CLASH OF INTERESTS

Side projects are always at least interesting, some can even be better than the band they grew out of! Some can also be at least good enough that they, given the chance, could be just as big as the band they come from

The latter path applies to Gabriel Stelling, of Metronomy fame, and his band Your Twenties. Your Twenties make jerky, indie-pop; head nodding, foot tapping and shape pulling is unavoidable upon hearing them. They could be the 'next big thing' yet I fear Gabriel's prior commitments will mean that the band will never reach their true potential

For the time being though, welcome them into your hearts...

Listen to: Your Twenties - Caught Wheel (myspace)

& download some of their newest demos over at Pinglewood

PICK UP YOUR JAW

We at DDJY! have had the pleasure of hosting two Spider Webb DJ sets in the past 6 months, both packed with the best in post-punk, krautrock, C86 and electronica. Those sounds were clearly heavily influencing his band (The Horrors) as a whole, now they've turned around and let their new single 'Sea Within a Sea' loose into the world. This could be the single of the year, their new album 'Primary Colours' could be one of the albums of all time...

Download: The Horrors - Sea Within a Sea

IT'S NOT SO GRIM UP NORTH

Well I've finally got a particularly tricky essay out of the way so it's back into the realm of blogging for me...

As I have previously written about: Ross and myself, Matty, are in a band called Vaporators. We haven't even started taking ourselves seriously yet but within a couple of months of setting up the Myspace page we have already received an overwhelming amount of feedback from all over the UK, a fair bit from London but particularly from Manchester.

I feel many nights in Manchester are shunned when great promoters are talked about, usually because the best are in London - yet it should be taken into account that it's not an easy job trying to coax the best bands in the world away from the Capital. This fact makes nights such as Now Wave, FictionNonFiction, Stop Making Sense and numerous others so very special.

As well as great nights there are also a healthy amount of quality new bands coming through, here's two that have caught my ear in particular recently...


DELPHIC

On first listen you can probably tell that there's a New Order record or two in their collection, yet this sound has possibly more of a dance edge to it, particularly 'Counterpoint' which could easily be seen as being made for the club rather than the mosh pit. Their name has been on tipster's tongues for nearly a year now and a breakthrough is imminent following a tour of Europe with Bloc Party

Listen to: Delphic - Counterpoint (myspace)

YOUNG BRITISH ARTISTS

This quartet from the land of 'cotton and guns' make a lovely lo-fi alt-rock racket. Mixing the sounds of Pavement, Yo La Tengo and Grandaddy to make a blissful noise that could either soundtrack a day at the beach or a night in front of a log fire. They have the honour of opening for Health in Manchester on April 22nd and on first impressions that slot is thoroughly deserved!

Listen to: Young British Artists - Year of the Rat (myspace)

IT'S HARD TO RESIST

It's great when a band comes along with that 'X Factor', a proper one, not just a marketable face and a competent voice. Probably the best band in the UK right now, The Big Pink, have just announced their next single 'Velvet' and it has scooped up my 'Single of the Year' award and ran with it. It's a sound akin to the dynamism of bands such as Death in Vegas but with a bigger impact; it's clear that Milo and Robbie have used all the knowledge they used to make bands like Klaxons and Crystal Castles successful and put it into their own efforts.

The result really is brilliant, I watched this video repeatedly after I first heard it and I think you will too. It's more than a little influenced by the videos of Chris Cunningham, but that's a very good thing...

The Big Pink - Velvet

YOU WILL ALWAYS GET WHAT YOU WANT

I'll start this week by immersing myself in one of my latest little pleasures, a band whose songs have made my skin feel like the sun's blazing down upon it; they're going to be huge and their tunes are going to be all over this summer like heatstroke, they're Two Door Cinema Club

Based in Northern Ireland and sounding like a less irritating Vampire Weekend it seems that Two Door Cinema Club are one of the first new bands in 2009 to be making serious strides. Their debut single 'Something Good Can Work' is going to be out soon and you can download the demo below

Hopefully we can get them to DDJY! before they run riot at the festivals...

