Everytime I hear Ealing band, White Lies, I truly get a sense of excitment rush through me. They are undoubtedly one of the bands I am most excited to hear from this year and I’m not surprised that they’ve gained a place in the BBC’s Sound of 2009 poll.

White Lies effortlessly draw you into their world of dark and mysterious indie thanks to the addictive hooks tinting the choruses of their epic tunes. You may have heard the track ‘Death’, released in September last year. “Yes, this fear’s got a hold on me” frontman, Harry McVeigh gut wrenchingly wails. Such single defines the band’s music perfectly – beautifully twisted tunes consisting of gritty bass lines, techno synths and deep vocals. They are poetically gloomy, but not in a My Chemical Romance, emo way. Think more vintage Echo and the Bunneymen and Joy Divison – or Editors, The Killers and Interpol if you want more current comparisons. Pretty exciting, huh?

The band’s album, appropriately darkly-titled “To Lose My Life…” is released on January 19th. You can pre-order the album now over at Amazon. While you’re here, why not check out the video to the band’s awesome debut single, ‘Death’:

Top Photo is taken from Danny North’s Flickr Stream under the Creative Commons License.

I know, it’s been a while since I’ve done one of these posts.

First up, following on from Mike’s posts about his tips for BBC’s Sound of 2009 competition (part 1 here, part 2 here), they’ve announced the longlist, which features no less than FIVEartists we have already featured on TGTF. The longlist sees Dan Black (who we featured here and here, and is pictured, right), Florence and the Machine (who we introduced here), La Roux (who we introduced here), White Lies (who we gave details of their tour here).  VV Brown has also been tipped in comments around the site too. On the longlist, they’re joined by:The Big Pink, Empire of the Sun, Frankmusik, Kid Cudi, Lady GaGa, Little Boots, Master Shortie, Mumford & Sons, Passion Pit and The Temper Trap.

Phew, there’s a lot of new music there! To conteract the newness of those, we bring you an oldie but a goldie: Tom Jones, but as you’ve never seen him before….

If that’s not some clever CGI, I don’t know what is…

Our friends over at Gig Junkie have pointed out that they have a lot of pretty amazing competitions going at the moment - if times are tight for you, pop on over and enter a competition or two - they have the chance to win tickets to see Kings of Leon, VIP style.

It seems rather a lot of you love Nickelback (pictured, right, and who incidentally are on tour next year… see my seamless link there?), so you might want to check out some exclusive tracks they played in the USA recently. I’ve had “Gotta Be Somebody” stuck in my head recently, and got to admit that slowly they’re getting under my skin!

Our friends over at Winston’s Zen have just posted their new monthy Zen list of all things great and free in MP3 land - check it out and have a listen.

Right, I think that’s it for tonight… I’m off to have a listen to those of the BBC Sound of 2009 longlist nominees that I don’t know much about, and Winston’s Zen’s new MP3s….

NME have announced their annual NME awards tour next January and February.

The frankly amazing lineup sees Glasvegas, Friendly Fires, White Lies and Florence and the Machine all take to the road together for what is surely going to be one of the most epic tours known to mankind.

The tour culminates in the NME Awards show at Brixton Academy on Wednesday 25th February.

Tickets go on sale from 9am tomorrow, Wednesday 12th November.

Catch the tour at:

Thursday 29th January - Liverpool University
Friday 30th January - Glasgow Academy
Sunday 1st February - Newcastle Academy
Tuesday 3rd February - Sheffield Academy
Wednesday 4th February - Birmingham Academy
Friday 6th February - Manchester Academy
Sunday 8th February - Leeds Academy
Tuesday 10th February - Lincolnshire Engine Shed
Wednesday 11th February - Nottingham Rock City
Thursday 12th February - Norwich UEA
Saturday 14th February - Cardiff University
Sunday 15th February - Bristol Academy
Monday 16th February - Brighton Dome
Tuesday 17th February - Oxford Academy
Thursday 19th February - Portsmouth Pyramid
Friday 20th February - Cambridge Corn Exchange
Saturday 21st February - Brixton Academy

Wow.

White Lies, the rapidly getting big NME hype band have announced another string of UK tour dates for late November.

Two days after their Koko show they’ll be back off around the UK, supporting Glasvegas on their trek around the UK.

Tickets are on sale now, priced between £6 and £11.50.

Thursday 20th November - Gloucester Guildhall
Friday 21st November - Southampton Joiners
Saturday 22nd November - Hull Welly Club (Club NME)
Sunday 23rd November - Stoke-On-Trent Sugarmill
Wednesday 26th November - London Koko

White Lies, the rapidly getting big NME hype band have announced a string of UK tour dates for late September and early October.

Catch them at the below dates. Tickets are on sale now, so get them whilst they’re hot!

Sunday 21st September - Cardiff Club Ifor Bach
Monday 22nd September - Manchester Night And Day
Wednesday 24th September - Wolverhampton Little Civic
Thursday 25th September - Nottingham Bodega
Friday 26th September - Sheffield Leadmill
Sunday 28th September - Bristol Thekla
Monday 29th September - Brighton Komedia
Wednesday 1st October - Norwich Arts Centre
Thursday 2ns October - Newcastle The Cluny
Friday 3rd October - Glasgow King Tuts
Saturday 4th October - Leeds Faversham
Monday 6th October - Oxford Academy
Tuesday 7th October - London ICA

Crystal Castles have been anounced to be playing the first ever NME New Noise Tour in May this year. They’ll be joined by Friendly Fires, Team Waterpolo and White Lies for the jaunt around the UK.

Tickets go on sale tomorrow (Tuesday 11th March) at 9am from See Tickets.

Friday 2nd May - Oxford Carling Academy
Saturday 3rd May - Bristol Thekla
Sunday 4th May - Norwich Waterfront
Monday 5th May - Brighton Concorde 2
Tuesday 6th May - Nottingham Rescue Rooms
Thursday 8th May - Birmingham Carling Academy 2
Saturday 10th May - Glasgow Arches
Sunday 11th May - Newcastle Carling Academy 2
Monday 12th May - Manchester Academy 2
Wednesday 14th May - London Mean Fiddler
Thursday 15th May - Stoke Sugarmill