In the meantime check out the Cajón on this:

1. Detune their standards until Jedward sound like Marvin Gaye reincarnate.
2. Can pick a cherry from a turdy fog but are so useless at admin record companies burn all their applications in the town square so they can’t even be kept on record for any A&R jobs. Ever.
3. Become incapable of tasting anything let alone music – after hearing so many singer song writers performing edgy acoustic versions of Hey Ya by Outkast their brain has imploded and only survive on a zombie motor function enabling them to turn the knob up to 11.

Although Manchester rockers Everything Everything will never know which category the sound man from their debut gig in 2007 fell into – they thankfully listened to his praise despite a baffled response from the crowd and carried on.

I’m sure he was s cherry picker – as today Everything Everything look set to be one of the biggest bands to arrive in 2010. Pigeonholed into indie, the band are justifiably uncomfortable with the labelling. There’s much more than the jangly guitars – pop, dance and experimentalism all make an appearance. You may hear some Futureheads and Metronomy on their records – but most noticeably Everything Everything take some breathtakingly bizarre musical turns. Genuinely fascinating and fun listening.

Their debut album Man Alive comes out on 30 August and is available to pre-order on Amazon.

Here is the current video for their latest single MY KZ, UR BF. I’m quite scared of lead singer Jonathan Higgs’s head tilt – but I do love his voice:

I’m a big fan of experimentalism within pop aesthetics, rather like Yeasayer’s great album Odd Blood. What Menomena adds is their ability to create a more natural palette of colours to entice our ear buds with.

Somehow their songs are architectural masterpieces despite their unique drafting methods. It’s complicated – using software called Digital Looping Recorder (Deeler) programmed by band memeber Brent Knopf. Menomena‘s drummer Danny Seim‘s explanation of the process will be far better than anything I can muster:

“First, we set the tempo of the click, which is played through a pair of head phones. We then take turns passing a single mic around the room. One of us will hold the mic in front of an instrument, while another one of us will lay down a short improvised riff over the click track. We usually start with the drums. Once the drums begin looping, we throw on some bass, piano, guitar, bells, sax, or whatever other sort of noise maker happens to be in the room. Deeler keeps the process democratic, which is the only way we can operate”.

Mines is one of those rare albums you’ll be able to come back to time and time again and still find treats you haven’t heard before amongst its many milliseconds of aural pleasure.

You can buy Mines on Amazon or listen on Spotify.

If you’re really lazy you can listen to one of my highlights from the album,  Five Little Rooms here – but I’d suggest you download it in exchange for your email address and take it with you everywhere:

Menomena - Five Little Rooms mp3

Menomena UK Tour Dates

For those of us in the UK you can see them at the following dates:

• 11/29/10 – London at XOYO
• 12/01/10 – Manchester at Deaf Institute
• 12/02/10 – Glasgow at Arches
• 12/03/10 – Liverpool at Kazimir
• 12/04/10 – Leeds at Brudenell

He laughed mockingly when he dealt me the news. I cried a little inside.

My only hope is that Dead Confederate, one of my favourite bands, come back to tour the UK to promote their new album Sugar.

Two years ago I wrote about Dead Confederate and their debut album Wrecking Ball came in as runner up in my top 10 albums of 2008.

So I was frothing at the mouth reading the glowing Love Shack, Baby review of Sugar. 24 August, the release date, is a day on which I will be more happy than any of the dance scenes on Glee.

You can download the single Giving It All Away for the meagre price of your email address:

He’s still scared of his own voice though – hiding it under effects – but Mark Ronson‘s vocals are pretty good from what I can hear on his new track Lost It (In The End).

Mark has done it again though. It is an awesome tune. This album is shaping up to be pretty spectacular. I already loved the first single Bang bang bang with the incredible MNDR and am now shivering with excitement over hearing the whole of the Record Collection LP when it’s out on 27 September in the UK.

You can hear the track over on Pretty Much Amazing‘s blog:

Mark Ronson and The Business INTL – Lose It (In The End) feat. Ghostface Killah

So it was with a certain degree of trepidation after I saw ‘classical music’ as an influence that I pressed play to hear the music of The Shadow Orchestra. It is with a great degree of jubilation that they are no Katherine Jenkins.

I was contacted by the Band’s harpist Kat Arney. Yes, you read that right – Harp – and it features heavily on their new Remaker EP. The Shadow Orchestra though was originally the solo work of cellist and producer Chris Bangs – and his 2006 eponymous release received airplay on BBC Radio 1 and 3.

