We have no idea why this is tagged as Monarchy, but she's quite cute, no?

Giving a lesson in how to self-promote and create hype, here’s Monarchy. Like the last new act we blogged about, Worship, they hide in anonymity, however these anonymous souls have kindly blessed us with more than one song.

They’ve (how do I know it’s a they?) also done a couple of remixes for Guillemots’ front-man Fyfe Dangerfield’s new solo effort and Penguin Prison, as well as a very bizarre Master Shortie remix. If we’re being honest that last track is properly terrible.

Anyway, enjoy below the tracks below. Gold in the Fire is nice and builds really well with a luverly rolling synth and reminds me a lot of The Golden Filter and a much more chilled out Chew Lips. Okay, nothing like that last one, but we’ll be posting about them soon and just wanted to squeeze their name in here for some reason.

Also, we have a sneaking suspicion that we know who the space creating artwork fella’s are.

Monarchy – Black, the colour of my heart (Zshare)

Monarchy – Gold In The Fire (Zshare)

P.S. like the google image for ‘monarchy’ above? It was that or the Queen.

AMAZING.

(this is a radio rip from Erol Alkan’s 6mix show which is well worth a listen)

Sounds a bit like Paul MacCartney, no?  Also, what an outro.

Worship are possibly a four piece from London and are playing the Lexington on the 7th of December.

I say possibly because all I have to go on is the photo on their myspace which you can see above. It’s taken by someone called Sam Steager which most likely means it’s just a nice arty photo (or he’s in the band). Who knows?

What I do know is that they have one song, In Our Blood, and it’s pretty great. A sub-five-minute slice of ice cool filtered guitars and vocal which dreams it’s way through the song. Almost perfect for those walks back from the tube station when it’s dark far too early.

Worship – In Our Blood (Zshare)

Well, at least I can stick the video on in the background without having it on my screen at work.

We can exclusively (in the style of a Daily Mirror exclusive) bring you a link to the Guardian’s exclusive viewing of Mumford and Son’s new video for their new single Winter Winds (click here).

I think it might have been filmed on their album launch party which took place on some farm outside of London. Not sure though.
Oh yeah, I forgot that I’m obliged to mention the words ‘barnstorming’ and ‘nu-grass’ any time Mumford & Son’s are referred to. So there you go.

Lion Club are quite hard to find on Google – what with the Lion Club International Volunteer Organisation monopolising most of the search results. However, they’re soon to start driving towards the top of the search as they’re sure to be a big success in the next year or so.

Watching them in their support slot for The Drums at the Barfly it’s apparent that they are very comfortable on stage. With former Crystal Castles drummer Tom Cullen providing their driving force and lead singer and guitarist Lewis Rainsbury providing the focal point of a very tight outfit they’re certainly talented musicians (unlike headliners the Drums who, despite having some brilliant songs and genius choruses also have one of the worst guitarists I’ve ever seen).

With an average age of about 17 they are sickeningly young, and one of their parents (probably) is on hand with a Volvo estate to transport their gear back to whichever leafy suburb of London that they undoubtedly reside in.

Former Test-Icicle Rory Bratwell has been helping them to produce and record their first demos and veteran promoter Sean McLusky is currently managing them. Lion Club will almost certainly be on the books of a major soon – if they’re not already. Their dark and epic songs steeped in synths and big choruses are crying out for a big name producer to give them that spit and polish that would definitely see them bother the charts given a bit of publicity behind them.

With a massive debt owed – like nearly every other band – to Joy Division and more recently Interpol, Lion Club are very likely to be compared to White Lies, and in truth they are very similar, right down to the lead singer’s voice. They’ve got the deep vocals which build and build with the guitars, and the choruses which stick in your head (although I have no idea what is actually being sung on Lead Me To My Lover).

Record companies will definitely be queuing up to get Lion Club riding the coat tails of White Lies’ (who this blog tipped for the top years back) success.

With just two demos on their MySpace and a couple more on last.fm they’re obviously being kept under wraps, as they claim to have already written enough songs for a double-album, and the songs they play at the Barfly are certainly evidence that they know how to write a good hook and a big chorus.

Lead My To My Lover finished off their support slot at the Barfly and is perhaps their biggest and best song of the demos on the internet. Check it out below.

Lion Club – Lead Me To My Lover

Lion Club – Middle of the Night

The Upsides

What do you get when you mix Your Twenties with Metronomy? Well, not much seeing as they’re both now separate entities. But, 25% of Metronomy and 50% of Your Twenties came from the seeds of The Upsides.

I am not sure if they’ve just uploaded some of their old demo’s from back when they were BMXing about in Totnes or whether they’ve met up again and had a ‘jam’. Either way, the songs are quite interesting and certainly sound cleaner than an old teenage demo would be. With the calibre of song writing in the band they’re well worth keeping an eye on.

We Have Band were pretty great when I saw them last year and they’ve just released their best song to date along with the best video I’ve seen all year.

This effortlessly cool trio tick all the right boxes.
‘Man playing his bass slung low?’ check.
‘Whistled chorus?’ check.
‘Sufficiently lovely female member of band?’ check.
‘Synth sample which you love but can’t quite place?’ check.*
‘Cover of Pet Shop Boys on b-side?’ check.
‘Appearance on Kitsune Maison compilation?’ check.

They won the Emerging Talent competition for Glasto this year, and are now playing every day of the festival. Busy.

Buy it here.
Listen more here.

* Just realised the synth sample is taken from The Mae Shi.

Hello to gypsystep

BANG

The hype surrounding Florence and the Machine’s debut album looks set to butt in on the terribly dull synth-pop wars taking place between La Roux and Little Boots and An.Other boys and girls with Korg mini’s and geometric haircuts. Whilst In For The Kill and Stuck On Repeat are both straight up belters there’s not much else there, and live both synth-pop ladies are a bit lacking.
This definitely can’t be said of one Florence Welch. Her previous few singles have been excellent and showed evidence of her undoubtable talent, but it’s the new single, Rabbit Heart, in which things really get going. Her range is stunning and married to the nothing short of epic production of one Paul Epworth, this is Florence’s best single yet.

Here’s a little bonus – a lovely cover of Mystery Jets’ Flakes.
Florence & The Machine – Flakes (Zshare)