From accounts I’ve heard so far, We Were Promised Jetpacks have been wowing audiences across North America on their latest tour, which just wrapped up on 15 March. And at these shows, singer Adam Thompson has been referring to “our new EP” which is called ‘The Last Place You’ll Look’ and will be released digitally in the UK on 12 April. I’ve seen the Scottish quartet twice now and really love the immediacy of their debut album, ‘These Four Walls’. So I’ve been itching to get my hands on their new material.

‘A Far Cry’, the first song on the new EP, sounds like the Jetpacks’s “going to war” song. Darren Lackie’s drumming on the song should bring everyone to attention. The spare guitars from Thompson, guitarist Michael Palmer and bassist Sean Smith in the lyric-less ‘The Walls are Wearing Thin’ are proof that these Scots are technically dextrous with their instruments. They put in good effort with ‘With the Benefit of Hindsight’; the only problem with the track is that in the joy of putting horns with their usual backing, Thompson’s vocals are muddled and lost in the mix. For me, his powerful vocals are a central source of power in the band’s songs, so it’s the one disappointment I have with this EP.

Two of the songs should be familiar to WWPJ fans: for this EP, ‘Short Bursts’ and ‘This is My House, This is My Home’ have been reworked and give way to amazing results. An uncle of mine once asked me what they sounded like, and at a loss of how to describe their hard-hitting live sound I said, vaguely, “uh…punk? Rock-ish?” But you’d never think of these songs as punk. The re-do of ‘Short Bursts’ is less raw, warmer. And the new version of ‘This is My House…’ is slowed down, with added strings and Thompson’s emotional Scottish brogue coming together to feel like your mother wrapping you in a warm blanket. Lovely. While this EP is a good stop-gap between albums, it’s made me look forward to their sophomore effort and hope that they’ll be able to take the maturity evidenced in this EP and combine it winningly with the ‘These Four Walls’ laddishness.

As alluded to in my Rock ‘n’ Roll Hotel gig review last month, I couldn’t buy this EP at the show because the merchandise table had disappeared from its post before I could get over there. And I’ve found out why I couldn’t find information on the physical release of the new EP: the physical format will only be available at their shows this year, so word to the wise: if you’re like me and prefer physical CDs, be sure to see them live and buy this great EP in person.

7/10

We Were Promised Jetpacks’s new EP, ‘The Last Place You’ll Look’, will be released digitally by Fat Cat Records on 12 April and can be pre-ordered now. The physical format of the EP will be available exclusively at the band’s live shows this year.

Yes, you’re probably fed up of going on and on about Blog Off!? This Saturday night – Theregoesthefear’s first gig night at London’s Roundhouse with Victoria & Jacob, Jazica and Starlings all playing.

We were all geared up for Saturday night. Then a friend mentioned about the lack of between set entertainment, so rather than the classic “pop the ipod on shuffle” trick, we asked a few friends, dug around, called in a few favours and managed to blag the rather fantabulous Ou Est Le Swimming Pool to DJ between sets. Yes, that’s right, the same Ou Est Le Swimming Pool that finished in our top “10 for 2010″ poll last year. The same Ou Est Le Swimming Pool that are supporting La Roux in a few months. Oh yes.

So, if you’re at a loss as to what to do on Saturday night, why not pop down to Camden’s Roundhouse studios to catch some ace live music? doors are at 7:30pm on 20th March 2010 and tickets are on sale now for those of you that like a discount and planning ahead – they’re just £5 now and will be £6 on the door. Or, if you don’t fancy paying, you can win one of two pairs of tickets to the event here.

You can order your tickets now on the Roundhouse’s website, or join the Facebook event.

‘Listener friendly’ may be a cliché way of describing the homegrown songs by Fraser Gregory, folk-pop singer of London band Fraser. But it’s also one that certainly works. As a self-professed ponderer I think a lot of the themes are quite personal. The single, for example, talks about the need to be straight up in relationships, the times when you have to put your cards on the table and be upfront about things, even if it means losing the thing you love.

Gregory admits that a majority of the songs written for his band’s debut album, ‘A Garden At The Top Of The Tree’ are filled with a ’sense of contemplation’ – be it love, life and the universal mysteries that practically any human can relate to.

Perhaps that’s one of the best qualities about this 10-track album, the fact that anyone can understand it and come to love it. Pop fans will indulge its accessibility, indie fans will adore its originality, and folk fans will enjoy its melodies.

