Mark wrote in to tell us about quarterlifeCRISiS, a relatively newly-formed group from Boston.

All four members are refugees from alt-rock group Stronghold in Siam which folded last year. These days, the band is doing a fine line in feelgood pop/rock tunes that are stuffed to bursting with great hooks.

Witness the brilliant Just A Picture, filled with “doo doo doo” harmonies and preppy Americana references to yearbooks and “summer of senior year”.

High Fashion continues to flex the guys’ talent for bouncy verses and memorable choruses. The common thread in their music is an upbeat, fun vibe and reminiscent of bands like Sum 41 and Blink 182 as well as their stated influences (All American Rejects, Third Eye Blind, Matchbox Twenty).

"Our usual approach to creating music is to make people feel good," says Peter Hunt, the quartet’s primary songwriter. The band’s catchy and upbeat music contrasts with introspective lyrics that examine the ups and downs of the transitional period between the teenage years and "real life." Every cut off of Jaded Romantic feels at home shuffled with Third Eye Blind, Maroon Five, the Jonas Brothers, Matchbox Twenty, Snow Patrol and the Click Five.

If you want to catch more of this band, their debut EP, Jaded Romantic is available on iTunes, their MySpace page is here, and for extra stalker points, you can watch them on their own YouTube channel.

This is going to be one of those ‘holy shit’ posts: I got an email from Colby, the bassist with Black Mercies to introduce the band and let me know that they’re planning a short tour of the UK in April.

The holy shit part is that this band is awesome. They rock in all the right ways, if you know what I mean. BB (the lead singer) alternates between cool breathy vocals and impassioned yelps. Musically, I’m reluctant to compare Black Mercies to anyone else. Their brand of rock has a classic tinge to it, but remains distinctive and original.

With a knack for intriguing song names – Ballad Of A Kept Man, The Arsonist, Hellacopters – you’ll want to listen just to find out what the hell the songs are about! And Death 2 Celebrity is probably the best introduction to the band: frenzied drumming and brilliant, melodic guitar work (who’s that, BB again?)

Tour Dates

The UK tour is shaping up as follows, but keep an eye on their MySpace blog for any changes or additions to the schedule.

• 16 Apr 2009 – Jericho Tavern, Oxford, United Kingdom
• 17 Apr 2009 – Club Quattroz, Harlow, United Kingdom
• 20 Apr 2009 – Sneaky Pete’s, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
• 21 Apr 2009 – The Leopard, Doncaster, United Kingdom
• 23 Apr 2009 – The Marquee Club, Hertford, United Kingdom
• 24 Apr 2009 – Hope and Anchor, London, United Kingdom

More Mercies

If you want to hear more of the Black Mercies, bounce over to their official website – it contains three songs not on their MySpace player.

Actually – unless the correct me – you can stream their entire Murder It Sweetly album, and if you go to the Media section, there are links to purchase the album at CD Baby or iTunes, depending on your preference.

Don’t forget to friend the band on MySpace and if you like them, spread the word! That’s part of the reason for doing posts like these – so go out and blog about the band, spray their name on walls and stuff like that!

You guys are bombarding me with new music lately, and I’m feeling obliged to give a shout out to the best of the bands I’m hearing lately.

Here’s the latest: glasslights or glass.lights as they sometimes spell it. They’re a London-based four-piece making some seriously ambitious tunes.

Check out their song, The King And The Queen, which starts out understated and innocently enough, until the massive chorus bursts forth from your speakers and everything goes mental. I can hear the influence of a stack of classic bands in their sound: a touch of U2 (in the guitar sound on July and Someone Like Me), piano-influenced groups, possibly in the Coldplay/Keane vein.

The thing is, while Coldplay and Keane often leave me cold, Glasslights actually have a pop rock sensibility that’s nowhere near the often-dull sounds of those bands.

