I Don't Believe You....need to read this to buy it!

Greg Holden....new album....immense....go buy it online NOW!

No really, I don't even need to say much here!

OK still not convinced?!? well then you're just being a bit slow on the uptake so here's a brief summary about the album.

It's an album part funded by a kickstarter campaign Greg ran last year which raised him $30,001 (some $10,001 more than he hoped to get). In total over 300 fans, friends and family members (including me) pledged money to help make this album a reality and to enable Greg to work with the team he wanted including the incredible Tony Berg (who produced the album).



This 10 song affair is one of utter brilliance mixing well crafted songs with sensationally catchy music and innovative mixes. It's the fact that it sounds so much bigger, bolder and experimental than any previous Greg Holden that makes it almost unrecognisable...apart from the fact that it is Greg's unmistakable voice booming out across the record.

There's some truly remarkable tracks. From a song writing perspective, The American Dream (which makes me think Johnny Cash a little for some reason) and Following Footsteps stand out a mile and from a musical perspective, Coney Island is just incredible (with the most mindblowing solo from Jessica Hoop).

I'm quite sure this album will prove a massive success for Greg and if he chooses to release To Hell and Back as a single, then it might just send him stellar such is the brilliance of the song and its suitability for radio play.

The one thing I hope this album isn't remember as is "that one with Bar On A on it". This album is so much more than that one song which truth be told, even I'm sick to the back teeth of hearing and playing (on my guitar)...and I mean it in the nicest possible way.

In my opinion, it's undoubtedly one of THE albums of the year and I'd strongly suggest you go and buy it rather than do something naughty because remember folks, supporting independent musicians is vital and them records you love...well the money for them it don't grow on trees!

Go buy it!

Best musical find in over a year!!!

NOTE: THIS BLOG HAS BEEN WRITTEN IN 2 PARTS, THE FIRST HALF FEBRUARY 21ST, THE SECOND HALF MARCH 7TH.

Wasn't I only supposed to blog once a month? Actually no, I was supposed to be giving you more free music. Instead though you'll have to excuse this most welcome of distractions. I might be bore you with the back story but I like to set the scene.

Last night I was having a little nosey at a number of upcoming gigs I might go to just to find out who was playing with the artist. I started by looking at who the lovely Ragz was playing with when she next hits London on 7th March. I found a guy called Jack Omer who really impressed me with his Ryan Adams-esque vocals. I went to search for his music, drew a blank so thought I'd check out what other gigs he was playing. His MySpace gave few clues and a Google search came up with I think an old gig but which showed who Jack was playing with. So what did I do, went and did another search to see who these musicians were.

The first I came across was a guy called Antonio Lulić musically as close to perfection for me as it gets. A quick scan of his Myspace page identified he had a new album just out. So I hit the Soundcloud player on his page and was initially impressed enough to keep listening. I flipped back to the original page I found and down the page and found a biog which I think sums it up perfectly...especially the influences.


"Antonio Jorge Lulic has been singing and playing guitar at the same time for about a decade, having cut his teeth in blues and folk jam sessions in the back rooms of bars all over the North. More recently, though, he has been sighted further afield; regularly gigging across London (or busking underneath it), and on stages as far as Europe and the US. Drawing on influences like Bruce Springsteen, Ani DiFranco and Counting Crows, Antonio delivers a torrent of soulful and energetic electroacoustic anthems."

Note Springsteen and Counting Crows - it doesn't get much better does it?

SECOND HALF OF BLOG...

So I headed off on a rapid fire search and ended up spending an iTunes voucher I was given for Christmas on Antonio's debut EP Becomes Unstoppable and his recently released album Never or Tonight. It was quite late at night but I sat up listening to both. When they both finished, I listened all the way through again and then over the course of a week I must've listened to them both once a day at least.



Becomes Unstoppable is a majestic EP. Sometimes with EP's you get two good tracks and two bum tracks, not with this little gem, all 4 tracks are just brilliant. The songwriting and storytelling in each song is absolutely top notch, well thought through and mixed with some truly brilliantly constructed music blending together acoustic guitar, the occasional electric guitar, drums and harp. It's a simple sound yet brilliantly effective and really allows Antonio's gravelly non-British sounding voice to shine over the top of the music. The Girl Next Door and Pretty Soon Now are truly brilliant songs.

Never or Tonight is a gem of an album too, even though most of it deals with relationship break-ups. It's more a continuation of a theme than a new direction by a musician who's clearly developed a lot musically in an 18 month period since Becomes Unstoppable was released. The lyrics throughout are just absolutely brilliant and I find segments in every song relating to feelings I've experienced.

Never or Tonight is a great bridging track between the two releases and is swiftly followed by Now It's Cold, which is a real favourite. I could imagine so many more famous singer/songwriters writing and playing this song - Newton Faulkner springs most prominently to mind and that's a credit to how highly I regard Antonio. A Lost Dog and Made of Stone are really good songs too laced with more great sounds and lyrics.

Track 5 is a beautifully constructed vocal-less folky intermission. The folky theme follows on into What I Need which I just adore. It's a ridiculously good sound, mixing harmonica's, strings together, in fact the first time I heard it I thought it was an early Acollective track. Halfway through the song it changes pace and style in a way that musicians like Jason Mraz manage to do so to great effect, before finishing with that rousing bluesy/folk sound.

