WinterKids

...In the middle of the
night she said leave it out,
leave it...

WinterKids are a 5 piece band from a small Countryside Village called Peaslake in Surrey (yes, that’s “Peaslake,” as opposed to CabbageStream or CourjetteRiver) The band, comprised of James Snider – Vocals, Hannah Snider – Keyboards, Bradley Osborne – Guitar, Chris Muldoon – drums and Tom Downer – Bass, say they “write music for all to sing and dance to.”

They’re not wrong.

Winterkids remind me of what I liked about ‘Dogs Die In Hot Cars’ from a few years back, they have a kind of home counties naivety and charm, creating witty and simplistic lyrics that bound along on a wave of jangley indie pop. They seem to be running the operation on a shoe string out of their dad’s garage, and like Dogs die In Hot Cars they may only glimpse a peak at the big time, which would be a shame as there music is inspired. ‘Tape It’ is an infectious jaunt of a track, it struts and bleeps in all the right places with a chorus that spirals round and round like a spinning child, all flaying arms and buckling at the knees, leaving you feeling woozy and staggering sideways afterwards. James Snider howls vocals with the exuberance and knowing of youth while Hannah Snider plays a mean xylophone.

The UK indie press, keen to be the first to catch the new Arctic Monkeys has conveniently labelled them the new Pulp. Which, quite frankly, they are not. Ok, so they have a bit of an art rock thing going on, fair enough, but they are several stones throws away from the dark intensity of Jarvis Cocker both lyrically and musically. Winterkids are, if anything, the infectious, breezy and uncomplicated counterpart to Pulp, and they are all the better for it.

They romance early 20’s angst with a swagger and style that suits the ‘Skins’ generation more than the early 30’s art school types that Pulp aspired too.

Winterkids debut album ‘Memoirs’ is out soon and the band will be playing at this years SXSW festival in Austin, Texas if you’re state side and want to check them out.

If you’re in the UK then head on down to the Buffalo Bar on the 11 May.

"Reminiscent of the Buzzcocks at their most bustling" - NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

"expect to hear it soundtracking televised teen trauma by 2007" - NME

"plinks along like the Cure on the happy pills" - THE FLY

MP3: Winterkids - Tape It

MP3: Winterkids - Brainwashed Since 17

Video: Winterkids - Tape It

Emmy The Great

...i'll think of this and
I will cry, perhaps i'll
drop my toast...

Emmy The Great is the heroine of London's anti folk scene, with a whistful charm akin to being slowly buldegoned to death by a cute lamenting, and mildy unhinged, art student. Hiding behind the twang of an acoustic guitar these odes to youth culture pull no punches and behind their cutesy charm lies a darker passion.

"I will pour whiskey on your grave" sings Emmy to a dead lover, whilst whisking the deceased's father of to the bedroom to deal with the confusion of grief between the sheets. Her lucid way with words manouerves itself across you body like a creeping mist, each line another wave of the odinary yet tinged with a raw emotion.

Born Emma-Lee Moss in Hong Kong, as a child she emigrated with her family to London. She has collaborated with several other artists, namely Johnny Flynn, Jeremy Warmsley and Helen White. She has also supported Martha Wainwright, Mystery Jets, Tilly and the Wall, Jamie T and Kimya Dawson, and can be seen on the upcoming Camden Crawl tour in April.

"Honey voiced angel of British Anti-folk." - NME

"Emmy simply has a great voice — one that just lulls and droops over her guitar" - The Stypod

www.emmythegreat.com

MP3: Emmy The Great - Edward is Deadward

Dragonette

...kissed
the boys and
made them cry...

Spurned on to record music in the wake of the Canadian shaming that was Nickleback, Dragonette are a duo, (assisted by drummer Joel Stouffer and guitarist Will Stapleton) who make sharp, sardonically witty electronic pop music.

“We met at a festival,” says Martina “I was the only chick on the bill, and I was singing what we affectionately call ‘tampon music’… You know, singer-songwriter, Ani Di Franco, Lilith Fair, Jewel-type music… tamponics!”

Dragonette skipped past the normal route of gritty bar gigs and fell into the music industry at the deep end. Their second-ever show was supporting New Order at NYC’s Hammerstein Ballroom, followed by a massive US tour supporting Duran Duran. “I’ve had a crowd of 15,000 people in the palm of my hand” says Dan. However the Duran Duran fan base refutes this claim in Blogs posted after the event, “This ******* terrible band from Canada opened… It was fronted by a slut wearing panties, and she was singing songs about Jesus and sex” wrote one reviewer.

Martina also wrote and sang lead vocals on a recent Basement Jaxx track, “Take Me Back To Your House”, and at the time had no idea that it was to be a single. Suddenly she was in the video cossack-dancing in front of a tank driven by Stalin!

As for the name…“Martina called her iPod that,” says Dan. “I saw it plugged in on her computer, and I thought ‘Wow, that word looks ******* cool.’ Then we post-rationalised it and said it was about this female-fronted male power band. It’s a fire-breathing dragon, but it’s a chick!”

“A dragon in stilettos,” says Martha.

To hear some ‘witty electronic pop’ visit their websites here…

www.dragonette.ca
www.myspace.com/dragonetteband

Dragonette release their first-ever single, ‘I Get Around’ on 30 April with the album following on 16 July.

The band are set to appear in a Breaking Acts feature in the Sunday Times Culture Section on 11 March.

MP3: Dragonette - True Believer

Diane Birch

...I wish
I could
pushrewind...

What the world needs now, in the already overcrowded female music genre, is another pouting classically trained pianist.

