Hate them, absolutely hate them… but not for their music so much, more for the control that they let their record label blatantly control the music that they make and the image that they portray. this portrayal of gang-banging rappers and bad boy (and girl) attitude surely has to be the doing of marketing department at their label looking into the market created by 50 cent and the like, which is a completely false painting of “urban life” in the UK.

Fiddy wouldn't be scared...

but it turns out that they would probably turn out to be just as succesful recording artists in a normal light should they just change a few simple things;

firstly, we drop the lanky guy (Fazer, i’ve learnt) who only seems to be there to say “n-dubz” and ad-libbing what the other two are have just previously rapped/sung…

secondly, take Tulisa out of her Kappa tracksuit, put her in a nice dress and let her sing…

and lastly, stop Dappy shaving his eyebrows and wearing a stupid hat and let him sing too, something other than “brap, brap, brap” or “na na niiii” because believe it or not, the boy can actually carry a tune. this point is proven by (and the whole reason for this post) the following video of N-Dubz covering The Script in the Live Lounge on Radio 1…

A small message to AATW Record Label, follow my instructions and make yourself a load more money. Drop Fazer and you only have to split the royalties two ways and launch Dappy and Tulisa on serious singing albums/projects and make yourself double the money for two separate sets of album sales… easy money…

Considering that Pendulum are easily one of my favourite bands, I feel I might have been a little harsh on their last album. To be honest, it was quite good, I just felt a bit let down because it in no way captured what they can do live. Almost every remix/cover version they’ve released since is superior to some of the filler on that album. Check out the ‘Immigrant Song’ remix on their myspace (in the Radio 1 mini-mix), or their  Live Lounge cover of  Coldplay’s ‘Violet Hill’ to see what I mean.

The good news is that there’s an new album being released next year, tentatively titled ‘Immersion’. Apparently some new tracks have been played on the radio already. This could be one of them. Pretty awesome, no?

Either way, to celebrate the announcement, today’s window is a video taken from their performance at Glastonbury earlier in the year. It’s easily better than the album track, and they even made Calvin Harris sound good.

Pendulum really are something intense live. The first time I saw them was in a DJ set in a small club up north. The second was in Brighton where I alternated between shots of sambuca and Jagermeister till I fell on my arse down a flight of stairs. I then pushed to the front of the crowd where I managed to clumsily highfive the MC, then fall on my arse again. Thankfully, this time the crowd picked me up. It was generally euphoric.

I’ll definitely be seeing them in 2010. For now, watch this:

Read my review of their last album, In Silico here.

Update, December 14th 2009: The Gaa Gaas have had to pull out of this show. We completely understand their decision and hope to work with them soon. I’ll leave the write-up about them in this post because their substantial influence on the island’s music scene has guided the choices for this promotion and we will miss them!

Their place in the night’s line-up has been filled by Pirate Video Company. They are Max Cleworth, Piers Le Moignan, and Nick Wells. They write and perform a kind of agitated, brainy pop, with chants and melodic hooks to snag the mind, matching chaotic principle of punk with minimal funk grooves. There is an intriguing absence of harmonic rootedness in their work which suggests an experimental bias in their methods. Dean Taylor of This Is Not A Label has said of them, “I like them.”

A is for Asylum

Man Is Slapped

Richard Berks, a man with a laptop and brain brimming with surreal musical inventions, is known for being keyboard player in the original lineup of Jersey and London-based post-punk heroes Velofax. Since those riotous days he has done many things including having moved to beautiful, northern fortress city of York but perhaps most notably he has created a series of astounding works as Man Is Slapped. His recordings are stunningly produced, brazenly unconventional, and delicately romantic. His music is a kaleidoscopic moiré of guitar, glitch, synthetic blooping, breakbeats, and intelligent pop singing. There is an evident delight in confounding expectations with lucid abandon. The music is surprising and strange, and from within this intricate, unstable architecture of electronic mashup a passionate soul emerges to explore emotional realities with subtle poetry and wit.

Man Is Slapped by Tommy Jackson

Man Is Slapped has been featured on episode 16 of the brilliant Instant Classic podcast curated by pop genius Penny Broadhurst. Download it here Back To School Bumper Special

For more news and content from Man Is Slapped see
Man Is Slapped Facebook page
Man Is Slapped (free download)

Brobots!

