Ones to watch for 2006 Part 1

Here's the first part of what I'm planning to do for the next couple of weeks. I'm not pretending to be ahead of the game or anything, but just bringing some new bands to the attention of people who may not have yet heard them.

First up is Blackbud who are getting quite a lot of airplay, both Radio 1 and Radio 2 here, and getting quite a fan base as a result. The track has been a favourite on mix CDs I've been doing for friends and that is usually a good sign. The band come from the West Country, are very young, have toured with the likes of the Kaiser Chiefs and Elbow and have just released a very good CD, the Heartbeat EP. Here is the title track which reminds me slightly of Pablo Honey-era Radiohead or Muses quieter moments, but that may just be me.

Blackbud - Heartbeat

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Second up we have, Guillemots, a band who many of you may already be familiar with after getting Jo Whiley's stamp of approval here in the UK which tends to be quite a good thing for getting both sales and credibility (she used to do the Evening Session with Steve Lamaq which remains the basis for putting the best new music on the radio here in the UK). The band have the advantage of having money behind them and a very strong debut EP, the I Saw Such Things in My Sleep EP. This doesn't take anything away from them being a brilliant new band who make very nice music which I think will appeal to a wide variety of people. Although I don't see much of a similarity, they could "do a Keane" as they make music which similarly doesn't rock to hard and thus is easy to the ear. New single Trains to Brazil is an absolute treat and I really hope it does as well as it deserves to. (again, sorry for the format)

Guillemots - Trains to Brazil

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Third and lastly for this post are Larrikin Love, who this week have a 2 page spread in the NME. No bad thing for any up and coming band. Although a brief listen may tell you this band owe a thing or 2 to the Libs, this is a band who infuse a range of influences including a bit of ska and of up beat Irish folk. From London but trying to distance themselves from any scene, the band have managed to round up quite a following which has seen Warners sign them up. With that sort of backing I think we can safely say that we will se more of this band, and thats not a bad thing at all. This song, from what they have called the Bunker Sessions shows everything there is to love about this band, strong lyrics, good riffs and an obvious idea of fun.



Larrikin Love - Downing Street Kindling

see their myspace for more streaming songs.

Later...