Monday's Here!

Can you believe it's Monday already? No? Me neither! But here it is and I defy anyone to have Monday blues with sky this, erm , blue, sunshine this bright and brand new music for your ears.

First up a little free nugget from folk rockers Mumford & Sons. They received Ezra Koenig's thumbs up for their cover of Vampire Weekend's recent hit single Cousins. You  can find the VW version on their latest album, Contra. Hit the button to here more at Stereogum.

OK, I know it's not brand new but it is a bobby bargain. So if you don't own it already then head to Zavvi.com to get all Smart Casual with Kids In Glass Houses. (FYI, it's a snip at £2.95 for the deluxe 2 disc version).

I can hear you chomping at the bit for your new music this week. Settle down. Here are my picks of the week.

My Passion are back with their loud and proud new video for Crazy And Me. Look past the emo threads, guy-liner and Jedward esque hair and you will hear a band of born performers that force you to listen to their riff-stacked, dance-punk brand of rock.



Indie-rock Yanks, Broken Bells, today had their self-titled debut hit the shelves. Combining legendary artist/producer, Danger Mouse aka Brian Burton, with The Shins frontman James Mercer, was never going to be a bad thing and this offering only proves that theory. Sounds a bit Death Cab meets, well, The Shins but with uber-cool undertones in every LA-retro sounding beat. Listen to Your Head Is On Fire, Vaporize and Mongrel Heart. Not one of the tracks on Broken Bells would be out of place in any of your favourite US dramas. Thumbs up!

Have you time for one more? Ace. Quintessential metal band Iron Maiden have revealed on http://www.ironmaiden.com/ the title of their forthcoming album. The Final Frontier is due for a summer release ahead of summer touring with Dream Theatre and headling Sonisphere. Could the title be trying to tell us something?

Have a good week! Band tips and comments welcome...
BBPD.

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.

Free Shit for Followers!

Free stuff is great isn't it? BBPD has some free shizzle to send to you signed by your favourite rock Hercules: a My Passion flyer signed by all the band, a Kerrang! Relentless Energy Tour 2010 ticket signed by Lostprophets' Stuart Richardson and Luke Wilson (who happened to be hanging out around the merch stands, which was nice) and a signed copy of Young Guns' EP Mirrors.

All you have to do is follow this blog and answer the following question:

Who headlined the Kerrang! Relentless Energy Tour 2010 and what was their encore song?

Answers below in the comments box. First to answer correctly will win.

BBPD.

Relentless...My Passion

So this week I was lucky enough to make up one tiny part of the sold-out mob at the Kerrang! Relentless Energy 2010 tour. Cardiff leg. 

Dirty fun makers, My Passion proved more than just eyeliner, hair that makes Jedward jealous and rock-opera esque threads with harder rock hits and big mosh-along choruses.

 From start to finish massive mosh pits circled the floor and sweaty teens bashed the crap out of each other (in the good, healthy way, natch). Laurence Rene's onstage acrobatics were nothing to be sniffed at neither was the banter with the crowd: "This song is for you. Now drop your pants" and "Cardiff you are definitely contenders for the best crowd on tour" got us all laughing and pumped for the rest of the set that def didn't disappoint.

The merch table was nothing short of genius with signed sandwiches and Sprite swaggers. I had a chat with a happy bassist Simon Rowlands who  mentioned about springtime studio plans adding My Passion "loves being on tour...we are a touring band."  We'll look forward to next time then.

BBPD.

P.S. Keep an eye out for the first BBPD competition. You, BBPD Followers, could win some free stuff.

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

Get the Guns' eye view of studio life as they talk babes, one-take wonders and shooting the video for their brand new single, Winter Kiss. Watch out for head-teacher horror stories and basement anecdotes from the old school maintainance dude. At time of blogging this Young Guns insider video only had 19 views!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M53pjBIfIXU&fmt=18

Make sure you catch the High Wycombe fivesome on the 2010 Kerrang! Relentless Energy Tour kicking off on January 22nd at Dublin Academy alongside The Blackout, My Passion and headliners All Time Low. For more info, K! Tour blog and ticket details go to http://tour.kerrang.com/

BBPD