Evans The Death are an awesome band that everyone should like

This is Evans The Death's new video for upcoming double a side Threads/I'm So Unclean on Fortuna Pop!. They combine pop brilliance, witty lyrics and a punk rawk attitude reminiscent of all my favourite bands. They are one of my favourite bands.

I've heard that there'll be another video for 'I'm So Unclean', which is probably my favourite of theirs. They're soon to be recording an album with Rory Brattwell (who also did the single and unreleased EP on their MySpace) and I eagerly anticipate what will surely be (judging from demos and songs I've heard live) an incredible debut.

The single release partay is on the 7th of July at the Brixton Windmill. If you don't go, you're an idiot.

New Stephen Malkmus Track

Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks - Senator by DominoRecordCo

It's from Malkmus's upcoming album, Minor Traffic, and is produced by everyone's favourite Scientologist, Beck.You can download it for free off Domino's website here, which is awesome.

Obviously, the track is fairly snazzy and showcases Malkmus's ever interesting lyrics, constantly treading the thin lines between tragedy, sharp wit and complete absurdity.

Obviously, it's nowhere near as good as Pavement. Not even close.

Gig: Low @ Barbican 3/6/11

Yesterday I was a bit nervous about seeing Low: I wasn't a giant fan of the new album, I usually hate being seated at gigs (especially as my seat was right at the back) and, quite frankly, I was a bit worried about being bored.

Oupa (Daniel Blumberg of Yuck) was supporting, and I managed to catch the second half of his set. It's quite clear why he was chosen to support, obviously being influenced by the Slowcore genre Low originated in. His minimalistic keyboard/guitar + voice songs were very nice, and he played them well, but there was an element of self-indulgence in the length and repetition. While being pleasant, it didn't exactly ease my worries about Low's set.

My fears turned out to completely unfounded: last night was definitely one of the most breathtakingly beautiful sets I've ever seen. They opened with a moving rendition of 'Nothing But Heart', a song from their newest album C'mon. To be honest, that was among the songs I didn't like so much from the album but, when played live, the emotional sincerity, beautiful harmonies and awesome crescendo of sound blasted away any doubt in my mind about its brilliance.

From that point on they were on a roll that lasted the remainder of their near 2 hour set. Throughout it, they played lots from Drums and Guns, The Great Destroyer and also the entirety of C'mon. When playing songs that I didn't like so much on their albums, the performance stripped them of their slightly cheesy elements and replaced them with sublime brilliance, completely winning me over. They also did a good mix of long, short, quiet and louder songs that kept my rapt attention much better than a standard rock band ever could. Also, the addition of an extra member (a keyboard/vocalist) added a great element to the awe-inspiring sound.

Particular highlights for me were 'Silver Rider', 'Breaker' and '(That's How You Sing) Amazing Grace'. While I would have preferred them to play more of their early material (especially debut I Could Live In Hope), they're probably really bored of it, and with 9 albums + loads more to their name I'm just glad I knew most of the songs played.

The gig was phenomenal, to the extent that I'm now unsure if I'm more excited to see Low or Jeff Mangum at ATP this December.

Gig: Submotion Orchestra (Album Launch) @ Vibe Bar 31/5/11

Submotion Orchestra make dubsteppy, trip-hop-poppy, slightly-jazzy, souly music very, very well. As a result of that, I went to their awesome and intimate debut album launch at Vibe Bar on Brick Lane.

I got there in time to see support band General Roots play their last few songs. They played a pretty fun reggae/dub/ska set that got most of the audience jumping around and skanking like the Specials. I'm also pretty sure I sure a skinhead guy that disappeared from my secondary school before Sixth Form to everyone's bemusement, but that didn't really affect anything.

Submotion Orchestra came on and started with an awesome instrumental that really got the crowd going. They went on to play a mixture of material from their EP and their great new album Finest Hour, spruced up with instrumental dubstep jams that were definitely the highlights of the night.

Their studio-to-live transition is amazing, and I would definitely advise anyone ambivalent about their studio output to check them live. When actually watching them play, you can't help but marvel at each of the members' musical and technical talents, they're each clearly masters in their individual fields, and if I wasn't busy dancing I would have quite happily gawped for the entire set. The atmosphere was amazing, and I actually feel honoured to have seen them in such a nice and small venue at this stage in what will probably be quite a long and successful career.

Here's a (not brilliant, but thankfully existent) clip that gives you a little taste:

And then my friends and I went to get some disgusting fried chicken that almost killed me.

Gig: Mafia Lights @ The Lock Tavern 29/5/11

I went to this free gig, but only saw Mafia Lights. I'd never heard them before, but they were definitely worth seeing.

Apparently they used to be a pretty boring standard rock band (link), but have since morphed into a drummerless, electronic-loop led, brilliant mess of sound. Despite apparently missing a third member, they put on a full sounding and musically interesting show. Their songs reminded me a bit of a mix between Radiohead, The xx and the less scary bits of Salem.

Here are tracks:

The Hussy

The Hussy are a garagey two-piece punk band. They did a split 7" (here) with one of my favourite bands of all time, Sleeping in the Aviary (who I've written about in these posts), and they're real cool.

This is an awesome live video:

And here's a couple of awesome music videos. IN ONE VIDEO:

Awesome. I can't decide what to buy from them though...

Colourmusic music video - 'Beard'

The ever interesting Colourmusic present the world with a video for their track 'Beard' today, which is the opener of their newest album My ____ Is Pink.

The actual song reminds me of the post-punk, almost post-rock, riffage of Liars, and is generally awesome. The music video reminds us all how disgusting human beings are.

Brilliant.