The lovable alien machines who came in from the cold of outer space to learn how to party with Earth women, watch Countdown, break human instruments and remake them again in their own curious ways have taken Jersey by storm in 2009. The list of promoters and media players that have supported them goes on and on: Branchage Festival, Club Kamikaze, JMCT, Jersey Live, Channel TV, Gallery Magazine, Jersey Evening Post, BBC Radio Jersey, Scuro Disco … It would be unthinkable to celebrate the end of a great year for Asylum and Live Lounge without welcoming them back.

C.O.I.

Asylum wouldn’t have happened without the technical brilliance and devotion to quality that sound engineer Justin Vooles has consistently brought to the project. Justin has invited one of his favourite bands, C.O.I. of Bristol, to perform at this show.

C.O.I.

C.O.I. make party music for the kinds of parties at which mind and body are separated in ecstatic revelry. Bristol has always been a cradle for exceptional bands and experimental creativity, and this crew stands head and shoulders above the others according to Venue Magazine. Their songs are rip-roaring anthems delivered with amazing dexterity and streetwise personality. Spiraling shards of Townsendian guitar collide with staggeringly powerful drumming and choruses of gleeful terrace menace in song after song of pop genius. For more information about the band join C.O.I. Facebook group.

The Midnight Expresso

Discordian balladeer, movie star, style guru … Many titles have been bestowed upon The Midnight Expresso but his true identity remains a mystery to, well, probably no-one but that won’t stop me from trying to maintain a veneer of cracked mystique in this blurb. Armed with a keyboard that looks like it was fished out of a skip, stage dress that challenges all acceptable states of mind, and a way with words that is hilariously unhinged, The Midnight Expresso rocks the party hard.

The Midnight Expresso has worked with some of the coolest alternative acts in the business, including Chairlift and Pete and The Pirates. He produced a documentary film, Tornado Of Fame, about breaking into the music business from within. More recently he has been closely involved in the newest regular music night to take place at Live Lounge, Club Kamikaze, which looks set to go from strength to strength in 2010.

DJs Colin Livingstone and Carlo Zen, who have been our co-hosts over fourteen months of Asylum entertainment, will be playing their choicest cuts between the bands and dancing like mad at the front. Thanks guys for all your hard work and devotion to the scene.

Entry is a fiver and the show starts at nine. Don’t be late or you won’t get in.

The Gaa Gaas

Since I started promoting live music nights in Jersey one name has recurred in many conversations with musicians and music fans. “He’s a genuinely nice guy,” I’m told, “who has not lost contact with his origins, his inspiration, or his friends.” In the various histories of musicians moving their music ventures away from Jersey, those attributes can be surprising and rare. So who is this person who inspires such admiration?

The brilliant, uncompromising punk futurist Gavin Gaa Gaa, and his band mates Peter Hass, Ali Cooper and Ashley Baker, have been forging a darkly minimalistic punk sound in Brighton since 2003. They play mainly in London, where they have a prominent place in the pantheon of new wave punk, and they have been releasing singles and EPs with an industriousness and commitment to quality that is singularly impressive. Their latest release, We Are All Pop Stars! EP, is available to buy from their MySpace page (see link above) where details of other releases and forthcoming dates can be found.

The music of The Gaa Gaas is restless, energetic, cathartic and catchy. Fizzing synths meld with monolithic bass riffs, guitar riffs snake and roil around relentless teutonic drumming, and the four piece creates a sound that is unified, elemental rock ‘n’ roll of the best kind. Recently they have put up new song Perception! on MySpace as an example of what to expect from new EP Repulsion Seminar due for release in early 2010.

For more information about the band and related projects see
The Gaa Gaas at Parallax Sounds Music Label
The Gaa Gaas Facebook page
Gavin Gaa Gaa (Solo Project)
Slurps & Squids (The Creepy Kids)

I will no longer be involved in promoting regular events at Live Lounge after the end of this year. However, I will still be engaged in various ways with the music scene of Jersey. Projects for 2010 include a promotional campaign for Esther Rose Parkes, co-production with Gary Law of an album by Esther and Falenizza Horsepower, the release of an Asylum compilation CD, a new website for remixes and other experimental electronic music, a mass choral performance of Paragraph 7 of The Great Learning by Cornelius Cardew, and forming a new band with Gary Law and Justin Vooles playing algorithmic blues and secular gospel.