Two of the newer songs on the MySpace page, Big Dreams and Brave New Day are an interesting contrast. Big Dreams sees Andy singing in an almost-falsetto and some lush strings. Brave New Day has a strong guitar sound and pounding drums alternating with a whispered verse. Actually, the more I listen to it, Brave New Day is my favourite track so far.

Anyway, I had a brief chat to singer/guitarist Andy to find out more about the band. Firstly, how and when they formed:

The band was formed last summer, June to be precise, when Brian (guitarist) answered my ad in a guildford newspaper. We started rehearsing bits and bobs together, then Brian quickly roped in two of his pals, Harvey (bass) and Dan Kav (drums) to complete the line up. We’ve been writing and rehearsing non stop ever since, and played our first gig at Guildford Boilerroom at the beginning of December last year, which was really fun. We’ve been gigging loads since, and as you will see from the myspace, we’ve got a nice string of gigs planned for the coming months across the country – so it’s all quite exciting.

So, they’ve been writing their own songs? What sort of music influences their songwriting? Andy says:

I know everyone says this, but they truly are very varied with this band. Personally, I’d say I’ve been most affected by classic songwriters – Lennon, Brian Wilson, The Carpenters – all that properly crafted stuff that no-one seems to own up to liking these days! By contrast, drummer Dan is a massive Metallica fan, so there’s a decent mixture of styles going on there.

What’re you waiting for? Bounce over to MySpace and have a listen to Glasslights, and tell me what you think…

The People’s Music Awards is a unique way for unsigned bands and artists to showcase their music and get some exposure to the industry and to the public.

It’s got all the features we love in a music competition: unsigned artists, public voting and lots of good tunes to discover. Here’s a bit of the blurb to fill you in:

The TPMA’s are the worlds first Global Unsigned Music Awards and online Chart, that recognise serious talent across 9 music categories.  The concept is simple, IT’S ALL ABOUT THE PEOPLE, from the voting to the acts – If you like what you hear, vote for it and give recognition to the artists who deserve it.  TPMA is supported by numerous music industry figureheads who continually feedback on the artists and scout for future talent, with round two of the competition voted on by 17 Guest Judges, who this year include the legendary Annie Nightingale (Radio One), Eddy Temple-Morris, and Tony Platt (Island Studios).

If you want to get involved, check out the acts and vote for your favourites, visit the website and sign up (it’s free). Without being rude, ignore the front page blurb and click on either the Artists Directory or the Music Players to get started listening to the music!

The Music Players page allows you to listen to the songs in each category in a handy pop-up window, so you can continue browsing the site while you listen to the music. (I’m listening to Seventeen by Monday’s Headline).

I have to be honest, the interface is in need of some work – it’s nowhere near as slick as the Orange unsignedAct website I talked about a while back. Still, the music player is a great discovery mechanism.

My sources tell me that rock growlers Lavondyss have made it through to the final 2 acts in the “Indie/Rock/Metal/Punk” category”, they are up against cute female solo artist Silhouette. Check them both out – who deserves the vote? Oh, actually Silhouette does: simply because she’s from Northern Ireland. Well, we’ve got to vote for our own sometimes, don’t we?

I got a breezy email from Sean Fournier the other day recommending that I check out his 6 track album, Oh My.

Normally, I approach this type of email with caution – you never know if the contents are going to be good or appalling. But Sean’s confidence and enthusiasm impressed me enough to download his free album. That last link’s a hint, by the way!

If you’ve read my posts about other singer/songwriters, you’ll know that I believe being a singer/songwriter is one of the hardest things in the world. That’s a limitation of being one man (or woman) and an acoustic guitar. Fournier, since you’re wondering, manages to offer something pleasurably unique: melodic, catchy tunes with clever accompaniments that lift the songs beyond the ordinary.

Let’s jump straight to my favourite track – Put The World On Stop – a piano-led track that incorporates a bassline that takes the song almost into hip-hop territory. Trust me, you’ll be singing that one line all day.

