Nu Rave Brain Wave

Brighton’s premier (if only noteworthy) festival, The Great Escape, announced it’s final lineup last week and I snoozed on it. What a major mistake. With over 300 bands, 30 venues, and the presence of myself — this is a festival not to be missed. Check out my favorites that are playing below, and then the full lineup at TGE2011 Website.

THE VACCINES / CULTS / YUCK / SUUNS / FIONN REGAN / JOHN COOPER CLARKE / KING CHARLES / MARQUES TOLIVER / THE SOFT MOON/ ECHO LAKE / CHRISTIAN AIDS / HIND EAR / IDIOT GLEE / PRIZE PETS / FEAR OF MEN / FLATS / MILK MAID / DENT MAY / DIE! DIE! DIE! / MAZES

The Great Escape runs in venues all over Brighton from May 12th – May 14th. Early Bird tickets are £45 and can only be purchased through April 12th. Don’t snooze.

mp3 | Milk Maid – Such Fun

Just got some excellent news regarding London’s Camden Crawl 2011 festival lineup. The list of bands is now finalized and the amazing OFWGKTA who put on the best show I saw at SXSW, will be coming over from LA (just like me!) to stun London once again with their swag.

In addition to those, they’ve also got Dananananaykroyd, The Agitator, Banjor or Freakout, Eagulls, Flats, Johnny Foreigner, King Charles, Marques Toliver, Mazes, Rainbow Arabia, S.C.U.M, Spectrals, Turbogeist, Veronica Falls, Wild Palms and about a thousand more.

The 2011 Camden Crawl runs from April 30th – May 1st in venues all around London. Early bird tickets are £54.00 and you can pick them up via Camden Crawl and See Tickets.

mp3 | Eagulls – Mystery (The Wipers cover)

There’s not much that I don’t love about SXSW. I revel in the pre-festival stressing, the insanity, the planning, the $2.50 Lonestars, the Frost Bank Building, street dogs at 1am, falling down dead of exhaustion after a long day, and so on and so forth. It’s the best week of my year and 2011 is going to be better than the previous three. Is It March Yet? is our preview of some of the bands we’ll be catching at this year’s festival for sure. We recommend you do so as well.

01 King Charles :: King Charles has been a face on the nu-folk scene due to his friendship with Mumford & Sons, but you shouldn’t hold it against him. When I saw him live, I was stunned. The dude shreds hard. His songs are textured and sprawling but completely catchy and cause great amounts of “this is rad head nodding”. He’s been signed by a major label and I forsee some kind of Vaccines like situation happening, but I would definitely not miss seeing him live. There’s some kind of charm to being flicked in the face with the sweat from his MASSIVE amounts of hair. He’ll tear the roof down, that’s for sure.

mp3 | King Charles – Love Lust

02 The Vaccines :: Okay, a lot has been said about the Vaccines, mainly by big huge magazines and shit, but I think I got the real low down on these dudes. They make sub-3-minute vaguely surf/garage inspired pop songs. They’re catchy as fuck, they capture a moment, they’re fun. Are they the saviors of British Guitar Music? Absolutely not. Having seen them twice, once with band at full-strength and once with Justin being sick, and I got to say — when they’re full force, they’re pretty good. That said, who knows where they’ll be in 6 weeks come SXSW after months of touring… I know what parties they’re going to play, and they’re going to be the goddamned talk of the town if they own it the way they did in Brighton in November.

mp3 | The Vaccines – Norgaard (Marc Riley Session)

03 Demon’s Claws :: I have been into Demon’s Claws for a while but at the turn of the year, I started really listening to them. I fell in love with their twangin’ brand of garage rock that is well, pretty concerned with the debauched pleasures in life. They remind me a lot of the energy and sound of Black Lips but has sort of a more-’authentic’-country vibe, but it’s really slight. I’m describing them terribly, but they rule. I’ve been jamming to “Fucked on K” for a while, but “You’ll Always Be My Friend” has pretty much taken over my life. Something tells me that live, they rip asses. I couldn’t really say, but as soon as I do know, I will let you know.

mp3 | Demon’s Claws – You’ll Always Be My Friend

04 Black Lips :: I wasn’t sure whether I should include Black Lips in this list because it’s meant to more highlight smaller acts that I really think people should see, but I can’t deny that Black Lips put on one of the best live shows known to man and always have. Whether or not I have time to fit them into my schedule remains unknown for now, but I think that anybody who likes to jump around and have a good time and sing along to some of the best little garage gems and possibly get thrown on stage and into the drum kit (not that it happened to me or ANYTHING of the kind) will enjoy themselves thoroughly.

