Pretty good line up ey? They’ve hooked up to produce a track for Converse -  for some reason one of very few brands that it seems perfectably for musicians to cosy up to.

Best of all, it sounds exactly like you’d expect a song from these three to sound like, or as Converse themselves put it:  “DoYaThing gets freakish as it brings together the perfect cocktail of Gorillaz, Andre 3000 and James Murphy.”

Listen below, and DoYaThing.

Whether its the beaches, the sunshine, the shadow of the Hollywood sign or just something they put in the water, there is no denying that California bands usually sound very, er, Californian. That is to say whether it plays out within the lo-fi fuzz of chillwave or the taught urgency of post-punk, there is usually plenty of primary colour involved. Bright swathes of the stuff. Orange County five-piece Young The Giant sound very Californian.

Meeting at high school and now in their early twenties, their brand of laidback guitar-pop is indebted to long days at the beach and the sound of waves crashing. After a promising early EP their debut full-length – released last year and produced by Joe Chiccarell (The White Stripes, My Morning Jacket) – is a chock-full of summery, uptempo toe-tappers.

Future UK festival anthem in waiting My Body sounds like a bouncier, poppier cousin to touring buddies Kings of Leon’s Black Thumbnail, while the anthemic Cough Syrup, with its soaring chorus and chiming guitar, edges towards what Coldplay would sound like if they turned everything up and stopped worrying.

Boasting a pure Americana sound that belies their diverse backgrounds – Indian, Persian, British and French-Canadian among them – and signed to a subsidary of Warner Music Group there is no denying that big things are expected. But with singer Sameer Gadhia’s voice more than capable of filling even the vastest arenas, there is no denying they are band that would sound fantastic in bigger spaces. Not that Gadhia would admit it, recently telling Paste Magazine of their rise to fame so far: “For better or for worse we really don’t take anything for granted.”

About to embark on sold-out tour of the States it may be some time before they venture back over to the UK, possibly when armed with second record once they head back into the studio this September after a no-doubt successful festival run.

iTunes | Amazon

This, the second single from the upcoming Master of My Make-Beleive album, is a built over a skittering drum pattern and jittery keyboard stabs. It’s a little more conventional than the bonkers pop of Big Mouth.

Speaking to V Magazine, Santigold recently explained that she has worked with Greg Kurstin, Dave Sitek and Nick Zinner of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs on the record. Of the album title, Santigold also said: “My record is called Master of My Make-Believe because I want it to be about creating your own reality.”

The song will be made available digitally tomorrow, February 21st. A Disparate Youth EP will be released on April 8th, with remixes from Switch, The 2 Bears and Amateur Best.

Listen to the track below:

Fresh from his double Grammy win Bon Iver has released this, a mesmeric mini-set recorded in London’s AIR Studios in October 2011. With label mate Sean Carey sparing with him on piano, these are sparse reinterpritations of their recorded partners.

And they are amazingly good, showing off Vernon’s voice at its best – loud, raw and crystal clear.

1. Hinnom, TX
2. Wash.
3. I Can’t Make You Love Me
4. Babys
5. Beth/Rest

Download the mesmeric Wash below.

Download – Bon Iver – Wash (4AD Session)

Sleigh Bells | Reign of Terror

Brooklyn duo, Alexis Krauss and Derek Miller (aka Sleigh Bells), earned unexpected buzz for their 2010 debut Treats. They now return with their latest album Reign of Terror promising to be equallyas noisy and vivacious as its predecessor, all the while spouting hype-inducing soundbites like ‘’the sonic equivalent of a beautiful shotgun to the head’, making it concrete clear that they would be staying faithful to their trademark decibel level. On that promise, Reign Of Terror doesn’t disappoint.

It erupts into life with the roar of True Shred Guitar, an opening every bit as ridiculous as its name suggests it will be, complete with the sound of a rambunctious audience cheering to the commands of singer Alexis Krauss and a storm of slamming drum machine bursts from Miller. The prelude leads into the exhilarating Born to Lose, the first single to be released off the new album and a track with so much going on- plenty of which is hard to decipher over Krauss’s droning vocals – that it may leave you feeling nauseous. It’s the same eardrum punishing noise associated with Sleigh Bells but mixed with an ominous undercurrent lurking amidst Krauss tender vocals and an eerie childlike chorus.

