artist of the day

Lana del Rey.

A firm new favourite. With sultry caramel tones that could make a wolverine purr, Lana del Rey has described herself as the "gangsta Nancy Sinatra" who wants her music to be "the sonic equivalent of a Vincent Gallo film". The 24-year-old New Yorker fuses 1950s jazz with modern hip hop and tops it with soft girly vocals; it's a combination that works so wonderfully it makes you wonder how there can really be so few artists putting out this kind of music. She hasn't officially released anything as yet but I will be keeping my eyes very much peeled.

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old favourites and new listenings

We Aeronauts.

I can't quite believe I haven't put anything up about this band yet for not only are they pretty brilliant, the small girl in the big hat is a friend of mine. So, We Aeronauts are super. They have the great trumpet melodies of Beirut, are cheerier than your average folk band and remain wonderfully original despite the growing number of large, multi-instrument folk groups. You can catch them at small festivals around the country or they tend to gig in or around London/Brighton/Oxford. Have a proper non-youtube listen here if you like them.

Young The Giant.

A wonderful American band who are a bit more mainstream compared with my usual listenings (they are about to start touring with incubus) but great nonetheless. I particularly like this acoustic version of I Got.

Hiatus & Shura.

Once again my favourite trusty blogger Flying With Anna has led me straight to an undiscovered gem. Looking forward to the EP being released - in the mean time this video is wonderful.

Lucy Rose.

I'm already a big fan and have written about her before, but this beautiful version from Watch Listen Tell (the best channel on youtube if you didn't know) has been on repeat for the past few days:

Just one last video from We Aeronauts as this video makes me smile - for reasons made clear a few minutes in...

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artist of the day

O Chapman.

The name has in fact been flying around for a while; all on-the-ball bloggers pricked up their ears a while ago and wrote their insightful blurbs. But better to jump on the band wagon late than never (possibly?!) so here I go. A young man of 18, O. Chapman continues to spread his gruff tones and folk blues around our fair capital. His voice works so well with Faith Barker, who you can hear as the female vocalist in duets - and as a general songwriter he is very much up there. If you want to catch him then take a look at his gig list here. Otherwise soak it all in. It'll go down smooth.

While these live versions are great, the finished product is just as, if not more, beautiful so I'd recommend checking out his myspace.

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