North West Pop Punk

Online Music News Blog.

[dannysmusicblog]

Two UK Tours you need to know about!

Today I saw two tour announcements that any self-respecting (or more accurately self-loathing) pop punk fan has to know about, these are not to be missed. Firstly was the announcement that Moose Blood would be supported in the UK by Turnover and Boston Manor. This line up is just unreal, as I'm sure you don’t need to be told, for 3 great bands to all be on the same bill the tickets are an absolute steal at £12.50 face value.  There was also the announcement of Real Friends and Knuckle Puck touring together in the UK late in the year. These two bands have been growing and growing in the past couple of years, and are quickly becoming two of the biggest bands in the scene. Every time I have seen them they have been great, so to get them both on the same bill is pretty amazing. Tickets go on sale Friday. Find tickets for Moose Blood here: http://www.gigsandtours.com/event/moose-blood/manchester-academy-2/977178

[dannysmusicblog]

Sad Boi (oh shit waddup) pop punkers Real Friends release new single 'Mokena'

Real Friends have done it again. The have stuck with their tried and tested method, and haven't really attempted to anything new with their sound, but that is okay for one of the most unique bands in the pop punk scene at the moment. The lyric 'I'm over it' is perhaps a bit optimistic for a band that has built a career on talking about being 'sad-boiz', but Dan Lambton's vocals are as powerful and passionate as ever, enough to make you believe whatever he is sings.

I personally think that Real Friends, love them or hate them, provide something different to most in Pop Punk at the moment. I challenge you to link me to anyone else that is trying to change the typical Pop Punk sound at the moment. Leave what you've got in the comments.

Real Friends new single 'Mokena' can be found here

[dannysmusicblog]

Reviewed by: Danny Heath Macatier - This boat is definitely sinking (3/5) FFO: Rob Lynch, Frank Turner. On first impression Macatier gives a Frank Turner-esque vibe, however his sound quickly develops from this, becoming something a little more unique with a catchy blues riff as the opening track 'Thousand Yard State' songs main hook. The song, and ultimately the first 3 songs of the EP bounce along nicely, but you always feel that the vocal melody is lacking a little; at times becoming almost monotonous. That said, the potential is there for something really interesting to develop with Macatier's standard issue singer-songwriter tunes if he was to add a little more adventure with more incorporation of those fresh bluesy riffs found in the opening track. This is something which is definitely noticeable within the next 2 songs which I found passed me by with no real impression left.  Things do improve vastly however with 'Sleep Song', the closing track of 'This boat is definitely sinking'. The song is a nice change of pace to close out the EP, and a track that slowly drifts along making it perfect for easy listening and is ultimately very easy to get lost in. This mellow vibe is typified towards the end of the song with the lovely guitar solo. By far the best track overall. It seems that Macatier has put something with a lot of potential into motion with his latest EP, and is worth keeping tabs on if he can replicate the better moments of the EP found in the opening and closing track on a full length scale. The production on 'This boat is definitely sinking' is somewhat lacking, which unfortunately does have a noticeable effect on the enjoyment, but again this is something that is easily fixed with future releases. A solid effort.

[dannysmusicblog]

Music Pirates, are they helping the industry?

This past year pirating has decreased as music consumers have begun to find that streaming is more convenient and efficient, with online radio such as last.fm and the recently launched iRadio, and most notably Spotify for streaming. Pirates are also found to be some of the most prolific music consumers, with figures showing that people that pirate music are also more likely to buy music, with some studies suggesting that they buy up to 30% more!  This raises the question, is the decrease in music pirates, in exchange for more people making use of online radio and streaming services a good thing, or bad? Of course on the surface surely a decrease in the amount of people stealing music is a good thing for the artist and industry with people paying for music as they rightfully should. However, when the consideration that music pirates are also buying 30% more music than people that don't pirate music, for every 4 people that switch from pirating to using spotify or other online services, the artist subsequently loses the sales equivalent of 1 person, in exchange for these pirates now paying for a monthly subscription to Spotify, which results in the artist receiving approximately $0.007 per play. Is this really worth it?

Of course if everyone was to pirate music, the results would be disastrous, with artists having no financially viable reason for releasing new albums or music videos, but overall it seems that eradicating music pirating would not be of any really benefit. What do you think? let me know here

[dannysmusicblog]

Spotify introduce numerous new useful features

Spotify have partnered with Next Big Sound, Songkick and Topspin to introduce analytic tools, ticketing and merchandise all via the spotify service. Spotify's new partnership with Next Big Sound has led to an introduction of analytic tools available for artists and their management to assess number of plays on spotify along with demographic information such as the age, gender, and location of listeners. Furthermore, the Spotify-Songkick partnership has resulted in spotify now offering concert listings so that Spotify users can now see when their favorite artists are playing shows, browse more information about the shows, and buy tickets immediately. Finally, Spotify's partnership with Topspin will now allow any artist to upload and display merch on Spotify with links to their own merch store using Topspin’s proven tools.  Read the full article at: http://hypebot.com/hypebot/2013/12/spotify-steps-up-with-free-analytics-for-artists-concert-ticketing-and-merch-sales.html