Thursday 31 July 2014

July Round-Up





Bastille and Kyla La Grange at Somerset House
I've lost my venue virginity twice with Bastille this year. First it was Alexandra Palace back in March and then this month, Somermet House. This particular show was part of Somerset House's Summer Series, a ten day long showcase of 20 acts both upcoming and established. Kyla La Grange floated on to the stage, dressed like some sort of cool mermaid for a surprisingly lengthy hour long set. Better known tracks including 'Cut Your Teeth' went down well with the ever-expanding crowd but maybe an hour was just a bit too long for an artist of Kyla's size. Bastille started their set with cheers, roars, shouts and screams from the audience, rattling through the likes of 'Bad Blood', 'