Lightspeed Champion - Happy New Year (ABBA Cover) [Yourfilehost d/l link]//[Sendspace]
For little or no reason, I'm going to look back at my two main features of 2007 - Bands I Want To Namedrop Because They Will Become Big In 2007 and You! Me! Blogging!. I also did a bit of a retrospective on a 2006 new bands feature by The Fly but there's not much to analyse there and it was a bit too mathsy anyway.
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So the first feature, complete with tongue-in-cheek title, was a look into bands who I thought would do well in 2007. Apparently, I'm not great at judging potential success! But I feel all the bands I mentioned were worthy of some semblance of mainstream success.
[BIWTNBTWBBI2007 Part One]
In a short epilogue at the bottom of the first part of my BIWTNBTWBBI2007 (yes, I regret the title now) feature, I mentioned that 2007 could be the year of the solo artist, noting the likely success of Kate Nash, Mika and Jamie T. So at least I got something vaguely right! My actual tips haven't done much yet. Dananananaykroyd had a bit of a passive year (although an EP is due out early this year) and similarly, Ox.Eagle.Lion.Man only released a single on Transgressive but have another EP on the way. Frank Turner's debut solo album was a modest success and let's hope the new album due out in March 2008 elevates his profile. Laura Marling's debut album will be released soon, on Virgin Records, so with the right push she'll do well.
[Part Deux]
In part two, I realised I should have told people I was aiming for slightly leftfield choices as tips so that I didn't look ridiculously inept come judgement day (i.e today). So now I only look a little inept. Although I'm glad I said Klaxons were an obvious choice, considering their resulting success.
I did a little better with this selection than in Part One. Bombay Bicycle Club released two EPs and racked up much MySpace playage. Hadouken! signed to major label Atlantic Records and have had mainstream radio support but like Pull Tiger Tail (who supported Razorlight on their arena tour), they could have had much more success. Jack Penate was my saviour - the one true success story of this feature, with fantastic debut album sales, sold out tours, the whole shebang.
[Part Three]
A bit of a mixed bunch here. Neither Pull In Emergency or goFASTER>> made much of a breakthrough but they quietly went about their business. Expect more in the future. These New Puritans managed to get a record deal with Domino and with their debut album dropping very soon, success could be just around the corner. Foals are in similar position, with a steadily building fanbase and an album out in March.
Jack Penate - 1-2-3-4 (Feist Cover) [Yourfilehost]//[Sendspace]
These New Puritans - Elvis (Demo) [Yourfilehost]//[Sendspace]
Laura Marling - My Manic And I [Yourfilehost]//[Sendspace]
All in all, I was probably a year too early with most of my predictions, barring Jack Penate. Oh and Pull In Emergency. But that's only because I don't think they've even done their GCSEs yet. 2008 should be a favourable year for many of these artists anyway. Now the real question is whether I should do a new bands feature for 2008....
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You! Me! Blogging! was my attempt to "give back" to the blogging community, trying to make new British blogs accessible to a wider readership. At the same time, I was obviously hoping some of the featured blogs' readers would take an interest in Keep Hope Inside! Not all the blogs have been updating a great deal since then but you can check each of them out if you go to the individual links (e.g Y!M!B! Part One).
[Y!M!B! Part One]
The gents at Transparent have not only forged on with their clubnight but have done remarkably well in noting the big things from across the pond (Black Kids, MGMT, Vampire Weekend etc). There's a lot more writing on A Space For Music Liberation (which makes me glad) while still retaining much mp3 postage. The Deku Tree ground to a halt somewhat but will apparently be back soon, bigger and better.
[Part Two]
Beneath The Dutts and i want to hear what you've got to say have sadly taken a turn for the worse after some early promise. Jamila's Fucking Dance remains as healthy as ever however and even has a lovely new banner.
[Part Three]
Spot The Monster pulled off an mp3 advent calendar in December, which is really good going. I'm far too lazy for such things. While Ugly Writing remains in limbo, John from The Pop Register is still knocking out posts despite moving to Oregon.
[Part Four]
Bloodshed In The Woodshed and A Disgusting Blemish have been rather quiet of late but Shattered Satellite are doing pretty well for themselves (if you ignore the clichéd NME hating).
With only half the blogs from You! Me! Blogging! still going, I'm reasonably proud that this blog's over 18 months old. I sincerely hope that some of you find the time to read some of the above blogs because a few of them are really at the forefront of fresh, new music. In fact, I'm going to add some of this lot to my links. So click away on the right of your computer screen. And after all that, I feel like I really need to make my blog look prettier!
We're a collaborative British music, film and TV blog. "Trying to find the perfect match between pretentious and pop."
