‘Communion: The Compilation’ will be released on the 1st March 2010 and features unheard tracks from the likes of Johnny Flynn, Mumford & Sons, Peggy Sue, Alessi’s Ark, Jeremy Warmsley, Alan Pownall, Matthew & The Atlas and many more. The Record label/Club night of Ben Lovett from Mumford & Sons and Kevin Jones from Cherbourg goes from strength to strength. This album really is fabulous if you want an introduction to contemporary folk/singer songwriters, it introduced me to some artists I need to find out more about. This is 21 tracks of pure gold! I hope it sells by the bucketload and propels all the artists to international stardom.

[See post to listen to audio]
Johnny Flynn – Drum

1. How long have the band been together and how did you meet?

Alex (lead guitar/keyboards) and I (Charlie – vocals) first met in 2007 and began casually developing ideas in my bedroom studio. Quite soon we felt we had a few songs worth gigging and so we decided to recruit Alex’s housemates Eireann (rhythm guitar) and Simon (Bass). In May ’07 a rough demo of our song “City” got us into the O2 Undiscovered final (from over 3000 entries) which put us on the bill at the Wireless festival in Hyde Park. The performance was awful but it definitely firmed up our commitment to the cause!

2. You are about to release your debut album ‘To The Rest of the World’. What’s the inspiration behind the record and what are your favorite tracks?

We’ve always preferred albums that take the listener through a variety of moods. We wanted our first collection of songs to cover our own development through late teens and early adulthood. A lot of them are written from a place of growth or intense emotion and we were strict about not having anything repeat itself. Each song is one of someone’s favorites! But I (Charlie) would have to say that the most satisfying one to perform and record was probably All Down. It roused feelings in me I never realised were there! Another one was Flare – that just magically came together in 2 takes (most of which we kept the rough versions of) and one I enjoy listening to a lot is To the Rest of the World as it just takes me somewhere peaceful and reflective

3. You recorded your album in America with Matt Wallace (Faith No More, Maroon 5) How did that come about?

We have always been fans of Matt’s earlier work with FNM. When he brought out the Maroon 5 record (Songs About Jane) we knew he was very versatile and clearly didn’t have a problem going in any direction a song might need. Since ours are quite diverse we thought he would be a good man to approach. Luckily he loved the material and agreed to work with our budget, which was (even for and indie) much lower than he’s used to. Recording with him in LA and meeting all the ‘pros’ was a real landmark for us and gave us huge inspiration to up our game when we got back.

5. What are your hopes for the future?

We hope the album is well received. Early reports are good, people say it’s well-loved and gets played as much as any of the latest chart hits. We want to spread it far and wide and play as many gigs as we can and just grow our fanbase ahead of our next release, which we’re writing for at the moment.

6. How would you describe the band’s sound and what are your influences?
We all have different influences which really helps to take ideas in unexpected directions. We generally look at writing on a per song basis though (rather than in any one style) and while one song might have say a rocky Foo Fighters or Muse feel to it the next may come out reminding you of Elbow or Water Boys. We always try to cover new ground and never repeat ourselves – or others!

The nine song set included a mixture of old and new tracks with great three part harmonies and a guitar sound that is honed to perfection. There really is something special about guitars played properly through decent valve amps. A real feelgood factor abounds from the band live. Tracks from the forthcoming E.P such as “Country Low” have a more psychedelic, 60’s leaning than the in-your-face sound of first single “Trauma Town”. When heard live “Something About You” reminded me so much of vintage Beatles. They are tight, interactive and a real joy to hear live. It all bodes well for the upcoming releases and tour. I think it may well be a big year for the band – it certainly deserves to be. They are both relevant and good, something lacking in so many bands I see live.

