Introducing: The Carpels

The five Birmingham born lads that make up The Carpels have already caused a stir in the media due to their incredibly interesting and refreshing sound. Rather than just being another generic indie band, the Carpels have combined indie/rock guitar sounds with an almost ska/punk-like beat along with electro synths and unique vocals to create songs worth listening to.

The band kicked off their UK tour last weekend at Birmingham’s Artsfest. It’s only when you see them live that you realise the already made comparison between The Carpel’s lead singer Dylan Williams with Joy division’s Ian Curtis goes beyond the deep vocals and continues through to the unpredictable dance moves! The band are set to return to their hometown of Birmingham midway through their UK tour to support Reverend and the Makers – a night that shouldn’t be missed!

It’s obvious to see when they’re performing that the band ‘gel’ well together. Confidence and natural chemistry when performing are always good qualities for a band to have. Despite ‘messing around’ in bands since they were young, it’s a blessing that these talented lads have decided to make a go of it. With the attention that they’re already receiving, it’s pretty much inevitable that these guys are going to make it. Bring on the album!

See published review: http://www.danceyrselfclean.com/introducing/introducing-the-carpels

November 7th - Birmingham

I've got a tonne of gigs planned for the upcoming concert season, but there's one that I'm particularly looking forward to.

When you see your favourite band, it's usually the case that you stand there bored shitless while the support bands play seemingly endless sets. Well, on November 7th, Spector are being supported by not just one amazingly indie band, but two; Swim Deep and Splashh.

I discovered Spector at Chazzstock. They've got a really cool and quirky personality which really radiates when they perform. 

I cannot contain my excitement about seeing my Brummie favourites, Swim Deep! 

Splashh - the love child of the Stone Roses and The Jesus and Mary Chain

Feedback

The internet is a wonderful thing!

My page views started to go up insanely quickly which I thought was pretty random. Turns out that The Carpels found this blog on google and shared the article 'Birmingham Music' on their social network sites with 'dig this!' as a caption. It's a crazy coincidence because I have mutual friends with the them. I was originally going to get them to introduce me to the band, but looks like I don't have to!

Get Cubs seemed to like the Introducing article I wrote for Dance Yrself Clean! They also shared it all over their sites. I love facebook and twitter!

Introducing: Get Cubs

Everyone needs that innocently happy generic indie band for when they’ve had enough of listening to the deeper stuff. Get Cubs consists of four young lads ready to have fun.

When you thought the music scene couldn’t get anymore indie, Get Cubs were seen performing with true indie spirit in Birmingham’s more alternative venue The Flapper, which is essentially a cave-like bar, as part of the Birmingham Artsfest. Their joyful energy was incredibly contagious as they performed; forcing even the unsuspecting listeners to bob along to the catchy jingly tunes. The video for their latest single, ‘Plastic Parade’ reflects the band’s fun nature as they mess around in front of a changing multi-coloured backdrop; not caring about looking ridiculous.

After spending three years together as a band, in which a name change as well as lots of gigging took place, Get Cubs are ready to share their debut album with the world. The release date is in just two months. They may not have revolutionised music, but you can’t deny their raw talent infused with lots of light-hearted fun.

See the published version: http://www.danceyrselfclean.com/introducing/introducing-get-cubs

Birmingham Music

Birmingham is starting to lose its reputation as Chav City and is instead becoming Indie Kingdom. Being a Brummie girl myself, I'm so proud of the new bands emerging from B-town. The Carpels, Peace and Swim Deep are all phenomenal bands in their own right; bringing heaps of vintage style, straight from the streets of Digbeth, with fresh new indie sounds to the current music scene. You'll be missing out if you don't give these boys a listen.

The Ghosts - Underrated

The Carpels - Sand

alt-J - Tessellate

Jake Bugg - Two Fingers

Bastille - Bad Blood

Born Blonde - I Just Wanna Be

New Music

See above for the bands you should be listening to at the moment!

Exciting Updates

Things have really taken off recently and I'm so excited! I've been keeping in touch with the organiser of Chazzstock and he's been introducing me to some new bands. I'm looking forward to getting something published about Born Blonde and hopefully getting in touch with the band.

Alex Starling, former member of Ou Est le Swimming Pool and lead singer of The Ghosts who performed at Chazzstock, has been contacting me with news of their latest single. We were chatting for a while and after I told him I loved the single, he sent me a press release and promised to let me know when the band end up in Brum on their tour!

I've managed to get a press pass for Jake Bugg, The Vaccines and Dry the River! Super excited about those gigs!

Summer Music

What a fantastic summer for music it has been!

I went to an amazingly unique festival called Wilderness - watch this space for a published review. It really was the epitome of cool, weird, and hippie - definitely a must for next year. Guess who managed to have a chat with their favourite big haired musician, King Charles, again! I actually managed to keep calm, despite the fact that I was melting inside due to his pure sexiness #fangirling! He even called me a 'silly girl' because I hadn't got myself a ticket to see him at reading. He also declared that he was on the hunt for a girl to kiss - PICK ME CHARLES, PICK ME

The Stone Roses have been the soundtrack to my car journeys ever since I was little, so to actually have had the chance to see the Mancunian legends live at V festival was a personal summer highlight. The Stone Roses, The Killers, Miles Kane and Noel Gallagher were absolutely fantastic. They made all the difference to V festival, which otherwise had a pretty shit line up compared to previous years. 

I don't even think I can bring myself to talk about Reading and Leeds. I am BITTERLY jealous of anyone that got to go and listen to the entire contents of my music collection in one place. I embarrassingly burst into tears when I saw Fearne and Gregg's coverage of the festival on BBC3 where they showed Green day's (badly kept) secret show. Alt-J, Jake Bugg, King Charles, Tribes, The Cure and almost every other band were amazing to watch on TV and I'm certain even better to watch within the festival atmosphere. I definitely won't be making that mistake again - Bring on Reading 2k13!!