LISTEN: Blossoms - 'I Can't Stand It'

Blossoms are back! The Stockport five-piece teased a return online by creating their own rumours of a break-up/drama within the band... but panic over, as they're very much still together, and releasing new record Cool Like You on 27th April. I'm absolutely digging the first single I Can't Stand It which was released last week. It's a bit of an instant classic which I anticipate going down really well at their live shows - they're heading out on a UK tour shortly after the album release, including a show at O2 Forum Kentish Town on 10th May, tickets on sale here from today!

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LISTEN: August 2016 playlist!

Only one gig this month (though it was more of a family festival in central London where King Charles happened to be playing) but a lot of brilliant new releases, here's my playlist for August, featuring some of the music I've been enjoying this month! As I'm going back to uni in September, and Tigmus have a lot of shows coming up, I'll get back to going to lots more gigs, phew! I'm also seeing my favourites The Hoosiers this Saturday, and a special Bear's Den show for Amazon next week which should be cool!

1. Dawes When The Tequila Runs Out - probably the most exciting music news for me this month is that these guys are releasing their fifth studio album, We're All Gonna Die, on 16th September and this is the first track from it. A little unsure at first but I totally embrace the slight change in sound, and it's grown on me a lot! All the info about the album here. 

2. All Tvvins Thank You - I saw these guys supporting Twin Atlantic last month, and I'm digging their debut album IIVV, released this month. They're really fun live, and they're off on a 20+ date UK tour later in the year, looking forward to hopefully catching them at The Bullingdon in Oxford (dates and tickets here.)

3. Richard Walters U - Richard releases his new solo record A.M in October, and this is the stunning first release from it. Check out the Mahogany Session which recently debuted online. To launch the record, Richard plays shows in London and Oxford in October.

4. Fil Bo Riva Like Eye Did - while I don't always get chance to check out the music I'm sent my artists and their PR people, I was glad I took a listen to this track after finding it in my inbox. Love it! 

5. SG Lewis Yours - with two of King Charles' band members playing alongside SG Lewis I'm keeping an eye out on his music, and really enjoying the title track of his recent EP Yours. His biggest London headline show has just been announced, grab tickets for Koko in November here. 

6. Public Service Broadcasting Spitfire - after a friend introduced me to these guys a couple of years ago I've been keen to see them live, and despite writing a post about their big Islington charity gig I managed to let the show sell out before grabbing a ticket... holding out for some returns as it looks set to be a great show! At Eastbourne airshow earlier in the month I loved hearing this track played on the pier after the Spitfire had done it's display, a great touch (and a great track!)

7. Blossoms Blow - you have to have been living under a rock to have avoided hearing about these guys yet, particularly as their debut album reached number one in the charts when it was released earlier this month. Check out their performance at Reading Festival here. 

8. Dan Croll Swim - though I've come pretty late to Dan's music, only properly listening when I caught him at Bushstock back in June, I'm enjoying this recently released track Swim, the first taster of his upcoming record. 

9. Mumford & Sons Fool You've Landed (Baio remix) - it's been a couple of months since Mumford and friends released their Johannesburg EP, and they're just released some remixes of the tracks. Digging this track remixed by Chris Baio of Vampire Weekend. 

10. Tom Figgins Permafrost - finally some new studio recordings from Tom.... check out his whole Ghosts EP on Spotify, of which this is my favourite track. 

11. The Maccabees Spit It Out - with these guys announcing their split this month, it seems right to feature them in the playlist, with one of my favourite tracks from their latest album Marks To Prove It. They've hinted/promised some final shows, so hopefully I'll get to catch them live finally!

12. Jack Garratt BYSKB v2m2 (demo) - alongside the release of his latest single Far Cry, taken from his album Phase, Jack has debuted a demo of a new track.  

13. King Charles Ivory Road (Spotify Session) - the only gig I caught this month was Charles' solo acoustic performance at Spotlight on Seven Dials, and it was great hearing him close the set with my favourite track from the first record! Takes me back to when he performed the track to me in a field of thistles at Cambridge Folk Fest a few years ago (video).