Despite having horrendous vehicle problems Doll & The Kicks made it to the venue. Live they remind me of Souixsie & The Banshees a la 1979, albeit somewhat more accomplished and polished. They totally tore through a ten song set, delivering everything that the crowd expected. Hannah Scanlon, a.k.a. Doll, certainly knows how to manipulate a willing crowd who sung and hung on her every utterance. Strange then that I should pick the more genteel “If you Care” as the showstopper. Doll really seemed to put her heart and soul into it. The time the band spent on the road opening for Morrissey has certainly been time well spent. If you have some spare pennies I can think of a hell of a lot of worse things to do than catch them live on the rest of the extensive, self-financed tour.j

[See post to listen to audio]
The Foxes – Your Fire

http://www.myspace.com/dollandthekicks

http://www.myspace.com/thefoxesband

The multi-platinum funk soul brothers, with 4 Top 10 albums to their name, return for the first time in five years with the first classic party album of the decade! Featuring collaborations with Roots Manuva and Paul Kaye.  
  
Huey, Fast and Frank have been missing in action for 5 years, caught up in an acrimonious legal battle with their first manager who they fired in 2003. ‘Classic Fantastic’ bursts out of that gloom like a glorious sunrise shooting infinite rays over a range of shadowy mountains, as spectacularly life-affirming as the last five years have been creatively death-defying.  
  
A party album built in a psychological bunker; it’s a phenomenal testament to the power of unbound optimism. 
 
“There’s this thing called Noetics,” announces Huey.  “Which says if everybody thinks the same good thoughts, good things will happen.  Likewise, negative thoughts – it’s not rocket science.  And we all want the same thing, to be a Fun Lovin’ Criminal.  You have to go through hell to get to heaven and now we’re finally out from under a lot of our problems, it’s a brand new day. So let’s go out and do what we love to do.”

So what to think of this new offering? There will be no doubt those who detract and don’t get the irony of the album. For me it took a few plays, certain tracks such as the album opener “Mars” grab you straight away as a remixers heaven. Let’s face it, how many bands have used Steven Hawkins as a lyrical byline!!

Title track “Classic Fantastic” could step right off a 70’s funk album or even an episode of “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air “. In these days of serious, deep & depressing music this album has wafted from my speakers like a breath of fresh air. The album really kicks into life on track three, “The Originals”. Gangster lyrics set to a guitar-driven 70’s disco funk groove I was left looking for Shaft and those big afro hairstyles. The collaboration with “Roots Manuva” on “Keep On Yelling” brings the feel right up to date and is a killer track.

You know I started out pretty skeptical about this record and have ended up more than impressed. If you just want a slice of the pie as a starter, “Rewind” is an amazing song with a message showing that in amongst that party feel FLC are not afraid to tackle serious issues. A satirical lads party album is one way of putting it! Dropping on March 1st, the band embark on a mini tour around the UK, see the links below. The mp3 is a cover of the late great Curtis Mayfield’s “Right On For The Darkness”.

[See post to listen to audio]
Fun Lovin’ Criminals – Right On For The Darkness

www.funlovincriminals.tv 
www.myspace.com/funlovincriminalsnyc

I’m head over heels with Ellie Goulding right now, though I hope I’m not being too obvious. Don’t want to hand over relationship power too quickly, after all.

Ellie is a busy bee these days, what with the release of ‘Starry Eyed’ as an official single on the 22nd, followed by her debut Lights on March 1st. The excitement around ‘Starry Eyed’ has of course lead up to a predictable abundance of remixes. The law of averages or Murphy’s Law or the Blogospheric Code or some other such thing says most of these remixes will be awful. It’s sad, but true.

One remix that does not suck is this one by Max Vangeli that Pete Tong recently premiered on his radio show. It’s a radio rip (though one of very good quality) so Pete talks a bit over the beginning. It’s a more traditional dance mix, with a few 90s house elements thrown in for good measure.

[See post to listen to audio]
Ellie Goulding – Starry Eyed (Max Vangeli Remix)

Then there’s this one that Popjustice recently posted by Monarchy. The atmosphere in this one is quite good, and there’s a nice synth buildup. Unfortunately, they commit what I consider an unforgivable remix sin – the bloody vocals are pitched down so far it sounds like Edward instead of Ellie. It’s really too bad, because the mix itself is very well done.