Crush has the most commercial appeal of anything on the album, with a sweet and glossy chorus that hears Krauss modestly admit ‘Ive got a crush, Ive got a crush on you.’ But this vulnerability is dispelled with a background of crunching snarly guitars that wipe away any coyness Krauss maybe teasing us with.

Recent single Comeback Kid is an infectious and (for Sleigh Bells) relatively easy on the ear effort. The truculent side to Sleigh Bells is put to one side as Krauss sings in a sugary-sweet tone amongst hardcore riffs and assaulting drums, ‘you gotta try a little harder, you’re the comeback kid’. The vocal line, displaying similarities with Crush, suggests plenty of time spent listening to sleazy, modern RnB with an incredibly catchy hook that will stick in your mind for hours.

Fittingly, the darkest moment of the album comes in the form of Demons, with Krauss seeming like a being possessed. The fact it comes after the aural candy of Comeback Kid cleverly heightens contrats with Krauss hollering “burn the orphanage!” before a squealing guitar lick enters the fray. Miller is unrestrained as he introduces purely metal guitars that will make your ears bleed, all the while Krauss is consumed by rage, angrily singing ”you’ll be taken down.”

Elsewhere, Never Say Die hints at a more progressive sound. A ghostly melody coupled with a feeling of Klauss’ spirit breaking continues into the final track DOA, grinding guitars and hypnotic vocals, allow the album to end on an unsettling note.

Reign of Terror feels like a natural evolution from Treats. It’s careful not to stray from the classic girly vocals atop gnarly guitars and heavy drums enjoyed in Treats, but makes enough of a creative step to keep the listeners interested. In essence, it’s exactly the right mix of the two creative paths to guarantee them a third effort.

The pair have proved they’ve made a cacophonous comeback. With their volume alone making them hard to ignore it will be interesting to see what direction they take on their next album.

Comeback Kid by Sleigh Bells

Tennis | Young and Old

The back story of Tennis is almost too good to be true. Formed after married couple Alaina Moore and Patrick Riley sailed down the East Coast of the States and wrote some songs while doing so, their 2011 debut Cape Dory was everything you’d expect the output of a couple in love – and who are kooky enough to up sticks and go on the voyage in the first place – to be. It was chirpy, and at times rather too sickly.

If your gag reflex has already kicked in and you’re desperately reaching for a sick bag it’s probably not the time to tell you that their releasing its follow up, Young And Old, on Valentine’s Day. Yup, Tennis may be the musical equivalent of that couple that won’t stop posting pictures of themselves kissing on Facebook. However, if you can get past the rose petals at the front door and step inside, it’s a deliciously well-decorated home.

First single Origins perfectly captures the melodic muscle that Tennis have developed since they once again set foot on dry land. A We Used To Wait-esque piano part romps over a thumping groove before Moore’s sugary sweet vocal kicks in and grounds things a little with just the right amount of microphone fuzz to make the whole thing sound like it was recorded way back in sun-soaked ’77.

The dizzying Travelling is a rollercoaster ride of spiralling synth and one of the few songs that posseses a real urgency, suggesting a foot-to-the-floor car chase rather than a leisurely sail down the coast line on a gentle breeze, while Moore thinks aloud as she coos “this must be rare, cos nothing else can compare, not that I’m aware of…”. Things are still chirpy in the land of Tennis, unfalteringly so.

Throughout Young and Old the weapons of choice are simple: drums, bass, guitar and piano, with the latter of which punctuating many of the best tracks here, including the fabulous Petition. At heart a vintage soul classic it features a solid gold Moore chorus and a devilishly effective tom-tom drum slip and acts best as the new listener litmus test track that all albums must have. I.e you can work out if you’re going to get on with Young and Old on this song alone.

The waltz-time ballad Dreaming and the pounding High Road add a welcome touch of variation to the record’s latter half, but don’t go the whole way in covering the album’s only real chink – that perhaps a couple too many of these songs slip rather unnoticeably into one another. If you found it too gooey to begin with, then they certainly don’t throw you a bone during its ten tracks.

So if you don’t mind it when friends post their kissing pictures, or maybe better yet even enjoy seeing them happy, then Young and Old will be plain sailing.

On the evening she won six gongs she also performed an epic version Rolling In The Deep and clearly enjoyed being back onstage after a lengthy time out of the limelight with throat problems.