I won’t give you a track-by-track account of each song – just go and listen to the album. The bottom line is, the first five tracks are well-crafted songs, and Fournier’s voice is smooth and relaxing on all. Having spent the last hour listening to the album, I’m feeling really chilled out.

Most of the songs on Oh My are of such a high quality, it wouldn’t be a surprise to hear them in the charts. Broken Stereo is immense, one of the strongest choruses on the album – definitely check that one out.

The final track, Holding The Hand Of The Hurricane moves into more experimental territory, with a seemingly Indian influence to the instrumentation. It’s a touch out of place with the other songs, but shows that Sean has a flair for the dramatic, declaring “yeah I’m gonna live forever, as long as I feel your rain/dancing around like I’m holding the hand of the hurricane”.

Oh, and I should mention the quality of the presentation – the cover art is beautiful, and the album includes a little PDF booklet with the lyrics to the songs, all very stylishly laid out. If that’s not enough incentive to download the album, I don’t know what is!

Spread the word!

When you’re getting an album for free, it’s always nice to spread the word about it. If you do happen to download Oh My, make sure you tell your friends about it – share it on your Facebook/MySpace/Twitter profiles. You can even talk about it in real life too!

Stalk Sean Fournier on the Internet!

Not only is Sean a talented singer and songwriter, but he’s a clever self-publicist. If you become a fan after hearing this album, you’ll be pleased to know that Sean can easily be stalked all over the Internet.

Start off on his official website, move on to MySpace, where you can friend him and listen to his latest tunes. And if you want to catch up with his exploits, his blog is an essential stopping point.

This year is no exception, and the BBC’s Sound of 2009 is riddled with 10 singers and bands that you’ve probably never heard of before. Last year’s chart namechecked Adele, Duffy and The Ting Tings – this year, we’re being introduced to Little Boots, White Lies, Lady GaGa and La Roux among others. Read on for the full list…

1. Little Boots
2. White Lies
3. Florence and the Machine
4. Empire of the Sun
5. La Roux
6. Lady GaGa
7. VV Brown
8. Kid Cudi
9. Passion Pit
10. Dan Black

Do not underestimate this list – it is a very powerful prediction of the next 12 months in music. People are already raving about Little Boots, La Roux and Lady GaGa. Rest assured, you will be seeing and hearing from these artists in 2009.

Check out last year’s list to see how many of the acts charted.

Update: I’ve added links to the MySpace pages for each of these acts so that you can check them out online and get a feel for their music.

Why not comment here and let us know who your favourite new band for 2009 is?

But most of these acts are already well on their way to fame and fortune, with many already signed. Spread the word about them by all means, but what about less well-known groups?

As I mentioned in this post, with less high-street options now that Zavvi has disappeared, the amount of choice for consumers is restricted. You’ve got to go online to catch new music acts – MySpace is one such place, but suffers from having an awful lot of dross to wade through before you find a decent band. I prefer Virb.com and PureVolume.com, because the userbase is a little more selected, presumably with people who didn’t want to get lost in the crowd at MySpace!

I get the occasional email from indie promoters, but you’d be surprised at how bad some of the acts they send through are. I normally don’t review them rather than say bad things about their music, which they probably work very hard on. Maybe I should include them anyway, and let the readers have their say?

I started a short-lived project in 2008 – a MySpace tour concept where you surfed MySpace for good bands, then found another good band in their friendlist and then surfed on to another band and so on. It should have went on for a lot longer than it did, but I came up against the problem that the last act didn’t have any good bands among their friends. What a shame.

Is that idea worth reviving? Possibly. Or the alternative option which is to ask one of the bands I’ve reviewed to recommend another band they admire.

I feel like Unreality Music has to do something to support indie music in 2009. Any ideas?

Orange unsignedAct finalists the Scarlet Harlots have been tipped for greatness in the new year by The Wombats.

The members of The Wombats were impressed when they mentored the Scarlet Harlots for the Channel 4 talent show. Wombats singer, Murf told them:

I thought you were going to be good before you even picked up an instrument.

