The musings of a teenage audiophile. Indie, Rock, Hip-Hop, Rap, Dance, Dubstep, Garage, Metal... music crosses all boundaries.
The Cold Cut is devoted to giving you a taste of what's going on in music at the moment.
A 17 year old taking his first tentative steps into the world of blogging. In my first year, its been up and down, from the slow first months to a busy time around the one year anniversary.
Twisted Wheel. Wow. How have I not heard of you? I'm fairly sure its a combination of my aversion to the NME, and my brief hiatus from blogging. Either way, I'm sorry I missed you.
Raucous. Raw. To the point. These were the first words that sprung into my mind when listening to 'She's A Weapon'. It's unfortunate that often, we immediately associate these with poor lyrics and musicianship, but we do have reason. Twisted Wheel are an exciting exception.
The latest from Sony BMG, Twisted Wheel are definitely moving in the right direction; they have heaps of attitude and have been picked up by record label that will surely market them to hell and back. The band are currently on tour with The Rascals, another band making moves (largely due to 'The Large Shadow Puppet's popularity, it has to be said), and have a series of dates with Oasis lined up in October. My view is slightly tinted, though, in that the band immediately reminded me of a fusion of The Twang and The Courteeners. Memories of hype. A huge build up. And then, the album drops, flat as a pancake.
I do have a good feeling about this one, though, and those feelings are going to be put on hold... permanently. With both of the aforementioned bands, I just let the hype carry me along, and I wasn't particularly fussed when the resultant album's fell short. This time around, though, I'm going to indulge. Get involved.
Let us say, Twisted Wheel are to those bands what The Verve were to Oasis and The Stone Roses. A perfect combination. And I just hope they can emulate Mr. Ashcroft's success.
On Sunday, my friend Mike (of Albion To Arcadia) will be celebrating his 18th birthday. A couple of days ago, to celebrate this event, we went to see Babyshambles, The Courteeners & Beggars at the Carling Brixton Academy in an NME Awards show. These were three completely different, varying acts, and for the purpose of this review I'm going to split them up. This was not an ordinary gig- first of all, it lasted an ache-inducing 5 hours. At 6 PM yesterday evening, a legion of indie kids outfitted in a combination of skinny jeans, leather jackets and day-glo t-shirts descended on Brixton, and 'normal' people like myself (outfitted in a nice, but plain, Esprit jumper and 'phat' jeans) felt a little bit out of place. And so the fun began...
Beggars
The doors opened at 6, and after an hour's wait, the first act, Beggars, came on. An interesting support act, they were really good, but not always interested. Its a little bit disconcerting that they seem to have it all worked out already, but they had the edginess and potential to get the crowd going. Their drummer was ace and the music worked as an openert- there were a couple of good songs, some great harmonies and a generally solid set. If you want to check out their Myspace, here it is...
The Courteeners The boys from Manchester did some impressive work convincing me that their album might be pretty good after all. Let me just clear things up, though- they wont change music. Their first album will be solid, from the tracks we heard, and their live act will get better and better. The crowd were up for it, and there were a handful of moments where it all clicked, most obviously on the familiar songs such as 'Acrylic' and 'Cavorting', the former inexplicably left off the tracklisting for their new album, 'St. Jude', out April 7. I was surprised to see that Liam Fray had very little of his trademark swagger on show, repeatedly thanking the crowd for 'this amazing chance'. Your welcome... Check out their website to listen to a couple of tracks.
The Courteeners- Acrylic Babyshambles Babyshambles were the biggest surprise of the evening, for me at least. I have always been quick to belittle Pete Doherty for his part in the break up of The Libertines, his drug problems and the fact that he cant sing. Last year, I got really bored of seeing his name in the tabloids every day, but his popularity dipped for a few months and he has now returned, a seemingly different person. This isn't the Pete Doherty that embarrassed himself on Friday Night With Jonathan Ross- with the aid of a really solid backing band, Pete put on a great show, and his voice was great. The mosh-pit was ridiculously good fun- one of the best I've been in- with a nice atmosphere and a great venue- the sloped floor is a great idea, apart from everything rolls to the front, including beers, dropped phones and pretty much anything else going.
Their set was a good length, with a nice mix between the heavier songs and the slower tracks. They played 'Delivery about two tracks in, which suprised me, and although I didn't know any of the songs there was still that sense of familiarity. The band were really chilled out onstage, only pausing occasionally to make sure that no-one was getting crushed in the pit. Closing their three track encore with chaotic fan favourite 'Fuck Forever', the set was a great end to a brilliant gig. I've been won over by Babyshambles, and the support acts were great. All in all, well worth it. Babyshambles- Delivery
If anyone reading this was at the gig, leave a comment. How did you find it? Good time, yeah? Check out this video of 'Fuck Forever'.
