Emo's Calling On Music Monday

Music Monday is just about gone, but Twitter is rife with sweet tweetings from some of our favourite new rock bands sending happy greetings from within the studio. Spring time studio hideaways can only mean one thing - brand spanking new albums will be winging their way to us all in the coming months. Yes!

Bands in the studio this Spring and that you may want to keep your ears peeled for include:
Young Guns recording their debut album,
My Passion are working on 2009's Corporate Death Party follow up,
New kids on the Welsh block, I Am Hope, have been tweeting inbetween breaks from recording their debut album. As have Shefvegas indie troup All The Damn Kids. Hit them up on Twitter @AllTheDamnKids and preview their new single on Sound Cloud.

And back to music out now....Straight Lines released their debut album Persistance In This Game is out now on Xtra Mile Recordings. They're Welsh and, oh boy, can they rock. If you were lucky enough to catch them supporting Young Guns before Christmas you'll know what I mean.

Straight Lines. As pleasant as Salt n Vinegar Walkers clad in Fred Perry.

New Zealand wannarockers So So Modern are back at their post-punk, electro math rock. They make Brett and Jerome of Flight of the Conchords seem more of a sure thing than Ellie Gounlding is tipped to be. Leave the self-prophesyingly titled Crude Futures safely on the iTunes shelf. Speaking of Ms Goulding, her debut  was released today and it's as pop filled as a shaken bottle of Coca Cola and nearly as predictable as La Roux. All in all not dreadful, just critically overrated.

Is awkward electro pop your thing too? It is? Epic. Then come join the Two Door Cinema Club hitting us with Tourist History. NME calls on the 'spiky songs that are tighter than a snaake's bumhole in a sandstorm.' And with thumbs up from Kanye West to boot, who am I to argue?

Buy This Addiction. Or else..!

Alkaline Trio are back. And I for one couldn't be happier. This is the only guide to love, loss and desperation you will need. Now, step away from the landfill indie offering of 2008 and be greeted by the warm cwtch of punky licks on This Addiction; Dine, Dine My Darling is my personal favourite. Don't go anywhere. Don't miss a beat. Just listen from beginning to end. No skipping.

Finally, Alice In Wonderland's OST Almost Alice gets by with a little help from some rock royalty friends. Mark Hoppus and Pete Wentz, Avril Lavigne, Wolfmother and 3OH!3 lend their vocal chords, but it is Plain White T's Beatles esque Welcome To Mystery that really makes this collection of melodies truly unique.

That's your lot for today. Enjoy.

BBPD.

Snowgate

OK, so it is still pissing down with snow, my cassette-wielding car is still stranded at the stables and somehow I have still made it to work. Everyday. Early. What's that about? But whilst on the train this evening, inbetween paragraphs of HST's Generation Of Swine, I got to thinking about what I am looking forward to.
Number 1) Kicking off my birthweek with Young Guns, All Time Low , The Blackout and My Passion on The Kerrang! Relentless Energy Tour hitting Cardiff on January 29th to . I literally tingle with excitement. Info here and beyond: tour.kerrang.com

Number 2) The vast number of immense gigs and albums gracing our shores over the forthcoming months; 30STM (Actor-cum-rockband not to everyone's taste, but I find them inoffensive...sorry Ian Watkins!), You Me At Six, Reel Big Fish, The Temper Trap, Fightstar, Dead By Sunrise...KISS!

Number 3) I love A Sides! And B Sides! The possibility of a cassette revival leaves me salivating a little bit (is that wrong? Oh well, if La Roux's hair doesn't have to be right then neither do I!). Is anyone else stoked to make a proper stop-record-pause-rewind-stop-record-stop-playback mixtape!? The Tapeworm are a cassette only label helping keep the magnetic-recording dream alive. For more info www.tapeworm.org.uk/.

Number 4) A Mark Hoppus-Pete Wentz hair-off! Sadly, this is made up but how great would that be? Well, until PeWe lost his emo-fringe to the mercy of Mark's clippers. In reality, the punk pair teamed up to create a tune for Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland. PeWe hasn't ruled out further work with the Blink-bassist assuring us 'it sounds nothing like Blink 182 or Fall Out Boy' (from Yahoo news UK). No hint of sarcasm, my breath is actually baited.

Number 5) Praise be for Christmas anarchy! As if splattering Joe McElderry's sad cover of Miley Cyrus's The Climb all over his Christmas pudding wasn't enough, Rage Against The Machine promise of a victory gig. This year. In the UK. For free! Should be. According to this week's Kerrang! magazine Mr Morello and his angry mob 'couldn't be more excited about it' and say the free show will be 'insane'. On top of all this the US politcal-rockers donated all the GBP800,000 (yeah, my pound sign doesn't work. Brilliant) profits from their Christmas Number 1 to UK charity, Shelter. RATM - we salute you.

BBPD