The Dish ( The Maccabees)

http://www.the-dish.co.uk/2009/03/01/the-maccabees-no-kind-words

The Maccabees - No Kind Words

Written by Holly Eells | Sunday, March 1, 2009 | ShareThis

The Maccabees must be doing something right in this game for having Mathew Horne to feature in their up incoming video for ‘ No Kind Words’. This song has hit smeared all over it. Front man Orlando Weeks draws you in with his deep captivating vocals and luring you in to the words of wisdom.

Keeping their unique twist to a key still, they have taken a complete different route for this track. Still maintaining the catchy flow which they are known for, they still have managed to come out with a fresh new concept which will keep their fans interested for sure and bring a fair few more along the way.

The repetition of the words and the hard bass of volume getting stronger and stronger is one way of drumming it in to your head. The Maccabees way of giving us tips of advice is a good way to go. Thumbs up from me, go listen and see for yourself. You won’t be disappointed I assure you.

The Dish (Tommy Reilly)

http://www.the-dish.co.uk/2009/03/31/tommy-reilly-gimme-a-call

Tommy Reilly - Gimme A Call

Written by Holly Eells | Tuesday, March 31, 2009 | ShareThis

Tommy Reilly isn’t your typical teenager who goes mopping around the park or taking the persona of Kevin and Perry. He only just recently received the title of Orange Unsigned Act 2009, been compared to the likes of Bob Dylan and Ryan Adams, this boy can do no wrong.

His acoustic pop style has a very catchy rhythm which is very suitable for all ages. Writing all his own songs from scratch based on experiences throughout his short life, composing something quite spectacular ‘Gimme a Call’ which is set for release very shortly .

The use of sentences put together in this song is nothing to familiar; he hasn’t gone down the same route as other artists might go down with their repetitive lines that can drag on.

I’m convinced he has made many girls smitten with his lyrics as they are very endearing and boys take a listen as I’m sure you can learn a thing or too.

The Dish ( La Clique)

http://www.the-dish.co.uk/2008/12/19/la-clique

La Clique - The Hippodrome

Written by Holly Eells | Friday, December 19, 2008 | ShareThis

La clique must be something quite out of the abnormal to be performing at the Hippodrome. Being part of the scene for over 100 years, this place has surely seen its talent from the legendary cheeky Charlie Chaplin to the wonders of Stevie. ” You didn’t go to see the show at the Hippodrome, you simply brought a ticket for the Hippodrome and went to see whatever was on’.

Merging through the hustle and bustle I finally make it through the doors of The Hippodrome.

I was faced with racing raw talents that I thought was never possible to the naked eye. Latching onto a mischievous striptease that made a disappearing hanky into a jaw dropping sensation. However there are mishaps for Miss Ursula Martinez ‘I once did my striptease with a piece of toilet paper poking out of my butt cheeks. Not a good look!’

Seductively bursting through the darkness, shimmering a dim light before her was a born again diva life like puppet. Whose soul grooves were controlled and brought through vivid life. Serge Deslariers and Enock Turcotte offered us something quite spectacular pushing their skills right to the ultimate max. Otherwise know as Cabaret Decadence if you didn’t know!

The eye boggling performance of the night was tennis wannabe Captain Frodo aka Rubber Man, which says it all. The double-jointed Norwegian appointed to us, with his bending, contorting and manipulating ability. Involving moving into shapes I thought were impossible to the human kind, to get him through tennis rackets. Frodo is defiantly one of a kind. Throughout the whole entire night he still bounced back onto the stage with various tricks up his sleeve.

‘The reactions do vary but its within a tight scale from totally awesome to insane. La Clique just has that effect on people’

I was also lightened with The English Gents ‘ The amazing feats of strength and balance are almost an afterthought‘ Still managing to charm us with their dry English Wit. David O’Mer the Adonis in Denim and the eccentric of all divas is Miss Behave. Betty Boop look-alike’s entertainment equals to sword swallowing, rose piercing, Cigar Blunting Phenomenon.

The diamond of the rock that keeps the show together is a showman with exceptional talents. Bursting through as a reincarnation of Freddie Mercury, Clarke McFarlane is born to entertain ‘ I love being centre of attention’. Being known as Mario Queen of the Circus, this guy has some front.

