The Uglysuit are one of those bands that can pick you up on a Monday morning and make you feel smug about your life. Their sweet mellow tunes have been catching the critics ears and getting a host of complements and success forecasts. Considering lead singer Israel Hindman used to be a member of a screamo band, The Uglysuit have come some way to get where they are now.

The band sound like a mellow Red Light Company or the soft songs that Jet ocassionaly do. Jangly guitars with clean electric leads give a warm and easy listening atmosphere while pitch perfect vocals make it a struggle to stop listening to a track. The band are apparently influenced by apple pie making it sound like they’re under the influence but religion is said to be the driving force behind the ballads they bake up. Prayer circles and praising all take place before gigs and it certainly sounds as if the band have the man upstairs’ backing but the songs do not sound like they’re preaching a way of life, instead they give a beautiful and thoughtful soundtrack to your life.

The track “Chicago” has to be the bands big hit and everything from its progressive sound to its brain soothing melodies is executed to great effect. The chorus is huge and will have have you humming all week but elsewhere, songs such as “…And We Became Sunshine” back up the bands quality with a more upbeat tempo and fantastic piano/guitar duelling.

There’s nothing Ugly about this band (you heard worse) and as long as they create this standard of music they’ll hit the jackpot. It would be nice hear one or two more upbeat tunes but The Uglysuit are great for evening music or in fact anytime of day.

We first introduced you to Red Light Company last year (when we also caught them live), and now they’ve announced their first full tour of 2009, stopping off at some of the toilet circuit’s best venues.

Tickets are on sale now, priced between £6 and £9.50 each.

Catch the lads at:

Saturday 7th March 2009 -Liverpool Korova (Ticketweb)
Sunday 8th March 2009 – Hull Adelphi (Ticketweb)
Monday 9th March 2009 – Dundee Fat Sams
Tuesday 10th March 2009 – Glasgow Nice and Sleazy
Wednesday 11th March 2009 – Newcastle Cluny (Ticketweb)
Friday 13th March 2009 – Sheffield Leadmill (Ticketweb)
Saturday 14th March 2009 – York Fibbers (Ticketweb)
Sunday 15th March 2009 – Leeds Cockpit (See Tickets)
Monday 16th March 2009 – Nottingham Bodega (See Tickets)
Tuesday 17th March 2009 – Birmingham Academy 3 (Ticketweb, See Tickets)
Wednesday 18th March 2009 – Manchester Roadhouse (See Tickets)
Friday 20th March 2009 – Southampton Joiners (See Tickets, We Got Tickets)
Saturday 21st March 2009 – Cheltenham Frog and Fiddle (See Tickets)
Sunday 22nd March 2009 – Bristol Thekla (See Tickets)
Monday 23rd March 2009 – Cardiff Barfly (Ticketweb)
Tuesday 24th March 2009 – London Borderline (See Tickets)
Wednesday 25th March 2009 – Norwich Arts Centre (See Tickets, We Got Tickets)

So, I’m trying a new thing this week: A “daily roundup” of everything that doesn’t merit a complete post of its own. It won’t be literally every day (I do go out sometimes you know), but will be a collection of new MP3s, Videos, music etc.

It’s scary how quickly this Reading and Leeds festivals have been and (almost) gone. I’ve not really caught much coverage on the BBC of the festivals, but have checked out some of the ace videos and pictures. Particuarly loving the fact that Red Light Company are getting so much coverage from Zane Lowe, following on from my live review and initial introduction. Bloc Party look to have been amazing too – check out their live set available here for 7 days.

MP3: Red Light Company – Fascination
MP3: Red Light Company – Scheme Eugene
MP3: Red Light Company – With Lights Out

This time next week I’ll be in Scotland at Hydro Connect Festival, getting mouth wettingly-excited for the closing nights combination of Sigur Ros and Franz Ferdinand. I’ve spent much of today sorting out some pretty mundane things about the festival, like driving and what sort of coverage we’ll be having. I’ve had a look at the brilliant Winston’s Zen, who was at last weekend’s V Festival and getting a few ideas about how to live-blog the festival, amount of coverage etc. It’s gonna be hard to judge just what’s best until we get there, so don’t be suprised if you get tonnes, or next to nothing coverage wise.

