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SoundsXP Presents

Pictures from some recent gigs we've hosted:

29 March 2013 - Brixton, London

Viv Albertine, VuVuVultures, Left Leg, Mickey Gloss, Big Wave, No Cars, Arthur Gunn, Simon Love (Pictures)

8 March 2013 - Lexington, London

R.Ring, Golden Grrrls, Slushy Guts and Equinox (Pictures)

On Our iPod

Parquet Courts - Light Up Gold (album)

Antony Harding - Why Do Birds Suddenly Appear (album)

Black Angels - Indigo Meadow (album)

Thee Oh Sees - Floating Coffin (album)

Still Corners - Strange Pleasures (album)

Savages - Silence Yourself (album)

Mikal Cronin - MC II (album)

Can’s Ege Bamyasi played by Stephen Malkmus and Friends(album)

Victoria and Jacob - Festival 7"

Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires of the City (album)

Sauna Youth - False Jesii Part II 7”

Lightning Bolt - Oblivion Hunter

Robyn Hitchcock - There Goes The Ice (2x 12")

Latest Forum Posts

Single/Download Review

Jack White/ Love Is All/ Local Natives/ The Big Pink/ Grammatics/ Nodzzz
Singles round up

Article written by Ged M - Sep 3, 2009

Jack White reportedly wrote ‘Fly Farm Blues’ (Third Man Recordings one-sided 7”) in 10 minutes for the documentary on guitar heroes It Might Get Loud (featuring Jack, the Edge and Jimmy Page). It’s an off the cuff blues, with some funny stream of consciousness lyrics: “spider guy got eight legs/ I got two/ this guitar got six strings/ how 'bout you?”. It shows off his love for the blues, although for all that it impresses, it may not be one you return to often. Third Man Records website

‘Last Choice’ by Love Is All (What’s Your Rupture?) is calypso-Blondie, a bouncy popsong married to the strangest, saddest lyrics about settling for whoever’s left after a party to go home with. You get five new tracks too, from the rattling clatterpop of ‘From Your Corner’ to the little-girl-lost ‘Loud Heart’ and rhythmic punk-pop of ‘Vans Vans Vans’. It’s all very eccentric and expectation-challenging; genre-hopping Scando-pop that’s a lot darker than we expect from their countryfolk but still massively exciting. Myspace

Local Natives, from Silverlake, California, were a big hit at SXSW and ‘Sun Hands’ (Chess Club 7”) is the evidence that supports the whispers. On 'Sun Hands', Local Natives have a touch of Fleet Foxes and Band of Horses about them, with voices in harmony, rhythms pulsing soulfully and the catchiest of tunes. The insistently romantic ‘Cards & Quarters’ is just as good: “steal away/ you and me/ to a cave/ made of sheets”. And ‘Airplane’, which was being traded manically at the time of SXSW, will back this up if you track it down. website

The more I hear the Big Pink the more I dislike them. The more they give good column inches (you know, son of Denny Cordell and head of Merok Records, former bandmate of Alec Empire, blah, blah), the less substantial the music seems to be. ‘Dominos’ (4AD) is OK – sugary noisepop, electro bombast - and I’m sure sounds good at hearing-impairing volume in some Shoreditch club but what’s it’s all for? ‘She’s No Sense’ is more experimental, with echoes of Spacemen 3, but features Hoxtonette fashion victim Florence Welsh. Enough said. Myspace

Grammatics’ single ‘Murderer’ (Dance To The Radio) is described as literate pop (there’s even a French version of ‘Murderer’ here) but is the equivalent of reading an exceptionally dull, worthy and uninvolving book. It’s over-intellectualised progressive rock from the school of Bloc Party that not even the remixes can spice up. Myspace

The rattling rhythms of ‘True to Life’ (What’s Your Rupture Records 7”) are reminscent of the Feelies, with a pinch of Jonathan Richman, but Nodzzz have their own special indie charm: theirs is a fast-paced, lo-fi, slightly shambling noisepop that’s both heartwarming and fabulous fun. Myspace

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