Watching this year`s Glastonbury festival highlights from the comfort of my armchair in the North of Scotland, I couldn`t help but deliver a sneer in the direction of the BBC for their flagrant promotion of the acts that appeared in their (revered and reviled in equal measures) Ones to Watch 2009 list.  Of course, not everybody wants to see aging acts roll out former glories on smaller stages and, if reports are to be believed, one of the acts given a lot of screen time, Passion Pit, prove to be one of the highlights.

So, it`s fitting that the American act have been given a headline slot on a set of similarly named concerts.  The fifth annual Levi`s Ones to Watch series begins on Tuesday 7th July and carries on until the weekend with other headline shows from Glasgow`s Dananananaykroyd, Portland dance-punk`s Hockey and Manchester`s Everything Everything soon to follow up ace debut single `Photoshop Handsome`.  Best of all, just announced as headliners on a special final night are the indescribably brilliant Friendly Fires (but these tickets are extremely limited so check out http://www.the-fly.co.uk/lotw for more details).

With new acts everyone`s talking about including Chew Lips, Fanfarlo and Post War Years also on the bill next week it looks like the Vibe Bar on London`s Brick Lane will be packed out on a nightly basis.

Full Line-up:
Tuesday 7th July: Dananananaykroyd + The Late Greats + Romance
Wednesday 8th July: Passion Pit + Fanfarlo + Apples
Thursday 9th July: Hockey + Chew Lips + Trouble Andrew
Friday 10th July: Everything Everything + Post War Years + Wolf Gang
Plus very special 5th night gig to be announced (Friendly Fires headline)

For more details check : http://www.levi.co.uk/ and http://www.the-fly.co.uk/lotw.

Richard Brown (View Original Article)

Macmillan Cancer Support will be taking over Brick Lane in East London on Thursday 13th August where its first ever large scale music event – Macmillan’s Brick Lane Takeover – will welcome 2000 music lovers from 12 noon with Frank Turner and The Chapman Family already confirmed to perform at the event.

The all-dayer kicks off at 12 noon and offers 12 hours of exceptional music entertainment from an eclectic mix of some of the best indie, electro, folk and punk rock bands around.  One wristband will give fans access to live music from a host of established acts, in 7 of East London’s finest venues - 93 Feet East, Vibe Bar, Café 1001, Hoxton Bar + Kitchen, Old Blue Last, Cargo and Macbeth.

Macmillan Event Organiser Alex Blair says: `Macmillan’s Brick Lane Takeover is certainly one of the most ambitious and exciting events that Macmillan has put on!  Thanks to the generosity of so many bands and venues, we hope to raise £30,000 to help Macmillan continue to provide vital support to people affected by cancer.`

After the sell out success of 2008, Festibelly have developed their boutique festival for another wonderful weekend this summer. Set in the peaceful surroundings of the New Forest, Festibelly provides a chilled day, party night time, camping and intimacy, with a capacity of only 1000 people.

2009 features musical performances from some of the most exciting talent to emerge from the indie, rock, pop, acoustic, and reggae scenes. After his astonishing 2008 performance, Festibelly welcome back `folktronica` wizard James Yuill as headliner.

The strong line up continues with Rough Trade signings Micachu & The Shapes, grime pop upstarts Man Like Me, critically acclaimed ensemble Laurel Collective and future-romantic pop group ColouringIN. They are joined by London`s favourite reggae party, Reggae Roast who will be `dubbing` it alongside live performances by Brother Culture and the heavyweight 9-piece brass band, Brass Roots.

For those of you who may not know, Melt! is a unique music festival on the Ferropolis peninsula set against a breathtaking backdrop of five huge hulking coal mining diggers that tower into the sky.  Melt! effortlessly mixes guitars, beatboxes and vinyl grooves so perfectly; indie boys dance with raver girls while hip hop heads wave their glowsticks. And with such a great location and massive line up, Melt! is one of the `must do` festivals of the summer.