2008 is shaping up to be a huge year for music, and these are the best of the British bands releasing new material this year.
Cajun Dance Party- These 5 London teens are still at school and yet they've already released two spectacular singles, The Next Untouchable and Amylase. Which is pretty amazing given the time constraints of A-Levels (trust me, I'm in the same boat!). Their album will be amazing.
Cajun Dance Party- The Next Untouchable Estelle- This West London born hip-hop artist is widely respected in the music world, and not without reason. At the age of 27 she already owns a record label, Stellar Ents, which allowed her to release her own album, 'The 18th Day', 3 years ago. If you haven't heard '1980', one of her singles, download it now. Her new album, 'Shine', is out on February 12th, and whilst she has the talent, Estelle has never hit the bigtime. Signing to John Legend's label can't hurt, and neither can production by Will.i.am, Kanye West and Wyclef Jean.
Glasvegas- Everyone compares them to The Jesus And Mary Chain; its a fair comparison, but why not relate them to something new? Purely because no-one sounds like Glasvegas any more. Alan McGee has been gushing about them for ages, but whereas this is generally unfounded, for once he is right. Destined for great things...
Foals- These guys are going places. 'Antidotes', the first album, is out March 2008, and already things are hotting up at the Foals camp. Not content with the production, they re-mixed the entire album themselves, to their specifications. Ballsy, but will it pay off? Yannis (centre above), the mop-topped lead singer of this Oxford based five-piece, obviously thinks so.
The Courteeners?- The question mark isn't a typo. Liam Fray (closest in the pic), lead singer of The Courteeners, is following in the footsteps British frontmen by mouthing off about how his band are going to create one of the best British albums ever. Sometimes, this is the truth: see Oasis, Stone Roses etc. Sometimes, however, it isn't: take The Twang as a recent example. Which will he be? On the evidence of 'Cavorting', the latter. But that doesn't stop me wondering 2008 will be the year when we witness his fall from grace.
The Ting Tings- I'm not even going to attempt to explain this one, other than that they're a boy-girl duo who make fun pop music. Oh, and they wont disappointed; they've been around for a while, signing to a major label 3 years ago, but the deal fell through due to creative 'differences'. A new deal is in the works, but just let their music speak for itself.
Since a little band called Oasis swaggered onto the music scene over a decade ago and promptly left a gigantic legacy, many bands have attempted to take that throne- in recent years I can highlight a few: Arctic Monkeys, Kasabian and The Libertines, all of whom made valiant attempts but have thus far failed. To be fair to them, whilst these bands have the tunes, none of them have quite fill the character-void left when brothers Noel and Liam Gallagher toned it down a bit. Alex Turner, whilst being a lyrical genius, isn't exactly the most thrilling of characters, The Libertines weren't together long enough to make an impact and Kasabian's Tom Meighan has come the closest but he still doesn't match up to the combined impact of the Gallagher brothers. In Liam Fray of The Courteeners, however, we may just have found someone with all the tunes as well as the attitude.
Let me explain- The Courteeners are the brainchild of Liam Fray, a one time acoustic singer songwriter who started the bands with local Manchester friends a couple of months ago. He was making huge waves before The Courteeners, though- he's been compared to Morrissey in his lyrical prowess by big names such as John Squire (of Stone Roses) . They've only released one song commercially so far- Cavorting- which was on a limited release. Full of no-nonsense lyrics and natural vocals, it's already a huge favourite at their gigs. And that brings me to their live performances... well, lets just say they managed to sell out Academy 3 in their hometown Manchester, before they had actually released any material. On top of this, most of the people there knew the words to all the songs, half of which haven't even been committed to disc yet... that's what you call a buzz. However, let me just say, go and see them before they're snapped up by some huge identikit music label: once they're commercialised I doubt you'll ever be able to see them perform live in the same way again...
Cavorting can be bought nowhere, because it's really good AND rare... (check out the £30 ones on eBay if you're really desperate). Check out their MySpace page here
All the tracks available for download on this blog are there purely in the interest of the artists; I offer music to the masses for a short time only in order to promote those artists who I think deserve more publicity. If you want any of your tracks removed, please leave a comment and I will do so.
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Twisted Wheel- She's A Weapon (Link 2)
Academy 2 peformace (from BBC)
