Song of the Month: Nirvana Cover by Big Scary

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A great song that I love is Big Scary's Cover of the Nirvana Song 'Come as you are' within the cover program 'Like a Version' by the Australian Radio Station Triple J.
I think it's very brave to pick a song by Nirvana but Big Scary definitely do it justice. They put their very own spin on the song which I love because they don't try to follow in the footsteps of the band.
I think it's one of the best cover's of the 'Like a Version' series and also one of the best songs the band has released.

You can check the song out below:

Introducing an Artist: Billie Eilish

Today I want you to get to know 16 year old American Pop Singer Billie Eilish.

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Billie Eilish is a highly talented girl who was born in Los Angles. Her music and lyrics are more sophisticated than you'd ever expect from a 16-year-old. Nevertheless, she still manages to meet the  vibe of today's grungie-pop youth. Her songs have high hit potential with some catchy tunes and some cynical lyrics.
In 2015, she released a few songs on Soundcloud, including her first single under the name Billie Eilish  'Ocean Eyes', which earned her a record deal with Interscope Records.
On August 12th, 2017 Eilish released her debut EP 'dont smile at me' with 9 songs on it.
Added to that, she wrote the song 'bored' for the soundtrack of Netflix series '13 reasons why'.
Some of her songs remind of a younger and more quiet version of Halsey so if you like her you should definitely check out Billie Eilish. But you should check her out anyway because in my eyes she's an incredible talent who is sure to be one of Americas' next pop sensations.

Eilish is currently touring Asia and Oceania. After that she'll be heading to Europe and North America but most of the tour dates are already sold out. You can go and check them out on her website at http://www.billieeilish.com/.

Below you can find the video to her single 'bellyache' and the links to her social media accounts.
Enjoy! :)

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBRi6aZJGj4

Youtube
Spotify
Soundcloud
Instagram

Introducing an Artist: Tom Grennan

In this post I want to introduce you to one of my newer discoveries: British Aritst Tom Grennan.
This is my early christmas present to you, so I hope you enjoy! ;)

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With just over 20,000 fans on facebook, he's still undiscovered. But I can assure you, that he won't stay unknown for long! In my eyes, there's no doubt that he will very fast be a popular upcoming talent. You wanna know why?
First of all, his music has something very refreshing. It's nothing that you feel like you've heard before, his music is very special indie pop but yet all of his songs are real earwigs and are very easy to get into.
Most of the songs from his -so far- 3 EPs are guitar-based and have a very strong melodic guitar to underline his wonderful singing. Tom Grennan, who sings with an authentic and very nice britisch accent, was blessed with a very unique, husky voice which is in no way unpleasent but makes his music even more interesting! It fits perfectly to the raw stories he tells in his songs through some great and personal lyrics.
Thus, all of his songs have a high potential to be the next big hit. It was also a very hard decision which video to link below because I love all of his songs dearly and I coulnd't decide which one was best to introduce him to you.
On March, 9th next year, the 21-year-old will release his debut album "Lighting Matches" via the british record label "Insanity Records". It looks like 2018 is going to be a promising year in the music industry ;) I definitely can't wait for the release and the upcoming tour!
Tom was currently touring Europe and is heading to America next. You can find his tour dates on his page http://www.tomgrennanmusic.com/.

Below you can find his social media links and watch the video to his song "Praying", which was released on his second EP "Release the Brakes" in March this year. I hope you Enjoy!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAwzP095AeA

Spotify
Youtube
Soundcloud

Introducing a band: City of the Sun

 

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Today I want to talk about one of my favourite bands "City of the Sun".
City of the Sun is a trio from New York, consisting of the two guitarists John Pita and Avi Snow and the percussionist Zach Para.
Their music is completely instrumental which I love. The trio is able to create such a magic atmosphere and convey a story solely through their instrumental music. When you listen to one of their songs you really get emotionally and mentally drawn into their music.

The band was touring this year but since I was in Australia at that time, I sadly missed their concert in Berlin. But since they started their musical journey with busking on the streets of New York, they know how to catch and keep the attention of people walking by. Therefore I imagine their live shows to be very captivating and unique (as you can already imagine when watching one of their live videos).
So if you get the chance to see them play you should definitely go! Their next show will be on February, 23rd 2018 in Brookly, New York.
You can check out their tour dates here.

Their debut album "To the sun and all the cities in between" was released in March 2016 via the American record label "Chesky Records".
Their Album is a mixed genre piece with 13 brilliant songs on it. City of the Sun are best described as an indie-post rock trio, but they don't really fit into one specific genre since they are inspired by many different ones, such as jazz, rock and flamenco. This is one aspect which makes their music so special.

Below you can watch a live video from their "Sofar Session" in New York, covering "Intro" by the XX and find the links to their youtube, soundcloud and spotify accounts.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIdKbSeAueY 

 

Yotube: https://www.youtube.com/user/cityofthesunTV
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4DkYxtaASIKQnk4Gj0TB7k
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/cityofthesun

Album review: "Revival" by Vancouver Sleep Clinic

Another gem that I was dying to introduce to you is the Brisbane-based five-member band "Vancouver Sleep Clinic".
On Friday, April 7th, they finally released their long awaited debut album "Revival". In contrast to the prior released EPs, "Revival" is a collection of more uptempo songs. But nevertheless, the band manages to bring across the same emotions as before and remained true to it's original, atmospheric sound.
If you don't know the band, I think their sound is best described as more quiet, ambient and electronic music. Their music is a mixture of different genres and therefor reminds of totally different artists, such as "Bon Iver", "James Blake" or some songs by "Bastille". So if you like any of these or similar artists you should definitely give Vancouver Sleep Clinic a listen.
To me, their music is something very special and touching.

