My Top 5 Albums Of The Year

5. Slaves Are You Satisfied?

4. Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds Chasing Yesterday

3. Menace Beach Ratworld

2. Blur The Magic Whip 

1. Wolf Alice My Love Is Cool

The Magic Gang Jasmine

In anticipation of their debut EP Brighton based four-piece The Magic Gang have released their latest single Jasmine, a funky, catchy, feel good gem of a track.

Although featuring a riff reminiscent of their last single No Fun, Jasmine is a much more chilled-out offering adding influences from classic R&B and funk to their previous garage rock sound. The single is a tantalising taste of what's to come from the band in their upcoming EP, and it's great to see them finding their own distinctive identity with their new music.

 It's testament to the band's writing that while it features lyrics that could have made for a depressing song, Jasmine is the total opposite. It's an infectious and uplifting track that hasn't budged from my head since I first heard it.

Check out Jasmine on Soundcloud https://soundcloud.com/themagicgang/jasmine and be sure to see The Magic Gang when they hit the road next month!

Wolf Alice at Bristol 02 Academy

There's no other way of saying it, 2015 has been the year of Wolf Alice. With the release of their fantastic debut album My Love Is Cool, multiple tours and their festival-stealing set at Glastonbury the band have taken this year by storm.

I've seen Wolf Alice four times (three of those were this year) and every time their fan base has grown, and it's hard to believe the first time I saw them was playing a comparatively small gig at Dot to Dot Festival last year amongst a group of other fans who knew the band were something special. It's testament to their talent that little over a year later they were back in Bristol but playing a sold out show at the 02 Academy.

As this was the opening show on the tour we were the first crowd to see Wolf Alice perform every track from My Love Is Cool, which frontwoman Ellie Rowsell excitedly told us after the band opened with the closing hidden song from the album.  With a mixture of songs from the album and the occasional older track from the band's EPs the gig showed off what really makes Wolf Alice unique; the diversity and variation of their music. I've made no secret of feeling annoyed every time they are lazily compared to Elastica, and the band's set list on this tour really showed how redundant and tired that comparison is. From the summery pop of Freazy to the hard rock of Giant Peach here is a band that takes inspiration from multiple genres and styles and fuses it all together to create an identity that is solely theirs.


Crowd favourites of the night included debut performances of album tracks Soapy Water and Lisbon, as well as regular live favourites Moaning Lisa Smile, You're A Germ and Fluffy.  The night concluded with an incredible power house performance of Giant Peach which was received with a rapturous applause from the crowd who all left buzzing.

You're A Germ

It's been a real thrill seeing Wolf Alice go from strength to strength over the past couple of years, and to see their number of fans grow at every gig.  I can't wait to see what they do next.

Swim Deep Namaste

Swim Deep have revealed the bonkers 80s game show inspired video for their surreal and insanely catchy new track Namaste.

Featuring appearances from everyone from Paul Daniels to singer Austin Williams' mum the video offers a tongue-in-cheek, unmistakeably British response to the recent slew of cameo-heavy American music videos (I'm looking at you Taylor Swift!).

On the strength of this new track and their other recent singles To My Brother and One Great Song And I Could Change The World, Swim Deep's upcoming album Mothers is looking to be a real treat. Their new sound is a world away from their debut album from 2013, and it's obvious that Swim Deep have found a voice and style that is distinctly theirs.

Be sure to check out Mothers when it's released on 25th September, and catch Swim Deep on tour next month! http://www.swim-deep.co.uk/live.html

FLESH NOT GNA Review

'Snotpop' creators FLESH are back with NOT GNA, a massive belter of a track. 

The band's latest offering has attitude and swagger by the bucketload with snarling Manc vocals, catchy hooks and an earworm of a chorus that will slither into your brain and refuse to budge.

NOT GNA joins an impressive list of tracks released by FLESH over the past year and points to even bigger and better things to come from the band in the future.

Be sure to check this lot out when they hit the road in September

http://www.seetickets.com/artist/flesh/1029071

https://soundcloud.com/luvflesh

Calling Festival Review

On 4th July, I visited London in the glorious sunshine for Calling Festival, 'the UK's premier classic rock festival' as its website proudly states. It's easy to see why as this year's festival was headlined by Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds and also had sets from The Hives, Wolf Alice and Echo And The Bunnymen among others.