And finally there’s this excellent live version of ‘Starry Eyed’ that Ellie did for Babelgum.

I talked about missing The Temper Trap train a month or so ago when I finally caught 500 Days of Summer on DVD. I’ve since had a chance to catch up, and ended up really enjoying their debut Conditions. If you’re in a similar position and for whatever reason never looked into these Aussies, here’s a very easy way you can without spending a penny!

Temper Trap Giveaway
1 US winner will receive:
(1)Temper Trap Poster
(1)Copy of their debut, Conditions

TO WIN: Simply email me with ‘Conditions CD Giveaway’ in the subject line and 1 winner will be selected at random on Monday, February 8th.

[See post to listen to audio]
The Temper Trap – Sweet Disposition

In related news, you can also chew on this remix that Alan Wilkis forwarded on to me. I wasn’t sure about it at first, it sort of made me think of Frankie Valli singing over some Afrika Bambaataa beats with Kraftwerk sitting behind the mixing desk. Then I thought about what a cool collaboration that would actually be, and gave it a few more listens. I can’t say I like it more than the original – it’s just too good – but I think this is a pretty interesting alternate take.

[See post to listen to audio]
The Temper Trap – Sweet Disposition (Alan Wilkis Remix)

NA TOUR DATES:
March
10 Los Angeles, CA @ Henry Fonda Theatre
12 San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore
14 Portland, OR @ Peter’s Room
17 Boston, MA @ Hurricane O’Reillys, WFNX St. Patrick’s Day Party
20 Boulder, CO @ Fox Theatre
22 Milwaukee, WI @ Turner Hall
23 Minneapolis, MN @ Varsity Hall
24 Chicago @ Metro
26 Columbus, OH @ Newport Music Hall, CD101 Low Dough Show
27 Cleveland, OH @ Cambridge House at HOB
30 Toronto, ONT @ Mod Club
31 Montreal, QUE @ The Cabaret du Musee Juste Pour Rire

April
2 New York, NY @ Webster Hall
3 Philadelphia, PA @ Theatre of Living Arts
6 Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club
12 Dallas, TX @ Pontiac Garage at HOB
13 Austin, TX @ Emo’s
15 Tempe, AZ @ Clubhouse
17 Indio, CA @ Coachella

Gradually this has developed into a full-blown band project with former members of The Marksmen. Marcus is lead guitar & backing vocals, Ady on drums being joined by Sean on Bass. This is a project that is steadily building a head of steam from the inside outward. The music has a real late sixties feel to it, however there are also influences of King Crimson through to the punk era. I spent a good while chatting recently with the guys and it is a real team effort. More than anything there is a real belief in the music they are creating, and the recent addition of a keyboard player can only add to the layers of sound they create. Live, they certainly rip it up! If you like your music down and dirty where less on the production side is more, then check them out.

The Alley Jaggers will headline The Modzine Weekender March 25-27th at Clacton.

[See post to listen to audio]
The Alley Jaggers – Romford

http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Alley-Jaggers/158488403534

http://www.myspace.com/alleyjaggers

The interview ran something like this ……

Mark: Hi guys welcome to our fine city, can you give us some background on the band? It’s a pretty bizarre tale to say the least!

Sorin: Well thanks for having us! About one year ago David and I got together, well we already knew each other and we both wrote songs. Through the mixture of both our roots we ended up with this sound, we decided to enter this competition in Denmark called “Career Cannon”. We knew that we had to play a show in like fourteen days for it, which was kind of crazy! I knew a really good drummer so I called up Poul. We ended up out of 900 bands in the top four! Through this we got to play some really cool festivals in Denmark like the Spot festival – everything kind of just exploded from there.

Mark: When I was researching you guys I found it almost impossible to find like a bio or any background stuff on you at all! Is that a deliberate industry thing, or have you just not had time to develop anything?