If you want to see a nail biting, chair gripping show this is the place to be. You have till February to grab yourself a ticket, if not you’re surely missing out of something quite spectacular.

The Dish ( Stone Gods)

http://www.the-dish.co.uk/2009/03/29/stone-gods-start-of-something

Stone Gods - Start of Something

Written by Holly Eells | Sunday, March 29, 2009 | ShareThis

Having a turn mill success with the Darkness, Dan Hawkins and others have taken a different approach and have now formed a group known as the Stone Gods. Offering us a more of a heavy drum beat and putting in those electric flicks to make themselves sound nothing like the Darkness, I think they have nabbed this more in the bag. Replacing a new lead vocalist, it’s gone from a high pitched racket back to a sound it should be for the ears.

The intro of this track makes me feel like I have gone back to the 80s early 90s and giving me flashbacks of bands like Thin Lizzy and AC/DC.. It’s definitely an easy listening track that’s for sure which is more positive for these guys; I think they feel more comfortable in these shoes. However it’s not really my cup of tea, but don’t let me stop you from checking them out, maybe it’s the ‘ Start of Something’.

The Dish ( Alax Shields)

http://www.the-dish.co.uk/2008/12/19/an-interview-with-alex-shields

An Interview With… Alax Shields

Written by Holly Eells | Friday, December 19, 2008 | ShareThis

Alax Shields isn’t you average DJ. Being one half of the phenomenon set Tapedeck remixing the likes of Kate Nash, The Klaxons and many more to date, he can’t go wrong.

But we are not here to talk about Tapedeck we are here to discuss all the other sneaky projects up his sleeve, including his new band, new label and hoping to collaborate with the one the only Lil Wayne.

I manage to catch some time with the multi tasked genesis backstage after his gig ‘A Grave With No Name‘ at Clockwork in Angel.

Hey Alax

How are you? Great gig really enjoyed it

Thank You, So did I.

Sooo, let’s begin. Don’t you think you’re sound has a MGMT vibe going on?

Cough cough , they are not like an influence as our songs were written before they came out. However you feed in everything you don’t like when you are writing music, even if its structure backing vocals of a production. I’m always listening to music so everything I hear is going to feed in to my work.

Does Grunge Punk some it up?

When Anupa (guitarist in “A grave with no Name”) and I were in school we used to listen to Nirvana, Lemon heads and things like that really. So this has obviously influenced the music we are playing now crossing with our electronic stuff too.

But how did you get into Tapedeck?

Weird story really, Seb’s friend at Uni started putting a night on In London and she was working at the NME at the time. She asked us to DJ and there was such a good line up, with many people turning up. We just grew from there really, playing all the stuff we used to listen too.

What are you hoping to achieve from Meal Deal Records?

I Think we have had the idea for a year now, actually been releasing records for 6 months now. As I said we are pushing out music to what I’m feeding out now. DJ sets, bands like Place To Bury Strangers which sound like my bloody valentine, Jesus Mary Chain. Then to A1 Bassline that is UK Garage, its great as we are putting stuff out we like and not just sticking to one thing.

That’s great; its sums up the question I was going to ask now, are you looking for anyone in particular at the moment?

Obviously if you put out a UK Garage track, you are not likely to release another one straight away. Our first realise was Lillica Libertine an electro artists then followed by a Place To Bury Strangers who are the completely opposite. They all share creativity and that’s all that matters really.

For Tapedeck, what’s your favourite venue you have played at?

Erm, we played the last CDK Festival, we fluked out. Was a very hot day on a garden terrace in front of 2,000 people as everyone wanted to be inside this open terrace. All our friends were there too, was really cool.

What was your favourite collaboration or who do you want to work with?

We are turning a lot of mixes down at the moment, because if you don’t have a connection with who you are working with the remixes are really hard. We have done some in the past, and it’s really difficult.

Can you say who?

No, I can’t, they won’t be happy.

To be honest, I would love to do a big star, like Lil Wayne or T.I. That would be F*king amazing!!

The typical boring question, why are you called ‘Tape Deck’?

Literally, I was walking down the road desperately trying to think of a name. Plus I used to have this chain with a TapeDeck on it and I lost it when I went to ATP, left it in the shale!!! Forever Gone :( So that’s where it came from!!