COMPLETE FESTIVAL LINE UP:
!!! | Animal Collective | Amazing Baby | Aphex Twin + Hecker | A Critical Mass feat. Henrik Schwarz, Âme, Dixon (live) | Matias Aguayo | Baddies | Kasper Bjørke | Bloc Party | Bodi Bill | Bonaparte | Boy8Bit | Boys Noize + Erol Alkan | Brodinski | Buraka Som Sistema | Cajuan | Caribou | Channel X | The Cheapers | Philipp Cerfontaine | Cold War Kids | Crystal Castles | Deadmau5 | Delphic | Digitalism (live) | Dinky | Diplo | Jochen Distelmeyer | DJ Koze | DJ Phono | DJ Supermarkt | The Dodos | David Dorad | Drop the Lime | Andreas Eckhardt | Ellen Allien | Empro | Tim Exile | Fabiano | Fever Ray | Fieber Tanz | Filthy Dukes | Foals | Sascha Funke | Glasvegas | Goldie | Gossip | Daniel Haaksman feat. Deize Tigrona | Hell | Matthew Herbert (DJ-Set) | James Holden | Jazzanova Live! | Sven Jozwiak | Paul Kalkbrenner | Karrera Klub | Kassette Boys | Kasabian | King Kong Klub | Klute | Markus Kavka | Kiki | Klaxons | Kode 9 & Spaceape | LA Roux | Les Yper Sound | Luna City Express | Michael Mac (Club NME) | Magnetic Man feat. Skream & Benga (live) | MC Justyce | Mediengruppe Telekommander | Marcus Meinhardt | Metronomy | Mikroboy | Moderat (= Modeselektor + Apparat + Pfadfinderei live) | Hudson Mohawke | MSTRKRFT | Muff Potter | Mujava | Lars Christian Müller | ND Baumecker | The New Wine | Oasis | Passion Pit | Phoenix | Pilooski | Polarkreis 18 | Revolver Club | Radio Slave | Jesse Rose | Röyksopp | Scharrenbroich trifft Gunjah | Shir Khan | Simian Mobile Disco (live) | Skinnerbox | Luke Slater (live) | The Soundtrack Of Our Lives | Daniel Stefanik | Gunnar Stiller | Super 700 | Sweat Club DJs | Team Recorder | Anna Ternheim | This Will Destroy You | Thunderheist | Tiga | Tobias Thomas | Travis | Trentemøller (DJ-Set) | TRG | The Virgins | The Wedding Present | Markus Welby | The Whitest Boy Alive | WhoMadeWho | Patrick Wolf | James Yuill | Yuksek | Zander VT | Gisbert zu Knyphausen

Standon Calling 2009 are delighted to announce that Hawkwind will be celebrating their 40th anniversary with a special performance.

They join the likes of Friendly Fires, Femi Kuti, Ladytron, Tony Christie, The Whip, Sun Ra Arkestra, Golden Silvers to name a few. What better place to see the pioneers of space rock than this space themed wonderland in the rolling Herefordshire countryside.

Nick Foster (View Original Article)

In these cash strapped days, instead of taking an exotic holiday in a far away place why not stay in good ol`Blighty or pop across the water to Ireland and visit a festival instead. There will be plenty to choose from this summer and news of what bands are to appear at which festival are starting to roll in:

First up is Oxegen, which takes place at Punchestown Racecourse, Naas, Co Kildare Ireland, who`ve announced that Snow Patrol, Bloc Party, The Script and `IkissedagirlandIlikedit` Katy Perry are set to join Kings Of Leon between 10th-12th July 2009.

Then there`s Brighton`s Great Escape who have Metronomy, Kissy Sell Out, Passion Pit, Micachu and the Shapes, Esser, VV Brown and many other up and coming artists playing across 34 venues in 3 days on May 14th, 15th, 16th.

For more information on these festivals go to:

Oxygen: http://www.oxegen.ie

The Great Escape: http://www.escapegreat.com

Nick Foster (View Original Article)

Every January the BBC announce a list of acts they reckon will hit it big musically over the coming year.  In truth it`s generally little more than a trawl through the press releases for acts releasing material in the Winter months, but in recent years they`ve been spot on.

This time round it seems MGMT, Hot Chip, Calvin Harris and expensive image consultants are principal influences.

This year`s long list is below:

The Big Pink - The Big Pink`s `Too Young To Love / Crystal Vision` double A side single scored `single of the week` back in October.  To call them the natural successors to My Bloody Valentine may be a little generous but not premature.

Frankmusik - Vincent Frank is pretty much everything that is wrong with music.  Welcome next year`s Mika.  Horrible, horrible, horrible.

Master Shortie - After the unlikely Top 10 adventures of both Dizzee Rascal and Wiley this year it`s obvious that we need to consult the grime scene for the next successor.  Obviously nobody told Theo Kerlin AKA Master Shortie that mixing grime with indie (or `grindie`) failed spectacularly a few years ago and that, with far superior acts such as Marvin, Akira the Don and Why Lout? out there, this is one more `fusion` that we don`t really need.