I hope that by presenting this resignation from Asylum with plenty of notice there is a good chance that other members of the team will be able to continue the work with the same passion for originality, quality and integrity that I’ve tried to sustain. Daniel Allman will be running the shows from January 2010 and I have no doubt that he will do a brilliant job.

After a long association I have a great deal of personal gratitude and respect for Flavio Olim, manager of Live Lounge, for his commitment to the establishment of his business as the pre-eminent live music venue in Jersey. I’d also like to thank Justin Vooles, Dave Spars, Dave Findlay, Sara Montalvao, Wilson Nash, James Evans, and Sam Falle for their support and hard work over the last fourteen months.

Perhaps the most important reason I started promoting these events in 2008 was not my enthusiasm for music which is, as anyone who knows me will affirm, very great. I was seeking a form of collective participation and belonging in reaction to a loss of confidence and a growing sense of life without direction. It was the kind of self-preserving instinct that propels one who feels rejected and alone to go where there are friends and like-minded souls in order to feel less alone. By choosing to work with a diverse group of mostly young musicians I was able to achieve something in dedication to one whose life touched mine for a brief while and who brilliantly encourages and cares for the future of her students.

The need to find a new way of being, which has slowly but surely reoriented me, leaves the so-called online social experience feeling distinctly beside the point. Familiarity with the customs of social network websites is a vital tool in a promoter’s kit but I suspect that absorption in those media tends to reduce a person’s vital connection to what is really important. I have for some time been ambivalent with regard to the boons and curses of online society and my personal history of online creativity is strewn with instances of deletion and occultation of traces.

I am a man of letters, not by choice it seems, and so I plan to write when I can. It is my aim to rediscover the complex human pleasures of poetry and story telling. It will be for the printed, bound medium that is never to be lost, lest we all be lost with it, that I intend to focus those efforts.

Here at the end of the shortest decade there ever was, we find ourselves in a surreal world where dreams and actions continually regenerate one another. Let us be kind, and wise, and remember the words of John Cage: Anything can follow anything else (providing nothing is taken as the basis).

These three photos by Mikey Phillips are from a stunning set taken at Metal vs. Punk which can be viewed in Asylum Live Lounge Facebook album. For more information about the photographer and commission enquiries contact m.phillips@live.co.uk

Eddie Laffoley by Mikey Phillips - November 20th 2009

James Andrews by Mikey Phillips - November 20th 2009

Wasted Youth by Mikey Phillips - November 20th 2009

A collection of great photos by Danny Evans from Branchage In The Asylum on October 3rd can be seen at Branchage Film Festival. Click on the image below to view them all.

Branchage In The Asylum by Danny Evans - October 3rd 2009

Here are some more photos from a few of the highlights of the last half of this year.

Crowne - August 28th 2009

Gorey Inbreds - September 18th 2009

Livingstone and Almond by Sebastian Meyer - October 1st 2009

Stephan Metcalfe at Blue Note - October 31st 2009

Esther Rose Parkes at Blue Note - October 31st 2009

General Burg of The Coal Box Generals - October 31st 2009

General Shack of The Coal Box Generals - October 31st 2009

The Coal Box Generals at Blue Note - October 31st 2009

Brutus Stonefist - November 14th 2009

Love Live Lounge simply because amazing artists I dont know about sing tunes I love. Its win win. This cover of Kings of Leon is amazing. Girls vocals are hot but efortless. Dont like this shit where people chat shit about it not being as good as the original. Its not supposed to be. its artists appreciating others amazing tunes and putting their own spin on it.

Pixie Lotts acoustics version is pretty hot too. Dunno which i prefer?

Vote, vote, vote! And if you would be so kind, on Paramore? Vote at Fuse

Paramore – “Ignorance”

The hardest working trio going stepped into the live lounge earlier this week. Covering The Script and doing a a live version of ‘I Need You’ they absolutely killed it.

and Tulisa it’s definitely love after seeing this.

The last time we did an Asylum All Ages show, Sam Delanoe of Demise Of Sanity advised me that some of their lyrics could be deemed offensive and wanted to be sure it was okay to perform them undiluted. The question was a reasonable courtesy, I thought, and I told him it was fine. Metal and punk rock is an assault on the senses. It is a kind of art in which disturbances of emotion and devices of terrorising intent are important.

As well as Demise Of Sanity this show on November 20th also features Wasted Youth, Too Many Humans, The Revolt, Clockwork Sodomy and Critical Mass. The theme of the show is Metal vs. Punk.