How about ‘A Grave With No Name’?

My friend Jen is really into Emo, and when I put my songs on to MySpace which I recorded them all on my own in my bedroom, I thought I would put a couple up and stop tinkering around with them. Jen is into all these bands like. As I Lay dying and stuff like that, and I thought I was going to come up with a equally Emo name. It has stuck since then really.

The remix of all time?

Klaxons was the first one we ever did, was about three ago. I don’t think the whole UK garage was about as much then, was a new fresh idea. It was great to work on something that is brand new at the time.

Thanks Alex for you time!!!

MOJO ( News Digest)

http://www.mojo4music.com/blog/2008/09/news_digest_friday_september_1_1.html

NEWS DIGEST: Friday, September 19

3:12 PM GMT 19/09/2008

Is Albert Hammond Jnr preparing for a life without The Strokes? The grapevine has it that he is to design a clothing range, initially to be sold in Los Angeles: “I want to make suits that I’m going to have for myself,” he explains. He hopes initially to produce three styles of suit, branching out with new designs every season. Meanwhile, the day job ticks over, with a solo gig forthcoming at London's Scala on October 5, in the wake of his second solo album, Como Te Llama?

Fearing over-exposure, Foo Fighters are taking a “long break” from the UK, and are counselling fans not to expect a new album anytime soon. Nirvana drummer turned Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl unburdened to Radio 1’s Chris Moyles: "We're over in the UK every year, every summer, so I think it's time to take a break and come back over when people really miss us. After doing Wembley, we shouldn't come back there for, like, 10 years."

Watch footage from that (last ever?) Wembley performance here...

Celebrating their 20th Anniversary, Smashing Pumpkins are releasing their first live concert DVD on November 11. If All Goes Wrong will include a 105-minute documentary as well as footage from the band's 11-night residency at the Filmore Auditorium in San Francisco over July and August 2007. “The documentary shows that process in an interesting way that reveals the link between the band and our audience,” says frontman Billy Corgan.

More detail here. And here’s an amateur’s creditable stab at a Pumpkins documentary, with a great kick-off...

On 28th September Rhino Records will re-issue one of the most consistent and influential music catalogues of the 1980s, that of New Order. All five albums will come with bonus discs featuring contemporaneous singles, b-sides, remixes, and packaging that includes exclusive interviews with all four band members.

Rising from the ashes of legendary British post-punks Joy Division, New Order triumphed over the tragedy of Ian Curtis’s suicide to emerge as one of the most forward-thinking bands of the 1980s. Their 1983 hit Blue Monday saw them fully embrace dance music and synthesized instruments, and set a long-standing, but entirely unsubstantiated, benchmark as “the best-selling 12-inch single ever”.

Full tracklistings (Movement with Temptation, Mesh and Hurt! Power, Corruption & Lies with Murder and Thieves Like Us!) here...

Newshound: Holly Eells

MOJO ( News Digest)

http://www.mojo4music.com/blog/2008/09/news_digest_monday_september_2_1.html

NEWS DIGEST: Monday, September 22

1:13 PM GMT 22/09/2008

Led Zeppelin without Robert Plant? The Black Country-born belter has been given an ultimatum this week by his bandmates, stating that they will go on tour with or without him. It seems that Plant has been failing to attend rehearsals, ongoing at West London’s Ritz Studios. Previously, he’s cited commitments with his Raising Sand sideline. This time, however, he’s complaining about the bureaucracy involved with Led Zep. “The endless paperwork was like nothing I’ve experienced before,” he told GQ magazine. “I’ve kept every one of the emails that were exchanged before the concert and I’m thinking of compiling them for a book.”

Plant features in GQ’s Men Of The Year line-up, here...

Kings Of Leon release their much-anticipated fourth album Only By The Night today. The band’s frontman Caleb Followill revealed: “We took some risks but you have to make a record you're pleased with, you can't worry about anybody else." Meanwhile, their first single, Sex On Fire, begins its second week in the now only vaguely relevant Number 1 spot.

Other albums out today: Cold War Kids’ sophomore Loyalty To Loyalty; TV On The Radio’s Dear Science; and Mogwai’s The Hawk Is Howling.

