More great new music

I've been discovering so much more great new music recently, thanks to doing reviews for Wears The Trousers, Last FM and being sent the odd gem, that I thought I would share with you.

I have Wears The Trousers to thank for these discoveries (expect reviews up very soon)!







Last FM for these..







and finally this band, who I had emailed to me, they haven't got any youtube videos so here is the link to their myspace I'll be writing a review of their album very soon!

This week's playlist

The Cardigans- (If You Were) Less Like Me
The Sundays- Here's Where The Story Ends
Electrelane- To The East
Guano Apes- Pretty in Scarlet
Portishead- Nylon Smile
Nina Hagen and Lene Lovich- Don't Kill The Animals
Howling Bells- Low Happening
Lily Allen- Friday Night
Siouxie- About To Happen
'Til Tuesday- Voices Carry
Imelda May- Big Bad Handsome Man
Sandi Thom- Saturday Night
McQueen- Don't Know How To Break It To You
Bleech- Mondays
Remi Nicole- Dates From Hell
Skunk Anansie- Charity
PJ Harvey- Sheela-Na-Nig
Bif Naked- Abandonment
Harry- 10 Things
Blondie- (I'm Always Touched) By Your Presence, Dear
Trash Monroe- Idoll
The Wendy Darlings- Enormous Pop
The Sibleys- I Don't Smile (If I Don't Want To)
Paramore- Crush Crush Crush
Le Tigre- On The Verge
The Go! Team- Doing It Right
The Ladybirds- (I'm Gonna) Spin Those Reels
Amanda Palmer- Exit Music (For A Film)

The Soundtrack To My Life

Recently one of my friends on Facebook made a group on there called 'The Soundtrack of My Life' as a space where he could post up music from his life, and others could share their memories too. I do wonder though whether everyone is telling the complete truth about what they listened to as children, as it's all so cool- Johnny Cash, X Ray Spex, Nirvana etc etc and not one embarrassing song on there, my childhood listening wasn't like that! My music taste didn't really get good until I hit 16, so I went ahead and posted my memories of songs that I used to like, and mine are the only embarrassing ones admitted so far!
Anyway, I thought it would be fun to post (or torment)? the songs of my life into a blog post, so you can enjoy/endure too!

Madonna! no real Madonna videos allow embedding, so this is just the song really. I always say I was probably listening to Madonna in the womb, as I grew up with her music from a baby and still like most of her music (not the last few years though- everything since Ray of Light sucked)!


Kylie! I remember having a record player and playing her albums on it, and even dressing one of my barbie dolls to look like her!



Spice Girls! First band I got REALLY into. My favourite was Geri, I was very sad when she left! They were my first ever gig



The Offspring- the first rock band I got into, my first rock gig as well. I will never tire of them and 'Smash' will always hold special memories for me!



Greenday soon followed suit..



Before I had my 'Ozzy/Black Sabbath' phase..


Led Zep


Bikini Kill, the first riot grrrl song I ever heard..


and of course, bringing you bang up to date with these last few (though I could post so much more)

This week's playlist

Evanescence- Bring Me To Life
New Young Pony Club- Grey
Fleetwood Mac- Go Your Own Way
Siouxie and the Banshees- Happy House
The Kills- Black Balloon
Lauren Harris- Steal Your Fire
Robots in Disguise- The Sex Has Made Me Stupid
Daisy Chainsaw- Dog With Sharper Teeth
Heather Nova- I'm Alive
The Bangles- Eternal Flame
KT Tunstall- Hold On
Ladytron- Destroy Everything You Touch
Janis Joplin- Piece of My Heart
Alisha's Attic- The Incidentals
Morcheeba- A Well Deserved Break
Paloma Faith- Do You Want The Truth or Something Beautiful?
Sixpence None The Richer- Kiss Me
Dead Weather- Treat Me Like Your Mother
Ipso Facto- Six and Three Quarters
The Space Between- I Need You More
The Voronas- You Ain't No Hero
The Sibleys- Dancin' on Delany Street
Little Boots- Meddle
Rilo Kiley- The Moneymaker
Crystal Castles- Air War
The Slits- Typical Girls
Joan Jett and The Blackhearts- I Wanna Be Your Dog

Pigtails Playlist for this week

The Waitresses- I Know What Boys Like
Kittie- Everything That Could Have Been
Florence and The Machine- Drumming Song
Scarling- Alexander The Burn Victim
The Flying Lizards- Money (That's What I Want)
Peaches- Get It
Nancy Sinatra- These Boots Are Made For Walkin'
Drive It Like You Stole It- Annie Oakley
We Start Fires- Strut
Pat Benatar- Treat Me Right
The Pretenders- I'll Stand By You
Fire Bug- Breakdown
Martha and The Muffins- Echo Beach
Elastica- 2:1
Annie Lennox- Walking on Broken Glass
Driver- Change Your Ways
Atomic Blonde- Babydoll(censored)
L7- Pretend We're Dead
Candy Panic Attack- What's He Got That I Haven't
The Ladybirds- (I'm Gonna) Spin Those Reels
The Ropes- Kill Her Off
The Sibleys- Blue Eyed Bandit
Gabby Young- In This Together
DJ Sunderland- Control the 80's
The Donnas- Get Outta My Room
The Creepshow- Candy Kiss
The Dollyrots- Because I'm Awesome
Scarlet- Independent Love Song
Jyl Millard- Ace of Spades

MEN @ The Lexington 8 Feb 2011

Walking into The Lexington, my ears were immediately satisfied, as I waited in line in the pub to get into the main venue area because a whole PJ Harvey album was being played- not a usual occurrence, well at least not in the pubs near me in any case. The queue of people was diverse, a mix of male and female, of all possible sexual orientations, and some people I assumed may have travelled to England especially for the gig as I heard did hear some French conversations.