Sorin: It’s all just so brand new…

David: We are only like one year old as a band so we didn’t have time to write it, you know things have just been crazy. It’s fuckin awesome but also kind of crazy. Over the last two months someone has been trying to put something together.

Mark: This afternoon I sort of thought I am going to interview these guys and I have no information whatsoever. You know I had listened to your music and I thought WTF am I going to say this can go one of two ways. You know, I may end up looking a complete prick here, luckily RCA got something over to me this afternoon. So Poul is it true that you almost beheaded a fan at Spot Festival with a drumstick?

Poul: Yeah, kind of. It was a crazy gig but he’s okay.

David: You go look at the drum kit now man, covered in blood still! Sorin whacked me with his guitar by accident, it was a crazy, crazy gig .

Sorin: My guitar also!

David: One of the guys from Iglu and Hartley came on stage yesterday right after our soundcheck, he said he had never seen a band with so much blood and we are not even heavy metal guys.

Mark: Out of the Spot Festival I believe there was mad media and label attention and you signed to RCA right? Is it also true or is this PR bullshit that you decided to all upsticks and move to Brooklyn? You know on the strength of it?

David: It’s gone so quick like, you know we entered the competition we had no idea where it was going to go. It’s like the demos that are on our site are just home recordings recorded in the attic. You know the interest was just mad after we won, interest from all sorts of labels especially the UK – Island, Universal, Chrysalis, Virgin, Ficton…they all contacted us as well. You know this was like in the first four months or something. This just never gave us the time to organise ourselves, I mean there was crazy interest in Europe as well. We had all been struggling with music individually for years, so it’s not like we don’t have back up as musicians.

Mark: There is definitely something there you know, I get a hell of a lot of PR stuff through my inbox on new bands, Anton from Bad Moon touched base with me last week and although you are way out there it touched a nerve. I said to him who the fuck are these guys!!  I need to meet them and see them live. I’m not bullshitting you here there is a certain cross-genre appeal to your music.

Sorin: Maybe you are right, our backgrounds are different. For David he comes from a hip-hop background and for me it has always been grunge so we kind of had no clue of the direction we were going to make a band. Poul well he is just a crazy drummer!

David: But now we are re-recording everything properly so we are developing our sound and expanding on it all the time. I mean you can say Poul is a crazy drummer, but he is trained.

Poul: Yeah I started as classical and I thought I was going to be a professional classical musician. Then I ended up playing all genres except hip-hop, I just remembered that actually.

David: So we are growing all the time not only as a band but also individual artists. It’s just gone so quick. That’s not to say that is bad in anyway, this is just how it went. We have gone through our depressions, our rollercoasters, ups and owns and maybe we will continue to have them. Just because we are signed you know, it does not mean we can take anything for granted.

Mark: You know you have to think back to when you struggled with other bands or solo projects to my mind you have to seize the moment and run with it! I meet bands who struggle for years to get a deal ya know!

David: We see it as kinda like a mine – you keep digging and digging.

Mark: And you struck gold?

David: Yeah, so now we are going to take it, the puzzle pieces are falling into place. Which is kind of cool, we are living in the moment and that kind of makes it special. We are creating as we go along, which makes it exciting. It’s ridiculously exciting! We have nineteen songs now and we are going to try to finish more. There is just so much happening in the States, some of which we cant talk about. All the cyberspace stuff we are learning all the time.

Sorin: I think it would feel the same if we were a ten year old band this year would still feel special !! You know even though i have been in other bands the first time we played although it was not very good it felt special. I feel really blessed to be part of it and able to express myself.

David: You know I can really feel where Sorin is coming from art, music, whatever is about expression, expression of what you go through, what you see in the media, life in general. There is a mixture of irony and rage and it works for us.

Mark: I totally get that music is a very personal thing, when are we likely to see a physical release from you?

Sorin: We actually don’t know all the details, we are aiming for the first half of this year. After this tour we are going back to the States to finish the album, there is a lot of stuff going on. We are halfway through the recording now and I am very excited about it, we just want to make a good record!