Check it out below.

Cloud Nothings released the fantastic Attack on Memory a few weeks ago and now comes this, a new video for its opening track No Future / No Past.

The video was co-produced by Urban Outfitters as part of the UO Music Video Series.

Cloud Nothings – “No Future / No Past” Official Video from Urban Outfitters on Vimeo.

The Ting Tings | Sounds From Nowheresville

It was 2008 when The Ting Tings – long-time friends Katie White and Jules De Martino – broke through the buzz barrier and reached number one in both the album and singles chart with their debut effort We Started Nothing, supplemented by the radio-hogging singles That’s Not My Name, Great DJ and Shut Up & Let Me Go. Not a bad way to kick off your music careers at all, ay?

The duo then planned to release a second album called Kunst, plans that were scrapped after single Hands failed to set the charts alight back in October 2010. So we heard nothing more, until now. Sounds From Nowheresville has taken two years to produce and comes four years after their debut. Unfortunately, having listened to it you’d be forgiven for wondering why it’s taken so long for the group to produce, well, this?

Yes, some moments have the melodic charm that attracted listeners to them in the first place. Tracks such as single Hang It Up, with its Beastie Boys Licensed to Ill sound that consists of White  rapping over a guitar riff straight from the 80′s, could happily have featured on We Started Nothing. Unfortunately, we’ve heard it all before from The Ting Tings. Thankfully, it’s far from the record’s highlight.

When they get it right Sounds From Nowheresville shines. The infectious Guggenheim comes across like a 60′s girl group ballad as White tells the tale of a doomed romance. Soul Killing and One by One have a ska-jive to them, which would sound like a ridiculous combination to anyone, but surprisingly it works quite well with some clever layering.

It’s unfortunate that this record took so long, killing the momentum the group where building on both sides of the atlantic. It is surely because of its long incubation that the record lacks some va va voom. In short, The Ting Tings, despite still being arguably enjoyable and upbeat, have chosen a path which has taken away the spark and excitement we heard on their first album. If Nowheresville is where these sounds are from, it’s also where you can’t help but think The Ting Tings are going.

There can’t be many other bands that leak effortless goodwill quite like Nada Surf. Releasing charming album after charming album they’ve built up a loyal following despite remaining, in the UK at least, neglected by playlist compilers and magazine editors. While the fickle fingers of hype and hyperbole have never been their style, noone who witnessed their blitz two date tour of our fair isles could deny that whatever they have been doing is working for them.

Now in their 40′s and boasting more than just a few grey hairs the New York trio are playing among some of their biggest UK shows ever, bucking the trend of diminishing returns after a certain age. It’s not without reason then that when the group – bolstered to a five-piece tonight – amble onstage to a exceedingly warm greeting the welcome is equally as sunny: “Hello friends!”

The set draws fairly heavily from their brilliant new record The Stars Are Indifferent to Astronomy and kicks off with said album’s opening pair: the pummeling title-track followed by the poppy Waiting for Something. While the instruments fizz and the melodies flutter it’s not until the more familiar Happy Kid that this Wednesday night crowd really get moving, with the addition of Doug Willard on guitar making an instant impression, opening up and complimeting many of of singer Matthew Caws’ original riffs as well as adding a further layer of fuzz to the raucously upbeat opening.

When they do slow it down it allows the more delicate of their songs to shine too. Inside of Love in transformed by a slight tempo shift and an added groove into the soft-rock anthem that it never quite had the confidence to be on record while the dark, brooding Killians Red builds into a haze of big chords and bright lights.

But it’s the hands-in-the-air singalongs that work best tonight. Hi Speed Soul is dazzling with its beefy guitars and glitterball chorus. Always Love threatens to burst free of KOKO in search of the nearest arena such is its ability to get lungs bursting and legs pogoing.

As the evening progresses and near-perfect slabs of indie-pop are followed by near-perfect slabs of indie-pop you can’t help but feel that, with the 20th anniversary of the group coming next year, a singles collection ‘Best Off’ would perhaps finally show off this now cult group in all their glory. “If you believe in something, don’t give up” declares Caws before they launch into The Moon Is Calling. It’s a perfect peice of advice to sum up Nada Surf, and one that 1500 Londoners tonight are very glad they stuck to.

All photos courtesy of Jason Williamson.