Peace and love proclamations notwithstanding, Beatle John Lennon had a notorious temper. Further evidence arrives in a jaw-dropping postscript to Philip Norman’s new biography, John Lennon: The Life, out next month. Reveals son Sean Ono Lennon: “He did wind up yelling at me very, very loudly, to the point where he damaged my ear, and I had to go to the hospital.”

Click here to read an extract relating to Lennon’s booze-addled “lost weekend”...

On Friday this week, The Royal Albert Hall hosts a free show for the charity volunteers who devoted four hours of their time earlier in the year to the Orange RockCorps project. Community activities included a rooftop garden for an inner-city school, and the first “reward” show features an eclectic bill including Busta Rhymes, John Legend, Feeder and Guillemots. Rhymes said the concert was one of “the most rewarding parts” of his job. Event organisers say that although the stars are paid to appear, they were selected because they were “passionately behind the programme”.

To find out more, or to register for future events, visit orangerockcorps.co.uk

Happy birthday Nick Cave! 51 today, and to celebrate, here’s the classic voodoo circus promo for The Birthday Party’s Nick The Stripper, from 1981...

News by: Holly Eells

Dont Panic ( Frankmusik)

http://www.dontpaniconline.com/magazine/god/frankmusik

By Holly Eells

Holly Eells spoke to Frankmusik about UK hip hop, girls and hair metal. Vince Frank used to do fashion accessory design and beatboxing, but he's moved on from that now.

Hey Frankmusik or would you prefer to be called Vince?

You can call me Vince but most people call me Frank nowadays.

Tell me about your music and how you went from beatboxing to electronica power pop?

I did beatboxing when I was 17. It was an easy way to get into the music scene, as UK hip hop was quite big and I went into the battles, but it wasn’t really my thing. I fired my manager at the time as I wanted to start everything fresh and do it my way. My manager twisted my arm a lot of the time trying to get me to carry on all the time. I started making my own music and things moved from there.

Three Little Words and Confusion Girls are songs you have written yourself. Are they fiction or personal experiences?

All the songs I write are from personal experiences, relationships etc. I’m rubbish at relationships so everything you hear has one woman behind it or the other.

Do you prefer copying other people’s tracks or writing your own?

I have started doing both. Depends on my mood. When I’m bored of writing I will mash up someone else’s track.

You have some BIG events coming up shortly. What are you looking forward to most? The Presets one sounds exciting.

Yes, Modular. But what I think I’m looking forward to most is getting back on the road doing a proper tour; getting around England. It’s always stressful but I love it. So that will be happening early next year.

Tell me about Apparent Records?

Apparent Records is something I set up with my friend who lives in L.A. It’s basically hard to do anything at the moment as I’m so busy. I find acts on Myspace that I want to do a release with eventually on my label. I have only been able to put out a couple of my own things at the moment… next year hopefully when I have more time.

Highlight of this?

Ooh… there have been a few. However I think my highlight was a film premier I went to not long ago for a film called Anvil, which is based on a band that has been around for 30 years – a thrash metal band who are still together and they kind of suck. But the dedication is amazing. Basically they came on at the very end of a film at the Odeon West End - this thrash metal band performing in the cinema. That was fucking brilliant. I was right at the front. Hahaha…

Ever going back to accessory design?

Oh fashion accessory design, how I miss that - NOT!! If the music does go tits-up I think I would. I wouldn’t mind studying architecture. I’m coming off really cool here aren’t I?!

You’re going live at the moment and I hear you have been working with Stuart Price (producer for Madonaa and The Killers). How does that feel?

The thing is he is a Reading boy and I’m a Croydon boy so we both come from humble backgrounds. He is 30 years old and still pretty young and very down to earth. I have never really been starstruck with him. There’s no ego. I have worked with people previously with so much ego, very old school. When we meet up and work together it’s very laid back and we make music when we feel like it!

What acts you are feeling at the moment?

Gosh there are so many - apart from myself! There is so much west coast electronica going on; Castlevania is amazing. Oh I really like Philly as well. It’s a weird kind of music with a kick drum and its like 148 BPM and all hispanic kids listen to it. It’s nuts.

Thanks Vince!!