Download: Two Door Cinema Club - Something Good Can Work (demo)

A GOOD PLACE TO GET SOME THINKING DONE

'Buzz' is a strange thing, it seems like a very hasty element of the music industry, however, it's actually very gradual. The cool kids and underground tipsters pick up on a band, they fall into the hands of the PR people, it falls into the hands of the media, it falls into the hands of the listener and then into the hands of the slightly 'slow on the uptake' tipsters; all in what can be a space of about a year. A band can be 'hyped' for a good 18 months nowadays without any damage to their reputation if they take their time with releases etc. so a band that's seemingly been around for ages can be seen as fresh by the next guy.

One band that seem's to have been in the spotlight for ages is Titus Andronicus who are one of those Los Campesinos!-No Age-Animal Collective type of bands hailing from New Jersey. Their name seems to have been absolutely everywhere at the start of 2009 and they've been regular names on Radio 1 and 6Music tracklistings in the past few weeks. Maybe a re-issue of their debut could end up becoming something pretty essential this year!

Listen to: Titus Andronicus - Landscape with Icarus (myspace)

FALLEN ON INQUISITIVE EARS

As I scan the musical highway that is MySpace, for fresh blood, I find my journey is littered with mediocre artists seemingly only in a band for the sake of it. There's also the case that a lot of the bands are quite simply just damned awful, so when a band comes my way that's listenable I find myself throwing myself head on into their sound. One such band who have impressed me on my search are Sharks who hail from my old hometown of Royal Leamington Spa. You'd be right in saying that they sound a heck of a lot like The Clash but with an unmistakeable vibe of the sort that seemed to surround the C86 movement of the 1980's. On first listen you're unlikely to pick that up, yet when you really listen there's an element of The Boo Radleys (when they weren't soundtracking GMTV) and it's only the singers gruff voice and the distortion on the guitars that makes you think twice before comparing them to the likes of This Poison or early Orange Juice. Not a cert for success but definitely worth your attention...

Listen to: Sharks - Fallen on Deaf Ears (myspace)

WE'VE GOT A NEW OBSESSION

So now here's my new favourite act, I don't seem to have had one for a while, she's called Marina and her backing bands called The Diamonds, so appropriately the band as an entity is called Marina & the Diamonds. It's beautiful big indie-pop, a kind of Pipettes fronted Arcade Fire sound, masked with a strikingly beautiful lead singer and effortless cool; they're also on Neon Gold Records and are therefore label mates of arguably the best band in the world right now: Passion Pit. Naturally we at DDJY! are very excited about them!

They've just done a session for Radio 1 that can be accessed here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/huwstephens/

... and they're fresh on the DDJY! hitlist for the coming months so keep your fingers crossed with us that we get them to Wrexham in 2009.

Listen to: Marina & the Diamonds - Mowgli's Road (myspace)

CASIO TONES FOR THE PAINFULLY ALONE

So the dust has settled in this new year and now after all the lists, tips and new stuff the real talent is shining through and the buzz is turning into proper acclaim, releases and tours.

One of our favourite emerging bands Casiokids are about to release their new single 'Fot I Hose' on the highly reliable Moshi Moshi label and we have been given permission to let you have any mp3 copy for absolutely nothing, pretty great yeah? You can also be amongst the first to see the new video below.

For those of you unfamiliar with Casiokids they're in the same vein as bands such as Metronomy, taking dancey electronica to more bizarre levels, making unconventional dancefloor tracks and generally just sounding like they're having a great time while they're doing it! They head out on tour with The Answering Machine and Flashguns in March and more details can be found on their myspace:

http://myspace.com/casiokids

Casiokids - Fot I Hose

I CAN'T TELL IF IT'S SOME KIND OF GAME YOU'RE PLAYING

Hey hey hey! Just settling back into university life after a week off, hence the sparse number of posts over the past few days, but it's worth the wait...