Let’s not forgot soul either. There’s plenty of that flowing throughout the album, too. For starters, the band’s first and radio-friendly single, ‘Lay It On The Line’, explores the importance of transparency – regardless of the outcome – when it comes to relationships.

If the electro-elements blended with the catchy melodies, don’t grab at you, then the following track, ‘Laughter’, definitely will. Another standout track, it’s is the type of song that stirs a double take, simply because it’s so good. Sure, that’s a pretty elementary way of describing it, but sometimes there are not enough adjectives to give a song the justice it deserves. Think of a less cheesy James Taylor on vocals, an infectious riff, layered on top of a glorious melody. See, I warned you it would be a lame description.

And just as in life, there are plenty of highs and lows echoing throughout the album, a teeter-tooter of emotion if you will. Songs like ‘Let It Rain’ and the string-laden, Snow Patrol-esque ‘Old Tree’ offer a sincere mellowness that is somber yet likeable.

The smoothness of the album continues with the rockier and edginess of ‘Bouboulina Sunshine’, which if you’re still living in the ‘60s, you may regard it as some obscure bside from the Liverpool Fab Four. Again, the recycled theme of ‘accessible’ is what highlights this track as an album standout.

Overall, Fraser is set to release a polished album that is filled with emotion and creativity that anyone with blood flowing in their veins will understand. Get ready, this band carries the goods to conquer the world.

You’ve probably heard us wittering on about the amazing night of joy and great tunes, Blog Off!? that happens THIS SATURDAY (yes, 20th March 2010). We’ve got Victoria & Jacob, Jazica and Starlings all playing, and a few extra surprises coming too.

And, although they’re going like hot cakes, we’ve held back four tickets (that’s two pairs for two lucky people) to win.

All you have to do is leave your name and email below and we’ll pick two winners at random. We’ll close the competition mid Saturday morning most likely, and we’ll email the winners.

So what are you waiting for? Enter below and we’ll get in touch if you’re a winner!

If you don’t win, doors are at 7:30pm on 20th March 2010 and tickets are on sale now for those of you that like a discount and planning ahead – they’re just £5 now and will be £6 on the door.

You can order your tickets now on the Roundhouse’s website, or join the Facebook event.

I’ll admit it. I had never heard post-rock band Kyte before, but I’ll blame that on location more than anything else. Now that I’ve had the fine opportunity to review their upcoming album, Dead Waves, I’m just as curious to delve into their back catalog and discover even more of their ambiguous beauty. This four-piece band hailing from Leicestershire delivers an addictive dose of lush sounds and atmospheric pop that will leave you craving more.

Needless to say, Dead Waves isn’t the type of album you’d put on before hitting the town for a wild night out, although it certainly will come in handy if you’re feeling delicate the following the morning. Still, the album can also be enjoyed even if you’re not wallowing in post-hangover stooper.

The band have been compared to Sigur Ros and Snow Patrol for their sweeping, broad-ranging sounds and pure melodies, but there also tends to be a major parallel to fellow English band Athlete, especially with “You’re Alone Tonight” and “Designed For Damage”, which leans heavily on electro-pop and melodic bliss.

The twelve-song album may seem like a lengthy amount to the iTunes generation, yet the infectious pop and smooth mellowness ebbs and flows throughout the LP gives an impression you’re surfing upon an ocean with steady waves, rather than dead ones as the album title suggests.
As the album progresses, another striking aspect that the band does so seemingly well is balance earnest lyrics against a rising backdrop of percussion and building guitars. This kind of sober intensity is heard through standout tracks “Like She Said” and “Each Life Critical.”

Kyte is the type of band that can draw the most casual listener in with the first song and make them a mega fan by the end of the album. Or at least that’s what seems to have happened with me anyway. Immediately following the band’s 7 ½ minute closer and album title Dead Waves, I had the strong urge of listening to the album all over again. I have a feeling I’m not the only who will pine for another round of listening.

Kyte’s Dead Waves is released on KIDS on 19th April 2010 on CD and Download.

There Goes The Fear are so super duper excited to be hosting their first official gig this coming Saturday (March 20th), we could actually, explode… Blog Off! will be taking place at the Roundhouse studios in Camden Town, London. You can grab all the details, such as ticket prices and starting times here.

Among the act’s playing on the night include indie synth superstars, Starlings (who we first introduced earlier in the year), as well as infectious electro pioneers Jazica.

We’re are also proud to be featuring upcoming duo Victoria & Jacob, on the bill.