One thing we’ve been having to look at is how to camp – I originally requested camping tickets, but got non-camping tickets, so have been looking at other options for us, from Tangerine Fields‘ bespoke camping options, to the goregous wendy-house style Podpads via the eco-friendly myhab’s – I’d honestly never really considered anything other than a tent, or a hotel for the posho’s.

Traditionally, August is quite a quiet time for the music industry – bands are off playing the festivals, people are on holidays, and generally the live music biz is taking a well-earned break ahead of the onslught of year-end tours. However, this week we’ve had no end of new tour announcements, with The Fratellis, Kaiser Chiefs, The Whip, Laura Marling, Joan as a Policewoman, Slipknot and Martha Wainwright all announcing stints around the UK this winter. I’m not expecting this week to have quite as many new tour announcements, but fingers crossed – this winter’s shaping up to be a great live experience.

“So, erm, this is a song about death!” mumbled Richard Frenneaux, lead singer of Red Light Company when introducing “With lights Out” last night at London’s Camden Barfly. Let’s be honest – as you may be able to tell from that little quote, they’re not a light hearted, fun band like the Hoosiers or We Are Scientists. However, what they lack in fun they more than make up for in depth and darkness, as they showed the packed Barfly.

Earlier in the evening A Silent Film had brought a hint of Keane and awful Dad dancing to the stage for the first support slot. Movie-esque music, layered and gorgeous, but ultimately nothing that Keane, Coldplay and Longview haven’t tried before. However, the one thing that Keane and others haven’t tried was their interesting cover of Underworld’s Born Slippy, which suddenly had a dreamy feel to it… interesting, thought it’d take a few more listens to get us really convinced that they can pull it off.

They were followed by the awful Holy Ghost Revival who seemed to just want to cause trouble with their “seen-it-all-before” 70’s rock rip-offs. Halfway through their set a waterfight broke out between crowd and band, leaving their keyboard temporarily broken and a 5 minute interlude, before they unfortunately resumed their noise. The only good thing was the fact that lead singer Mikko Freeman responded to hecklers: “Yes, we’re gay stoner cowboys! Finally, London gets us!” he remarked. Yes, and we wish you’d just go with the other cowboys.

At this point, our faith in the London music scene was diminishing rapidly, and an early night was on the cards. However, when Red Light Company finally took to the stage at 10pm, we were immediately enthralled. To describe their music as a mixture of Black-Market Music era Placebo, Interpol and Hot Fuss era Killers would be doing them an injustice – they’re more than the sum of their parts, darker and catchier than many bands out there.

Frenneaux appeared distant throughout the set not really interacting at all, seemingly pre-occupied with other things, but managed to fill the stage with his gaunt frame. Surely he’s got to be a shoe-in for Brian Molko’s replacement for confused teenagers across the UK now that Molko has gone all disco-dance on us? Time will tell.

Previous single “Scheme Eugene” was thrown in early in the set, giving Frenneaux and bassist Shawn Day a chance to show off their vocal skills, and a chance for an early rock-out. Current single “Meccano” went down a treat mid-set, having everyone singing along and really going for it, following on from airplay with Jo Whiley and Zane Lowe on Radio 1. Closing out their set, there were no theatrics, just a simple thank you and off they trundled to their next gig.

If they work on connecting with their audience a bit more, then surely mega-fame is just around the corner for Red Light Company.

Photos and stuff to follow.

Fresh from supporting previous “Band to watch” the Kissaway Trail and Editors at various points in the past few months, London’s Red Light Company are currently pounding the touring circuit around the UK, and hopefully will start making pretty massive waves in the UK music scene soon.

The five-piece sounds like the bastard lovechild of early Placebo and Suede bought up to date for the 00’s emo kids. Androgynous, powerful, driven and still full of emotion, Richard Frenneaux’s voice has at times the nasal whine of Brian Molko, at others the fragile-and-close-to-breaking shout of Win Butler.

Backed up by a deafening wall of guitars that you’ll either love or hate, their initial tracks up on their myspace are pretty strong for a debut, and are almost certainly the reason they were signed a couple of months ago to Lavolta Records.

Definately ones to be watching in the coming weeks and months, as they mature their sound and work on (hopefully) an album. Hopefully (from my perspective) they’ll grow to fill the void left by Placebo at the moment in the music industry.

After the jump: their halloween video, and tour dates for later this month and early May.

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