We at DDJY! are delighted to announce that Neil's Children will be headlining our Easter special on Thursday April 9th with main support from one of the best new bands in Europe, Wrexham's local heroes Gallops. Further bands will be announced in the near future but in the mean time get your tickets now! They cost a mere £5 and are available from the following outlets:

Yales Cafe Bar, 15-17 Hill Street, Wrexham, LL11 1SN

http://seetickets.com/ / http://ticketline.co.uk/ / 0870 444 5556 / DDJY! promoters

Neil's Children are one of the most underrated bands in Britain and their debut album 'X.Enc', released in March, is sure to be something very special indeed! Check out the video for their latest single 'I'm Ill' below:

http://myspace.com/neilschildren

DARKNESS & LIGHT

Bonjour! Firstly apologies for lack of post yesterday, I finally got around to doing some serious recording with my new band Vaporators and after a day's worth of recording and jamming I pretty much got sick of my computer. If you're wondering what to expect from my new band then expect darkness, misery, atmospheric goth horror, then if you expect that you may not find yourself as miserable as you'd prepared yourself for. But, truthfully, it is a pretty dark affair mixing influences taken from This Heat and Neu! with bands such as The Cure, S.C.U.M and Joy Division, hardly the recipe for a Now! album is it?

Yet in these days of recession and crisis you don't want bleakness all the time? You need that ray of hope every now and again, that sunshine and power that makes you think that life ain't that crap after all. Well fear not because 2009 will see the release of what promises to be one of the albums of the decade in the shape of Passion Pit's debut album. Check out this video from their time in the studio and get your car fitted with new speakers in readiness for this LP soundtracking your summer:

http://myspace.com/passionpitjams

IT'S ALL GETTING QUITE HIGHLY CHARGED

It's been a quiet day here at DDJY!, not much in the way of exciting boundary breaking developments; I've still survived another day without Twitter despite what the media are telling me and I'm still yet to find a better single in 2009 than 'My Girls' by Animal Collective

Talking of singles... today sees the release of 'One Month Off' by Bloc Party, the third single taken from their third album 'Intimacy'. I've noticed a lot of people slating Bloc Party's new direction on their latest long-play outing even though they're the sort of people who also slate bands for not trying anything different on consecutive albums. I've been a huge fan of Bloc Party ever since I heard their debut EP, they're a band who helped make my latter teenage years a lot more enjoyable and who I've seen three times (four by this time on Saturday). I don't have much knowledge of how the wider public percieve the band; their last single 'Talons' only got to # 39 in the singles charts yet they still seem to be having as much coverage and support as ever; they continue to try and push themselves in creating a truly modern rock sound, fusing typical rock 'n' roll with dance and elements of drum 'n' bass to create a sound that very few bands would be able to pull off. When it comes to looking back on the 00's in decades to come I'm sure Bloc Party, alongside the likes of LCD Soundsystem, will be a band for new bands to look back upon with great admiration.

Here's an old video I found today of Bloc Party, then known as Union, performing the earliest version of 'Silent Alarm' closer 'Compliments':

HOLIDAY

As the year drifts by we at DDJY! look to the next time we can have a proper break, namely Easter! On Monday 2nd February we will be announcing the full line-up of our Easter special which will be taking place on Thursday 9th April in the main room at Central Station. We're hoping to successfully follow up the past two years massive parties that featured hundreds of people attending headlining shows from Dead Disco (aka Little Boots old band) in 2007 and The Teenagers in 2008. If you scour the internet then you may well discover the names of a few of the bands playing but for now we're keeping as much of it hushed up as possible!

The Teenagers - Starlett Johansson

PROFESSIONAL THIEVES

First things first, an explanation as to the absence of the last few days posts: for the first time in my gig promoting 'career' (about 2 years), I was ordered to take some time off! Exams left me getting 3 hours sleep a night, not out of choice, and therefore I was starting to lose it. But the exams have now disappeared, as has my sleeplessness and now I am back to inform you that...

