Posts Tagged ‘alabama shakes’

Live4ever’s Essential Listening 2012 series begins today with ten of our own favourite debut releases of the year. Stay tuned over the coming weeks for essential music videos; EP, track and album highlights from the many bands which have featured in our Radar section during the course of the year; as well as the pick of the gigs Live4ever has witnessed over the past twelve months. And don’t miss our wider, main Albums rundown next month to see which, if any, debuts have also made it on to that list.

Is your favourite debut of 2012 missing from our Essentials retrospective? Remember, we’re recommending, not preaching, so make sure you highlight your pick of the year by leaving a comment below.

Alabama Shakes turned down the overtures of scouts looking to recruit talent for the latest series of the X Factor, according to the band’s singer Brittany Howard.

Summer 2012. We’ve just had the wettest June on record, the festival season has been fractured by a series of cancellations, and album sales have fallen in their millions.

And yet, for every music fan, there’ still reasons to be cheerful.

The Stone Roses have just completed – with no major hiccups – the fastest selling weekend of live music in UK history, Blur have deemed us worthy to sample the fruits of their studio labours, some faith in humanity was restored when The Voice had its live tour pulled and, most importantly, for seven months now artists both new and established have been releasing a steady stream of truly impressive albums, proving once again that, if you’re prepared to look hard enough, quality is still out there in abundance.

So, take a look through just some of those releases we’ve pulled together for our latest Essential Listening rundown, and maybe you’ll spot something which will soon occupy a prominent place in your own record collection for the remainder of the year. And when you’ve been through the list, why not do the same for us by leaving a comment below highlighting your own favourites of 2012…so far.

Alabama Shakes have announced a short run of UK dates for later this year, following up shows at the O2 Academy in Oxford and Brighton Concorde on September 4th and 5th respectively.

Foster The People were joined on-stage by Kooks frontman Luke Pritchard in London last night (April 29th).

Jack White and Alabama Shakes lead the way on this week’s UK Record Store Album Chart, which reflects the biggest selling albums across independent record stores.

Alabama Shakes performing “Hold On” on Later with Jools Holland

Alabama Shakes have the distinction of being the first band to top the brand new UK Independent Record Store chart.

Alabama Shakes‘ superb maiden record ‘Boys & Girls‘ has debuted at number three on today’s UK Album Chart.

‘Be Mine’. No point faffing about here, that is absolutely the song you need to hear today. And the only way that’s going to happen is if you get hold of ‘Boys and Girls’. Sure you could download it, but in this case, that would just be cheating yourself of so, so much more that this record has to offer.

‘Be Mine’ thrusts itself at you as the pinnacle of this record, swinging loose and steady, rolling and flowing and building like a blues explosion, taking a strength and a swagger from that moment when you’ve found the courage in you to tell somebody to simply be yours. …I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s start with Alabama Shakes, the band with the wrought iron soul..