New Waves.. Findlay - 'Off & On'

Hailing from Stockport, singer-songwriter Findlay is a fireball of energy. Her most recent track,'Off & On' is an addictive blues infused riot of a song that manages to bear resemblance to something Jack White would write or approve of.

Introduced by a sultry, seductive guitar and stomping beat, the song slowly intensifies, building into a high intensity laserbeam of sound, with Findlay's bark seemingly grabbing the listener unceremoniously by the  collar and dragging them viciously through the turmoil of the song which, despite being a mere 2 mins 48, is a snippet of time that you won't forget in a hurry.

The 4 track Off & On EP is available on iTunes. You can download 'Off & On' for FREE by entering your email here!

Findlay will also be playing the Secret Garden Party 2013 in Huntingdon from 25-28 July and also Reading and Leeds Festivals from 23-25 August.

http://www.findlaymusic.com/
https://twitter.com/FINDLAYmusic
https://soundcloud.com/findlay-music

New Waves.. The Ramona Flowers - 'Dismantle and Rebuild'

Presumably named after comic book character, Scott Pilgrim's spunky love interest, the debut song from indie electro outfit, The Ramona Flowers is a classy affair. Infused with subtle dubstep elements, 'Dismantle and Rebuild' flows passionately - and the video is apt, as the sounds bring to mind cityscapes and speeding traffic, and where a lot of electronic music can sound stark, this song is rather comforting to the ear.

Apart from that, The Ramona Flowers' debut EP, Dismantle is OUT NOW and is currently floating around the cyberspace of the iTunes charts.

http://www.theramonaflowers.com/

http://www.facebook.com/theramonaflowersmusic

https://twitter.com/theramonaflower

Rapid Review.. PSY - 'Gangnam Style'

As one of those people obsessed with manga, anime and all things Japanese in my early teens, I have maintained what I can only call a 'soft spot' for Asian music. I recall listening to (and still have on my iPod) Visual Kei bands such as the Gazette, Alice Nine, pop artists such as Ayumi Hamasaki and Aya Kamiki and epic punk/metal/funk bands such as Maximum the Hormone (CHECK THEM OUT!).

Somehow, at some point, I discovered Korean pop, or as it appears to be known on the global stage - K-Pop!

The first K-Pop songs that I can remember finding randomly on YouTube were by a boyband named BIG BANG. It was catchy, fun to listen to - despite the language barrier! - and visually grabbed my attention, a factor in common with all of the K-Pop acts that I've encountered.

In early 2011, I chanced a search of Taeyang's (BIG BANG member) solo album on iTunes, and to my great surprise, found it sitting there ready for purchase. In the past year, Korean music labels have been making their music more and more accessible for the western market, and this has - finally! - culminated in the worldwide craze that is 'GANGNAM STYLE'!

Perhaps it's been hinted at before with O-Zone's 'Dragostea din tei', but 'Gangnam Style' has swept the media and continues to snowball, help largely due to its funny and easy-to-learn dance moves!

The rapper responsible for the craze, PSY, is labelmates with BIG BANG on YG Entertainment (one of the 3 main labels, S.M. Entertainment and JYP Entertainment being the other 2), and the song, due to its funny and easy to replicate dance, has been parodied (Gandalf Style - LOL!) and much covered by the Western media. Who knows, this in turn may mean that you may be seeing and hearing more K-Pop music on our screens and airwaves in the near future!

http://www.facebook.com/officialpsy
https://twitter.com/psy_oppa
http://www.ygfamily.com/

Rapid Review.. Pure Love - 'Handsome Devil's Club'

'Handsome Devil's Club' is the second single by Frank Carter's new outfit, Pure Love. This was released in late May (!) apparently but totally passed me by and I only found it about a week ago after my friend told me that their Reading festival set was pretty awesome!

As I said in a previous Pure Love post, this is the complete opposite of what was occurring in the original Gallows; this is Carter showing his versatility as a songwriter and performer, and I really cannot get over what a surprisingly good singer he is! 'Handsome Devil's Club' is as poppy and catchy, if not catchier than 'Bury My Bones' was. I know that even if I tried to dislike this song, I would still end up liking it, and when Pure Love's debut album is released before the year is out, I will definitely be getting it. The only thing that I'm not so keen on are lyrics such as "Give me a good girl / The kind that wants to please / Give me a good girl / Down on her knees" - I know, I know, cue the feminist in me, and cue much eye rolling from male readers over picky modern females. Sexism will always exist to some degree, and I suppose I'd rather have fun singing it in a good song, rather than in some semi-R'n'B derogatory chart hit rapping about 'bitchez' and 'hoes' and the like.

Anyway, looking forward to both the Pure Love album, and the new Gallows stuff, and if my memory doesn't fail me then, as far as I'm aware, Pure love should be supporting Pulled Apart By Horses on their UK tour this autumn!

The 'Handsome Devil's Club' single, including 'Bury My Bones' and the videos for both songs, can be purchased for £1.99 on iTunes!

http://therealpurelove.com/
http://www.facebook.com/therealpurelove

Just one of those days..

That's what yesterday was.

I woke up in an epic mood. Got invited for a day trip to Birmingham with the guys from the band and mutual friend's of ours but turned it down because I wanted to write up a contribution to The Guardian. They advertised a link via Twitter asking for thoughts on the legacy of iconic British punk band, the Sex Pistols to commemorate the Jubilee (35 years ago they unleashed 'God Save the Queen' on a coinciding and infamous jubilee boat trip ).

But first, I wanted music on my iPod.

I left my Japanese Voyeurs B-Sides CD ripping onto iTunes whilst I took a shower and came back to find that my computer had entirely crashed and would now not even turn on, with the CD stuck inside. Now that requires fixing.

Left the house to buy the 2:54 self-titled album only to find nowhere stocking it (I resorted to good ol' reliable Amazon), when I my aunt rang me whilst up town to say there were job vacancies at TK Maxx. I enquired, and the woman that I was speaking to had absolutely no idea what I was going on about. So I got on the bus home when my aunt txt me to say that the jobs were for their distribution centre so I'd have to go there to get a form -_-

I then attempted to write the article at my Nan's (I could write many a detailed page on this topic but was contested with a pretty short word count), and accidentally deleted more than half of what I'd actually written because I was looking at the wrong count.

It was just one of those days and I was close to pulling my hair out!

Luckily, I was due to see a group of my friends up town for our weekly get together and, I won't lie, got intentionally rat-arsed just for the hell of it. It was a good night even though we just ended up doing frequenting our regular haunts - Varsity (a pub where the band played), Babylon (cheesy '80's/ '90's music with 1 playlist), Planet (charmingly dingy rock/metal nightclub), along with a bar called Numa.

A sucky day turned into a great night (from what I remember)!

My Mom has the Jubilee weekend off so we may be venturing out to do something interesting.

Also, not sure if you'll see that Voyeurs review any time soon, given that the disc is stuck in my desktop. If they can't salvage the disc, I'll cry (it was a limited run, number 231 out of 250). Ah wells.