Hailing from London, Victoria & Jacob are a robotic pair, making glacier electro with an ice creamy edge. The slow paces of the tin-foil synths have an edge of drowsy melancholy to them. The fairytail, bouncy vocals meanwhile (which NME quite correctly compared to a drunken Joanna Newsom!) allow for a silky contrast, resulting in an atmospheric morse-code mass of sound which is both ambient as well as eclectic (listen out for the temper-fuelled screams of Megadeath, if you don’t believe the latter choice of word!).

And remember to check out Victoria & Jacob, as well as Jazica and Starlings, live at Blog Off! this coming Saturday at the Roundhouse Studios, London. It’ll be ace.

MTV Gonzo has been back for its new series for a couple of weeks now, but tomorrow’s episode is the one that I’m most excited about so far – Plan B. Not usually my cup of tea at all, but I will admit freely that I’ve fallen in love with the six tracks I’ve heard of his new album “The Defamation Of Strickland Banks”.

Plan B (or Ben Drew to his Mum) has gone all soulboy on us, having the sort of influences that you’d get from listening to daytime radio on Magic in the mid 90’s. Apparently in the interview he claims his new album is “like Glee with bollocks”, which sounds like just my sort of music, and an interview that should be funny. He’ll also be chatting to Zane Lowe on the brown couch and doing an acoustic performance of new single ‘She Said’ – watch the official video here (featuring Effy from Skins).

Joining Zane for the second dose of brown-love (get your mind out of the gutter!) will be Kids in Glass Houses from the Valleys of South Wales. The pop-punkers reveal which member of the band can be found on YouTube crowd surfing at a Glassjaw gig, and explain which song guitarist Iain wrote in his bedroom in his underpants.

Meanwhile, the Gonzo Report comes from youtube phenomenon Midnight Beast. Admittedly, when I saw that name I was like “errrr, who?!”, but it turns out they do the sort of well-honed parodies that you’d be stupid to not find funny. Watch this version of Ke$ha’s Tik Tok to get a feel for how great they’ll be.

You can catch this episode of Gonzo tomorrow, Tuesday 16th March 2010 at 10pm on MTV Rocks (formerly MTV 2), or find out more on Gonzo’s website and get involved on Gonzo’s Twitter.

Editor’s note: For the sake of disclosure, I want to state for the record that I have very strong feelings on this topic, and I will do my utmost to present the facts and keep my emotions to a minimum.

Every year the BBC Trust conducts an audit of all BBC Radio stations to analyse their listenership and whether they’re getting the best value for their money, as all BBC radio stations are funded by the state and paid for by UK residents. On 02 March the Trust confirmed a proposal to close of two of its digital stations: 6music, the Beeb’s alternative music station, and the Asian Network, broadcasting Asian music, news, entertainment, culture, debate and drama. According to an article published in the Guardian the same day, Director General Mark Thompson stated, “even to propose the closure of BBC services is a very big and in some ways painful step. There’s lots of great content on BBC 6 Music and some real talent …[but the station was] expensive … given its relatively small audience.”

BBC Radio 6 describes itself as a station that “brings together the cutting edge of today and the iconic and groundbreaking music of the past 40 years.” Indie music stalwart Steve Lamacq (pictured above), who currently hosts a 3-hour evening drivetime programme Monday through Friday on the station, posted a quite eloquent entry on his personal Web site’s blog with his thoughts on 6music’s closure, including these that I believe are two very important bits to contemplate:

On a personal level, I believe that shutting 6music would be disastrous for the British music scene – and alternative music from further a field too. There is so much music being played every week on Six that simply doesn’t get played anywhere else, that losing it would be unthinkable … The cultural hole it would leave if scrapped, would have terrible repercussions for everyone from small promoters to indie labels to bands and to music fans of all ages. We’d be denying people the chance to hear music which could – even in just a few cases – alter their life, as listening to John Peel changed mine.

Ex-Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker, who recently joined the 6music team as a Sunday afternoon presenter at the start of 2010, had this to say about the closure:

As far as I can see, a station like Radio 6 is perfectly in the spirit of what the BBC was supposedly set up to do – public service broadcasting. It’s airing music that wouldn’t get heard otherwise.

Many other artists, including Emmy the Great, David Bowie, Frankie and the Heartstrings, La Roux and Mark Ronson, just to name a few, have voiced their opposition to the closing of 6music, which just celebrated its 8th birthday on Thursday the 11th of March. Loyal listeners have also become involved in the fight to save the station, starting Facebook and Twibbon campaigns and organising petitions and demonstrations, all in an effort to make their voices heard.

