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 Change, Antics 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
Monday, 26 July 2010
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.
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.
Wednesday, 21 July 2010
Jimmy Eat World New Album Track Listing
Oooh kids! Not long now until the alternative leviathans, Jimmy Eat World, release their long awaited album: Invented.
The track listing has been revealed on the band's official website www.jimmyeatworld.com/invented/.
The track listing has been revealed on the band's official website www.jimmyeatworld.com/invented/.
Tuesday, 20 July 2010
Bollocks To Poverty!
Action Aid's Bollocks To Poverty Campaign works tirelessly to defeat world hunger through collaborating education with gifts with communication. Using musicians, bands and rock stars to spread their message throughout the world in the loudest possible way. I have submitted my video entry in a bid to become Action Aid's next Backstage Reporter at Reading 2010. Featuring in my video is local HBo Queen, Arron Baudelaire, busking/didgerdoo extraordinaire Didgejay and Save Your Breath's guitar hero, Tom. Click the link below to view my video (Jessica Acreman) and leave your comments.
http://www.actionaid.org.uk/102483/work_it_view_entries.html
Thanks so much for your help BBPDers!
Lots of love,
Jess x
http://www.actionaid.org.uk/102483/work_it_view_entries.html
Thanks so much for your help BBPDers!
Lots of love,
Jess x
Wednesday, 14 July 2010
Street Goliaths and Rock n Roll
This weekend I hit up NASS Festival in Royal Bath and West this weekend for a shit load of action sports and rock n roll to boot. In line, skate boarding and BMX kept me quiet but the streetboarders were the icing on my extreme sports cake with their near-Goliath defying stunts. Competing for cash they literally lost their skin and added to their scar collection as the airs got bigger, the tricks got more dangerous and the constitute streak in each of them grew; the fake-skaters (kidding!) pulled in the crowds with double backflips, sevens and a couple of the guys even riding switch. Mental, mental, mental.
The one action sport we could all partake in went down in the sadly rarely-full Kerrang! Stage where rock's finest young talents shook the converted cowshed to the core; despite the questionable acoustics they all battled on to throw out massive mosh-along anthems. Musical highlights came from Young Guns with performances of killer tracks off their new album, All Our Kings Are Dead (go buy it now!). Crazy Arm vibed their punk-blues schmooze across the airwaves and meandered into the ear canals of their captivated crowd. Exit Ten ripped it up with their hardcore melodies and tales of record label woe in a way that most present frontal lobes will be feeling for a while. The Ghosts Of A Thousand, well, TGOAT bowled over the closest to capacity the Kerrang! Stage had seen all weekend with their onstage japes, crowd surfs, circle pits and premature walls of death - third time lucky, eh guys!
Frolics and japes and banter...oh my! The Athlete's Bar was the place to be with the DJs dishing out club bumpers for the kids on the dancefloor and foam half-pipe alike...despite street Goliaths Stripey Neil and Grumpy Josh ladelling under the stars! Nice one guys, you made my NASS.
The one action sport we could all partake in went down in the sadly rarely-full Kerrang! Stage where rock's finest young talents shook the converted cowshed to the core; despite the questionable acoustics they all battled on to throw out massive mosh-along anthems. Musical highlights came from Young Guns with performances of killer tracks off their new album, All Our Kings Are Dead (go buy it now!). Crazy Arm vibed their punk-blues schmooze across the airwaves and meandered into the ear canals of their captivated crowd. Exit Ten ripped it up with their hardcore melodies and tales of record label woe in a way that most present frontal lobes will be feeling for a while. The Ghosts Of A Thousand, well, TGOAT bowled over the closest to capacity the Kerrang! Stage had seen all weekend with their onstage japes, crowd surfs, circle pits and premature walls of death - third time lucky, eh guys!
Frolics and japes and banter...oh my! The Athlete's Bar was the place to be with the DJs dishing out club bumpers for the kids on the dancefloor and foam half-pipe alike...despite street Goliaths Stripey Neil and Grumpy Josh ladelling under the stars! Nice one guys, you made my NASS.
Lessons From Dan
Lesson 1: Grooveshark and Tesseract (all my friend's are metalheads). If you are not familier with grooveshark I suggest you do so.... NOW!!! Head on over to Google and type it in. Grooveshark is basically a website version of Spotify although anyone can upload songs that they want not just signed published albums etc....