mp3 | Black Lips – B52 Bomberboy

05 School Knights :: If you’ve been reading this blog for any amount of time, you know we’re obsessed with School Knights. I think they’re incredibly phenomenal songwriters, and I think that they fucking slay asses live. Literally, your butt is going to get cut in half by these dudes. This duo, who’ve been together for less than 6 months (I spend longer on planes than they’ve been together basically), make what I would call pop-power-punk I guess if I had to but it sounds totally not rad and really annoying. So scratch that. They go balls out, to the wall — super loud songs with mesmerizing guitar work and plenty of reverb. I’m pretty sure it’s impossible not to like them, plus they’re some of the world’s funniest humans. Listen to them, you won’t regret it. Or better yet, come see them. I will tell you when and where to be.

mp3 | School Kights – Fuck the Beach

I can’t believe it’s time again for me to say who I think is going to blow up next year. I’d like to clarify that nobody has asked for my input on this, but I feel that these bands are going to either blow up or achieve mild success that to me is the equivalent of superstardom. There’s been a lot of great new bands to come up this year and I couldn’t feature all of them so in lieu of having a list of like 20, I’m listing my top 10 bands that you’ll likely see on the pages of this blog, and maybe some other places and here’s a few that I got obsessed with too late or forgot about: School Knights, Ghost Outfit, Brown Brogues, Bleeding Knees Club, Straight Arrows, Cum Stain, The Franks, Friends, Wicked Fag, Tijuana Panthers, Sauna Youth, Moonhearts, Family Trees and Son of Rams. There’s too many to list, but check these out:

10 Audacity | Fullerton, CA | Myspace

Youthful punk rippers that go balls out every time, the fuzz doesn’t seem to mask the undercurrent of straight up great songs, best to see live and jump around to, nowhere to go but up.

mp3 | Audacity - Dicks Hate Police

09 Shimmering Stars | Vancouver, BC | Myspace

Very new, but very good. More of the tender, half-sweet half-hidden-dark side 50s/60s pop with more than a tinge of the Everly Brothers, but serious lyric potential here. Basically, rules.

mp3 | Shimmering Stars - I\'m Gonna Try

08 The Vaccines | London, UK | Myspace

Teetering on the edge of being swept up into the British Hype Machine notwithstanding, these are great pop songs filtered through a very watery veil of 60s surf, but end up with something big, echoing and catchy as fuck.

mp3 | The Vaccines - Blow It Up

07 Spectrals | Wakefield, UK | Myspace

Northern England’s favorite ginger man doing stunning 50s doowop mixed with perfect, swooning 60s pop. Making it new with serious songwriting chops.

mp3 | Spectrals - Leave Me Be

06 Sex Beet | London/Leicester, UK | Myspace

UK’s best answer to anything that is happening in the US garage scene; makers of grimy, fuzzy, incredibly infectious noisy garage rippers. Bonus points for excellence in keyboard, being as great live as on record, weed smoking jams.

mp3 | Sex Beet - Sugar Water

05 Heavy Hawaii | San Diego, CA | Myspace

Beach born, Spector raised ridiculously catchy, tender, floating sentimental jams that err on the side of excellence rather than annoyingness. Bonus points for weed smoking jams.

mp3 | Heavy Hawaii - Teen Angel

04 Sweaters | Los Angeles, CA | Myspace

Los Angeles’ heir to the crown of boisterous, timeless, wickedly humorous, anthemic pop songs of positivity, joy and awesomeness. Only band who puts a smile on my face in person and on record. Bonus points for being published authors.

mp3 | Sweaters - Sky Mall

03 The Babies | New York, NY | Myspace

Exercise in mastering simplicity in song writing, then adding fuzz, a little bit of shambles and the best male/female shared vocals. This blurb doing them absolutely no justice as they’re incredible.Minus points for not knowing how great they are, as they’re still not a full-time band.

mp3 | The Babies - Meet Me In The City

02 King Charles | London, UK | Myspace

Forward thinking, experimental pop guitar shredder with more talent than songs going to a major label. Could be great.