Two of the bands that are playing at the All Ages show, Clockwork Sodomy and Demise Of Sanity, will be performing for Kenny’s Gig 2009 at Bar Rock on Sunday 15th November. Here’s a link to the poster for that event.

Sam’s question got me wondering, is there anything a band could say within the context of their art that isn’t acceptable?

Critical Mass is a band that has apparently changed its name specifically for this date. Eddie Laffoley, a member of the band, has written about this on the Facebook page for the event. He says, “Apparently we couldn’t play the gig with the name Die Inbred so we had to change it. It wasn’t my idea to change the name, was not appropriate or some bullshit! I mean we’re not condoning incest at all, hence Die Inbred. We change it and they still aren’t fucking happy! They said that Playing With Children and I’d Tap That 3 Year Old sounded too pedophiliac.”

Asylum on Saturday November 14th, our eagerly awaited big metal night, will be one of the best productions of fierce, furious and filthy music the Live Lounge has ever hosted. One of the bands due to appear on the night, Nailed To The Furnace, has had to pull out. The remaining five bands, Bulletproof, Chaos Theory, Nocturnum, We Bury Our Own, and Brutus Stonefist from Guernsey, are joined by special guest DJ Danny Parkes. Doors open at nine o’clock.

Brutus Stonefist

Brutus Stonefist have two songs up on MySpace. Five Pounds Of Flesh and Redgrave are deathcore tours de force with feral riffing and swarming, scabrous atmosphere. Have a listen and pay your respects to the Channel Islands’ kings of fear at Brutus Stonefist MySpace

Fantastic work from the desktop of pop artist extraordinaire, Mark Evans

JMCT, Music Scene and Asylum have joined forces to present Brobots! with Lee Downie and The Mulburys at Live Lounge on Saturday November 21st.

Brobots! were the subject of a recent profile in Gallery. With forthcoming appearances for Club Kamikaze at Live Lounge on November 13th and Hadouken at Liquid on November 28th, they are the 100% synthetic boy band that all of Jersey has come to love. Lee Downie aka Jackson Lee, beat box champion, last played for Asylum at the Oxjam Jersey event in July and impressed the audience there with a unique mix of hip hop and acoustic guitar playing. The Mulburys recorded a set of songs with producer Sam Falle this summer. Their sophisticated, punchy power pop is laden with lush grooves and irresistible hooks.

James Evans explains the inspiration for this show, “Instead of donating the money to charity as we have for the last twenty JMCT gigs we will be using any money we make this time to put an Asylum CD out next year and hope to start raising cash to put bands in the studio to record.”

Oh lookie, its Sugababes 4.0 doing a cover of Florence & The Machine’s Rabbit Heart on Radio 1’s Live Lounge!

Sounds pretty good!

They also performed their new single About A Girl while they were at the studios, complete with a harp. A harp! What I’ve always liked and admired about the Sugababes is how they always seem to take the time and effort to perform acoustic versions of their singles, really showing off their voices and bringing something extra to the song. Their performance of About A Girl was no different, and what I like about this is how different it sounds to the original. However it really seems that Heidi is the glue holding the band together, to me her voice is the only distinctive voice left in the band and she seems to be the one voice left carrying the Sugababes’ trademark harmonies.

What do you think?

Happy Halloween!
Friday night, I went to LiVE Lounge to check out three music acts but I did not know there was a fourth act to the list. That was In-Flight Safety. It’s my second time to go to LiVE Lounge. I forgot to mention in my previous post when I first went to LiVE Lounge, I encountered a radio host from LiVE 88.5. At first, I didn’t who she was as I rarely listen to that station. She said I was from CKCU-FM, which surprised me but she was kind to have me stay there and wait until I got to interview Said The Whale. Her name is Chelsea Miller. She seems like an awesome radio host and it’s nice she’s getting to know Canadian indie acts like Said The Whale and Library Voices.
OK, onto the concert. It started off with Julie Fader. Her set was soft, mellow and filled with folk styled music. She was joined by members of In-Flight Safety for some parts of her performance. All I can say is that she’s very talented. If you didn’t know, she’s also with the Great Lake Swimmers. I got a chance to do an interview with Julie Fader which will be airing sometime in November.
After Julie Fader was Ottawa’s The Love Machine. As usual with them, they were always rocking and very energetic. They still had a good crowd for their set.
Lastly, on to Library Voices, they were totally amazing because they kept jumping around, breaking a tambourine, going to the crowds and etc. They were totally crazy and the crowd just loved it. It was awesome when Library Voice got Julie Fader and In-Flight Safety to sing their final song. Even the radio host was probably surprised by their performance. I had an opportunity to do an interview with two of the members and will be aired sometime in November.
The funny thing was that it’s the second time I went to a concert where the bands say that Ottawa is the final concert of their tour. It must be lucky to have bands end in the Nation’s Capital.
Lastly, one funny note before the concert at LiVE Lounge, I saw a couple of members from Library Voices using a MacBook Pro. It’s the one that I currently have, the 13″ model. It’s pretty funny that it’s almost like Apple central.
Check out the photo by clicking here.