Despite the record’s success Bangs decided to rely less on his laptop and assembled, alongside Arney, drummer Dave Oliver, guitarist Nick Siddall and singer and multi-instrumentalist Mary Erskine.

The expansion of The Shadow Orchestra seems to have worked wonders. Remaker still has plenty of hints towards the experimental electronica of Aphex Twin or even composer Jonathan Harvey. But with the added forces you can appreciate some exquisitely performed instrumental layers which have been crafted together to make ethereal soundscapes, whilst Esrkine’s vocals float elegantly above.

You can buy Remaker for what you like. Before you decide how much you want to pay, have a listen to my favourite track from the EP. Thanks to the band for this song – cause it’s helped take some of the edge off that saw.

The Shadow Orchestra – Time and Distance mp3

Having laid drum tracks for Alesha Dixon, Girls Aloud, The Pet Shop Boys and Kylie - Florrie has decided she wants her own piece of pop super stardom.

Surprisingly the Bristolian singer is still unsigned – but I doubt the record industry will allow that to remain the same for long – especially with the release of her latest and strongest track Give Me Your Love.

For Florrie’s first two releases Call 911 and Panic Attack she has worked closely with house DJ and producer Fred Falke - and with Give Me Your Love she has continued this partnership.

Her first two tracks have gone far more down the house route, but with Give Me Your Love you can tell she’s put a lot of love into the drums and seems to have steered towards a stronger pop.

You can get all her tracks plus their remixes for free from Florrie’s website but you can also listen to her latest here:

Florrie – Give Me Your Love mp3

Florrie is extremely talented. If she sticks to her drumsticks and Fred Falke and gets signed to a good record company that treats her as a musician – she’ll rasp the crown off the tyrant GaGa and become the rightful queen of pop.

Thom Yorke

Despite murmurs from the Oxford group that after In Rainbows they wouldn’t be releasing a full LP again - according to Ed O’Brien they are in fact close to finishing off their 8th album. Just as Michael Jackson used to create a media storm with a  new record release – a new album from Radiohead will surely be broadcast on news bulletins worldwide, especially after the coverage In Rainbows received.

Here is Thom in all his new beardy glory performing Give Up the Ghost. Quite a tasteful use of the looper – although nearly everything Thom Yorke comes up with is tasteful in my opinion.

Last year Entrepreneurs gained some recognition with a remix of Marina and the Diamonds - but it seems what’s going to set him apart is his own astonishing music.

Entrepreneurs offers on his debut EP Uv Been Robbed (joking, but not) a glitchy industrial electronica backdrop over catchy pop melodies – delivered with distant crunched vocals not too dissimilar to Julian Casablancas.  Listen out for the great little guitar solos too.

In true entrepreneurial spirit you can buy Uv Been Robbed (joking, but not) for what you like. Although all the songs are great – Hunting Roger Rabbit is one of my favorites – with a great chorus and awesome beats. Tim over at The Blue Walrus –  where I found Entrepreneurs - loves Bubblegunk - and as he says shows some ‘great finesse’ – there are lots of elements that on paper shouldn’t mix.

You can choose which one is best by listening to all the tracks on this Sound Cloud:

Uv Been Robbed (Joking, But Not) by Entrepreneurs

Next big thing? I think so.

Other than the museum I struggle to come up with a reason why you wouldn’t visit Seattle – it’s lovely and also where Nate Moceri of Frame the City comes from.

Moceri now resides in Portland – and as Frame the City grafts some slick laid back electro rock. The mixture of Moceri’s distant but compelling vocals with well written songs work perfectly and keep me coming back for more.

Memories of his hometown’s rock legends are conjured up by Moceri’s voice – you can find out more about Seattle’s musical past at the Museum there. No wait – look it up on Wikipedia instead.

Frame the City released their first album Someday We Will All be the Same in Janruary 2009 and the We Were Wolves EP in February this year, you can buy both from Amazon. Katie Byron and Ashley Ennis frequently collaborate with Nate as guest vocalists and Frame the City are currently in the studio recording their next EP.

As a preview here are two tracks courtesy of Nate. We Were Wolves is one of the most gorgeous tracks I’ve heard for a long time. It’s no surprise from both of these songs that Nate has previously been on MTV’s books for songwriting and composing. Hopefully before long Frame the City will just be on MTV.

Frame the City – We Were Wolves mp3

Frame the City – Wearing Jeans to Bed mp3

You can like Frame the City on Facebook.