Now, you all know that I’ve been a big fan of The Wombats over the last year, so this endorsement by the band interested me. I decided to check out the Scarlet Harlots. They’ve got their own profile on the Orange unsignedAct homepage, and of course the ubiquitous MySpace presence, although there’s more music on the MySpace page, including the essential This Is How We Do It.

What’s in store for the listener is some indie-punk style tunes that reflect perhaps the next generation of indie in the UK. In what has been a stagnating scene, could a band like Scarlet Harlots come in and reinvigorate it? Maybe. Check them out and let me know what you think.

Anyway, the praise from The Wombats continued apace when the band suggested that they’d be happy to take the Harlots on tour with them. Harlots frontman, Sam Baylis said “to say that we could go on tour with The Wombats, that’s a massive compliment and has given me a rod of confidence!”

If you’re not already watching unsignedAct, you can catch it on T4 at 12:20pm on Sunday.

Simon Gavin is reprising his role as a judge on Channel 4’s talent competition, Orange Unsigned Act.

Simon is the head of A&M Records, the company who will ultimately sign the winning band in the competition and release their record.

We caught up with Simon to chat about his role on the show, how it compares to ‘other’ TV talent shows, and what the bands can expect if they win the competition.

Hi Simon! You’re a member of the judging panel for this years Orange Unsigned Act competition. Can you tell us what your role as a judge entails?

What my role as a judge entails is to find the best unsigned singer/songwriter or band that’s entered the show. It’s my job at the end of it to make a record and put a record out on my label. So, I’m there to find and make sure that I get the thing that has the best shot of selling the most records.

Can you tell us a bit about how bands enter and how they’re shortlisted for the show?

Everyone has to upload their songs onto the Orange Unsigned website. They are voted for by the public, so you go on, you listen, and you vote for the one you like the best. So it’ll be basically everyone mobilising their fanbase to get votes.

Then, there’s a panel, which I’m not on, of music industry experts, some from Universal, some from Sony Ericsson, some from Orange and some from Princess and Channel 4. They sit there and pick another 25 that didn’t make it on the public vote.

Then there’s a wildcard show which Jo Whiley and James Oldham judge, and if you haven’t been voted through by the other two means, you can turn up, play your instrument in front of these guys and they can put 10 people through as well.

So that last round’s kind of like an open mic night?

It is, yes.

The first series of the show attracted 1,700 applicants, but this series you’ve had over 7,000 entries. You’ve had to shortlist this number down to just 50 for the live shows. How have you found the standard of acts this year?

Oh, much better. Way above last year. I think at this stage – obviously we’re recording ahead of the transmission date here – there are seven artists left in the competition and none of those artists (from last year) would have got in the seven.

It’s voted for by the public, it’s a public vote. There’s a live final with a public vote.

I’ve been trying to put myself into your shoes and imagine what you’re looking for in the winning act, possibly a mix of commercial viability and something different to make them stand out. From your point of view as head of A&M records, what is it that you’re looking for?

Well, I actually don’t mind if it isn’t different. I mean, part of my job is to understand what the market is doing and what it wants. It’s not always my job to challenge the market. It’s a tough climate at the moment, so I’m just looking for something that I can put out fairly quickly and sell records.

Also what I’m looking for is some kind of spark of originality. I would like to balance the art and the commerce thing as well as I can. What I think would be great for the winner of this show if it was the less obvious one. I think people expect a similar type of artist to win these TV talent shows. I think this is different because it’s about people singing their own songs and playing their own instruments – they have to have that talent.

The competition has opened up to include urban acts this year. What’s been the standard coming from that genre?

It’s few and far between actually. We had Lethal Bizzle on as a guest judge last week and he played me his new tune on his iPod and it was amazing. It’s a pop, urban record and it’s brilliant. But nothing we’ve seen on the show comes close to it. So, for me there’s not enough of it.

Do you think the lack of entries comes from people associating the competition with bands and singer/songwriters?