Flame war - Poster designed by Sam Delanoe

This is a battle for supremacy between sneering, nihilistic no-wavers on one side and progressive art-metal fanatics on the other. For one night only, each of these two tribes seeks to prove the other should be dispatched to the softcore shitter. Who will win?

All ages welcome.

Wasted Youth
Wasted Youth MySpace

Critical Mass

Too Many Humans
Too Many Humans MySpace

Demise of Sanity
Demise of Sanity Facebook page
Demise of Sanity MySpace

The Revolt
The Revolt MySpace

Clockwork Sodomy
Clockwork Sodomy Facebook page

The show starts at five o’clock. Entry is three Jersey pounds. Strictly no alcohol allowed.

Thanks to La Motte Street for providing equipment.

Asylum has been going for a year now and over fifty bands and solo artists have contributed to the nights. It is thanks to those artists that the reputation of Live Lounge as Jersey’s outstanding music venue has grown in that time. Asylum has demonstrated by objectively representing the island’s diverse music culture that it is not necessary to hire tribute bands or the same few guaranteed crowd-pullers to preserve a collective project of artistic relevance. Thanks to all fans of good music in Jersey for their support.

We have chosen to mark the anniversary with a weekend of shows starting on Friday October 30th at Live Lounge with The Raffle, Esther Rose Parkes, Annie Law, Stephan Metcalfe and DJs Carlo and Livingstone. The entertainment continues on Saturday October 31st at Blue Note with The Coal Box Generals, Esther Rose Parkes and Stephan Metcalfe.

The Raffle

The Coal Box Generals

Annie Law

Stephan Metcalfe

Stephan has a blog hosted by WordPress in which his gigs and recording sessions are documented with honest and intimate style. Check it out here Stephan Metcalfe

During a concert in Rörum, Skåne, Sweden on August 14th 2009, Esther Rose Parkes was joined for a performance of her song Climbing The Stairs by Maria McKee. This video was uploaded to YouTube by Loffamalm

I know the title almost refers to Saturday Night Live’s famous line. It’s because of the venue I went and it’s sort of fitting in reminding of me SNL. I got to check out Said The Whale at LiVE Lounge and the opening acts were The Red Jets and Hannah Georgas. Said The Whale is on their Canadian tour to mark their release of their new album, Islands Disappear. It was an awesome night because I had the opportunity to do an audio interview with two of the member of Said The Whale. It will be airing on my debut radio show at CKCU on Monday. I think I will be taking over from Kristal’s Method. I hope I did a good job doing the audio interview. The venue was at LiVE Lounge and it’s like the first time to be there and I rarely listen to the station (LiVE 88.5). I wasn’t sure what to expect but the place is pretty nice and they have couches, chairs and tables. It’s a small venue to say the least.
The concert started off with a rocking Ottawa band, The Red Jets. I am not too familiar with this local band since I have gone to concerts in downtown Ottawa infrequently during the Summer and for September. There were good to starting off their set and the show.

Hannah Georgas was amazing with her performance. Her band were members of Said The Whale (minus Ben and Tyler). She played songs like The National (not the Peter Mansbridge one) and The Beat Stuff (her titled album). I got to pick up her CD for $5, which was pretty good. I’ll apologize if I don’t have much words to say about Hannah Georgas.

Onto Said The Whale’s performance. As usual, they brought up an excellent performance. They sang their materials from their new album, Islands Disappear and their previous, Howe Sounds/Taking Abalonia. I was surprised to hear some of the crowd sing and danced along to some of their songs. Hannah Georgas joined the band for B.C. Orienteering (from Islands Disappear). One of the songs they performed near the end, confetti was popped in the air. It’s nice that LiVE 88.5 is supporting Said The Whale and Hannah Georgas. Overall, it was a great night and the fans were energetic toward Said The Whale.
You can view the photos by clicking here.