...Electricity in Our Homes have been confirmed as main support to Hatcham Social on Thursday February 12th. We're delighted to get them on board as we've been hoping to book them for about a year now; first really getting into them after we checked them out via London's Durrr club night. They're one of the most respected bands in the capital, playing eclectic art-rock and getting themselves on many great bills over the past year. Check them out via the link below:

Listen to: Electricity in Our Homes - We Thought it Was But It Wasn't (myspace)

THE HORRORS STRIKE BACK

With the standard of new British music dipping in recent months it seems that the most exciting fresh music of 2009 will be coming from those who made their breakthrough a few years ago. One such band on course to release a stunning 2nd album is The Horrors who, judging by studio pictures of mountains of pedals and armies of vintage synths, have been really pushing their music to the outer limits in an attempt to create something very experimental and very special. Although when they first came into the spotlight they were treated as a gimmick I believe that this time around The Horrors will start to be taken very seriously and define themselves as a band to look back on with awe in decades to come.

Listen to: The Horrors - Draw Japan (myspace)

12/02: HATCHAM SOCIAL + special guests

Out of all the acts who played DDJY! in 2008 few bands surprised people more than London band Hatcham Social. They were relatively unknown when they played last January, and to an extent still are, but they managed to win many new fans on their trip to Wrexham with an excellent set of alternative pop tunes with a psychedelic, shoegaze edge. They now return to Central Station on Thursday February 12th with a lot more acclaim to their name and some new songs that are their finest to date. New demo’s such as ‘Wild Creatures’ and ‘Give Me the Gift’ and past singles ‘So So Happy Making’ and ‘Til the Dawn’ signal that this band are truly one of the best underground bands in Britain right now. They’ve already released a mini album in Japan and have been recording their debut album proper with producer Tim Burgess of The Charlatans; set for release this March.

Make sure you snap up tickets soon for this gig as they have already been selling fast!

Local support on the night comes from brand new Chester act Tell The King who will be making their debut live performance; early demos show signs of great promise so make sure you arrive early to watch the beginnings of a band set for bigger things.

Tickets are available from the following outlets:

In person: Yales Cafe Bar, 15-17 Hill Street, Wrexham, LL11 1SN

Via phone: 0870 444 5556

Online: http://seetickets.com/see/price.asp?code=375277&userid={164AB604-0D6C-47B6-94C9-F4F2B12E2EF3}&filler1=see&filler2=art-srch

https://secure.ticketline.co.uk/event/selectTickets/eventId/13231839

...as well as from the members of Tell The King and DDJY! promoters Ross Roberts and Matty Webber

Listen to: Hatcham Social - Give Me The Gift (myspace)

JUST BECAUSE I'M ON YOUR SIDE

New bands are a strange thing; how new is new? How long can you be new? Well in the case of The Answering Machine it seems that you can be new for at least 3 years, having been tipped to make a breakthrough for several years now. But now I really think it is their time. Not many bands will have been given this much slack when it came to causing a stir but with well over a year passing by since previous singles such as 'Lightbulbs' and 'Silent Hotels' the band are still trying to push themselves towards the limelight and after hearing their next single 'Cliffer' I think this is the tune to get them the attention they deserve. They head out on a triple-headlining tour with fellow "new" hopefuls Casiokids and Flashguns in March and we hope to get them to DDJY! in the coming months.

Listen to: The Answering Machine - Cliffer (myspace)

I THOUGHT WRONG

If you're in university at the moment then you're probably, like me, revising for your exams; and, yet again if you're like me, you're probably wondering what music best soundtracks revision. I've found that a lot of up-and-coming music is pretty irritating to try and study to due to the fact that it's often difficult and intrusive, even bands I would say I was a fan of I could simply not work to. But thanks to a revival in shoegaze and C86 influenced music on both sides of the Atlantic I have managed to concoct a soundtrack of bands that aren't too intrusive yet aren't boring, are intellectual yet aren't heavy going. I'm talking about old bands such as The Field Mice, The June Brides and The Popguns and new bands such as The Pains of Being Pure at Heart and Vivian Girls. So if you would like some musical accompaniment in those last few stressful hours then I heartily recommend checking out the aforementioned acts.


