Sunday 24 June 2012

Arcs and Trauma

 

Happy Sunday.

It's been a while. However, thegeneral are back with a bang and introducing yet another wonderful band to you all. 

Today it's the turn of Arcs and Trauma, a wonderful band from Hartlepool. Hartlepool seems to be producing some great bands at the moment, see previous post on TUSK (who I never seem to shut up about). However, Arcs and Trauma are equally worth a few moments of your time. They have such a complex sound, really good strong guitars that are beautifully melodic and punchy, grabbing vocals that steer the songs along excitedly. Please to be having a look at their bandcamp page (link below) and in particular their latest EP "White To Violet" which you can preview in full. You can also listen to and buy their other two EPs there too. Do yourselves a favour! They're brilliant.


 


















Sunday 10 June 2012

Ninetails











 Blue Bottle Flu cover art                                                                                    
Happy Sunday.

Here's a wonderful new band to see out the weekend with. Hailing from Liverpool, Ninetails are an incredibly exciting sound. They're not your average bunch of three chord wonders. Far from it, they're a band of immense melodical delicacy and lovely guitar licks. I previously talked about a group called TUSK from Hartlepool who are probably my favourite new band. If you've listened to and liked TUSK, you'll like Ninetails for sure. Here's a link to their bandcamp site. Do yourselves a favour and give them a go!

superstardestroyer.bandcamp.com







Saturday 26 May 2012

Vigo Thieves



It's Saturday. Here's another blog to help the weekend on it's way. Vigo Thieves are a brilliant band from the Scottish town of Wishaw (same place as Snooker player John Higgins hails from, fact fans!) They've been together since 2008, but the critics seem to think this will be their year. They released their EP "Heart and Soul Part One" on 5th March and the YouTube link above is one of the featured tracks "She's On Fire".
If you like Simple Minds, New Order and U2 then Vigo Thieves will be right up your street. Soulful, moody but without the arse factor. Great band with a great future. Go listen!

Saturday 19 May 2012

Blast From The Past - CUD

Happy Saturday.

Today we're taking a trip back through the archives to celebrate the wonderful news that CUD are reforming and rehearsing for a small tour which begins next month, details are all here CUD TOUR DATES .

It's also the twentieth anniversary of Rich and Strange being released too - with this in mind I've included the YouTube link for those of us who want to be reminded just how awesome they are, and for those of you who have never heard how awesome they were. Also included is the link to one of their other brilliant tracks, Slack Time.

What set CUD apart from many other bands was that they were difficult to pigeonhole. Not traditional Indie, nor rock, but very funky and stylish - they combined brilliant guitar hooks with surely one of the greatest voices ever heard, that of their lead singer Carl Puttnam. I always maintained he was the indie Tom Jones - still do. His voice has lost none of its power or appeal in the time the band have been apart.

Go see them live. Do it.

Sunday 13 May 2012

The Douglas Firs

 ep1. cover art



thedouglasfirs.bandcamp.com

Here's a post I'd been meaning to do for a while and for various reasons didn't get round to. The Douglas Firs are the brainchild of musician Neil Insh and a group of friends who hail from Aberdeen and Edinburgh variously. The music they produce is ethereal, very beautiful. Multi-layered compositions with breathy, whispering vocals that really draw you in. Each time you hear a track you find something new to focus on. Last year saw the release of the debut album "Happy As A Windless Flag" and this year the release of a new EP (in March). You can find all of the above on their Bandcamp site - link above. It's completely different to anything you'll ever have heard before and needs a few listens to full appreciate how fantastic it is. But fantastic it is, and hopefully a new album will be popping up later on this year. Definitely worth a few moments of your time.












Saturday 12 May 2012

Culann





Happy Saturday. Today's offering comes via a great band from Irvine called Culann. They've been around for about three years or so now and have a unique and interesting sound. Part prog rock, part indie, rather excellent. For a band that's relatively unknown they've managed to play King Tuts in Glasgow ten times already. You can download their song "Beat Your Chest" for literally nought pence from bandcamp (link is below). I recommend you do so. They are releasing an album later on this year and if "Beat Your Chest" is anything to go by it really bodes well. Good work, lads. Fucking excellent in fact. Culann. Gie yer ears a treat, ken.

culann.bandcamp.com