The Wave Pictures

I had the fortune of seeing The Wave Pictures recently at Southampton Joiners. It was an amazing show, showing off in my opinion some sophisticated ad interesting song writing as well as some intricate and tight instrumental performances on all instruments. David Tattersall in particular impressing with his guitar skills.

One of the more catchy numbers of the evening for me was "Little Surprise"

Chilling to The Low Anthem

Nothing beats doing nothing and listening to The Low Anthem.

On those long days where I find myself with nothing to do I personally love listening to The Low Anthem, story telling folk at it's best.

The First album has some real smooth songs on it and "Senorita" is one that has really started to grow on me.

This band deserve a lot more recognition!

BATTLES

Today I have been listening to Battles... Very much a band that I knew of but maybe didn't listen to as much as I should have as I am fully loving the album "Mirrored" and certainly the song "Atlas".

Ones imagination can go wild listening to this song!

DCFC "Codes and Keys"

So happy to have purchased Death Cabs newest album today!

I'm sure like most people I had streamed the album online when it was released on npr's website but now I actually have the album all to myself and it is superb!

The album has so many good songs, too many in fact so I can't actually choose a favourite!

"Doors Unlocked and Open" is one of the ones to have made a good impression on me today so here it is:

I'm Back

So, it's been a while since I last posted any blogs. I thought the summer would be a good time to do this.


A while ago I discovered Neutral Milk Hotel, obviously they have been around for a while but it was the first time I had heard them following a Last.fm recommendation. Understandably "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea" was the stand out song from the band. I then found a fantastic cover of this song from the fantastic Fanfarlo. They don't really change much in the song but the unique voice of Simon Balthazar really compliments the song. I have been listening to it non-stop ever since finding it and felt it was the sort of thing that should be shared with the world. Here it is:

Dog is Dead - Glockenspiel Song

Dog is Dead have recently appeared at some festivals this year including Great Escape and an
appearance at Glastonbury on the BBC introducing stage.




'Glockenspiel Song' is their Debut single and it cleverly ties in some catchy sounds coming from the saxophone and keys which benefit from a lively rhythm provided by the drums. During the beginning of the song it is easy to think that this song would be a more chilled song – something to relax to on a summery day, however, it offers a lot more bounce and is almost comparable to a Mystery Jets song.


With such tight and well organised playing of the mixture of instruments you could be forgiven to overlook the vocals. However Dog is Dead provide fantastic vocals from the front man which just adds to the summery feeling. The combined vocals shouting, “We are a mess, we are failures and we love it” create a real sing-a-long point in the song and with the song then breaking out into an instrumental finish just gives this song everything – even a saxophone solo!


Overall, a very enjoyable catchy song.



Rating: 4/5
Review by Craig Thomas

http://www.southsonic.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=541&Itemid=67

Glastonbury – Too Commercial? Bollocks.

It’s come to my attention very recently that a lot of people who don’t go to Glastonbury Festival stand back and say – it’s too commercial. This has always been an annoyance to me and many other Glastonbury goers since this is obviously a VERY prejudice view as many of these people have never been to Glastonbury.

I genuinely fail to see how people can say this if they look at the full line-up and the events that take part at the Festival. Many people who I have had saying this to me are regulars at Reading and have even said that this year they are only going to Reading to see “You me at Six”. Correct me if I’m wrong but are “You me at Six” not played on Radio 1 on a regular basis? Surely this defines commercial bands over non-commercial bands.

Granted if you are lazy enough too solely look at the pyramid stage then yes, it does look quite a commercial line-up with bands Shakira, Dizzee Rascal, Gorillaz and Scissor Sisters. However if you look further into the line-up and look to the stages such as The Park, John Peel and Queens Head, you will see how a lot of the bands are far from commercial. The Park stage, this year boasting bands such as Beach House, Avi Buffalo and Broken Bells who I am sure many of the critics will not have come across so decide to ignore and continue to blab on about the commercial side of the Pyramid stage. The Queens Head stage also hosts bands such as Fanfarlo, My Luminaries and Lissie who again cannot be considered mainstream and commercial. Another band to have appeared twice at Glastonbury is Holy Fuck. Apologies for the rude word but as this is the band’s name I have to type it, the point I’m making here is that with their electronic style and a name like they have the rule themselves out from being commercial.

Aside from focussing on the music, Glastonbury also offers everyone something to do besides the music. There are plenty of things to do for fans of arts and fashion. Places like Arcadia, Trash City and Shangri La offering something to please these people.

The main argument stands with the music. I’d like to think if you held this view that reading this will help to change your mind. I however have never been to Reading Festival, but I will not hold a prejudice view on it either way, I will be going this year and will then like to make my own mind up on the festival.

Craig