New Music November

November has been a prominent month for new discoveries. Below I have compiled a list of some of my favourites, which I would highly recommend at least giving a listen.

photo cred www.stereogum.com

Yak - Hungry Heart (20/02/15)

Meet Yak, an exciting new addition to rock music with their anger fuelled, full on presence. The band are currently half way though a UK tour this month but there's still some tickets left to selected dates over HERE. I was introduced to this band after seeing them support for Peace in Wolverhampton in October; a performance that I wont be forgetting in a hurry with an utter chaotic stage presence (in the best way). Hungry Heart depicts influences such as The Black Keys, The Vaccines and even The Rolling Stones, with front man Oli Burslem looking similar to a young version of Jagger himself. The song itself screams that they mean business with the colossal amount of noise that they emit, each song sounding too big for any speaker. I'd definitely put them down for being ones to watch next year.

Listen to Hungry Heart HERE

Or buy it on Itunes HERE

photo cred @_themagicgang twitter

The Magic Gang - Jasmine (09/11/15)

The four piece from Brighton may have already caught your attention with songs Alright and No Fun. Jasmine consists of feel good laid back vibes with a Californian surfer style grunge-pop. Having recently completed a tour with Swim Deep as a support act, they are soon to be setting out on a tour of their own across the UK; tickets are still available so bag yourself a few whilst you still can HERE

Take a look at their soundcloud page and listen to Jasmine HERE

photo credit to @GetInuit on twitter

Get Inuit - I Am The Hot Air (04/09/15)

If you're a fan of bands similar to Vampire Weekend and Foster The People you're sure to like this Kent-based four-piece with their upbeat surf-pop tunes. They've recently been on tour as a support act for Broken Hands and have had support from the likes of Radio 1 DJ Huw Stevens and TV show Made In Chelsea, after having this song played on one of their episodes. I Am The Hot air is a heavy guitar-pop song with catchy, repetitive, foot tapping grooves alongside the striking and unique vocals of front man Jamie Glass.

Buy I Am The Hot Air on ITunes HERE

Or have a listen to it first HERE on YouTube

photo cred Sugarthief on Soundcloud

Sugarthief -  Provide (15/11/15)

Meet new 4 month old indie four piece from Staffordshire, Sugarthief. With front man Jordi and lead guitarist Jack having played for about a year before as an acoustic duo. They have two other released songs on Soundcloud with over 1k listens. Provide entails the kind of memorable guitar riffs similar to The 1975, and fellow Brummies Swim Deep with a style resembling Ratboy and the song collectively consisting of a likeness to Pale Saints - Sight Of You. If you're interested in going to see them they'll be playing some gigs around Birmingham early next year at The Rainbow club in Digbeth with Baddies Boogie.

Take a look at their Soundcloud page and have a listen to Provide HERE

photo credit @thevryllsociety twitter

The Vryll Society - Coshh (23/10/15)

Introducing new Space-rock indie band from Liverpool - The Vryll Society with Coshh, a single from their debut EP Pangea. Coshh is an indie sounding, laid back track being both upbeat and dark at the same time laced with bass heavy hallucinogenic waves accompanying eerie, recurrent lyrics. They'll be supporting Blossoms on their UK tour across February and March next year which you can still get tickets for HERE.

You can buy Coshh HERE on Itunes from their EP - Pangea

Or, you can listen to some of their other songs HERE on Soundcloud

photo cred www.heavenlyrecordings.com

The Wytches - Summer Again (22/07/15)

The Brighton trio caught my attention after hearing this dark, anger fuelled grunge track containing bass heavy waves of noise infused with murky psych rock alongside unsettling and mysterious lyrics. This track was taken from their debut album - Annabel Dream Reader released last year (listen HERE) and since then they have just completed a UK tour supporting The Cribs.

Listen to Summer Again on YouTube HERE

Catfish and The Bottlemen - back in Birmingham

To have two sold out tours across the UK now over and done with and sat comfortably in their back pockets in just this year alone with only one album being out is pretty inconceivable. Last Saturday night at the O2 Academy in Birmingham was my second time witnessing Catfish and The Bottlemen’s inevitable rise to success first-hand. If you’ve ever seen them live then you’ll know what I’m talking about, their colossal stage presence being placed next to the likes of The Arctic Monkeys and even Oasis’s early success. They've always seemed to have been more than ‘just another rock band trying to make it big’ from the get go; even their performance at an almost empty London Barfly on the night they got signed by Mumford and Son's keyboard player - Ben Lovett "sounded bigger than what we did last night playing an arena" according to Ben himself. However, admirably they've worked for eight years to get to the point they are at now, with the band managing to undoubtedly being on their way to becoming one of this generations essentials for rock music. Now, Catfish and The Bottlemen seem to be claiming their own identity regarding their sound, breaking out of all of the ‘they sound like’s and ‘they’re the next so and so’s.

Before the lights went down (my photo)

The band certainly made an entrance as they took to the stage with The Beatles' - Helter Skelter as their intro music, followed by an hour-long set which consisted of the entirety of their debut album - The Balcony. I felt as though the band could have done with adding some more new material with the exception of only one of their new songs - ‘7’ being played. The song seemed like a real tease for album two as it sounded a lot different to their older material whilst it focused more on vocals with a more easy-going, slower tempo track yet nonetheless still being rather dramatic. Van admitted himself that ‘album two embarrasses the first one’. With ‘7’ consisting of the kind of easy, repetitive lyrics that will have you unknowingly singing along in no time building up to a signature drop where a lengthy guitar solo appears; a regular occurrence within Catfish’s songs. (listen to a live recording of 7 HERE - credit to owner)

Photo credit to my friend Chloe Bailey

Despite this, the audience did not seem to mind the set-list as Van was barely audible over the crowd belting out each and every song from their album word for word, Van still seeming astounded and not yet used to the hysteria with a head shake accompanied by a humble smile of disbelief appearing now and then alongside various thank you's shouted out here and there. Favourites of the night included Kathleen and Business, with the kind of chorus' that created waves of people on each others shoulders with their arms around each other and arms thrown hopefully into the air with a true euphoric sense in the room. The array of ages across the audience wasn't surprising as this band really do seem to be taking the interest of most people that discover them.

I have to say, this performance was even better than when I saw them last March due to the crowd size, excitement (coming from both the crowd and the band), and atmosphere being heightened to a whole different standard. The entirety of the night was absolute chaos (in the best possible way). Not one person was stood still, possibly due to not being physically able to as the crowd was just one huge moshpit; even those sat on the balcony were being encouraged by Van himself to stand up with the regular prompt of "Come on, what are you doing sat down? I want everyone stood up and moving!" which, unsurprisingly acquired worried looks on the faces of security guards. They're a band who really know what they're doing, not only in stage presence and maintaining their full-on adoration from their fans within their live shows but their ability to produce hit after hit. I'm suspecting that the new album will come out early next year and so if you haven't seen this band live already, I highly recommend you try and do soon before it becomes almost impossible to bag yourself a ticket for their predicted future shows at stadiums.