Make sure to check again on Monday as I will post the audio interview with Ben and Tyler of Said The Whale and it will be aired on CKCU-FM.
I took some videos during the concert but for now, here’s Camilo (The Magician) live at LiVE Lounge.


Curse of the Currents

Mr Hudson was in on Jo Whileys Saturday’s show on BBC Radio 1 doing the Live Lounge. He covered JLS’s monster “Beat Again,” he switched it up nicley!

Metal Noise, Punk Boys and Girls

Six very heavy bands, with styles ranging from hard core punk to death metal, are performing at this rare Saturday booking for Asylum at Live Lounge.

Brutus Stonefist

Formed in Summer 2007 on Guernsey, Brutus Stonefist have the sole intention of writing riffs to make your hair stand on end, beat downs that make you want to run through brick walls, and breakdowns so brutal you won’t even notice that your best friend just smashed your neck. Their sound is described as the biggest, baddest bar brawl ever!

Their appearance on this night marks three-in-a-row for different acts from Guernsey working with Asylum. Brutus Stonefist are Tom Domaille (vocals), Nick Schofield (guitar), Mark Mercier (guitar), James Ogier (bass), and Paul Etasse (drums). Their reputation for extreme entertainment precedes them.

Nocturnum

Returning to the Live Lounge for the third time this year, the darker than dark black metal supergroup that is Nocturnum have added to their lineup a second guitarist, Craig. He joins Midgard Morningstar (vocals), Alex (guitar), and Blake (drums). They are apparently still searching for a new bassist but the evidence of their last show was that the effortlessly cool pyrotechnic style of Alex’s virtuosic playing made that seem an irrelevance.

Bulletproof

No news yet of the release date of their new album but there is a set of three videos on YouTube in which they discuss it and other things: Bulletproof video playlist. In between the chat there is footage from their opening set at the Bedell Group Ecuador Challenge show back in May. Bulletproof are Steve Creedy (guitar and vocals), Eddie Eversfield (drums) and Lee Gosselin (bass and vocals).

We Bury Our Own

Awesome, progressive, and dark with more than a hint of maniacal fun, We Bury Our Own aim to please with an approach to thrash metal that is both studiously technical and instantly appealing. Rob (vocals), Jordan (guitar), Andreas (guitar), Kyle (bass), and Chris (drums) make an impressive team.

Chaos Theory

Chaos Theory are Josh Feldman (lead guitar), Joey Conway (rhythm guitar), Kyle Jones (bass), Robert Telfer (drums), and Matt Ahier (vocals). Their new track previewed at MySpace, Rash, is a pile-driving epic with drums shifting dazzlingly between half and double tempos and a wall of guitar riffs that is dense sludge hewn into metrically precise patterns. Its excellent production quality is also worth noting.

Nailed To The Furnace

After a triumphant performance headlining at Branchage In The Asylum, Nailed To The Furnace return to demonstrate their mastery of a uniquely stark and savagely wrought metal style. Work on their album continues despite its producer’s recent injuries. Get well soon, Kyle.

The Maccabees – Boom Boom Pow

This song of the week is a last minute change.  I saw this video a few months ago, however while on youtube at the weekend it popped up again and thought it had to be record of the week – The Maccabees covering Boom Boom Pow.  During the radio broadcast of the performance, when asked why they chose this song, Orlando Week’s reply was simple, “a challenge.”

The video is an awesome watch as you see the band cracking up at ingenious song-writing such as “I’m so 3008, you’re so 2000 and late…” – Groundbreaking work there Fergie and co.

Boom Boom Pow is one of those tracks I have no idea why it was recorded other than for humorous covers such as this one.

Enjoy, I have many a time over

Soulside Funk

Ps. Run a Youtube search for Asher Roth’s cover of Boom Boom Pow which is just as much jokes

Flower of romance

The Raffle

The Raffle formed after the split of The Valdees in September 2007. Matt Ward (The Arc and Moped, both of Liverpool, and Yeboah of Guernsey) and Seb Kirk (Yeboah and The Valdees) started jamming with a couple of other lads (the two Nicks from rockers The Bridge). After a few lineup changes they brought in Will (Yeboah and The Valdees) to relieve Matt from singing and writing duties and also to play rhythm guitar so Matt could go back to bass. Not long after they drafted in Ben Hewlett (Yeboah and The Valdees) to take over drumming responsibilities. They had basically reformed Yeboah but as a four piece and instead of playing songs with a dark edge they began writing tunes which hold a breath of optimism in them along with some beautiful melodies and lyrics.