mp3 | King Charles - Love Lust

01 The Growlers | Costa Mesa, CA | Myspace

The kings of surf, garage, psychedelic swamp stomps with undeniable PhDs in ridiculously infectious melodies; dark, insanely intelligent lyrics and making you dance (even if you don’t wanna). Also, wearers of ridiculous clothing.

mp3 | The Growlers - Average Man

Hey guys, it’s your chance to enter to win tickets to check out check out King Charles live if you live in London (with support from the Langley Sisters). He’s headlining Proud Galleries in Camden on May 30th and we have a pair of tickets to give away (you +1) for one lucky reader. All you need to do is email us (NuRaveBrainWave@Gmail.com) with your full name and King Charles as the subject! You have until TOMORROW AT NOON when I’ll pick a winner! Good luck. Also, if you’re in Brighton don’t forget to check King Charles this weekend!

King Charles w/ Langley Sisters
Proud Camden – May 30th
Horse Hospital
Stables Market
Chalk Farm Road
London
NW1 8AH

For tickets hit up View Tickets.

DOWNLOAD -> King Charles - Love Lust

We’ve been raving here at NRBW about King Charles for some time now. We love his impoverished aristocrat look, we love his clothes, but most importantly – we love his music! Now it’s your chance to check out King Charles live if you live in London (with support from the Langley Sisters). He’s headlining Proud Galleries in Camden on May 30th and we have a pair of tickets to give away (you +1) for one lucky reader. All you need to do is email us (NuRaveBrainWave@Gmail.com) with your full name and King Charles as the subject! You have until the 27th at Noon GMT when I’ll pick a winner! Good luck. Also, if you’re in Brighton don’t forget to check King Charles this weekend!

King Charles w/ Langley Sisters
Proud Camden – May 30th
Horse Hospital
Stables Market
Chalk Farm Road
London
NW1 8AH

For tickets hit up View Tickets.

DOWNLOAD -> King Charles - Love Lust

We’ve been raving here at NRBW about King Charles for some time now. We love his impoverished aristocrat look, we love his clothes, but most importantly – we love his music! Now it’s your chance to check out King Charles live if you live in London (with support from the Langley Sisters). He’s headlining Proud Galleries in Camden on May 30th and we have a pair of tickets to give away (you +1) for one lucky reader. All you need to do is email us (NuRaveBrainWave@Gmail.com) with your full name and King Charles as the subject! You have until the 27th at Noon GMT when I’ll pick a winner! Good luck. Also, if you’re in Brighton don’t forget to check King Charles this weekend!

King Charles w/ Langley Sisters
Proud Camden – May 30th
Horse Hospital
Stables Market
Chalk Farm Road
London
NW1 8AH

For tickets hit up View Tickets.

DOWNLOAD -> King Charles - Love Lust

Okay, I’ve talked a lot about King Charles on this blog. I’m a pretty big fan, so I’m really super stoked to catch him. The last time he was around these parts, he played upstairs at the Prince Albert for the Communion Club night. And he was fuucking fantastic. In fact, if I remember correctly – King Charles’ live show blows his recordings (the ones we’ve got so far – I’m holding out that new ones will capture the entrancing, wild live show) out of the water! The cascading beats take on a wild, indigenous life of their own live and you get to see King Charles (I’m not gonna say he’s a virtuoso but…) shred the shit out of his guitar. The live show takes on a lot of experimentation that I didn’t find in the singles thus far and they really belie the forward thinking nature of Charles’ live show. I wholly, wholly recommend checking this guy out – I can say with a sure hand that he has much greater things in the pipeline.

KING CHARLES WILL PLAY THE GREAT ESCAPE AT THE QUEENS HOTEL FROM 22:15 – 23:00.

DOWNLOAD -> King Charles – Love Lust

The Great Escape Festival runs in venues all over Brighton on May 13th, 14th, and 15th. Buy your tickets here.

After watching a really awesomely mind-blowing gig by KING CHARLES at the December Communion event in Brighton, we were so keen to get our hands on King Charles’ music. So we got his two singles (highly recommended – Time of Eternity is. so. good) and got hooked. Naturally, we had a bunch of questions and luckily for us, Charles gave us a little time to answer some of our niggling questions. Check ‘em out below and download a King Charles track after….

You started making music four years ago – what’s been the hardest thing about working your way up?

Well, I never really thought about working my way up, I suppose I hoped something exciting would happen along the way but I felt that what I was doing was a matter of expression rather than developing a product.

