A lot of new British bands are given plane tickets dumped in the Texas Desert and then forced to play South-By-South-West (SXSW) in Austin to pay for their journey home and simultaneously try to show-off some of the best new music Britain has to offer… here’s a run down of my picks for the agenda-setting festival.

BEARSUIT

MP3: Steven Fucking Speilberg: Speeding South-Eastern indie-pop gets revved up screeching from motorway to dirt-road to railway-track looking for the line that takes them to the sea, smiling throughout knowingthey are crazy.

CAPITOL K

MP3: Drum St Song: A Tropical outlook on grey-skies - endless possibilities and endless interesting noises all try to fit together and get along. Everything.

THE IRONWEED PROJECT:

MP3: Down To My Grave: Upbeat, sideways looking Delta-Blues from Manchester. Oh Yes. Absolutely. Worth your time.

THE INDELICATES

MP3: Julia, we don’t live in the 60s: Hard-working, and honest, driving a wedge between Morrissey and Art Brut’s Eddie Argos, digging out the gold and discarding the burnt relationships and isolation found within.

THE WHIP:

MP3: Trash: Irrepressible electro pummelings. Oh America we spoil you. The Rapture may have started in America and the rapture may well be the end of America. But until that moment we just whisper in your ear: (dance and throw off your feet).

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Some of the bands I’ve written about before are attending:

EMMY THE GREAT (previously)

MP3: Emmy The Great - Easter Parade.

I WAS A CUB SCOUT (previously)

MP3: I Was A Cub Scout - Pink Sqaures

JOHNNY FOREIGNER (previously)

MP3: Johnny Foreigner - Champagne Girls I have known

NOAH AND THE WHALE (previously)
See SXSW for mp3

MAGIC ARM (previously)

MP3: Magic Arm - Move Out

Mr Magic Arm plays Cool As Folk @ Sheffield University on Tuesday: 26/02 and he is not to be missed. I’ll be there, say hi.

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Photo credit: TychoMoon

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I would continue to ask you to vote for me in the NME award (nominated: Best Music Blog) but as they’ve failed to send me an invitation to the awards ceremony, I’ll have to do a Speilberg and boycott. So call you local congressman/ tribal elder etc and get it sorted.

Tags: Folk, Johnny 5 Is Alive, not-folk-music by Mike Smith
12 Comments »

MP3: Held By Hands - Trading on Past Treasures

“the weather
is as good as it could have been
and we rowed
to the centre of the river…

traced our fingers through
the surface of the water”

These sort of songs just have to be over 5 minutes long. Unsettled grey-skies of whispered lyrics and quietly plucked strings send us away from the dusk with ever increasing energy, with spaced-out predictions of what the night will bring. There’s no inevitable crescendo, it’s far too unknowable to make such a guess: it could become dawn at any moment.

Held By Hands could do anything they like. And they do: electric-guitar feedback shreds the stars and moon and scatters a light: causing everyone to sing… “MY GOD WE WERE INNOCENT. MY GOD IT WAS IT WAS SUCH A GOOD TIME“. This isn’t the music I live for, it’s music that exemplifies a perfect time, and it is done with passion, soul, eagerness and a disconnected lofi-shape that is too infectious to not get excited about.

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myspace.com/heldbyhands

Next gig:
10 Mar 2008 // Leeds: Brudenell Social Club // Held By Hands + Casiotone For The Painfully Alone + Gossamer Albatross.

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Photo credit: Noeluap + Jjjohn.

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I am continually amazed by the sort of music that emerges out of our fair isles. Much much more music is gasping for inclusion over the next week or so.

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Also:

VBS.tv: The interview with Graham Coxon over at Vice Magazine’s website (which is really a TV channel) is intelligent and revealing: he discusses work ethic, art vs music and speaks with an honest and undulled enthusiasm.

BigArtMob.com: Is attempt to log the location and preserve all sorts of street art across the world, but mostly in the U.K. They are roping in various bands and other well-travelled urban dwellers to get the ball rolling, and use mobile phones to send pictures of the art. Channel 4 are sponsoring the initiative as part of a Big Art Project they have planned for the summer.

