This week's post ...

Carl Barat
Run With The Boys new single & new album 4 October 2010
Why do I think Mr Barat has been saving this for the right moment.... new single, new album, new book.... it sounds like a hit straight away... powerful bass riff, love story vocals... funny to see Gary Barlow & Robbie Walliams err Williams singing 'Shame' their new duet single on what may have been... yep Take That were just ready to attempt conquering America when Robbie brainstormed... 'Back For Good' having top tenned... so who knows... Same applies to The Libertines, they surely would have gatecrashed a couple of number ones at least. Good record HIT
Here's the PR...
‘Run With The Boys’ is the debut solo single from Carl Barât and is released on 4th October 2010 on his own label Arcady Records. The track is taken from his forthcoming self-titled album ‘Carl Barat’ and is a jaunty romp of a tune just meant for the last days of summer. A UK tour kicks off on 15th October in Brighton which sees Carl take a five piece band out on the road.
Having released two albums with The Libertines and then a further two with Dirty Pretty Things, Carl was very keen to do his own record and do things his own way. Recorded in London and mixed in New York, the result is a departure from Carl’s previous releases, but maintains his ear for melody. The album allowed him to work with new people and try new musical ideas. The result is a very honest and heartfelt record, with upbeat tales of friendship and laments for lost love. Opening track ‘The Magus’ has a magical music box feel to it, ‘Carve My Name’ is awash with strings and ‘So Long My Lover’ is uplifting and joyful, despite being about the end of a relationship.
Carl’s first book ‘Threepenny Memoir’ released around the same time as his album is a collection of stories and reminisces from his life. Written in themed chapters, he talks of his love of London, his heroes, his adventures in theatreland and of course, the highs and lows of being in a band like The Libertines who really did turn everything upside down.
All this comes on the back of The Libertines reunion shows in August which saw him reunite with his old sparing partners in Gary Powell, John Hassall and Peter Doherty to play the Reading and Leeds Festival. The gigs and London warm up show garnered the band some of the best reviews they’ve ever received and only heightened anticipation as to what each member would do next.
Single: ‘Run With The Boys’ 4th October
Album: ‘Carl Barat’ 4th October
Book: ‘Threepenny Memoir’ 30th September
live:
15 October BRIGHTON, Coalition
16 October CAMBRIDGE, The Haymakers
17 October STOKE ON TRENT, The Sugarmill
18 October NOTTINGHAM, Rescue Rooms
20 October NEWCASTLE, Digital
21 October GLASGOW, Oran Mor
22 October LEEDS, The Cockpit
23 October MANCHESTER, Deaf Institute
25 October WOLVERHAMPTON, Slade Room
26 October BRISTOL, Thekla
27 October LONDON, Scala
UK tickets are on sale now priced £12.50, London £15.00

Black Soul Strangers
Animate new album
Intriguing right from the opening chimes... then in come the drums and grungy guitar to set the tone for the debut album from Black Soul Strangers. the decptive name prepares you for ... r & b maybe... not the indie alternative assault on the ears that begins with album opener 'Panic Sets Direction'. Track 7 'Gallows' smacks a little of Placebo... the album is packed with strongly thought out material... however I can't find a stand out single and I think the name may back-fire on them even though it must have been a deliberate deception. Good stuff but not sure it will break-through.