No?

Not to be confused with other pouting classically trained pianists that frequent Jungles, Diane is waiting in the wings for her turn at Stardom in 2007.

With a list of influences that range from Beethoven to the Sisters of Mercy, taking up Nina Simone and The Cure on the way also, Diane lets her varied taste radiate from her piano playing.

Diane had a diverse upbringing growing up in Zimbabwe, South Africa, Australia and then Oregon and Los Angeles. Diane studied "Suzuki" (an ear training method, not a motorcycle) in classical piano, giving her the ability to play completely by ear without reading a note.
As her tastes became more diverse she began to cultivate her own unique style of piano playing. However, despite composing and playing gigs, Diane was completely unaware she could actually sing.

“I begun to realise I could sing, but it took me a while to work out that I was good enough to be taken seriously”… “I remember seeing the faces of people who thought I was 'just' a pianist with their mouths hanging open.”

Diane continued to play in LA's most up-market hotels and bars by day, whilst winning fans and impressing the music industry by night. She certainly impressed one diminutive pop genius with her barside performance, causing Prince to invite Diane back to his house to jam with his band.

'Diane has a voice and songwriting ability that will connect with truly global audiences. One of 2007's strongest new finds' – Music Week

‘Its not often that something completely bowls us over but in the first week of this new year Diane Birch has done just that’ – The Downloader

Diane recently performed her first London shows to unprecedented reception and acclaim. She is currently unsigned and is busy writing and recording new material.

www.myspace.com/dianebirch

MP3: Diane Birch - Rewind

Video: Diane Birch - Sweet River Tree

Plastiscines

...Viva
la revolution
!...

A burgeoning new Paris scene is embracing live music in a big way.

Setting themselves up as the saviours of French rock, young bright things across Paris are meeting to express themselves, and now they are coming here to show us how it’s done.

With an explosion in numbers of live venues in Paris, France has birthed a new generation of young French rock acts, of which Plastiscines are leading the way.

It was at a Libertines concert in 2004 that three high school mates from the Paris suburbs, Zazie, Marine and Katty, met Louise, who had just traded in her harp for a bass. The quartet had barely been formed when it was spotted by Maxime Schmitt, Kraftwerk's producer, who promptly took them under his wing. Not long after EMI also realised their potential and signed them up to the Virgin Label In France in October 2006.

This just-out-of-school all-girl pop rock band composes short jumping numbers with a tart taste similar to the B-52s and the exhilarating energy of the Slits. With a sound reminiscent of all their many inspirations, the Ramones - The Kinks - Stooges - Libertines - Cramps - Buzzcocks - Television - The Clash - White Stripes, and with obvious similarities to Blondie and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs they are not far from being The Strokes of France, albeit a female one.

The "Paris Calling" compilation is the first studio album by this French live scene, and a number of artists (Second Sex, Hellboys) featured on the album will be troubling festivals up and down Britain this summer. The interest in playing shows in Britain is seen as a direct reaction to the struggling French Radio, whose quota system, which governs the stations, states that 40% of all songs played must be in French. Thereby stifling the amount of airplay English singing French acts can get.

Plastiscines release their debut single ‘Loser’ and album ‘LP1’ on February 12 and they play the Borderline on May 4.

“The explosive ‘Shake and Rake’ elegantly delivers rock'n'roll in high heels that is chic and torrid” – Because Music

To hear forthcoming French single ‘Loser’ and ‘Lost in translation’ head on over to their MySpace page here

For more photos and the video to loser visit their EMI ecard…here

MP3: Plastiscines - Loser

Video: Plastiscines - Loser

Uffie

...Uffie's
shoutin Uffie's
banging...

The self crowned queen of minimalised rap, who found a world-wide audience through MySpace, is neither shouting nor banging. Her style is pared down, deconstructing rap conventions by virtue of an almost whispered staccato delivery.

Uffie, real name Anna-Catherine Hartley, was influenced by the big beats of the South, growing up in Miami she moved to Paris to pursue a career in fashion.
For one of her fashion events, she booked French DJ Feadz and the two hit it off immediately. When Feadz and fellow producer Mr Oizo needed a vocalist for one of their new projects they invited Uffie to perform vocals, the song ‘Pop The Glock’ was the combined result.

In 2006, she debuted with the singles ‘Pop the Glock’ and ‘Ready to Uff’, released on French electro label Ed Banger Records (The people behind French electro stalwarts ‘Daft Punk’) Two more new tracks from Uffie, ‘Hot Chick’ and ‘In Charge’ became available through online MP3 blogs in July.

The 18 year old potty mouthed chanteuse, behaving like the kid sister of Princess Superstar or the great grand daughter of Peaches, has drawn much attention for the song “ready to uff” which consists of little more than a tirade of repetitive expletives.

“To me it’s just ******* powerful... I just say what girls think but are too scared to admit”

Uffie could be the next M.I.A (the Sri Lankan Mercury Prize nominee) if all goes well or the next Jentina (famously disastrous rapping failure) if all doesn’t go well. Jentina was lambasted by the rap community for lyrics not dissimilar to Uffie’s and went from being EMI’s one to watch and NME’s “best thing since the Sugababes” to being unceremoniously dumped by her record label and owning a MySpace page with one friend on it.

You can check out Uffie’s much more visited MySpace page here…

www.myspace.com

Uffie is working on an album due out in 2007 and promises a wider repertoire than her previous four letter word monologues.

MP3: Uffie - Ready To Uff

MP3: Uffie - Pop The Glock