Tags: Best of NBGL, Folk, Johnny 5 Is Alive by Mike Smith
2 Comments »

MP3: The Accidental - Illuminated Red

“If I leave… just before… the empire falls… we might find the occasion…. to dance upon those city walls”

Part-Tunng and part-Fence-Collective members: all sorts of well fitting, well oiled and manufactured parts contribute a little part of their musical heart to a greater good. Part-bear? Part-Solider? No. It’s subtle and soulful, not brutal and dark-brown. The strings give this folk song life and vibrancy. Don’t think they’ll be cheering at the side of the confetti parade though: just glad to see everyone’s smiling again.

‘Illuminated Red’ is off of their debut album There Were Wolves, which is out in April.

http://www.myspace.com/theaccidental

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Posts here have been thin on the ground of late due to exams but posting will return to two or three times a week for the considerable future.

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Photo credit: pincharrata

Tags: Folk, Johnny 5 Is Alive by Mike Smith
3 Comments »

MP3: The Matinee Orchestra - Hide And Seek

“Hide and Seek” is a fantastic way to start February. Forget the showers! Don’t cower! The spring is coming. Expect it! “Hide and Seek” is also big sounds and samples delivered this morning through a soaking shower of lost, organic and journeying acoustic instruments looking for a place to roost (but enjoying a pre-dusk flight. As much as birds enjoy flight; Which I think they do, Very much). Or maybe: Sesame Street go an a field trip to Iceland*, enjoying the landscape and becoming very human for a moment.

* Yes, Sigur Ros comparisons are welcome here - here, the richness and atmosphere are well translated to a whisper and an echo.

myspace.com/matineeorchestra

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As mentioned a couple of days ago, I’ve been nominated for an NME award: “Best Music Blog”. I forget to say that it’s down to a public vote. You can vote for me at NME.com. (You need to be registered to vote. Registration is free. Voting is not compulsory for your continued enjoyment of this site.)

No news of an awards ceremony invite yet, I guess they just send a helicopter on the night to pick up nominees.

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Photo credit: Omarrun @ Flickr.

Tags: Best of NBGL, Folk, Johnny 5 Is Alive, Not London by Mike Smith
2 Comments »

MP3: Frightened Rabbit - The Modern Leper

A couple of months months ago I wrote about Frightened Rabbit and said they have “a folky wisdom and an air of confidence that streams in through the windows, freshly blown out by tornadoes and hurricanes… Frightened Rabbits feel like renewal… pop songs that quickly turn melancholy into bright sunshine“.

Now: so much is so much bigger, but big enough to hold it’s own weight, it doesn’t droop or get lost, and it doesn’t seems lazily nostalgic. There is no lazyness but a vertically inclined indie-pop energy and depth. Jump! Into that Scottish Loch! In the middle of the hottest Scottish summer! It’ll cure you! Track of the Month.

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This is a track from “Midnight Organ Fight” out April 1st on Fat Cat. They are playing some British, then Italian shows before heading out to South By South West in Texas.

myspace.com/frightenedrabbit

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Also:

Recently I’ve been enjoying Justice’s Fabric Mix, which Fabric rejected. It’s disco, it’s self-indulgent and it’s idiosyncratic. They gave it away for as a Christmas mix.

I stopped doing a podcast recently to concentrate on this site. Luckily for you, “Not Your Usual Bollocks” music podcast is still going strong.

Breaking news:

It seems I have been nominated for an NME award (Best Music Blog) alongside The Hype Machine (a music blog aggragator operated by a very nice guy), The Modern Age (A blog about music, pop culture, the Strokes, puppies, Jack White, and cute boys.), Spinner (AOL music site), and Stereogum (the worlds most popular music blog: it used to have a slight Britney fetish).

If you haven’t been here before, check out my round-up of the best music featured on this site in 2007 to get a feel for things.

Nothing But Green Lights is based in the UK, solely features U.K music, and it is operated by one guy. I have permission to give all of the mp3s I feature away - so don’t feel guilty about taking as many as you like.

Tags: Johnny 5 Is Alive, Not London, not-folk-music by Mike Smith
3 Comments »