No matter which side you’re on, you can see this is a very charged, passionate battle being fought. If you wish to weigh in on this issue, you have until 25 May to complete an online survey, part of the Strategy Review Consultation, here.

As you can imagine, there is much in the media on this proposal. And below are just some links that we think you may find interesting on this topic.

BBC – In Quotes: Reactions to BBC Cuts

The Independent – BBC radio stars hit out over 6 Music closure plans

Music Week - Viewpoint: Beggars Group chairman Martin Mills

The Times Online – BBC chairman Sir Michael Lyons admits licence fee cut possible

Soulful singer-songwriter Pete Lawrie feels that his music is very hard to classify. He says, “If I had to give my current sound a name, I would call it Southern blues country rock skiffle hop tronica, whilst cringing at my own pretension.” But that explanation over-complicates things. When I listen to his EP, ‘How Could I Complain?,’  what I’m struck by is the simplicity and authenticity of his music. There are no gimmicks and there’s nothing over-thought, it’s just a man expressing himself beautifully through his music.

While there’s nothing particularly groundbreaking about his music, there doesn’t have to be. His bruised, growling voice drips with the emotion behind the songs, and it’s this that really captivates the listener. In his biog, he explains that “the last few years have been without doubt the most amazing, eye-opening, terrifying, hilarious, devastating, glorious times in [his] life,” and it’s this emotion that resonates through the songs.

The four-track EP takes it’s name from the first track, ‘How Could I Complain?’. In it, Lawrie asks “So tell me how could I complain?” when he hasn’t experienced some horrible things like deaths in the family, and philosophizes, “you wouldn’t know joy if you didn’t have pain.” This mid-tempo track has a very rustic feel to it, which you really get a sense of in the video below. Second track, ‘Panic,’ has a raw, visceral feel to it. With Lawrie’s raspy voice over pounding piano, hand claps, cowbell and distorted guitars, you get the feeling your listening to an exposed nerve. The second half of the EP is a lot slower and more laid-back, but doesn’t lose any of it’s emotional intensity. ‘Paperthin’ uses strings and tinkling piano to great effect, and is very relaxing to listen to, and ‘Jimmy and the Birds on Fire’ is simple and beautiful, really showcasing Lawrie’s voice.

So if you’re tired of voices that have all the emotion auto-tuned out of them, then give Pete Lawrie a shot – his voice will make you feel emotions you never even knew you had.

‘How Could I Complain’ will be released on 5th April 2010. Pete Lawrie is on tour now with Turin Brakes. See our ticket alert for more information.

English piano rock outfit Keane have been known for their uplifting, piano-driven tracks (think ‘Somewhere Only We Know’) from their debut album ‘Hopes and Fears’ (2004) through their most recent release, ‘Perfect Symmetry’ (2008). While their use of piano as their primary instrument rather than guitar is certainly different than most other bands out there, they’ve never strayed far from this distinctive Keane sound. If the track ‘Stop for a Minute’ is anything to go by, then that’s all going to change with their upcoming EP, ‘Night Train.’

Seeking to experiment with their sound, last summer Keane collaborated with a number of people, most notably Kanye West, but their most fruitful collaboration was with Somali/Canadian rapper K’Naan. They recorded two songs for the EP with the socially conscious musician, including ‘Looking Back’ and ‘Stop for A Minute.’ Lead vocalist Tom Chaplin has said “I think those tracks show us in a completely different light,” and I have to agree.

But for any fans worried about their new direction, it’s still distinctly Keane. In fact, ‘Stop for A Minute’ sounds exactly like what you’d expect if you put a rapper on a Keane song. The track has a stronger, more hip-hop inspired beat than most Keane songs, but the piano and Tom’s powerful vocals are still there in full force. While Tom Chaplin and K’Naan trade off on vocals throughout the verses, they’re both singing – the only actual rapping happens in the bridge, and it’s integrated seamlessly. So take a deep breath, Keane fans, and enjoy this irrepressible track. As it says on their website, “It’s still Keane, and it’s still ace. Trufax.”

‘Night Train’ will be released on CD and available for download on 10 May, and you can pre-order a special numbered edition of the EP through the Keane Store right now by clicking here. They will be touring the UK in June, read our ticket alert for more information, and click below to purchase tickets for the remaining three dates that aren’t sold out.