The XX Are The Sex

The xx are fast becoming one of my favourite bands of all time. As soon as i heard Crystalised, i fell heard over heels in love with them. I thought they would be one of those bands, where you hear the first song and think 'this is epic, I'm not even going to give their other songs a chance, because it simply can't get better than this'. But The xx are an addiction.

Their first album was released in 2009, and was a massive success and they received the Mercury Prize for Album of the Year in 2010. Heart Skipped a Beat is a beautiful song, and brings all these emotions out in me. Although it reminds me of bad times, i can't help but to carry on listening it it, and enjoying it.


The majority of their songs are personally moving and quite slow, but some have this beat that just makes you want to move. Numerous remixes of their songs have been created by other artists, including the Gorillaz and Shakira. The most famous remix The xx have created is 'You've got the love' by The Source/Florence & the Machine. I feel this remix is far better than the original, check out the video below, where Florence welch joins them on stage at Glastonbury 2010.

They are based in London, and are currently working on their new album which should be released this year. I have high hopes that it will be another huge success, perhaps not as much as their first, but they have the potential to make one of the top albums of 2012 in my opinion. They currently haven't got any tours planned, however, if you are as egar as me to see them, they are playing at Bestival on the Isle of Wight in September. Give Islands, Intro, Shelter and Basic Space a good listen, if you haven't listened to them before, you are guaranteed to become an XX addict.

Drapht

If you've spent some time in Australia, you may have heard of him. He's a hip hop artist from the land down under, but with a slight twist.

He's more unique than other hip hop artists, as he doesn't rap about 'guns & pussy'. His songs are a bit different. My favourite song has to be Rapunzel. This song has a 60's pop background, making it upbeat, and deffinately gets you in the mood for summer time.

My friend who travelled around Oz claims that he's played everywhere you go, which is why I'm going to make a concious effort to make sure everyone in this country hears about him. He's been around for some years, as he has already released four albums. His last album 'Life of Riley' was a huge success, as was his hit Sing It. This was the first song my friend introduced me to, and I can see why this is what made this album so successful.

Check out Jimmy Recard, it was released in 2008, and unlike his other work from then, its upbeat, as opposed to sounding a bit like Eminems crap. He asks if we were born with different names, would we get treated differently? To which I'm going to answer 'yes', as it's evident as he was born Paul, and changed to Drapht to become a success!

The Black Keys

I've had The Black Keys album on my iTunes for a while, but just always assumed they were just a standard mainstream rock band; but they are so much more.

I only got into them about a week ago, and haven't been able to stop. Has anyone seen the Cobra beer advert? I fell for them as soon as I heard it.

However, according to my uncle, the new stuff is a lot different to their old stuff, that's when I gave Attack and Release a blast on my iTunes. He was right. Along with Gold on the Celing, Lonley Boy is also a lot more upbeat, compared to the likes of Oceans & Streams and Same Old Thing, and my favourite (so far), Psychotic Girl, which are a lot more laid back. I personally like it when bands change the direction of their sound, and the Black Keys seem to be much more popular as it changed, which clearly displays they pulled it off.

I am now officially a Black Keys fan, and am going to continue to explore them, and if you haven't yet done so, I suggest you join me.

KONY 2012

For the last few hours I thought Kony was a band from everything I've seen on Twitter and Facebook, my mistake. 
Check out this video, it'll take you on an emotional roller coaster, I've never seen anything like it. After 2 days it has over 7 million views. I get the feeling we will be hearing a lot about it in the next few days.
So...anybody want to paint the walls of London with KONY posters on April 20th?

Thieving Crazy Town

On recently listening to Mother's Milk (Red Hot Chili Peppers 4th album), released in 1989, I came across  Pretty Little dirty. Im going to be honest, I've never really listened to the whole album, so was shocked when I found a discovery which made me quite proud (although upon researching, I noticed it's a known fact for any hardcore Peppers fan), but the fact that I had discovered it all on my lonesome made me feel particularly special. 


If you close your eyes once the song has started, and imagine a hearty beef stew, you may be mistaken that its a M&S food ad. But don't be fooled! The song gets a whole lot better. After .50 seconds in, and then again at 2.02 minutes in, you can hear the same guitar riff that basically started Crazy Town's career. Everyone remembers Crazy Town right? They wrote that awesome song Butterfly. However I'm starting to doubt their awesomeness after discovering they used a guitar riff from one of the greatest bands ever...

Basically 9 seconds of a Red Hot Chili Peppers song made Crazy Town a success.

Tame Impala

Aweditorium. If your stupid enough to buy an ipad instead of a Mac, then you may have heard of it.

It's an ingenious app introducing old and new artists.

The first band I discovered were Tame Impala. This Perth based band create psychedelic hypno-groove melodic rock music. I was immediately attracted to their sound, as their song Solitude of Bliss reminds me of Incubus' early material; Fungus Amongus (check out Hilikus), and slightly of the Red Hot Chili Peppers Mother's Milk album (check out Knock Me Down).

The video's pretty cool, but don't get put off by the guy punching a alsatian!

The more you listen, the more of an addiction this song becomes. The guitar at the beginning of the song definitely put you in the festival mood!

After Solitude of Bliss go on to Half Glass Full of Wine. Not so much 'groove', but something reminds me of Queen of the Stone Age's 'The Lost Art of Keeping a Secret'. 

They have been around for a few years, which makes me disappointed in myself that i didn't discover them sooner. 

Check them out, definitely worth a listen.

Great Song Titles

I just need to point out Iv'e just seen an advertisement on YouTube for Rhianna's new song 'You Da One'.
I'm saying no more.