Anyways back to the main point of this, TESSERACT!! They are a UK based progressive metal band from South England and if, like me, you get a bit bored of slapstick vending machine metal that can only be differentiated by the colour of their underwear, then this is most definitely a band for you. There are 2 songs in particular that must be listened too and admired; the first and I think the best al lround sample of tesseract is "April Song" this is just unbelievable and also my favourite. The song starts with a heavy drum line that is a standard signature but the accents are placed uniquely giving the effect that it isnt a standard time or at least in time but trust me it is. They also have this amazing ambient sound effect teamed with heavy thudding bass lines and a couple of distorted guitars which switch back to clean every now again so smoothly that you could go as far as say that this could be a relaxing song!
Song 2 "part 7 sax solo" (if your on groove shark do not choose the one that says "part 7 sax solo old" its not the same and not as good) this shows just how experimental these guys are willing to be. In a nutshell its a sax player soloing over a head bashingly heavy guitar line with drums that make you wanna air drum and jump up and down at the same time. This is not for the impatient as at first it is weird and will grow on you.... very very quickly actually!
All I can say is that get groovesharking everyone and just listen to everything Tesseract have to offer its all immense and there is no other word than awesome.
Dan Colgan
Anyways back to the main point of this, TESSERACT!! They are a UK based progressive metal band from South England and if, like me, you get a bit bored of slapstick vending machine metal that can only be differentiated by the colour of their underwear, then this is most definitely a band for you. There are 2 songs in particular that must be listened too and admired; the first and I think the best al lround sample of tesseract is "April Song" this is just unbelievable and also my favourite. The song starts with a heavy drum line that is a standard signature but the accents are placed uniquely giving the effect that it isnt a standard time or at least in time but trust me it is. They also have this amazing ambient sound effect teamed with heavy thudding bass lines and a couple of distorted guitars which switch back to clean every now again so smoothly that you could go as far as say that this could be a relaxing song!
Song 2 "part 7 sax solo" (if your on groove shark do not choose the one that says "part 7 sax solo old" its not the same and not as good) this shows just how experimental these guys are willing to be. In a nutshell its a sax player soloing over a head bashingly heavy guitar line with drums that make you wanna air drum and jump up and down at the same time. This is not for the impatient as at first it is weird and will grow on you.... very very quickly actually!
All I can say is that get groovesharking everyone and just listen to everything Tesseract have to offer its all immense and there is no other word than awesome.
Dan Colgan
Tuesday, 6 July 2010
Mixtape: Daniel Colgan
Daniel Colgan. Twenty one. Jager dude. London lad. Metal enthusiast.
He's sober now and here's his playlist.
Listen to Dan's 20 jawbreakers by clicking this link http://open.spotify.com/user/kugsy/playlist/1DUAAlpMQw05CTi9EMEWgH
He's sober now and here's his playlist.
It's Crystal Clear
A wonderful package landed on my doormat today. Inside were four wonderful things. Four shiny, new CDs full of beautiful, new music from Crystal Castles, Example, Young Guns and Brendan Perry.
At this exact moment in time, my frontal lobes are wrestling with Young Guns' debut, full length album, All Our Kings Are Dead. It's big and it's very clever. The High Wycombe five-piece have unleashed a dozen tracks beyond their foetal careers; ambitious, honest rock anthemica. One listen will have you attempting to sing along with Gustav and co's shoot-from-the-hip choruses and flailing your limbs around your living room like a crazed, mosh pitting behemoth. It's crystal clear that this is merely the beginning of something beautiful for these Brit rock breakthroughs.
Listen to: Crystal Clear, After The War and Beneath The Waves.
Check out: www.myspace.com/youngguns for summer tour dates and their winter headline UK tour.
Watch: The video for latest single Crystal Clear
At this exact moment in time, my frontal lobes are wrestling with Young Guns' debut, full length album, All Our Kings Are Dead. It's big and it's very clever. The High Wycombe five-piece have unleashed a dozen tracks beyond their foetal careers; ambitious, honest rock anthemica. One listen will have you attempting to sing along with Gustav and co's shoot-from-the-hip choruses and flailing your limbs around your living room like a crazed, mosh pitting behemoth. It's crystal clear that this is merely the beginning of something beautiful for these Brit rock breakthroughs.
Listen to: Crystal Clear, After The War and Beneath The Waves.
Check out: www.myspace.com/youngguns for summer tour dates and their winter headline UK tour.
Watch: The video for latest single Crystal Clear
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