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Bands To Watch: Noisettes

Saturday, April 18th, 2009

As the festival season is quickly approaching us, each Friday we will be taking a look at a band or solo artist which will be doing the UK festival rounds this year. Last week we took a look at American Rock outfit The Gaslight Anthem. This week we are taking a closer look at British indie rock act Noisettes.

Named after a Quality Street sweet, the band has been kicking around since 2003 but has only recently achieved mainstream success with the second single release on their second album: ‘Don’t Upset The Rhythm‘. This single reached number two in the UK single charts. The band comprises of singer and bassist Shingai Shoniwa, guitarist Dan Smith, and drummer Jamie Morrison.

The band formed after Shoniwa and Smith started playing and writing together more regularly. After good comments from friends and family about their new material they followed their hearts and found drummer Morrison. The band has toured extensively and has supported the likes of Bloc Party, Muse, Babyshambles and Mystery Jets.

Noisettes have an impressive line-up of festivals for 2009. The list currently includes a mixture of the smaller UK festivals and the larger behemoths. The band will be playing at Wakestock, Turning Point, Summer Sundae Weekender and Scottish summit T In The Park.

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Bands To Watch: The Gaslight Anthem

Friday, April 10th, 2009

As the festival season is quickly approaching us, each Friday we will be taking a look at a band or solo artist which will be doing the UK festival rounds this year. Last week we took a look at indie soul act Florence & The Machine. This week we are taking a look at American rock band The Gaslight Anthem.

gaslightanthem

The Gaslight Anthem are an extraordinary band which have been making waves this past year. The foursome are from New Jersey, USA and have a soft punk rock sound. The band consists of vocalist and guitarist Brian Fallon, Alex Rosamilia on guitar, bassist Alex Levine and drummer Benny Horowitz. The vocals by Fallon provide a mellow element to the bands music but doesn’t take away from the ‘punk’ background.

The band have made it clear that they have been heavily influenced by Bruce Springsteen (a headliner for Glastonbury this year). Fortunately for the foursome, this has not been held against them and fans and critics have revelled in the sounds The Gaslight Anthem have produced.

The band released their debut album, Sink or Swim, in 2007. Their second full-length album was quickly released just a year later in ‘08 titled The ‘59 Sound. The second album was widely recognised as a fantastic album and was even voted the #1 album of 2008 by eMusic. My personal favourite tracks on the second album include “Great Expectations”, “The ‘59 Sound” and “Even Cowboys Get The Blues”.

The Gaslight Anthem have been touring extensively since November 2008 and that doesn’t look like it will soon stop with the growing list of summer festivals they are set to play. The band are to appear at the following UK festivals Reading & Leeds festivals, Hard Rock Calling, T In The Park and Oxegen.

To check out the bands tunes take a look at their Myspace.

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Bands To Watch: Florence & the Machine

Friday, April 3rd, 2009

As the festival season is quickly approaching us, each Friday we will be taking a look at a band or solo artist which will be doing the UK festival rounds this year. Last week we took a look at electro pop act Metronomy. This week we are taking a look at indie soul act Florence & the Machine.

florence-and-the-machine

Following this week’s announcements that Florence & the Machine will be playing two of the UK’s largest festivals, Glastonbury and Reading & Leeds, we thought we’d take a closer look at this British sensation.

Florence & the Machine is the stage name for Florence Welch and her very talented backing musicians which currently consists of Robert Ackroyd (guitar), Christopher Lloyd Hayden (drums), Isabella Summers (keyboards) and Tom Monger (harp). Her musicians have previously included Lightspeed Champion soloist, Dev Hynes.

The band have been recognised widely over the last couple of years by the BBC, who have supported the band via their BBC Introducing stages, and also NME, who included them in their annual Awards Tour. FATM collected the critics choice award at the 2009 Brit Awards. The band have released three singles currently, ‘Kiss With A Fist’, ‘Dog Days Are Over’ and ‘You’ve Got The Love’. Their fourth single ‘Lungs’ is set to be released in July along with an album release sometime in 2009.

Florence and her band of misfits will, of course, be playing at the UK festivals this summer, and as previously mentioned will be playing Glastonbury and Reading & Leeds. They are also confirmed for Irish festival Oxegen, Scottish daddy T in the Park, London event Lovebox Weekender and Isle of Wight fest Bestival.

If you have the opportunity to see Florence & the Machine it would be great to go and support the band. If you’d like to give their music a listen, and I urge you do, check out their Myspace here.

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Bands To Watch: Metronomy

Sunday, March 29th, 2009

Bands to Watch is a new addition to the UKFests site. As the festival season is quickly approaching us, each Friday we will be taking a look at a band or solo artist which will be doing the UK festival rounds this year. Last week we took a look at electro act Boys Noize. This week we are taking a look at Metronomy whose music has been described as “vocal electronic pop”.

metronomy

Metronomy was started by Joseph Mount whilst living in Devon. He had been in several bands previously to little success playing drums. His introduction to the electronic music scene started when his father sold him an outdated computer which he used to start his own compositions.

The band really started moving when Mount moved to Brighton and starting playing live events around the city. He was often joined by Gabriel Stebbing and Oscar Cash who worked as Metronomy’s backing act known as The Food Groups. They duo have since joined Mount as part of Metronomy.

Metronomy have toured extensively around Europe supporting bands that include: Bloc Party, Klaxons, CSS and Justice. The band have released two albums: the debut, released in 2006, Pip Paine (The £5000 You Owe Me) and Nights Out – Because Music in 2008. Metronomy are also acclaimed remixers and have remixed music by Klaxons, Ladytron, Kate Nash, Late of the Pier and Franz Ferdinand.

The threesome will be doing the 2009 festival rounds so check them out at the following festivals: Bestival, Underage Festival, The Great Escape, Hove Festivalen and Hinterland.

To listen to some of their music before you catch them at a festival, check out their Myspace here.

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Bands To Watch: Boys Noize

Friday, March 20th, 2009

Bands to Watch is a brand new addition to the UKFests site. As the festival season is quickly approaching us, each Friday we will be taking a look at a band or solo artist which will be doing the UK festival rounds this year. Last week we took a look at the legendary favourite Neil Young. This week we are taking a look at the electro act Boys Noize.

boyz410

Boys Noize is the alter ego of German electro DJ and producer, Alexander Ridha. Ridha was a talented musician from a young age learning and playing piano as well as drums. From the age of fourteen, Ridha started to purchase music to mix with computer software which started his love for remixes which Boys Noize is loved for. Ridha was taught engineering by D.I.M before he moved to Berlin where his Boys Nozie alter ego really kicked off.

Ridha has released songs under the Boys Noize name with a whole range of labels including Kitsuné Music and Tiga’s Turbo Records label. Boys Noize released his debut album in 2007 titled ‘Oi Oi Oi’.

Boys Noize is set to play a number of UK music festivals this year and hopefully the list will continue to grow to include some of the larger festivals, as well as the more commonly played dance fests. Ridha will be playing: Eclectricity Boutique, Evolution Music Festival, Dot to Dot, T in the Park and Camp Bestival, as well as making an appearance at the major european festival: Benicassim.

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