There are eleven songs on the album of which four had been released as singles prior to the album. These four singles are "Lung", "Killing me to love you", "Someone to Stay" and one of my favourite songs from the album "Unworthy".
In my opinion there are many strong songs on the album that have the opportunity to be the band's breakthrough, for example the more uptempo songs "Whispers", "Killing me to love you" and "Empire" but also some quiet songs like "Unworthy" and "Sleeping World". 
I feel like the music puts you in a state of a calm mind where you can worrilessly think about life or even not think at all.
With a good mixture of uptempo and slower songs, some beautiful lyrics and a just as beautiful artwork for the album cover, I think Vancouver Sleep Clinic managed to create a very beautiful and convincing debut album that shows a development of the band but still reflects the band's earlier songs.

You can find the album on itunes and spotify. Let me know what you think of it!

Below you can check out the album cover and the band's tour dates for North America in May:

Song of the month: 'Pilgrims' by Boo Seeka

One of my favourite songs has been Boo Seeka's cover of MØ's 'Pilgrim'.
Boo Seeka is an Electro-pop duo based in Sydney, Australia. The duo consists of the lead singer and guitarist Ben Gumbleton, called 'Boo' and Sam Croft, who plays the electronic instruments. The band is an incredible good live band. I think I even like their live performances better than their records.
During their shows, the band creates a carefree atmosphere and is able to put the audience in a very good mood. That's one reason why I love their live cover of  MØ's song Pilgrim so much. They put their own spin on the song and I love the bohemian sound they create. Additionally, Boo has such a soft voice that gives me chills and I could listen to him singing all day long :)
The band recorded the song within the cover series of triple j. Triple j is an Australian radio station. In their 'Like a Version' - sessions, the radio station invites different bands each week to cover a song of their choice. You can listen to the song below:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57f3wCH1ewM

The band is currently on tour and will be joining the bands 'Cherub' and 'Frenship' on their national tour in the USA in October. You can find the tour dates on their website.

Bands in Concert: El Vy

Sunday night (December, 12th), El Vy played at the Astra Kulturhaus in Berlin-Kreuzberg.

The room fits about 2000 people and as far as I know, the concert was sold out.

About half of the people were there to watch the preact 'The Penny Surfs'. The songs they played were quite different to one another, starting off with a slower song then going over to rocky songs and finally to soft psychedelic songs. Therefore they reminded me of different bands such as Placebo and Tame Impala   

Even though some of the music was very different to the actual act, the crowd seem to enjoy their performance.

The actual concert of El Vy was with about 50 minutes a bit shorter than most concert, but I wasn't really surprised since they only have one album yet. Their performance was very powerful and atmospheric which the light show increased even further. 

It seemed as if the band had been playing together for several years when in fact it was one of their first shows.

When they covered "She drives me crazy" the crowd really did go crazy. Especially Matt Berniger's performance made the cover at least ten times better than the original song; he put so many emotions in the song while rocking the stage. 

Very impressive were also Brent Knopf's skills, who was playing the guitar and the keyboard, both very well. During some songs he had to switch between the instruments which he was doing with an ease that really was incredible.

Overall, I can say that the concert was really enjoyable and musically on point. It was definitely a concert I won't forget so fast. 

Song of the month: 'In your Bones' by Crooked Colours

Today, I want to show you a song from a band that I've been loving for the last year. The band I'm talking about is the Australian electronic-trio 'Crooked Colours'. The Perth-based Trio fromed in 2012 and they only started releasing their Music early last year so they are still known by only a few people. The first song they ever released is 'Come Down', a very chill electonic song with incredibly nice singing. The Singer, Philimon Slabb, has a very soft voice that's capable to give you goosebumps and makes their Music even more special.
This month's song 'In your Bones' is the title song of the first EP the band has released. It's a great song that'll definitely get stuck in your head! The song has a very nice, summery vibe to it and is perfect for dancing and to forget about all your problems!
Usually, I've been only talking about alternative Music but I've really been getting into electronic Music, so if you like this band, I'll also post some similar Music in the future! :)

You can check the song out below. Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dsnoef8y-Q

You can also check out their social media accounts below:

Youtube, Soundcloud and Facebook

Song of the Week: Spring / Sun / Winter / Dread

Today, I want to recommend the song 'Spring / Sun / Winter / Dread' by British Indie-Rock Band Everything Everything to you. The Song is taken from their third studio album 'Get to Heaven' which was released in June 2015. 'Spring / Sun / Winter / Dread ' is the 5th song on the album.
To me, it's a very typical Everything Everything song, putting you in a good mood when you're listening to it. Once you listen to the song it'll be stuck in your head for days, it's an absolute earwig that I think is a great song for summer. The song is easy to listen to but if you pay some attention to the lyrics you will find some great lines that you can interpret a lot into.

You can find their music on Itunes, Spotify and Youtube.

Here is the official music video of  'Spring / Sun / Winter / Dread' that's just been released:

Due to their newly released album, they are touring through europe from the end of August until December. You can check out their tour dates at their official website.