Sunday 5 September 2010

Sextape!

With gossip of Lostprophet's Ian Watkins reportedly starring in a bisexual sextape spreading across the ether faster than Usian Bolt, isn't it about time someone gave us a sextape that wasn't cheap, grotesque or dripping in desperation for attention? (IWat's alleged partner/Photoshopper must be proud of their handy-work!) Anyway, it must be our lucky day as Sacramento alt metal icons Deftones serve us up the video for their latest single, aptly named Sextape.
The beautifully shot screen play poses as the perfect match for the sublime new single of critically acclaimed, Diamond Eyes.  Sextape marries Chino Moreno's sublime vocals with seductive moirĂ© and signature delicacy.

Sadly, the embed codes wouln't work so here's the link to the video on NME.com: Sextape

Aural Fixation

Ooooh! There are a few new bands on the block which have my ear curved their way and I just can't help checking out their tunes and skinny jean clad bums...shameless!

Futures are Ant West, Casey Roarty, George Lindsay and Christian Ward. They hail from glorious London and have an album of sweet rock hooks and melodies called The Holiday. It is sure to make you smile. No, seriously. Do not miss them on tour this September.


 Hands up if you want Blink 182's Tom Delonge to handpick you for the Kerrang! Stage at Slam Dunk 2010? For Newbury's own Francesqa this was the stunning reality. And so they rocked Slam Dunkers with a hard slab of rock adding on a side slice of delicious popability. This is not a bad thing, ok. Francesqa is built out of Ashley Wilkie on vox, Ben Hordos slapping the bass, Warren Senior banging the drums and axemen Joe Hicks and Tom Millar. This is the video for their debut single, Ghosts.


Brothers Nick and Jonathan Diener, Ryan Collins and Anto Boros have been on the punk scene since 2002 as...The Swellers. With latest album Ups And Downsizing under their belt, stints on tour with Paramore and Vans Warped Tour and forthcoming tour as main support slot to current Britrock Breakthrough favourites, Young Guns. Here's the link to Fire Away.

Tuesday 17 August 2010

Oasis, Warriors and Death

Holy crap! What a week or so it has been!

Noel Gallagher is heading back into the studio to record some solo shizzle. Seeing as he was always the talent of Oasis we should be pretty stoked to hear what he has to offer.

The beautiful and talented, erm I mean beautifully talented Brandon Flowers treated homeland Las Vegas to his first solo gig boasting tracks off his debut Flamingo. 

A shock came from hardcore troop Crime In Stereo as they announced their break up via Twitter causing music media to question motives and possible hoaxes. The band had been forced to cancel many recent shows as a result of frontman Kristian Hallbert's jaw infection although it is yet to be confirmed if this is a contributing factor to their demise. Their final words came on August 9th via twitter. A very sad day.

In brighter news, Reading warriors Exit Ten are gearing up to show us what they're capable of as they get brand new tracks ready for their second studio album. Not just another bunch of hardcore lads, they treated fans to news of plans to begin recording their follow-up to debut Remember The Day, in October. Ryan and co, we are super exited for this one! Get your butts to iTunes and download their storming debut offering like, yesterday...or listen here: spotify:user:jessacres:playlist:4Q1A4gSrRtVZeIk6qWt38C

Want to know what the 50 best new artists are of 2010? You have two choices.
1) Get busy and compile your own list of this year's musical El Genios or
2) Let NME do the work for you.

Luckily for us, they already have! Find out who made the top 50 by getting over to http://www.nme.com/ for some of 2010's arguably best acts.







Saturday 7 August 2010

Dan's Metal Soapbox: Volume 2

Dream Theater are often accused of being way over the top, unnecessarily complicated musicians regularly trying to out do each other with over complicated soloing (that they sometimes just call their melody lines....). Who doesn't relish a wee bit of healthy competition though? I know where all these people are coming from and in essence they are correct in a lot of cases however; Dream Theater to me are a band that I would not class as metal, rock or even prog metal. They seem to class themselves, fitting nicely into a theatrical metal genre should one ever been conceived. Without a doubt, Dream Theatre set themselves as one of the most versatile bands I have ever heard of. They have one distinctive style, theatrical, and then take that "dreamtheaterness" and add it to any type/style of music that they fancy for that particular album. 


Their most recent album 'Black Clouds And Silver Linings' emits a sound normally akin to having the likes of Slayer and Cradle Of Filth playing in the tour bus on the way to the studio. The guitaring is very screechy and banshee like (very remiscent of Cradle Of Filth...oh, there's the shower of blood soaked studded hats dripping in rage heading straight for my head). Petrucci is a guitarist who makes most of us hate him with envy at the ease, accuracy and speed that he plays with. The drums for one are very heavy if not death metal like at times; it does help that drummer Mike Portnoy is in the drummer Hall of Fame as lets just say he is an epic drummer and is definitely over the top, but sometimes ruins a few things if you ask me. And i am huge fan of them but none the less he is inspiring. Keyboards supplied by Jordan Rudes teamed with vocals by James Labrie are what make no questions that it infact Dream Theater battering your frontal lobes with their signatures styles blaring out in every record. Rudes often sounds as if he is trying to out do Petrucci. If im honest I dont really like what he does live at all because it just becomes pointless and I think it can take away from the music. 