Things have naturally changed and now the hardest thing is maintaining this ideal.

The first time I saw you live was at a Communion club night event and you’re kind of intertwined with the Communion scene and certain bands in that scene (Jay Jay Pistolet, Mumford and Sons). Do you enjoy that link? Do you like feeling a part of that community?

I love being part of a community. I like music made by my friends most because it means the most to me. Whats is extraordinary is the standard set by so many of the people with whom I started my musical direction.

I heard that you like bluegrass and old-school folk – where does that love come from? Can you recommend us an amazing bluegrass album?

Its quite a difficult question to answer, ‘where does love come from’! I don’t really know why I loved that kind of music so much at search an early stage of my musical exploration. It turned the musical side of me on, I don’t even really know why, though I don’t think it was purely about the music. I think there was a aspect of interest in the creators of that music which could be the origin of the connection. Now I think about it, with bluegrass it was the sound and folk it was the content. It seemed to be about real life in an honest way and in unpretentious terms.

If I were you I’d buy the o brother where art though soundtrack, its a great mix tape collection

Where do you find the inspiration to write your songs? Is the inspiration for something like a beautiful love song like ‘Love Lust’ or a heavy, spiritual song like ‘Time of Eternity’ the same? Do you have an all encompassing muse or is it a bunch of different things?

I have 3 main subjects or muses that I write about and that will feature on my album. The First is Girls, The Second is God, The Third is The Passage of TIme. These three things are ceaselessly inspiring creatively and personally and often all three get jammed into one song.

Your music is really kind of primal and even a little bit ethnic, even. Is that inspired by extensive travel?

I’ve been around a bit I suppose, mainly Africa and the Meditarranean, I m no hippy though. All sorts of ideas come from ones experiences overseas.

You have a really awesome sense of style and a very unique image. Is your style important to you? What’s your favorite clothing item you own?

You’re very sweet! I do like clothes quite a lot, and i am quite attached to some of my favourites. I don’t over value style though. I like wearing what I like wearing and try not to over think it.

What’s your plan for music in 2010? We were so sorry to hear about your accident, but we reckon you’ll soldier on valiantly. Are you planning on recording an album, another single or just touring?

Im very close to finishing my very first album, which I am excited about. Im going to release it, tour it and release another single from it. 2010 so far has been very interesting and as the beginning of a decade I don’t intend to let it pass me by. Im getting there in the recovery and youre very kind to be supportive.

If you could have a jam session with anyone in music (dead or alive) who would you choose?

Hmmm… Probably Robin Hood or Marilyn Monroe.

We love Charles and can’t wait to see what KC’s debut album brings to us. Check out our favorite KC track below…

DOWNLOAD -> King Charles – Love Lust

Having opened for Mumford and Sons this year and being buddies with Alan Pownall, Jay Jay Pistolet, Laura Marling, Kid Harpoon and the rest of the nu-folkies, I had high hopes for King Charles’ first ever Brighton gig at Communion. King Charles took to the stage looking very much like an impoverished bohemian aristocrat with his signature dreads up in a bouffant, very much like above, and wearing clothes that were tattered and too big with exquisite loafers.

Due to the very textured nature of his music, he had one drummer, a keyboardist, himself on guitar and a guy manning the laptop – but it all ended up taking the backseat to Charles’ guitar playing. Most especially on ‘Love Lust’ (his current single) which begins with some chanting and goes into some layers, some texture and finally (especially live) goes into a crazy guitar jam that allows him to showcase his amazing playing.

‘Oh Dear God’ was a song that I wasn’t sure about at first – it saw Charles go back to the second drum kit and start pounding out this indigenous, tribal rhythm in tandem with the first drummer only to jump back on MC duties and tear the fuck out of the stage. By the end, I was completely won over. His energy, his intelligence, his voice although completely non-remarkable unifies what he’s trying to do.

He’s a young guy and the few songs he played us live jumped from genre to genre – doing each quite well, but I think that in the future he probably needs to take a solid route. I personally liked his bluesy streak, but his not-electro-but-with-guitar route worked pretty well for him too and his beat-based songs were excellent too. The kids got some fucking talent and is surely going to be a force to be reckoned with in 2010. I had never heard anything he had done before, really, and by the end, I’d been converted to a King Charles fan. Isn’t that the best endorsement I can give to a band?

DOWNLOAD -> LOVE LUST by KING CHARLES