David: We are not a 100% on this but I think we are looking at a May single and a summer album.

Mark: And back to the UK for some festival dates?

David: We are very focused on the UK so for sure, I mean that’s why we are here now before anywhere else.

Mark: Having watched some stuff from a French festival last year, you will rock a festival crowd! (mp3 of Yeah Yeah Yeah from trans-musicales below)

David: It’s like these UK crowds on this tour, despite the fact that no-one knows our name or music, the response has been amazing. Like in France we like to have fun, there was 6000 people there who did not know us and we played a 60 minute set and they were fantastic.

Sorin: We are so grateful for all the positive feedback from these shows, both after them and in cyberspace, we still feel like the same three guys who got together before all this craziness. It’s kind of surreal at times that we are here doing this. We’re really really grateful to everyone, and we try to write back on Facebook and Myspace personally. We handle that stuff ourselves.

Mark: And tonight you are here treading in Kurt Cobain’s footsteps on this stage!

Sorin: Oh really? Wow that’s crazy.

Mark: So I think we will wrap that there so you can eat and enjoy the show.

Sorin: You also enjoy the show!

Mark: I will! I enjoyed the soundcheck, especially the “Dungeon Of Love”. Poul wanna expand on that? (Poul repeated the words dungeon of love in the deepest voice ever many times through sound check)

This was followed by much laughter, I had a real blast with these guys including the arm wrestling with Danish Baker on merchandise – challenge him at your peril. Many thanks to Anton from Badmoon and Jakup the tour manager for arrangements.

[See post to listen to audio]
New Politics – Yeah Yeah Yeah

www.newpoliticsrock.com

It’s been a while since we had a good contest ’round these parts! Time to end the dry spell.

For one lucky reader we have:
(1)In This Light On This Evening CD
(1)Official Editors 2010 tour t-shirt

TO WIN: Simply email me with your name and ‘Editors Tour Giveaway’ in the subject line. One winner will be selected at random this Friday! Good luck!

If you don’t happen to win (or even if you do) you may want to check out these new North American tour dates.

North American Tour Dates
Feb 05 || Seattle, WA || Showbox at the Market
Feb 06 || Vancouver, BC || Commodore Ballroom
Feb 08 || San Francisco, CA || The Warfield Theatre
Feb 09 || San Diego, CA || House of Blues
Feb 11 || Los Angeles, CA || The Wiltern
Feb 13 || Denver, CO || Ogden Theatre
Feb 15 || Chicago, IL || Victoria Theatre
Feb 16 || Toronto, ON || Phoenix Concert Theatre
Feb 18 || Boston, MA || House of Blues
Feb 19 || New York, NY || Terminal 5
Feb 20 || Philadelphia, PA || Trocadero
Feb 21 || Washington, DC || 9:30 Club

Alyson posts new content regularly including anecdotes relating to Lilith Fair and free MP3s like: “Glitz and Glamour,” a song about her time working as part of Madonna’s entourage; “Captain Planet,” a song about the 90’s environmental cartoon superhero;  “Happy New Year Lilith Fair,” a dance track written specifically to Lilith Fair; a cover of Coolio’s “Gangsta’s Paradise” on a glockenspiel; and a rare at home performance of she and Grammy Award Winning Songwriter Dave Merenda (Sarah McLachlan’s “I Will Remember You”) singing “I Will Remember You.”

The blog has already been recognized by Terry McBride, Co-Founder of Lilith Fair, and Alyson has also seen attention from Paste, Relix, Beyond Race, The Deli, Beatcrave, Fox Television, and Rubyfruit Radio (SPIN’s Essential Mix). Her most recent release, “Tuscaloosa,” was engineered by Denise Barbarita (Mary J. Blige, David Byrne) and features Jason Mercer (Ani DiFranco, Ron Sexsmith) on bass.

Check out Alyson’s Dear Lilith Fair blog at www.dearlilithfair2010.wordpress.com and her website at www.alysongreenfield.com.