Finally we get to bassist John Myung. Myung is as necessary to Dream Theater as breathing is for life. He is very creative as a bassist and, in my eyes, very clever as he never seems to take anything away from the songs. One gimmik the band has is that each album they have ever produced always leads on to the next album, for instace at the end of the last song 'Finally Free' of the album Metropolis part 2 scenes from a memory the end of the song is that white noise from a tv channel with no tv coming in and the start of the song 'the glass prison' of the new album six degrees of innerturbulence it has the exact same white noise as if the songs where originally 1 incredibly long song!

Musical geniuses they may be but flawed they certainly are; in these flaws their unique style shines through making them the musicians we love.


Dan Colgan

Video Kills

My first week in London. It's busy, busy and, erm, busy! It's Saturday, the girls and I are slightly worse for wear after busting some shapes in Islington's The Old Queen's head last night where Foals put on a DJ set. Good, bad or ugly we can't be sure but what is helping us through the day is tea and music videos.

What Is Light Where Is Laughter and Lightspeed from Twin Atlantic (I couldn't pick just one!) are winners in every sense for me. If you're lucky enough to be seeing Blink 182 on their whistle stop UK 'tour' then do not miss their unparalleled support band.

Caroline is off to Sleigh Bells on Monday so her choice has naturally been from the New York Florida hybrid and scrappy electro-pop noiseniks.  Watch the Kids video.



Kele has caught the eye and ear of Miss Quick with his dreamy vocals, electro dance synths and bulging biceps. Tenderoni is the premier single of his debut solo album and this is the video that has her throwing some shapes around the living inbetween outbursts of Broadway choruses...did you get the hotplate?



For Shelley, sadly we couldn't get hold of any Moist Tights but we did manage to track down some Justin Bieber which, let's be honest, has about the same gross factor so will not be making an appearance on BBPD. Enjoy some Straight Lines instead, Shelley. Their Welsh like you are.



Monday 26 July 2010

Buffalo Thursdays

Bethan Elfyn and the BBC Radio Wales kids have set up a wunderschon music night every Thursday in Buffalo Bar, Cardiff. Last Thursday saw some of Wales' finest under the radar rock acts take to the stage and do their darndest to pep us up. They made us smile, they made us bounce. They put hairs on our chest and they almost made us cry.

Magden Audio tiggered in with their inimitable pop-rock styles; dosing us up with their poignant song titles, lyrics that seem both worldy and angsty all at once and beats that defy you to keep still. Catch them in Cardiff's Clwb Ifor Bach on August 7th with The Undivided and People In Planes.

Snuck into the bill next were Swansea jacks, We're No Heroes. Don't be fooled by their meek and geeky 'image' - it's not an image it's actually them - but prepare to be bowled over by the sheer talent emanating from the Welsh three-piece. Equally sharing out the vocal responsibilities, each Hero takes a turn to add his layer to one hell of a foundation, no man is any way unsure of his instrument or talent creating a Foals-esque sound. Live they are nothing short of wow.

Gaining collumn inches in Rock Sound and Kerrang! is all in a days work for Exit International: Cardiff indie boys and part-time baby killers. The feral punks screamed about Sex With Strangers and ShermanBASTARDfang to the distinctly souless audience that stood (literally just stood) before them; not even the double bass action seemed to be able to stir the static crowd. Sad and surprising times when bubblegum-pop-rock hooks cocktailed with ferocious rock urgency put a smile on your face, a tap in your foot and a small amount of fear in your heart. Exit International, don't fuck with them. They may just cwtch you to death while snorting out The Chainsaw Song and hurling phlegm in your direction with untenable abandon.

Headliners Straight Lines took the cliched route by commanding the, by now nearly full top floor, to move forward to the stage. Who doesn't love a cliche? We sure as hell weren't complaining about being that clos to Tom Jenkin's signature wailing vocals or Todd Campbell's insane body hurling shapes - how exactly does one man and his bass move quite that much? Giving their fans exactly what they wanted in the form of Loose ChangeAntics  and Versus The Allegiance, even the most static gig-goer found it a challenge to keep still. Momentous highlights came when Todd took himself into the third row for the final riffs of their last song and Dane Campbell chilling out behind the skins for the en core.

A fine evening of rock cutting across the genre and spanking it on the way out. Lovely.

For music streaming, tour dates and, in We're No Heroes case, free music downloads get yourselves over to:
www.myspace.com/straightlines
www.myspace.com/exitinternationalmusic
http://www.werenoheroes.com/
www.myspace.com/magdenaudio

Sunday 25 July 2010

Beautiful Is...

Here at BBPD we can't help but get excited by Kings of Emo, Jimmy Eat World's 2010 album release. Yes, yes, we know it's 2 months away, but we're already stoked for 2011's festival season, so what can you do, eh?

Minutes ago, Jimmy Eat World tweeted a stream of 2009's Big Casino B-side, Beautiful Is. Sampling dreamy soundscapes over emo-vocals makes for one interesting listen. Have a listen by following this link http://twt.fm/446785.

Comment your thoughts of Beautiful Is below and start to get as excited as BBPD for Invented.