When we got to the front, our hands were stamped with a motif of a little snail and we went up some stairs and into the main venue- which was crowded and intimate.

The supporting act were a band called Plug, sadly I can't find anything about this band on the internet, although if I do I will certainly post something up. They consisted of just two girls, one on drums and vocals, and the other on keyboard vocals. Despite the minimal band members, they had the sound of a whole band.

MEN with a slight line up change for the show (Ginger was not present for this gig) they kicked the set off with first album track 'Life's Half Price' which managed to get everyone moving and things did not slow down in the slightest as they worked their way through what must have been every song on their upcoming album.

Third song in, a link up of first two singles 'Off Our Backs' and 'Credit Card Babies' even invoked a small stage invasion from several members of the audience, who just jumped up and started dancing, MEN happily went with it, even passing the microphone for the fans to join in with their performance.

Upcoming single 'Who I Am To Feel So Free' was already being sung along to in a big way, indicating this may potentially be a future anthem for MEN. It was as they started this song, they revealed their big banner with the title written on, and potraits of fans that had sent their photos in, along with reasons why they feel so free to the band.

When they announced their final song, they were greeted with sighs from the audience, which prompted JD Samson to say that the only left for them to do would be to play a cover, and not even leave the stage, but just stand quietly for a few minutes while the crowd cheered them on. Sadly though, The Lexington must have strict rules, as when they finished the last song, JD Samson announced they had gone over their time and apologised. The band didn't return. But that was the only disappointment of the gig.


MEN have another gig supporting Sleigh Bells next week at Heaven nightclub in London along with electro noise outfit Teeth on Monday 14th February, their debut album Talk About Body is released on the same day.

Rating: 5/5

Ten Tigers @ Bar Lambs, 4 Feb 2011

It's been a while, since I last saw Ten Tigers, they recently took a bit of a break while bass player Amanda was rather busy having a baby! But they have just started to do some gigs again, and work on new material, starting with a rather aptly named Tiger Tour!

This particular part of the Tiger Tour happened to fall on Chinese New Year, the very end of the year of the Tiger! To mark the occasion, Bar Lambs was made into a Chinese/tiger haven, with Chinese lanterns hanging, candles lit, pictures of tigers and Chinese symbols adorning the walls. There were even 'Tiger Activity' crosswords and word searches placed on the tables and free fortune cookies given out.

The first band to grace the stage was 'ArtGruppe' a 4 piece local indie band comprising of two females and two males. They play dreamy indie pop, with a mixture of male and female vocals. Highlight of their set was the upbeat 'Ugly Boy, Ugly Girl'

To help concrete the 'tiger' theme, next band up was 'Tiger MCS who hail from Norwich, but for this occasion were one member short of their usual four, which made some of their songs difficult to pull off, but they managed to pull their set of acoustic indie pop with ease.

Ten Tigers, literally started off with a bang, as singer and multi instrumentalist, Emma, performed a somewhat tribal dance with a tiger mask covering her face as a short introduction before launching into a rousing rendition of one of their best songs 'Superlucky.' The band continued on to play a blinding set of their well known tracks and newer songs. '82' was performed with extra effects, which although sounded good, did overshadow the vocals at times.
We were even treated to a saxophone playing from Emma, and a lovely version of 'Tiger Who Came To Tea' with steel drum and added Tiger hand puppet!

Yet again, Ten Tigers continue to impress with their self acclaimed 'crayon rock', a blur between indie, riot grrrl and punk. A band who don't realise how good they are, they probably made a few more fans this night, as they no doubt will with every consequent performance.


Ten Tigers next gig in on 10h March, at The Cornerhouse in Cambridge.


Rating: 5/5

This week's playlist

Meredith Brooks- Bitch
PJ Harvey- Send His Love To Me
Tori Amos- Teenage Hustling
Le Tigre- My My Metrocard
Call the Doctor- For Your Leisure
The Birthday Massacre- Lover's End
Amy Macdonald- Run
4 Non Blondes- What's Up
Tiny Masters of Today- Hologram World
Imelda May- Big Bad Handsome Man
Jefferson Airplane- White Rabbit
Spinnerette- The Walking Dead
Pink- Trouble
Soho Dolls- Trash the Rental
Alisha's Attic- I Am, I Feel
Madonna- Lucky Star
Veruca Salt- So Weird
Patti Smith- Gloria
Alanis Morissette- Thank You
Roxette- It Must Have Been Love
Lady Earl and the Greys- Heathen
The Go Sheilas- Holiday
Metric- Monster Hospital
Suzie Quatro- Can the Can
Hole- Doll Parts
Shonen Knife- Top of the World

Cookie Party review

My review of a really brilliant riot grrrl inspired gig I went to last November is finally up on The F Word- go check it out here