Band of the Moment #6

It’s been a while since our last ‘Band of the Moment’ but we’re back with a fantastic new 4 piece who hail from Scotland – Edinburgh to be exact – ‘The Cosmonauts’.

With four recordings up on their reverbnation page you’ll soon become completely hooked with all of them like we did. The first single we heard, ‘Dawn Breaks’ opens us up the band with a cheery, summer-tinged record. A perfect accompaniment to the beautiful weather we’ve been having here in London. ‘Dawn Breaks’ offers a 60’s sounding vibe, with a hint of the Coral but the soft guitar riffs keep this fresh and modern. However any premonitions or pigeon holes you may have placed The Cosmonauts in are quickly blown away when the punky, rocky sounding ‘The Howl’ begins. Think of it as the love child of the White Stripes, The Pixies and early Kings of Leons – and any other beer soaked rock band you’ve encountered – in short, it’s epic.  Their Rockabilly sounds continue with ‘Tell Me’, but just when you think you have ‘The Cosmonauts’ vibe locked down up steps ‘Memoirs’ and the folksy country sound that floats out your speakers once again shatters your preconceptions.

This is an incredibly diverse band, probably the most diverse we’ve reviewed. The Cosmonauts really do offer something for everyone and we believe will constantly come up with the goods to please and surprise. Every artist we’ve put into the ‘Band of the Moment’ section we believe are heading for success but if The Cosmonauts aren’t a favoured choice of alternative music in the next few years then something’s seriously wrong.  We’re certainly going to be following these with great interest and hope they make the trip to London for a gig soon.

Check them out for yourselves here;

http://www.reverbnation.com/cosmonauts69

https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Cosmonauts/288995347872
http://www.myspace.com/cosmonauts69
https://twitter.com/thecosmonauts69

The Vex - A Fools Desire

Firm Mixed Musings favourites ‘The Vex’ revealed their darker sounding vibe with new release ‘A Fools Desire’ today. The clash-esque style of the previous releases has edged away and a rougher, darker sound blasts out in this two minute beast.

They keep the ska edge which they play so well but when combined with possibly their strongest lyrical offering to date, along with the heavier bass lines and rockier concoction they’ve produced, in our opinion, their best single yet.

If you’re still yet to check out The Vex at the best – live on stage, then make sure you head down to the Camden Barfly next Thursday (5^th April) and see for yourselves why they're the one of the best unsigned bands in dear old Blighty.

A skint Friday night waiting for summer...

Having spent all our money once again on tickets to more festivals than we should have (Benicassim taking the majority of the pot) along with the Stone Roses and Blur gigs we’re flat broke so are spending the night sat at home, watching the Ronnie Wood show.

Thankfully there’s nothing better than discovering new acts, so rather than wasting the evening we’ve going through the latest artists announced for our last festival of the year the amazing Bestival, and so far we’ve discovered a few new acts to check out when we’re there, but one we’ll most definitely be stopping by on is the stunning Nina Nesbitt.

Recently we’ve found ourselves leaning towards more acoustic, folk music – most probably due to this winter seemingly lasting forever, this kind of music just resonates sunshine, warmth and festivals. So we’re pleased to add another artist to our repertoire. She’s already built quite a following, bolstered no doubt by her current position of supporting Ed Sheeran (of which comparisons too are unavoidable). However we’re not that big on Ed, whereas so far Nina’s winning us over – especially when we learnt she’s only been gigging for less than a year! The cover of JME is unusual yet it kind of works, but what sets Miss Nesbitt apart are her own tracks, ‘Skeletons’, ‘Glue’ and ‘Noserings & Shoestrings’ our current favourites.

It’s discovering artists like this that make festivals so amazing and currently Bestival is the event we’re most looking forward to this summer, if your coming as well then check out the wonderful Nina Nesbitt, you won’t regret it.

Band of the Moment #5

We know you’re probably (not) gutted that we missed last week’s best band of the moment blog, but never fear we’re back this week the delectable tones of ‘mylittlebrother’. Going against our usual preference of loud, brash, punchy, guitar driven anthems the calm and delicate songs from the band quickly found their way out of our speakers again and again.

Within the first half of mylittlebrother’s opening track, ‘Genevieve’ we knew this would be a band that we enjoy, fittingly perfect for this lazy Sunday afternoon we’re having. Simplicity is the key with their EP, and that is in no way a negative point, it’s proof that a well written song needn’t be over produced. The second track, Disney Films is probably our least favourite track but any doubts were soon washed away as the uplifting third track ‘Steve’ begins. From here the collection just grows and grows. From the piano led and firm favourite ‘Forty Eight, Blue Eyes’, with the soft background of distorted guitar combined with fuzzy vocals to the quicker foot-tapping melodies of ‘NoseDive’ with  harmonies that only serve to show off the beauty of mylittlebrothers story telling lyrics. 

A chance follow on twitter led us to discover these beautiful emotion filled songs, and we’ll be following the progress of mylittlebrother with great interest. If you’re a fan of folk music then you will love them, and if you’re not, then chances are you’ll probably love them anyway.

Check them out for yourselves on the links below and as always thoughts and comments are more than welcome!

http://www.soundclound.com/mylittlebrother
http://www.twitter.com/mlittlebrother
http://www.myspace.com/574536372
http://www.youtube.com/mylittlebrothermusic
http://mylittlebrothermusic.tumblr.com/
http://www.thisismyjam.com/mylittlebrother