Foals & London Contemporary Orchestra
Spanish Sahara new single 13 September 2010
Well this is a fine record and a touch of genius to add an orchestral variety... what is going on with the charts and acts like Foals who should be top twentying... I think r&b is particularly strong at the moment and an abundance of sexy appealing r&b is putting pressure on acts like Foals if only on airtime opportunities The other main consideration is momentum... Foals had established a decent upwards momentum, that may be continuing but it doesn't seem like it... 'Hummer' was much requested and then ... not. Foals deserve a chunk of bigger success but I'm not sure they're on the path to getting it.
Press Release... Oxford quintet Foals release their stunning single and live favourite ‘Spanish Sahara’ on Sept 13th. The track is being given a full release by popular demand after being used as a teaser track before the album launch. The crowd reaction to this song at gigs and festival has been apocalyptic. Strings have been added to this new version at Assault and Battery studios with Alan Moulder & an 18 piece London Contemporary Orchestra.
Six minutes of arresting beauty, the song inhabits a still, dry space, with simple, understated guitar chords providing a strong and emotive melody. Yannis’s haunting vocals set a hazy, hallucinatory soundscape, climaxing into a rush of shimmering guitars and keys. It puts hairs on the back of the neck.
I’m the fury in your head, I’m the fury in your bed, I’m the ghost in the back of your head. Fresh have been nominated for the 2010 Barclaycard Mercury Prize – An Album of the Year with their second album ‘Total Life Forever’.
Total Life Forever was recorded during late 2009 in Gothenburg, Sweden, by Luke Smith (Clor), and was mixed by wild man Alan Moulder in London 2010. By choosing to record in the labyrinthine Svenska Grammofon Studion, the band were intent on ridding themselves of distractions. Isolated but close-knit, they worked for two months, honing their dynamic musicality. The restless guitars of Foals’ debut are remembered only in fragments. Gone are the fast rhythms and distinctive yelps of Antidotes - the pace on Total Life Forever is less breakneck, but the grooves are deeper and tighter. Vast soundscapes and oceanic sonic depth distinguish this album as a huge progression.
Upcoming UK Tour Dates
28 Aug 2010 – Leeds Festival – Leeds
29 Aug 2010 – Reading Festival – Reading
3 Sep 2010 – Electric Picnic – Ireland
29 October 2010 – O2 Academy – Leeds
30 Oct 2010 – The Academy – Manchester
31 Oct 2010 –HMV Picture House –Edinburgh
2 Nov 2010 –O2 Academy – Glasgow
3 Nov 2010 – O2 Academy – Birmingham
4 Nov 2010 – O2 Academy – Bristol
6 Nov 2010 – Rock City – Nottingham
7 Nov 2010 – Guildhall – Southampton
8 Nov 2010 – The Dome – Brighton
10 Nov 2010 – UEA – Norwich
11 Nov 2010 – Engine Shed – Lincoln
12 Nov 2010 – O2 Academy – Brixton
10 Dec 2010 – All Tomorrow’s Parties – Somerset

Gyptian
Hold You new single 31 October 2010
Good tune almost lovers rock, though a little more up-tempo. Gyptian should pick up plenty of appropriate airplay and the mix package with Soca and Toddla T adds to it's value... hit potential.

The Lines
Glorious Aftermath new single 23 August 2010
Robert Plant declared ‘There aren't really many good bands coming out of Wolverhampton'... I think we can probably dispense with the 'of Wolverhampton bit', while there seems to be a never ending glut of grime and r and b... the indie alternative scene The Lines represent does seem to have taken a substantial knock with One Night Only one of the few recent top forty successes for the genre, and even then they disappeared after a week. It will be very interesting to see how the excellent new Ting Tings record does - that will give us all a marker of change since 2008 - if any. I feel there is more to this than may meet the eye, it's more than demographics and changing tastes... the way the sonic industry has been restructured since the arrival of the BBC's One Extra and the downloads chart has become a nightmare for indie bands to break-through. One can tell from the One Extra invasion of Radio One the direction in which listeners are being pushed... and often an anti-indie guitar based Brit-pop listening scenario is the norm. What for The Lines then? This CD includes a couple of well thought out songs in 'Glorious, Aftermath' and 'No More, No Less' which demonstrate potential... again possibly not strong enough to break through.

