Last year you released an album of catchy, off-kilter pop songs. The album achieved acclaim a’plenty, each track capable of being a future single. You tour, alot, selling out numerous shows and find yourself in the top 10 of NME’s annual ‘Cool List’ (a low point, but an achievement never the less). Firstly, congratulations, that’s quite a year you’ve had there. But how would you follow it up?

Well, when you’re Darwin Deez, you create a full length rap mixtape called Wonky Beats- made entirely from samples from the 1971 surrealist children’s classic “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory,” duhhh.

For this new project, Deez recruited the likes of Dev Hynes, KOOL AD from Das Racist, and Chiddy Bang to help out. The mixtape is available FOR FREE and five lucky winners will also find inside their zip folder a Golden Ticket- redeemable for the grand prize, a lifetime supply of Darwin Deez music, as well as tickets to local Darwin Deez gigs, luckyyy.

Listen to the mixtape’s standout track “Where’s The Chocolate” by clicking here.


Deez returns to the U.K late February:

24th Feb 2011 – Manchester @ Academy 2
25th Feb 2011 – Edinburgh @ Liquid Rooms
26th Feb 2011 – Glasgow @ Garage
27th Feb 2011 – Leeds @ Metropolitan Uni
1st March 2011 – Norwich @ Waterfront
2nd March 2011 – Birmingham @ HMV Institute
3rd March 2011 – London @ KOKO
4th March 2011 – Bristol @ Anson Rooms
5th March 2011 – Brighton @ Concorde 2

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I think I’ll start this by congratulating my fellow bloggers on their severely lacking standards of grammar. But I’m sure that kind of thing is all hapnin’ with the kids these days anyway. I mean, that’s probably why any play production company that has ever come to your school to do a drink-drive awareness gig, usually feels compelled to throw in the ever cringe-worthy “innit” or “am I bovered”, right? I should maybe stop my grammar-snobbery before it begins, as Chris, Gaz and “N.D”, as he is calling himself these days, are all older and slightly bigger than me. Perhaps the only way I could anger one of them even more after being invited so kindly by them to write for such an illustrious blog, is to say JEFF BUCKLEY FOR NUMBER ONE BABY YEH (see Gaz’s last post), or perhaps by stating that BBC Switch is infact a Tour De Force of mind-blowing creativity, and refreshing, high-quality talent.

I think that statement brings me to my next topic nicely, Christmas songs. An obvious choice no doubt, but a choice that by the 21^st of December has yet to be covered by Next Goal Wins! Each year we’re baffled by Christmas advertising left, right and centre, which somehow manages to suck the life and soul out of a vast majority of our most loved Old Christmas Classics before we’ve even managed to open our advent calendars. And the constant non-stop cyclical process, within pretty much every shop you’ll go into, that is the playing of the same Christmas songs over and over and over again, usually leaves me feeling sick and tired of the Christmas Spirit. (BE CHRISTMASSY, GO ON, BE CHRISTMASSY! PLEASE BE CHRISTMASSY! YOU MUST BE FUCKING CHRISTMASSY!)

However, there are those songs which have fought off such Scrooge-like thoughts and made me feel as Christmassy as ever. Those songs which have made my December. Those songs that warm my heart in such cold winter months – did I just say that? You know what, I think I just did – and those songs that make it feel like, in the immortal words of Noddy Holder, “IT’S CHRISTMAS!” Here are some of those songs:

Christmas In Prison - Emmy The Great and Lightspeed Champion

(Buy)

Emmy The Great's Myspace

Get Behind Me Santa! - Sufjan Stevens

(Buy)

Sufjan Stevens' Myspace

Christmas TV - Slow Club

(Buy)

Slow Club's Myspace

I'm So Confused By Christmas - Luke Leighfield

(Buy)

Luke Leighfield's Myspace

12 Days of Christmas - Relient K

(Buy)

Relient K's Myspace

Merry Christmas, Graeme.

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I would put some mp3's up with this post but they keep getting taken down.shucks.

1)White Lies-Fully establishing themselves as the next big thing for 2009.Dark,brooding and epic live.

2)Friendly Fires-Go back 16 months or so and I would of predicted them to of just been another metronomy cast of but they have changed their sound to something more concrete and established.Its obvious to see they have grown up musically.Still brilliant to get down to on the floor.

3)Golden Silvers-My Favourite find of 2008.I dont know what it is about them but they still get me exicted everytime I listen to them.Brilliant at Latitude in the summer and even better at Birmingham Bar Academy in September. As for Gwillym Gold-style icon of the year.

4)Laura Marling-Praised by nearly everybody in 2008 and no compliants there.The album is heartbreakingly good and is the one person I was gutted to of missed live this year.

5)Bon Iver-A late late late find for this year,before I had come to university I had never heard of them/him but it is in the top 3 of my albums of the year.The best album to of been recorded in a remote cabin to date.Fact.