Dan Black - `Personally exiled in Paris`, Dan Black caused a minor stir in 2008 with his white label verson of Notorious B.I.G.`s `Hypnotize`.  New single `Yours` is suitably diluted for pop audience consumption which should give him a few weeks as the new Calvin Harris before being completely forgotten about.

Kid Cudi - Love it or hate it, US hip hop remains one of our biggest imports but at least Kid Cudi is the protege of Kanye West which guarantees some interesting production which is exactly what we get on `Day n Nite` where the producers appear to have done for him exactly what Calvin Harris did for Dizzee Rascal this year...that is, the track could have stood up perfectly well without him.

Mumford & Sons - Having already registered a single of the week award on Culturedeluxe back in July we described them then as "a somewhat surprising meeting between fragile, sob-into-your-hanky country balladry and, just sometimes mind, forays deep into hoedown territory" and we haven`t changed our minds.  Expect them to fly the flag for interesting music in the face of glitzy pop next year in the same way Laura Marling and Noah and the Whale did in 2008.

VV Brown - Remember Remi Nicole?  Remember the fantastic yet ultimately tiresome shuffle-rock singles she released late last year?  No.  Well, don`t worry as VV Brown has resurrected this nearly scene to startling effect.  `Crying Blood` is essentially `Monster Mash` with the spooky voices and sounds removed but it`s so catchy it`ll take something huge to prise it off the number one spot when released next year.

La Roux - Signed to the impossibly cool Kitsune label, La Roux are Elly Jackson and Ben Langmaid and `Quicksand` is an unashamedly 80`s pop monster which all but rips off Prince`s `When Doves Cry` but adds extra pan pipes - which is about as essential as you can get really.

Passion Pit - `Sleepyhead` is an absolutely bonkers chipmunk rendition of Nik Kershaw`s `The Riddle` with steel-capped bass drum hits from Michael Angelakos aka Passion Pit.  Perhaps too silly to enjoy any lasting fame but it`ll sure be fun while he`s around.

Empire of the Sun - The Sleepy Jackson`s Luke Steele and Pnau`s Nick Littlemore club together to give us a sound that combines futuristic pop with oriental imagery and the ragged style of MGMT.  If all the elements required to be a hit in 2009 were emptied into a mixer, it`s likely this would be the tasty cupcake they`d produce.

Lady GaGa - She schooled with legendary socialite Paris Hilton and has written songs for the Pussycat Dolls and Britney Spears.  She sounds just like Christina Aguilera.  Avoid.  No, please.

The Temper Trap - An Antipodean act not signed to Modular?  Wow, there`s a novelty.  Then one who combine the ethereal nonsense of MGMT with the tight Martin Hannett style production of early Factory material and the pomp of mid-80s U2?  There`s another.

Florence and the Machine - The recent firey `Dog Days are Over` was described as a contender for single of the year by our very own Nick Foster.  Florence brings an authenticity back to the role of leading lady so strong that the words `Kate Nash` will soon be but a distant memory.

Little Boots - Former lead singer of Dead Disco and one of the most hyped acts in recent memories.  By working closely with Hot Chip`s Joe Goddard it looks like Victoria Hesketh might actually prove she`s worth it.

White Lies - Already pretty established due to sounding a hell of a lot like The Killers.  They caused a major bunfight among labels presumably keen to sign up the next Brandon Flowers and co.  We won`t lie though - they`re pretty fucking awful.

For more information have a look at the page yourself here.  Culturedeluxe will deliver our own Tips for 2009 in early January where you`ll be able to shake your head in wonder at our misplaced fandom.

Richard Brown (View Original Article)

Perhaps you caught Passion Pit at a BBC Introducing stage this Summer.  Although Huw Stephen`s beard may have been blocking your view. Passion Pit have been sailing on the crest of the `in new music we trust` wave since the beginning of the year. 

It`s hard to see why helium junkie, Michael Angelankos, and his merry band of Empire of The Sun / MGMT clones have failed to set the 2009 charts alight in the same way that Little Boots, Gaga et al have. They seem to fit the bill. They`re annoying, mediocre and they give off a certain `I would like to shoot you in the face` aura. It`s probably down to Passion Pit being that bit more annoying than the rest of the `one to watch` starlets.

`To Kingdom Come` is to be listened to at your own risk. Angelankos should have taken note when the recent Alvin and the Chipmunks film bombed, and saved us from another helping of his horrible falsetto vocals. Still, three singles in, there can`t be much more of this nonsense to come.

Adam Coutts (View Original Article)