Highlights of this week’s New Tunes Guide are brought to you by Raglans and Marcus O’Neill.
Current Strypes support Raglans have already backed The Courteeners and Haim, and released the new single and title-track from their debut album ‘Lady Roll Back The Years’ on February 24th. “It’s about an eighteen year old receiving an invitation to a hotel room, from a forty-something woman with dastardly intentions,” lead singer Stephen Kelly says of the track. “I won’t say who, but she left an impression.” Former Big Strides frontman Marcus O’Neill, meanwhile, has his own new single out in the form of ‘Regrets, Secrets’, the first from his ‘Way Beyond The Sugar Beet’ LP, released May 12th.
These and eight other picks of the week can be found by scrolling through our latest collection, and you can catch up with all our previous editions by clicking on the New Tunes Guide logo below.
To celebrate another week of great music, the Live4ever Ezine is very excited to partner with Manchester’s Ei8htball to offer one lucky reader a new pair of their EX811 in-earphones! Once you’ve been through this week’s tracks, check out all the competition details below.
“With the 2012 release of ‘Rats’, Balthazar played 123 European shows across 2013, including two sold out nights in London and a jaunt across the continent with labelmates Editors. In the course of that travelling the band found time to create a new track, ‘Leipzig’:”
“House Of Hats are set to release their debut album this month on Willow Walk Records. Produced by Grammy award winner Pete Smith (Sting, Joe Cocker, Squeeze) its track ‘Across the Universe’ was used on a feature length film ‘Common People’ at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival. The band have, in the past, supported the like of: Roo Panes, Larkin Poe, Mark Mulcahy and Luke Sital Singh.”
“The musicians of Sprïng have been playing together in various incarnations for more than six years. The band is made up of former members of East Vancouver bands like SSRIs, Aunts & Uncles, Bleating Hearts and Thee Ahs and are now comprised of four musicians (Kevin and Ridley joined forces with Jo and Elliot in 2012).”
“‘Forever Holding On’ is Benbrick‘s new single, is a free download now and is released on iTunes officially on March 10th. Self-produced, ‘Forever Holding On’ is the first single taken from debut EP ‘Closer | Closure’. It’s mixed by the guy behind Faithless, and mastered by the guy behind James Blake’s Mercury prize winning ‘Overgrown’. The EP will be released on iTunes on May 12th.”
“Sleep Thieves released their second single on February 25th via Minty Fresh. ‘City Of Hearts’ is from the band’s first album ‘You Want The Night’, following up their self released ‘Islands EP’ from 2012, and the ‘Sparks”‘single from 2013. The Dublin trio comprise Sorcha Brennan (vocals, synths), Wayne Fahy (Vocals, synths, bass, programming), and Keith Byrne (synths, guitar, bass, programming).”
New Tunes Guide Highlight
“Irish indie-folk four-piece Raglans released their new single ‘Lady Roll Back The Years’ on February 24th through Independent Records LTD, taken from their forthcoming self-titled debut album, out March 24th. Raglans are now preparing to promote the album alongside The Strypes, supporting their Irish counterparts on a nationwide tour of the UK.”
“Kelly Kreye‘s first EP was released towards the end of last month, and starts an aim of recording a series of four-song EPs three to four times a year. Recording took place in Toronto with Dylan Green and Scott Remila, former band members of Raising the Fawn and City & Colour. Its songs were written in an old fish-jarring warehouse in Brooklyn, NY.”
“Sydney, via Byron Bay, band Glass Towers‘ songs were written by lead singer Ben Hannam when he was still in his early teens, and forged in the summer of 2008 with a newly formed band of High School friends. The past couple of years have seen the band have the ARIA Award winning producer Wayne Connolly take the helm of their 2011 debut EP ‘What We Were, When We Were’ and embark on national support tours with The Kooks and Metric. The single ‘Griffin’ was produced and mixed by Jean-Paul Fung, known for his work with Birds Of Tokyo and Last Dinosaurs. while Guy Davies (Bloc Party, Foals) put the final touches on the song at Electric Mastering, UK.”
New Tunes Guide Highlight
“‘Regrets, Secrets’ is the first single from ‘Way Beyond The Sugar Beet’, the new album by former Big Strides frontman Marcus O’Neill. Big Strides were signed to EMI, toured endlessly, and had their own Paul Smith clothing range in Japan. Tired of touring, and having suffered a mental breakdown, Marcus set about recording this collection of songs playing all the instruments himself.”
“‘Full Time Freaks’ is the new album from White Fang, set for general release through Metal Postcard Records on 28th April and available at Rough Trade from 17th March. The band’s seventh release is set to supported in the UK with five dates starting in Brighton on the 14th March.”
It’s all about the sound really.
The skitter of a drum machine, the romance of the 808 kicking “Manchester” into life, the howling feedback that links The Who to Jesus And the Mary Chain…to Napalm Death, the jangle that stretches from the Beatles to Arctic Monkeys, the soul groove that pulls back from Alex Turner’s Sheffield lads to Marvin Gaye and rebounds to Robin Thicke.
What you need is something that can handle all of those sounds. Something that will cope with whatever mood you’re in. Something that will be true to what you need to hear.
ei8htball. It’s all in your head.
To enter our giveaway contest, check our twitter feed at @live4ever_ezine AND RETWEET OUR NEW TUNES GUIDE EI8HTBALL CONTEST TWEETS . We will pick one lucky winner by March 14th. Good luck!