6)Johnny Flynn-Another highlight of Latitude this year as well as producing the most under prasied album of the year.When he played in Leeds Holy Trinity Church you could not of found a better venue or artist.Not only was it my favourite/special gig of the year it was one of my favourites of all time.A talented,talented artist who deserves more press coverage.

7)The Black Keys-This band make me wish I was born in the 70's.Sounding as raw and as funky as Hendrix they have open my eyes to a genre I thought I would never take an interest in.

8)Metronomy-Unique.Brilliant and just downright catchy.Nights out has the best the best dance record released this year.Joseph Mount has done Britain Proud.

9)Eugene Mcguiness-Another underated singer song writer this year.He sounds like nothing I have ever heard before but his voice feels like I have been listening to him for years on end.Brilliant

10)Interpol-Although not releasing an album in 2008 it was the year in which I had first seen them live and it was absolutley intense.On a sunday night in the rain it was the perfect setting for them and it made me go and get every single song I could get my hands on thereafter.

11)Lightspeed Champion-Way back in January Dev released Falling of the Lavender Bridge and it blew me away.To come from the brilliance of Test-Icicles to something so delicate and thoughtful as this album was a nice suprise and seeing him live with the Semi Finalists in Newcastle was heartwarming.

12)Wild Beasts-If you can show me a band that sound anything like this then I will place £5 into your hand.After seeing them support Maximo Park in Gloucester in the summer of 2007 they caught my attention so when Limbo Panto was released I was excited to get hold of it.It didnt dissapoint.Right from the opening of Vigil For A Fuddy Duddy you know you are in for something special.3 times missed live in 2008 thanks to seeing White Lies instead twice and then not realising they were playing my University Libary! they will be a dead cert on my to see list of 2009.

N.D

Wild Beasts - Devil's Crayon

(Buy)
Wild Beasts' Myspace

Lightspeed Champion - No Surprise (For Wendella)

(Buy)

Lightspeed Champion's Myspace

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The third and last festival of my festival season has come to a close so I thought I'd attempt a review, but in the safety of my own blog rather then the cruel world of forums. So after a night out in Coventry (we had an extremely late gig there yesterday) and the resulting 3 hours sleep the opportunity to hop on a bus to London at 8 in the morning wasn't particularly tempting. However the pack lunch I'd prepared and the 3 different types of yogurt I vowed to consume on the journey made this opportunity a reality.

After 40 winks on the coach we arrived in London, greeted with the usual excitement that comes with travelling to the capital. This excitement only grew upon seeing shops on the way to the tube that we also have in Gloucester. It's hard to mask your delight at seeing that one of the world's biggest cities does indeed have something in common with one of the smallest. After getting the tube to Mile End, it was a pretty easy task to find the event, follow the people dressed similarly to you and the calls of struggling ticket touts.

Just before arriving I heard what I thought to be a preaching weatherman, warning of the incoming clouds. As it turned out he was just selling waterproof poncho's, but I wasn't taking any chances. We were then bombarded with enough free juice drinks to hydrate the workforce of Ribena, which kept us thirst-free for the whole day. First band we caught were Magistrates, saw them at Latitude and more of the same NME-hyped high pitched pop orientated Indie. They were followed by Filthy Dukes, who didn't look anything like what I'd imagine dirty members of the nobility to look like.

After a long wait, White Lies provided something to cheer about, their sound as tight as ever, although the demands of touring were apparent as their lead singer's voice seemed weaker then usual. The Mae Shi were one of the picks of the day, their set of songs lasting no more then 2 minutes, had the crowd at it's most animated. Then I had my first glimpse of the queues for the toilets which hadnt been addressed from last year. I was afraid if I drank anymore and needed the toilet I would explode at some stage in the queue so I thought it best not to drink.

Laura Marling and Lightspeed Champion's sets were ok but the poor sound on the main stage did little to help them. Les Savy Fav (the soul reason I got the tickets) sounded better on the main stage, but I was only left to imagine what they would of been like had it not been hammering down and the crowd been more into it. The volume of umbrella's (something that comes with a day festival in England) made it close to impossible for me to see much of their set. Finally Foals some what saved the day with their 50 minute set, they were much sharper then their fatigued selves at Latitude and to top it off they played Mathletics for the Encore. This and the chant we'd manage to start prior to Foals coming on stage we're 2 highlights!

So all in all it was ok festival, shame Mystery Jets cancelled but in the rain and with the poor sound quality I doubt it would have lifted the spirits of the discontented crowd all that much. Would of liked to have caught Jeffrey Lewis, Wild Beasts and Noah and the Whale but The Mae Shi, Les Savy Fav, Foals and my friends made the early trip down to a damp field in the Capital more then worth while!

The Mae Shi - PWND

(Buy)

The Mae Shi's Myspace

Lightspeed Champion - Everyone I Know Is Listening To Crunk

(Buy)

Lightspeed Champion's Myspace

Pip Pip,
Christian.

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