For a festival with such an impressive line up, I was surprised at how small the site was and the tiny distance between the two stages. Luckily, this set up meant that festival goers could easily see every band on the bill play if they wanted to. However, this also meant that there was little for guests to do while waiting between sets other than buy overpriced food and beer so the site could feel a bit claustrophobic at times. Also a little bit more variety of beer on offer wouldn't have gone amiss! 

First band of the day were Echo And The Bunnymen on the main stage whose neo-psychedelic rock was well-suited to the summer heatwave and sunshine, and while the set was enjoyable and attracted a crowd the audience weren't as engaged as they were with later acts. We decided to stay over by the main stage and wait for The Hives, who in comparison delivered a true belter of a set with frontman Pelle Almqvist commanding the stage and audience with relentless energy throughout.

Later we caught New York band Bleachers on Stage 2 who performed tracks from their album Strange Desire mere days ahead of its UK release. Being unfamiliar with the band or frontman Jack Antonoff's other music I was unsure what to expect from them but their catchy indie-pop songs were infectious and enjoyable. They seemed genuinely pleased to be there with Antonoff declaring that this was the second 4th July in a row they had spent in London and that there was no where they'd rather be.

The penultimate band of the day were one of my current favourites Wolf Alice, fresh from the recent release of their debut album as well as their awesome set at Glastonbury. This was the third time I've seen them play (I'll be seeing them again in September) and they get better and better each time. They're much more confident than when I first saw them at Dot To Dot Festival last year, particularly frontwoman Ellie Rowsell who gave a totally fearless performance. They played tracks from their album as well as older singles and EPs which were all raucously received by the crowd, particularly their performance of Moaning Lisa Smile which had the crowd moshing, jumping and singing along. It's been a real joy to see them develop at each gig and find the success and acclaim they deserve.

There was a real buzz and excitement in the air as hundreds of people, many in Oasis t-shirts and sporting 90s Gallagher brother haircuts, moved swiftly over to the main stage for the headline set from Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds. Noel and his band delivered a fantastic career-spanning 1 hour and 45 minute set which included Oasis classics as well as hits from his two solo albums. There was plenty of typical Noel banter, including convincing too many people that the band's performance of recent single Riverman was actually going to be Live Forever...with a saxophone. The set climaxed with the compulsory performance of Don't Look Back In Anger and you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone in the crowd who wasn't singing along.

Lazy Comparisons And The Music Press

One thing that bugs me about the music press is how eager journalists are to categorise and pigeon-hole new bands by comparing their music to that of other musicians. An example that rears its head again and again is the comparison between Elastica and Wolf Alice.

I'm a big fan of both bands, but I've never understood the music press's obsession with linking them together. It was the release of Wolf Alice's Fluffy back in 2013 when the association between the bands first appeared. Since then its been hard to trawl through any reviews or articles about Wolf Alice without the comparison being regurgitated by the author, and is often at the expense of mentioning what is unique and individual about Wolf Alice's music. At a push I will admit that parts of Moaning Lisa Smile sound like a heavier version of Car Song but the constant comparison seems to me to be based on little more than the fact both bands are female fronted.

Even in its review of Wolf Alice's excellent genre-dodging My Love Is Cool, the NME lazily described the album's revamped version of Fluffy as a 'stampeding goth Elastica' two whole years after the comparison was first thrown up.  One of Wolf Alice's strengths is the large range of genres they take inspiration from and make their own. You only need to listen to My Love Is Cool and the diversity it has to offer to realise that the 'connection' (sorry) to the post-punk of Elastica is seriously obsolete.

Hello!

For months I've wanted to start my own music blog.  Fortunately now I've finished uni I have a lot of free time on my hands in between looking for jobs and trying to work out what exactly I'm going to do with my life to make it happen!

I'm always looking for new music and try to get to as many gigs as I can afford to. Over the last year I've managed to see Wolf Alice, Noel Gallagher, Superfood, Honeyblood, The Magic Gang and Menace Beach to name but a few.

This blog will include reviews of new music as well as my thoughts on music news, the industry etc

I hope you enjoy reading it!

Lew