They spent last year mainly writing and rehearsing and played the odd gig but then back to the studio in Autumn 2007 to have a rethink about refining the sound. They got Ben to add more backing vocals so they could do some three part harmonies and carried on writing and practicing.

Now with a mostly brand new set (although they’ve kept a couple of the fan favourites from last year) and a more refined, jangly sound they’re looking forward to pushing forward and getting many people to hear them. If you like ’60s tinged, melodic, guitar pop rock with songs you’ll be humming for weeks then make sure you catch them.

The Raffle are Will Tostevin (vocals and rhythm guitar), Seb Kirk (lead guitar), Matt Ward (bass and vocals), and Ben Hewlett (drums and vocals). They were enthusiastically recommended by Esther Rose Parkes after she saw them perform in Guernsey in Summer 2009.

Esther Rose Parkes

An exclusive introduction to the collection of complex and richly emotional songs making up Esther’s soon-to-be-released album produced by Jim Akin and recorded at Viewfinder Records, LA, and Esther’s home studio in Jersey. With a range of instruments including bass and acoustic guitar played by Jim, drums by Tom Dunne, guitars by Jerry Andrews, and piano and backing vocals by Californian folk rock superstar Maria McKee, it is a uniquely evocative set of songs.

Maria McKee has said of Esther, “Her songs are haunting and intimate, her vocals are complex and rich. There is a gravity to her work that will nourish those of us who have grown weary searching for the sustenance that most contemporary singer-songwriters fail to provide. I’m looking very much forward to a long journey with an artist who will deepen and grow and challenge the listener for many years to come.”

An EP, Slaking The Dust, has recently been made to preview tracks from the forthcoming album and I’ve been lucky enough to get one. In this era of virtual product it is an object of considerable charm and tactile quality with a lovely gatefold package, great art designed by Steve Hutchins, and a rose emblem on the CD applied by Esther herself.

Slaking The Dust EP contains five songs varying in mood from the sparse, introspective title track with its gentle rhythm and optimistic lyric of new beginnings, to dramatic soul ballad Dancer’s Devil steeped in dense rock textures and featuring a vocal performance of thrillingly restrained passion. Everywhere on the disc her new collaborators add interesting tonal colour. Maria McKee’s backing vocals are beautifully judged and Esther’s singing throughout is perfect, delivering her words of love, loss, hope, and mysterious destiny with a rare grace.

Esther recently completed a successful Scandinavian tour. Since returning to Jersey she has recorded a set of songs with Falenizza Horsepower, at Cerf Studio, to be released in 2010.

Stephan Metcalfe

Fans of Stephan Metcalfe who reside in Jersey, of which there are many since he played several well received shows with Brave Yesterday and Oxjam Jersey this summer, have another opportunity to hear his utterly original and gorgeously poetic songs. His various studio projects, including The Engine Room, are collections of formally audacious songs constructed with a quirky experimentation that embraces electronic processing of guitars, drums and voice in a constantly transforming sonic space like no other.

Stephan has recently returned to Manchester where he continues to perform to appreciative audiences, and he is journeying back to Jersey for this special show.

Annie Law

Annie Law is the kind of singer that after just a few moments of hearing her it is obvious that she has a voice of amazingly sensuous quality and a deep understanding of the drama and melodic possibilities of classic soul music. Not only is she a brilliant singer, and excellent guitarist of understated style, but her songs are astoundingly good. With maturity of lyrical invention that belies her youth, Annie Law appears to be slowly but surely building a collection of self-penned masterworks that would sound perfectly right next to many of the great soul classics of the last fifty years.

Annie has played at the last two Jersey Live festivals and at the recent Branchage Film Festival. She supported Nerina Pallot at Jersey Opera House in 2008. She says that since working with other musicians her style has become more upbeat. On this night Annie will be joined by Joe Hutchinson on guitar.

I actually managed to catch this on the radio. Sounding nice, but Chip doesn’t seem to have a lot of popularity on his twitter at the moment due to the over the top self promotion and the sheep followers he has Retweeting his tweets. Personally. im just gonna post these vids and hush:

Via TS