a bit of a ‘really?’ moment. One of the worlds biggest DJ meets up with the hypest electro DJ in the world. Initially hearing “Take U There’ with Kiesza I was wondering if it was just going to turn into a show off match with features from the big names. In a way it kinda has with the next big release to feature none other than Justin Bieber. But arguably this is a fantastic move by the maturing singer who wants to associate himself with the music scene at large. He has the voice and the connections with ol’Skrilly and Diplo on his side. It’s a great track hands down. Don’t judge until you’ve heard it.

On a slight side note one of my treasured UK rock bands has returned with a punch – Dinosaur Pile Up. Meet “11 11” – the return track whose opening riff does sound a little killer as a trailer bed. The third album will no doubt be the one that sees them go out on a headline US tour and fingers crossed their own (ie us British lot) will embrace their sound and get them back for the same thing here.

Meet Team Morale – a Kentish duo who I’ve had the pleasure of listening to for the past 5 years. Starting their journey with BBC Introducing they were an intriguing mesh of indie guitars and recordings with beats. Maturing from song to song they are now working with Bad Panda Records to get “Ubuntu” to a wider audience: and stepping up with thoughtful and haunting constructions.

If the recent sunshine in the northern hemisphere (London, UK specifically) has inspired you to have BBQ’s and start thinking about going out without your coat, why not add a bit of Coin Banks to your life. With a Justin Timberlake-esque vocal and happy upbeat pop vibes with blues undertone this Perth happy-chappy is a perfect spring tune.

Elise x