Tip Toe is a pretty deep song that leads into Hey It's Okay, an apology song that resonated with me deeply when I heard it, so much so I picked up my guitar and figured out the chords in about 20 minutes and sat playing along with it. The album concludes with When I Can't, another slightly sombre and deep track. It leaves you wanting more or a brighter note to finish on which is actually a really good way to leave an album, it's a musical cliffhanger.

I cannot recommend both releases enough to you, seriously, you'd be mad not to buy them and as they're on iTunes you really have no excuse!

www.antoniolulic.com
www.myspace.com/antoniolulic
www.twitter.com/antoniojl

Attracting Attention

Hello and welcome to my rapidly declining non-updated blog updates.

No excuses, no idle chit-chat on with what we're all here for...it's music review time...cue the band!

Ok so about a year ago I unearthed a little known Irish Singer/Songwriter kicking around the London music scene by absolute chance. Over the course of the year I've seen this man perform a few times and now he's all systems go, go, go or so it seems and has a brand new EP out too called Attracting Attention, I am of course talking about Patrick Plunkett.



The new EP is a collection of 4 tracks kicking off with Hooked On Desire, a track you'd have got for free if you signed up to his mailing list (yes FREE!). It's a really nice start although I have to say I still kind of prefer the original recorded version of it.

Then however we hit the ground running with the very cool title track, Attracting Attention. It's just supremely produced; ever so, ever so slightly quicker in terms of playing speed than I recalled it being and possesses a mindblowingly good guitar solo in the middle of the song from Patrick's lead guitarist Ronan McCullough. It's seriously, seriously good!

Next up we hit Millionaire, a track which until I heard it recorded I was really impartial to but it really does work and the arrangement works well. The final track "Come Home Tonight" is a slow, very laid back rock ballad which again works amazingly well with Patrick's rounded and well polished vocals.

All in all it's a very strong release, not as daring as he might have been tempted to take it, not mindblowingly incredible but a really big stride forward from New Beginnings and another mighty fine and strong release.

The bonus for all you music lovers out there though is that unlike New Beginnings, this new EP is available seemingly everywhere. I got mine through iTunes but I've found it on CDBaby and Amazon as well.



I'd strongly suggest you grab a copy, you'll not be disappointed...trust me!

Be good peoples x

I'm almost anonymous and it's a dangerous road...

At the moment, days turn to nights turn to days turn to nights and my feet barely touch the floor. It's been a manic first few months of the year, some of it great, some of it distinctly average but all in all pretty cool. The problem is that I just seem not to have time to blog that often...which hopefully will change over the summer months.

So as a short, hello world, tonight's effort comes from only the second gig I've been to since the start of December and this one actually turns out to be a matter of co-incidence find.

Back in October last year I travelled to the Bedford in South London to see the Strange Folks boys play a set. Before they played, I was stunned into bewilderment by the beautiful Ragz Nordset, so when I found out Ragz was due down in London again I was rather happy. Except circumstances between the both of us meant that we were both ill over the two London dates, meaning it didn't in the end happen. That being said, one of the gigs Ragz was due to play had a publicised list of artists. Being nosey as I tend to be about these music related things, I searched against the artists and unearthed an absolute gem of a musician, truly a complete gem...in Patrick Plunkett.



A pretty unassuming and down to earth guy, Patrick originally hails from Dublin and has been chasing his musical dream in London for the past three years. His music evokes memories of all the great male singer/songwriters of the past 10 years, people like Damien Rice, Ray LaMontagne and some of the more mainstream successes like Paulo Nutini, Jason Mraz and Jack Johnson, only with a harder rock/americana edge. So having found him on myspace it was a true pleasure to see him play an acoustic set the other night at one of my favourite intimate venues in London, The Slaughtered Lamb.

Patrick's set covered a mix of tracks, some from his "New Beginnings", three track EP and a mix of tracks that will hopefully form part of a full blown album at some point in the not too distant future.

Here's a track that's not on the EP, called Come Home Tonight. It's a really great song and I cannot wait to hear what it sounds like with a full band behind it.



The EP has been on continual play on my iPod for three days...watch this space...this man is going places...FACT!!!!

TFDI...

"Totally ****ing doing it....urgh urgh...totally ****ing doing..."

The immortal and now famous words of one great Jay Nash on the commencement of the Evening of the Feeling Song tour (see video below) featuring Matt Duke and Tony Lucca back in late August. The expression became shortened to TFDI and the tour spanning some 20 days as good as got renamed.



Whilst on the road, these 3 amazingly talented singer/songwriters were invited into studio in Illinois to spend the day recording a number of tracks...fast forward 2 months and released just 2 days ago in iTunes across the world...TFDI - The EP.



So it's an EP of 4 tracks, one by each artist (Slow It Down - Jay Nash, Sex and Reruns - Matt Duke and Pretty Things - Tony Lucca) and a cover of The Weight originally by late 60's - 70's (and then 80's to 90's) The Band.

Each song uniquely showcases the vocal talents of Matt, Tony and Jay but more than that it shows that when you place together three outstanding artists, their musical qualities are taken to a completely new level and the cover of The Weight is simply beautiful.


The EP debuted at #1 on the Singer/Songwriter chart on iTunes and currently sits at #3 which is a testimony both to the quality of the music but also that these three artists have managed to fuse together their talents and fanbases to form something of sizeable note and acclaim.

At $4, €4 or £3, you just can't afford to miss out on this. Go buy it now, you need to TFDI!