Who will be on the BBC Sound Of 2012 list? Does it even matter?

oh shit, what's that noise? It's that annoying Christmas song on the Sky TV guide. It must mean one thing. It's that time of year again.

Every year, The BBC gets help from "experts" in the music industry to select the artists who are tipped to be the next big thing. The BBC Sound Of 2012 list is 'completely meaningless', says Association of Independent Music chairman. Is Alison Wenham correct? To an extent yes, it is just one big advert for people like me to go "They aren't new, I've been listening to them for 2 years" or "Shit, who are they? GOOGLE...Well that was disappointing". But like Christmas is to an atheist, it's just a partially annoying bit of fun that wont go away any time soon. Kind of reminds me of that Charlie Brooker cartoon. Last year, the likes of Jessie J, The Vaccines and Nero topped the list. It's a miracle! Oh thy Lord, thank you for blessing these with success, etc! Although the list did tip Jamie Woon and Claire McGuire to do well (Tehe), we can all dream. Let's have a gander the up and comers for 2012. That's if we don't all die because of South Americans or soemthing...

Cast Of Cheers
These gents are the latest attempt of mainstreaming math rock. Not much stuff is available to listen to online at the moment and I refuse to compare these to Foals, Battles or Two Door Cinema Club. But I just did. I'm pretty sure these will be a festival favorite in the next couple of years.


Azealia Banks
One word. FILTHY. She's been touted as a "re-writer of RnB music". i can't see it myself. I see her as more of a more sexually aggressive Nicky Minaj rip off. She needs to smarten herself up if she want to do well in the charts. Listen to the lyrics and see for yourself.


Lana Del Rey
This was too easy to pick. Off the back of her hit, "video games", the fact shes hot and can sing live will only do her favors in the future. Her voice is sometimes haunting, lets hope her song writing continues to be equally pained and provocative.


As much as I want to I'm not going to say "Well its 2012 so here's the obligatory dubstep tips - Flux Pavillion (NEEEERRRRNEEERRRRR) and Skrillex (YES! OH MY GAWWWDDD!)", like the BBC did. So here's my other tips:

Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs
Citizens!
Modestep
Fixers
Danger
Architects
Ben Howard
Drums Of Death

Exclusive Interview: Hawk Eyes / Chickenhawk

If you are a regular listener to BBC Radio 1 in the evenings, then you would have heard of Hawk Eyes or at least Chickenhawk (the band has changed name). The Leeds based rock band started to grow on me and I became curious. Who were they? Everytime I would hear their song on the radio, it would usually be followed by Zane Lowes Oceanic accent driveling on about how excited he is and then mention 'Pulled Apart By Horses'. So I thought, lets find out a bit more about them. Here's the results of a funny and slightly sarcastic interview. Enjoy:

'Scorpieau' seems to be the song getting a lot of attention lately. What is the song you look forward to performing the most?
With making a new album and not having played any new songs live,
I'd say something off the new album. Its not finished yet and most of
the songs have working titles so let's say - 'Nigel'


It seems hard to find an interview where Pulled Apart By Horses isn't the band your compared to, what are your thoughts on this?
Perhaps because we are both from Leeds and a guitar band, we're
both riffy but sometimes journalists can be a little lazy with
comparisons, we've had endless comparisons in the past including Amen,
Castrovalva and Slayer!!! PABH are however an excellent band, my
favourite is Rob. He also has an excellent name.

Your style is quite unique; how would you describe it and who are your biggest influences?
Probably the sound of 4 people trying to pull the songs in
different directions apparently working together but secretly doing
battle. Dillinger Escape Plan, Melvins, Duran Duran and Danny Elfman
are some influences. A good dose of pretending we know what we are
doing always helps too.

We have had a few peoples opinions on the best alternative music scene and it seems that overall Manchester and South Wales are leading the way. What is the music scene like in Leeds and would you recommend going to see any particular bands?
Biased perhaps but the Leeds scene for me wins everytime, not
basing bands on success but quality I think the list from Leeds is
both long and ridiculously varied. Top of my head: Antares, False
Flags, These Monsters, Normal Man, Canaya, Mucky Sailor, Monster
Killed by Laser many many many more. Concentration Champ should've
been massive, hunt them out...