WATCH: Blossoms 'Charlemagne' at The Great Escape

A couple of snazzy videos of Blossoms at The Great Escape festival a couple of weekends ago have surfaced today, including the one below of them playing Charlemagne. When I saw the guys playing their sold out Oxford show a couple of months ago I could tell by the buzz in the room that things would only get better for them, and I'm not far wrong if the last week or so is anything to go by, with them playing support sets for Kasabian at their huge stadium show, 3 nights with The Last Shadow Puppets in Dublin, and a spot on the BBC Introducing stage at Big Weekend. And as if all that wasn't enough, they've just been announced as support for one of the The Stone Roses Manchester stadium shows in a couple of weeks. Check out the video below to see what all the fuss is about...

Blossoms recently announced that they're releasing their self-titled debut record on 5th August and you can pre-order signed CDs and LPs on their site here. Live dates, including an array of festivals (Parklife, Field Day, Glastonbury, Truck, Reading & Leeds and a load more) are also on their site here.

LISTEN: February 2016 playlist - my month in music!

After remembering how much I enjoyed creating a playlist at the end of last year with something like 60 tracks from various artists I'd seen live, new records I'd enjoyed and music I'd rediscovered over the year, I thought I'd create one entitled Feb 2016, a little musical insight into my month.

All the tracks but two (Jack Garratt and Little Brother Eli) are from bands and artists I've seen live this month and wanted to share with you all, and although I'm totally averse to Spotify and the tiny amount it pays artists, and would never use it a primary listening tool (someones got to buy physical music...) - it is pretty handy for a playlist! I didn't want to label it as a 'tracks of the month' playlist or anything, because I'm not being critical or comparing the tracks, simply sharing what I've enjoyed this month in a really personal way which I believe is in keeping with the nature of the blog itself!

A little note about why I've chosen each artist/track:

1. Leo Stannard 'My Friends Got Love' - having known about Leo for a while I finally caught him live this month at a Mahogany show and was taken aback by his talent. This track is my favourite track from his recently released EP Free Rein.
2. Roberto y Juan 'I Used To Relax' - I went to see the band's EP launch mostly to check out the support set from Count Drachma aka Oli Steadman, but have been struggling to stop listening to the EP since! 
3. King Charles 'Tomorrow's Fool' - one of my favourite artists, I saw Charles and his band live twice on his tour in February and this is one of my favourite tracks from the recent album, that guitar solo just before 2 minutes in...
4. Little Mammoths 'Waitresses & Barmaids' - it's only February and I've already seen these guys play three times this month, the first time for almost 3 hours acoustically in a booth at a Notting Hill pub, the second at Oxford Sofar Sounds, and the last, this week, the first gig I've ever organised.
5. Blossoms 'Blown Rose' - having not really listened to these guys until the day of the show I went along to their sold out gig at The Bullingdon in Oxford (I run the venue's Twitter so get free access). I've been hearing a lot about them and it was clear they're pretty well loved - and there was a lot of love in the room for Viola Beach too, who should've been supporting them on the tour. 
6. Sylva Kay 'The Bend' - Sylva supported at the Jonny Payne show I ran the door for in Oxford at the beginning of the month, and while I was busy with the door during her set, I caught some of her soundcheck and loved it!
7. homeplanetearth 'Phat Phil' saw these guys last night playing a support set for Bel Esprit, and was introduced to them through my placement with Tigmus, who they're playing a few shows for. Love this debut single!
8. Jack Garratt 'The Love You're Given' - you probably don't need me to tell you who Jack Garratt is as the man has become absolutely huge as of late with awards and nominations all over the place. This track from his debut album Phase which was out recently is the one that stuck with me after I saw him support Mumford & Sons in November.
9. Jonny Payne & The Thunder 'Across the Brooklyn Bridge' - before running the door for Jonny's show in Oxford earlier this month I took a listen to some of his session videos online and loved this track!
10. Roberto y Juan 'What's Your Favourite Colour?' - on the band's new Monster Love EP, this is probably my favourite track - loved hearing it live again when they supported at the Little Mammoths show I organised earlier this week.
11. Tom Figgins 'Giants Played In Woods Like These' - a couple of sessions Tom filmed with Mahogany have been uploaded this month, including this track. He played a superb set supporting Leo Stannard at his Mahogany show. 
12. Leo Stannard '19' - couldn't decide which track to share from Leo's EP and loved his show for Mahogany so much that I decided to just share two! Definitely felt like I was watching a star in the making at that show, can't wait to se where his music takes him this year.
13. Little Mammoths 'Keep The Rounds Coming' - this track features on LM's album which is out later in the year and I've been sent to review (brilliant stuff!), it's also pretty fitting as they're playing 20 shows in pubs around Ireland over 8 days in March (acoustic sets in the day, rock n roll at night). 
14. Ryan O'Reilly 'November - Live' - as a rule I'm usually pretty fond of the supports I've seen play with King Charles, and this months tour support was no exception (and also a very nice guy when we chatted backstage after the London show). Loved his set at both shows, particularly this track with its "you'll never change the world with your songs and your guitar, there are people half your age, and they're going twice as far" chorus, a fairly melancholic reflection on combining a relationship with a career in music.
15. Little Brother Eli 'Who Do You' - while setting up some Facebook posts for Tigmus about an upcoming LBE show later in the year, I listened to some of their tracks - particularly some acoustic videos from various Sofar Sounds performances, and had this track stuck in my head for a while after!
16. Eliza & The Bear 'It Gets Cold' - similarly to Blossoms (in the same weekend, in fact), I went to their gig at The Bullingdon having not really listened to them until the day - when I discovered I knew one track as it had been on an advert. Had a really fun night at the show and this track went down pretty well, as did the whole show! 
17. King Charles 'Animal Desires' - with his new album out in the last week of January ,and a tour in the middle of the month, much of my month has been spent listening to Charles so I had to finish up the playlist with him! When I saw the track listing for the record I was very happy to see this track included.