Mona
Listen To Your Love new single 13 September 2010
Top vid... near naked women and sex is everywhere... real life... love the quickfire library of images... how many... 4-500??
Good song too, catchy vocal and riffing... should pull in new fans, and in with a chance.
Press Release... Nick Brown is the enigmatic lead singer of four piece Ohio raised/Nashville based band Mona, whose fractious musical and spiritual upbringing, combined with his unrelenting drive to create something special has resulted in anthemic, emotionally charged vintage rock’n’roll of epic proportions. “Along the way I saw how a song could enrage, heal, speak love, seduce, calm, provoke, challenge and surrender. All in three minutes. That’s what we’re all about” Nick Brown (Mona). Most bands in the current age of technology have demos and songs up on the internet for months, sometimes years before they find a fan base. Mona have had over 180,000 profile views without (until this week) even posting up a single note; testament to the interest in this band right now. The absence of any songs wasn’t because they’re lacking material, but because they believed in honing their craft, in the same way the Beatles cut their teeth in Hamburg. Mona have written more than 750 songs over the past 12 months by Nick’s rough calculations. “It was half not being able to trust anyone with our music,” says Nick explaining why the band held their music back, “and half just not wanting to play any music to anyone until we felt we were absolutely ready for this”.
Their silence has finally been broken and a demo of their Buckley-esque torch song ‘Lines in the Sand’ has recently gone up onto their Myspace page www.myspace.com/monatheband as a warning shot to the world that they’re coming... Mona’s debut single ‘Listen to Your Love’ is an unyielding songwriting tour-de-force, driven by a gritty southern chainsaw guitar riff, pounding drums and Brown’s soaring, emotive vocals that thump you straight in the heart; it’s like a musical emancipation, originally recorded live in Nick’s basement giving it a rare and classic authenticity. It could easily be the closing song of a headline slot at the Reading Festival tomorrow.

School Of Seven Bells
Heart Is Strange new single 27 September 2010
Diggin' the radio edit dudes... good dance anthem described by Pitchfork as a "marvellous club banger".... School of Seven Bells (often just SVIIB) is a three-piece band formed by Benjamin Curtis of the excellent Secret Machines, together with identical twins Alejandra and Claudia Deheza, formerly of On!Air!Library!. The band is named after the School of the Seven Bells, a mythical South American pickpocket training academy. The radio edit pulls in around three and a half minutes - 125bpm and is accompanied by a chilled Pantha Du Prince Remix... quite nice for variety and with the haunting vocal sits kinda nicely with a 'quiet bit' of the evening, if one has one... good tune deserves success.

new trax
our weekly a to z of new cd review's is listed below

this week
Carl Barat 4/10/10
Black Soul Strangers LP
Foals 13/9/10
Gyptian 31/10/10
The Lines 23/8/10
Mona 13/9/10
School Of Seven Bells 27/9/10

6 Sep
Chapel Club 11/10/10
Clinic 20/9/10
Dinosaur Pile-Up 27/9/10
Dutch Uncles 11/10/10
Ed Drewitt 25/10/10
Grinderman 6/9/10
Mr Fogg 23/8/10
We Are Scientists 11/10/10
Yeasayer

30 Aug
BoB & Rivers Cuomo 25/10/10
Chiddy Bang 11/10/10
Placebo 27/9/10
Professor Green & Example 3/10/10
Tinie Tempah 27/9/10

23 Aug
Bombay Bicycle Club
Robert Plant

16 Aug
The Bees
The Wombats

9 Aug
Bashy
I Am Arrows
I Blame CoCo
Jimmy Eat World
Katy Perry
Tokyo Police Club

2 Aug
Dan Le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip

26 Jul
Detroit Social Club
Die Antwoord 13/9/10
Example 12/9/10
Gemma Mewse
Linkin Park 12/9/10
Maroon 5 12/9/10

19 Jul
Chapel Club
Chase & Status with Mali
Funeral Party
Goldfrapp
Groove Armada & Will Young
The Most Certain Sure
Papa Roach 30/8/10
The Pretty Reckless
Wickes

12 Jul
The Delays
Dinosaur Pile-Up
Eminem & Rihanna

5 Jul
Brandon Flowers
The Drums
Kassidy
The Like
Stornoway
Violent Soho LP