Author: ALFITUDE

Monarchy are dicks

So a couple of weeks ago I mentioned Monarchy on my blog… I had a clip from one of their gigs on my Youtube and they sent the website one of those legal notices threatening me and taking it off. It even mentioned who was behind it- the guy with the curly pubey hair.

I wasn’t making any money off those videos, only to share with the world their music but whatever. First they cancel their own gig without refunds, and now this. I now look forward to receiving an email from WordPress telling me off for posting their picture on this post no doubt. So thanks Monarchy for making a fan feel like a criminal. Maybe sell some records before you get all high up on your internet threats yea?

New Music: Clare Maguire

I stumbled across Clare Maguire’s Myspace sometime early last year, long before I had this blog. She had just one song up, called ‘Strangest Thing’, and it blew my mind away. It seems like she’s been signed up since then, as a new version of the same track is now online and her Myspace looks amazing. Check out here.

Beach Boys – Will They? Won’t They?

All these rumours about the Beach Boys reuniting are getting my hopes up and squashing them right back down again. It’s like being in a bad relationship. This is one band with some seriously f***ed up history- but there’s no denying that their music is amazing and timeless and great. I think we all need to send them some good vibrations (gettit?). That might make them get back together for sure.

First Listen: Robyn ‘Hang With Me’

If you’ve listened to Robyn’s Body Talk Pt1 then you would have heard a ballad version of Hang With Me. This new remix acts as her next single, out in September, and will also be available in the next album (Body Talk Pt2). I like it. Dancey.

Body Talk Pt 2 Tracklist
01. In My Eyes
02. Iinclude Me Out
03. Hang with Me
04. Love Kills
05. We Dance to the Beat
06. Criminal Intent
07. U Should Know Better feat. Snoop Dogg
08. Indestructible (acoustic version)

The Pulse of USA

I’ve always been fascinated by infographics, and I’ve really been into research that tries to calculate people’s emotions. This infograph is pretty amazing. It’s taken all the twitters coming out from the US (around 300 million of them), and calculated emotional words people used in their updates to build a map of emotion. Looks like California is the happiest place in the country- but come working hours no one’s happy :-( There’s also video of the map here.

LoveBox

Is anyone going to Lovebox today in Victoria Park (London)? Grace Jones, Hot Chip, Peaches, Hurts, and Hercules & The Love Affair will be playing. I wasn’t going but I ended up getting a ticket anyway. Every outdoor festival I’ve been to in my life has ended with some kind of hot mess (the last one I went to gave me a week’s worth of sun stroke agony). Here goes!

Update: LoveBox is amazing.

Live: MTV Presents Alex Gardner + Eliza Doolittle at Dingwalls

Two future pop superstars-in-the-making played the tiny Dingwalls last night. This is the same venue where I saw Mika and Robyn just before they both went on to take over the world, so maybe it has something in the air for these aspiring singers. Eliza Doolittle was really good, and her harmless tracks were pretty fun to listen to. She also did a cover of a Justin Bieber track which I enjoyed far more than I should have…

Alex Gardner, who headlined the night, was also pretty amazing. This kid is only a teenager, and I mentioned him on here months ago. His sound is pretty unique, and you forget sometimes just how young he is from the way he performs.

Wiley’s giving away 100 songs to you for free!

Yea, I think he’s lost his marbles. If you like Wiley, then click here to download all 100 songs that he’s decided to give away for free- I’m not sure I can deal with all that much Wiley! For those of you outside of the UK, Wiley is one of the masters of Grime music: you either love it or you hate it. Zip file 3 has a new song featuring The Streets called ‘Don’t Hide Away’ which I kinda like.

New Music: Monarchy

If you are clued up on your new music, you’ll know that Monarchy have caused havoc on the blogs for months now- but seeing as this blog is still a little baby, I forget to mention some bands from the past who will no doubt be big in the future.

Monarchy launched their sound with a mysterious image around them- no one knew who they were or what they were doing. Their songs were out of this world, and eventually, they were revealed to be a repackaged version of Milke. They cancelled their first proper gig ages ago and since then I’ve been a bit frowny with Monarchy, just because I got so excited when I found out about them and it seemed like they were just… being a bit strange.

But I’m over it now, and I’m totally loving their debut video (which is actually an old Milke track). I always felt that Milke never had the break they deserved, and rebranding as Monarchy seems to have done the trick, with them now getting a big record deal. Check out here.