Of Monsters And Men @ Manchester Academy



Of Monsters and Men, are named after a reference to the novel by John Steinbeck, “Of Mice and Men.” They are a quintet of musicians from Iceland who were part of a music project started by lead singer Nanna to enter the Icelandic Músíktilraunir band competition. They won the competition and toured Iceland until catching their international break at a 2010 Iceland Airwaves festival.
And I saw Iceland's finest last night at Manchester Academy and as expected, they were bloody brilliant! When they appear on stage, their performance is so sincere with a lot of enthusiasm. The audience can see the pride that they have in their music. The Iceland flag also stood proudly near the drummer, as he enthusiastically waved his arms at the crowd to clap and sing along to the songs.
They began with Dirty Paws which I could have guessed due to it being the first song on the album and also has the line 'my head is an animal' included - which of course is their album title.
The set list I thought was great as after most of the slower songs there was an upbeat one after to contrast.
I would definitely recommend seeing Of Monster And Men and I really hope their at Leeds this year!

35th Record Of The Week

24th February 2013 The Strypes - You Can't Judge A Book By The Cover



The Strypes arent your average 16 year olds in a covers band, they've had Noel Gallagher and Paul Weller on the guest list! 'Wow. The guitarist is fucking amazing. Really raised my game that did' was Paul Wellers comment on seeing the band live. Their from Cavan in Ireland although you'd think they were coming out of the Cavern, Liverpool in 1962 from their look and sound.

Although they haven't even penned a song yet their live set is made up of perfect versions of R&B and blues classics such as I Got Love If You Want It and You Can't Judge By The Cover by Bo Diddley, give it a listen..

2013's Festivals!

I have recently purchased my tickets for Leeds and Parklife 2013 so now I just need someone to drag along to Dot to Dot! I cannot wait now and there'll be stories and reviews coming from me over the summer after these events!

Just to add, I have been listening (obsessing) over Bastille for the last few weeks, as their album hasn't been released yet i've been listening to their full concert at last years iTunes Festival on repeat for I don't know how long now, i've found two absolutely incredible covers they did a couple of years ago, they both sound so much better live, give them a listen. DO IT.



34th Record Of The Week

17th February 2013 Bastille - Pompeii

I'm firstly going to apologise that I haven't done one of these since November, theres no excuse for it I just got extremely lazy.

 

But i'm going to kick off 2013's ROTW with a band that i'm loving so so much at the moment. Bastille's album comes out March 4th and i've even got it written in my diary so i'm prepared, I haven't been this excited about a band in ages!

 

Like in many Bastille songs i've heard you can hear the prominant contrast between Dan Smith's lowering tone rolling over an amazing instrumental, this makes it (I think anyway) one of the brightest pop songs you'll hear in a while.

 

Bastille will shortly be coming to Manchester which I missed out on getting tickets for. Gutted.