You are currently writing a new album, give us the low down on it.
We've written these songs over the last 18 months, I've
scrutinised the songs so much that I've lost touch on reality with
them, one of the engineers we are working with said it doesn't sound
like the same band as the first record, in a good way. I personally didn't want
to make Modern Bodies part 2. I don't know why I'm saying personally
as the others didn't either.

If you had to be a cover band, who would you cover and why?
Queen, so I could play songs by Queen. Music should've stopped
being made when Freddie Mercury died. I realise how silly the
statement is, thanks in advance just incase.

What's the funniest thing to happen to you as a band?
Luckily as a band we laugh quite a lot, the funniest things
hopefully will remain in our minds, being booed for not being
Alexisonfire was pretty funny though. Being in Europe in crack den
central was also funny but only once we were a long distance away.
That place was a massive advert to never take drugs, scary.

Finally, what are the Hawk Eyes goals for the future?
Goals, hmmm. Its hard to say without sounding like an idiot. 5
years ago the goal was to play a gig, we'd like to accomplish more and more but if the band split up tomorrow, I think we'd be pretty happy with our lot. My main goal now is to make an album better than Modern Bodies.

Cheers gents.

Reading And Leeds Festival Initial Review

A few hours before the official release of the Reading and Leeds lineup. The image of the yellow poster in a creased Kerrang magazine spread across the internet like a virus(A virus only rivaled by Rebecca Black's Friday). It sent waves of festival fans into hysteria. "Why is MCR headlining?!", "Don't Pulp have just 1 song?", "Where are the Foo Fighters?!", "Who the fuck is Beady eye?", "It's a shit line-up, I'm not going... Shit they are running out of tickets! Buys tickets."
Same old. Same old.

At a glance, the line-up is Ok. Not great, but it doesn't send shivers up your spine. Until you look closer that is. Let's start with Friday of Reading: MCR and 30 Seconds To Mars. headlining. It should be dubbed black Friday. Plenty of bands that will be attracting reformed emos and teens with wardrobe malfunctions. That, however, is just looking at the headliners. The potential for havoc in the first day is there for the taking. Lots of heavy down tuned 7 string guitars. Deftones, The Offspring and Rise Against will bound to bring a maturer audience with them. Its not so bad. Besides, come on guys, everyone likes MCR, they are just pretending they don't. Come on admit it. The NME/Radio stage is interesting. Beady eye headlining. How many people will want to catch a glimpse of a washed up singer from some 90's band? Lots probably. The hype magnet The Vaccines are bound to attract a crowd of V-neck wearing cider sippers. They will be on the main stage next year. I'd bet my house on it.

Saturday, interesting. It could have potentially be the best day of the festival. The order is all wrong. Jimmy Eat World and The National should be swapped with festival favorites Pigeon Detectives and Seasick Steve. Jane's addiction to headline the NME/Radio 1 stage was a great choice. Without Red Hot Chili Dave Navarro though, what is the point? The Strokes headlining is a superb choice. Although a victim of massive hype, they haven't felt they needed to change their style and carried on making great music. With the quality new material to play. Strokes will be the centerpiece of the festival.

Sunday is the climax. I don't need to say anything about MUSE or Elbow, their records speak for themselves. Interpol though, without Carlos Dengler, will not as interesting to watch but I'm sure it would make too much of a difference. I'm pleased to see Enter Shikari back on the main stage. May I draw your memory back to 2009. If you don't know what I'm on about. Youtube it. 1 word - carnage! A welcome return of Death from above and Frank Turner is bound to excite many. While, whatever your view of them, it is the streets last festival. They will split up later in the year. So go and see them. No moaning.

In short, its a good line up if you look closely but the decision to not pick bands who are headlining other festivals will be criticised by plenty.