If you've made it this far - I'd love to hear (either as a comment on this post, or onto my blog Facebook page or my Twitter) if you enjoyed the playlist or a specific track. If the response is good I might carry on making monthly playlists! 

LIVE: My weekend in gigs (20th/21st Feb 2016)

Since I started my second year at university, I've set up a new Twitter account for local music venue The Bullingdon, a perk of which is getting into all the show there for free - which became quite lucrative this weekend! First up on Saturday was Blossoms, where the show was opened with a recorded Viola Beach set, as they should've been supporting on the night - it sounded great and was a really moving touch to the band. The Vryll Society played a great support set, and certainly set the standard for crazy hairstyles - they've just been named in Gigwise's '13 rising, underdog bands to own festival season' - so remember the name! I hadn't listened much to Blossoms before the night but had been receiving tweets all day looking for spare tickets so knew they were pretty well loved, and though their set was, understandably, fairly short, the crowd loved it. There was so much love in the room when the band dedicated the last track of their set to their friends in Viola Beach and their manager Craig Tarry. I'm loving the track Blown Rose which you can see below performed at last years SXSW for BBC Introducing.

Next up, on Sunday, was Eliza & The Bear. I arrived late and missed the first support, but what I caught of Slowlights' set was fun, even if, as they said "I can guarantee none of you have ever heard of us". The show was originally meant to be at the end of January on a Saturday night and had been rescheduled to a Sunday, which happened to be the night before the school term started back up, but you wouldn't have known - the crowd were enjoying it a lot. As with Blossoms I'm not really familiar with the band's music but had been hearing about them both being played on Radio 1 and getting festival slots and the like - however I did know the below track Friends, and I'd be surprised if you hadn't heard it as it was featured on an advert for Bulmers Cider recently.

With four gigs, last week was pretty great for live music and this week is looking good too - with the Little Mammoths gig I'm putting on on Wednesday which I'm very excited about, and homeplanetearth supporting a local band Bel Esprit in Oxford on Sunday night (also at The Bullingdon). I also just won tickets to see Leo Stannard tomorrow night playing a show for Mahogany, where Tom Figgins is supporting, so I'm looking forward to that!