Listen to: The Field Mice - It Isn't Forever (myspace)

YOU'RE TOO MUCH

According to my blog stats this will be the 50th post on this, it's going to be a brief one because the only thing I want to talk about is Friendly Fires and their revamped version of their stunning track 'Skeleton Boy'. How this band aren't constantly in the charts baffles me, hopefully this next single will have a lot of backing behind it and maybe, just maybe, people will start to really take notice of this massively underappreciated band:

ONE DOWN

Well I'm back in Aberystwyth after what can only be described as a 'hectic' DDJY! The audience probably didn't realise but at 7pm we weren't even sure that Unseen Archives would be allowed to play despite shifting over 50 tickets and not having to share any of the main bands equipment. But this is the sort of red tape nonsense we have to put up with in this industry and after some pleading, puppy eyes and on-my-knees negotiation we managed to get the 'Archives' on stage and we're very glad we did. I haven't seen a crowd react to a local band so much in, well, forever; sure they're all their mates but it's the same for any other local band. Hopefully this is the start of an enthusiasm for live and new music from the local youngsters coming through that has been lacking in recent times.

Of course the main bands were Video Nasties (advertised as headliners but due to some stupid reason now just the 2nd band on), Threatmantics and Swanton Bombs. A review of Threatmantics set can be read here:

http://www.the-fly.co.uk/words/reviews/live-reviews/3850/threatmantics

Video Nasties set was my personal highlight, though heavy with new and unheard material, they captivated the audience and blasted out what seems to be the body of an extremely strong debut album; it's set for release in April so make sure you get yourself a copy!

Photos from the night will be posted here when available.

Listen to: Video Nasties - Jellybean (myspace)

KICKING OFF

Tonight is our first DDJY! of 2009 so I'm getting today's blog done in the early hours because I'm going to be far too busy later. We've managed to shift over 60 tickets for this and, for a night that normally relies solely on 'door tickets', is pretty damn good! This achievement has been thanks in no small part to our local support Unseen Archives; a band we're very proud to have on board as I believe them to be the first local act to be directly influenced by bands that DDJY! has brought to Wrexham in the past. Hopefully this is the start of a number of bands that will come through and doff their caps to the night and in return we will help them, as best we can, to get to where they want to go in this industry.

Listen to: Unseen Archives - Lonely Spirals (myspace)

EASTER TREATS

Right now it's pretty difficult to type due to the fact that we at DDJY! have got our fingers in very many pies (not the Scottish kind). Basically if everything goes to plan then Wrexham's set for some awesome shows in the next few months, on the other hand we could just end up with one big waste of time to look back on, who knows?!

We're particularly looking to sort out our Easter special for this year, attempting to follow up the past 2 years memorable Easter gigs which featured Dead Disco and The Teenagers as headliners. Our shortlist of bands is, quite frankly, vast and we should have someone pinned down sometime in the very near future; BUT whilst we still haven't got a confirmed headliner you can still have the chance to tell us who you think we should book either by a message on the Myspace or Facebook pages (links in the sidebar).

I've noticed Venetian Snares is looking for UK dates in April, oh it would be sweet...

Listen to: Venetian Snares - Gentleman (myspace)

A NEW LEAF

Greetings to all, happy New Year and other such remarks! For those of you keeping track of DDJY! behaviour in the past few weeks you'll have noticed that we've been undergoing a bit of a make-over: new myspace, new posters etc. This blog has not avoided any change of it's own. Instead of the 'tipster' portal it was in 2008 it will now be more of a DDJY! scrapbook with daily segments featuring what we're planning, what bands we're listening to, our DJ sets, exciting music news, videos of upcoming DDJY! acts as well as exclusive interviews with some of the lovely people who'll be performing at DDJY! in 2009.

So keep track and keep supporting one of Europe's most beloved indie nights! x

Listen to: Hatcham Social - Wild Creatures (myspace)