Yeah, possibly. Because that was all that entered last year. Well, we had some urban acts last year, but they weren’t very good. It’s there for the taking really.

It’s inevitable coming from a reality TV website, but as a music based talent competition, do you get comparisons with shows like X Factor and American Idol? How does Orange Unsigned Act differ?

I think that’s possibly a lazy comparison. I mean, the X Factor gets 14 million viewers on a Saturday night. It’s not about the best artist, it’s about the best karaoke singer singing someone else’s song. It’s not about music, that show, it’s about entertainment. This is a show about music.

Well, the winning band or artist on this show gets to make an album, their album. It’s their songs. For me, it’s not about singing someone else’s songs.

I get the impression that the two shows have different objectives for the acts that win. Like if the winner of X Factor manages a couple of good albums, that’s the pinnacle of their music career. Is there a different expectation for the winner of the Orange Unsigned Act?

Whoever wins the show, we make their song available for download on the Monday morning. So, if you’re a fan of the band, you’ve got something, and then we go into the studio as if we’d signed a band without the TV show. So you then go into the record making process.

Whoever wins X Factor, there are twelve songs in Simon Cowell’s drawer that they’re going to sing. And that’s fine, that’s his business and he’s made a great living out of it. It doesn’t pretend to be anything else. I think there’s room for everything really.

It all comes from the record – you have to make the record first and foremost. Make sure you’ve got three singles on there, then you’ve got to go and play live to gain an audience, then you’ve got to get some press. Marketing really only comes into play when you’ve putting an album out. The rest of it is all promotion and setup.

And do the bands get help with their songwriting?

If they need it. In the competition, they have to come on and sing a new song every week. They’ll have to write their own songs, they won’t be given songs to sing. But if they need any help, if they need to do some co-writing, if it’s a singer/songwriter, then that’s a normal route to go.

Taking on the role of judge on this type of show must have interesting consequences…

It just means that when you go to a gig, everyone says “You’re that bloke off the telly. I’m better than that band that was on last week.” I try to be honest and I try to be constructive. I’m not there to make people feel stupid and I’m not there to make people feel bad about themselves. I’m there as the person who has to put the winner’s record out, so I have to make sure that the winner is someone I can work with.

I suppose you probably get loads of demos pushed at you now?

Oh yeah, loads! I could go to a restaurant and people go “I’m a singer.” Every waiter I know is in a band or a singer.

Have you heard about the Orange Unsigned Act competition? It’s a TV show that’s coming soon to Channel 4’s new 4music channel.

I’ll save the comparisons to X Factor for the reality TV blog. The reason I’m writing this is to tell you about the stack of unsigned talent you can find on the Unsigned Act website.

I’m currently having my eardrums rearranged by a punk band from London called The Display Team – click on the link, you get a band biography and a handful of brilliant songs, links to their proper website and everyfink. This band are particularly wonderful just for having worked the words “tits up” into their lyrics. I love the fact that they’re working trumpets and trombones into their act!

I’m only a little bit disappointed that the music player isn’t embeddable – I’d like to have shared some of the music with you all.

Random act or browse for yourself

If you visit the Acts page, you’ll get three random acts to explore. Refresh the page and you’ll get three new acts.

If that doesn’t get you hot, you can browse the acts by genre, or you can look for bands from your own hometown or you can even find acts by who their influences were. Pretty cool stuff.

Mixtapes

Another cool feature of the site is that while you browse around, you can create mixtapes of songs you like. You don’t even need to be signed in to do this, it’ll create a temporary mixtape for you.

Once you’re a member, you can sign in and your mixtape gets a page of its own. You can even browse other members’ mixtapes. Yes, I’m aware I’m dribbling just a little.

Anyway, I’ve spent a large part of this morning browsing around and listening to new music. It’s better than MySpace because there’s less design disasters, and the acts have been through a screening process, so it’s not nearly as hit and miss.

Check it out and tell me what you think.