We the English crave disappointment. If it's not the crappy weather, it's the Cricket. We love to complain about near enough everything and we have enough things to complain about. Those of you following our shambolic weekends sport performance will know just how crap we are. So to continue the disappointment, I will fill you in with the news that Football season starts at the weekend. More chances to complain about your team.


To distract your attention away from all that depressing stuff, Altsounds brings you another amazing new feature. Look along the top of Altsounds.com and you will find a nifty little "AGGREGATOR" button. This is the place to be for all the latest exclusive music news you want to read.

Altsounds.com is quickly becoming the most trusted musical taste-making resource. Think of us as a musical sieve. We make sure the shit music goes down the drain ensuring only the most quality bands get noticed. Our review team are not scared to knock a band off their pedestal whilst at the same time they are equally not afraid of elevating a band to super stardom. This is where you come in.

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When I first heard Arcade Fire's 'Funeral' back in the summer of 2004 I (like most others who struck upon this low-key classic) was instantly floored by just how fucking good it was. With it's cathartic, beautiful songs, it re-imagined a sound which had been used by bands such as Broken Social Scene and Neutral Milk Hotel but had never before been perfected.

Church of Misery steals the stoner metal crown with "Houses of the Unholy". This selection of seven horrifying tracks, all about serial killers and the metal bands that love them, rips into the ether with groove and terror. The list of lyrical influences reads like a guest list for Charles Manson's birthday party, while the music slams with the abrasion of fuzz and fury one can only pray for.

This might be one of the most challenging CD's I have had to review yet (and I've reviewed one by Gary Lewis), but not because it's terrible or that I have writer's block. It's because the album is of George Harrison, and how can you critique something that is almost flawless?

When bands haven’t released anything official in over 3 years there is always going to be a lot of anticipation when they finally put something out there. And it is no different for alternative indie rock legends Placebo, whose fans have been waiting since 2006 to sample something fresh from boys.

Blakfish have been described as genre busting in the press and with their punk / hardcore / progressive mixture that description seems very apt! The trend amongst British bands this year is 'fight the injustice and the ignorant' and we have seen bands succeed with it e.g. Gallows and some not so well ...

If there is one thing I'm a sucker for it is a nicely worded song title; 'Jeremy Kyle Is A Marked Man' for example, just brilliant. Or my favourite: 'Ringo Starr - 2nd Best Drummer In The Beatles'. These are just a handful of what's on offer from the complex instrumental rock Birmingham four piece Blakfish ...

That's what haters of the gothic movement could probably say over the past few years as he single handily made HIM and bands of a similar ilk so popular in recent years via cameos in his TV shows and his cameos in the band's videos. A perfect amalgamation of mutual promotion, if you will. Why did he do it? Because Bam Margera felt truly touched by the music. ...

Mos Def - The Ecstatic [Album]
Downtown

I’ve been a fan of Mos Def for years. Of the man himself more than his music, I must admit. If you’ve seen him in Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Monster’s Ball, The Italian Job, or any of his other acting work, you know he drips with charisma and is a talented actor. I had seen him on the Dave Chappelle Show and he was good ...

[read full review here]

Oh for fuck's sake. Now we've got bored with Fall Out Boy and seen off Panic! AT ! The ! Disco!, along come The Mission District, a five piece from Toronto who've crossed emo and synth-pop to create....S-emo? Popmo? Just in case you were wondering, celebrity blogging leech Perez Hilton is apparently the band's number one fan. Enough said.

"The thing is, we could very easily name the songs by whatever we say in the chorus. Most bands do. For “You’ve Got Mail Enhancement”, the tentative title was simply, “Spam”. But really, we thought that was lame. But some titles are appropriate when they are simple like that. For example, “Don’t Eat My Food”… to the point, simple, and perfect. Others like “Minimum Rage” needed a title that described it, but was more badass and clever. Well, we think it’s clever at least…"

"Yes, that is no longer true. And it's only been the view from certain quarters anyway. Chester P is one of the best rappers there's ever been. UK hiphop needed to come with it's own incarnation that might go a little further into places outside its own culture and it's been doing that by absorbing other music ..."

"We really take time to seek out new tracks everyday and always stay updated on what's out. So most of the time we play what we're into at the moment, see how the crowd react to it and build our set that way. We always like to introduce new stuff to the crowds.... "

"I think in the end it did. When I first started singing, the whole place started feeding back and all distorted. We actually had to stop the taping and fix it and start over, which actually gave me a moment to settle in right before I played. I watched it on tv and was really happy with it. But I couldn't get over how ripped my arm muscles looked!"

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MIDI drums and getting them to sound both good and real has always been a hard task for most people, particularly when it came to things like Rock and Metal music where authentic sounding drums are of the utmost important. The benefits of using a V-KIT coupled with some form of digital drum module that can be called from your computer are vast, the main being the ability to quantize each individual drum hit- something that is just not possible using audio. Imagine if you will the minor inconsistencies you would experience in a blast of double kick drum pedaling over a 16 bar break. With MIDI you could easily quantize each of these hits to their exact timings i.e. 1/16ths ensuring that every hit of every drum is technically perfect from a timing perspective ...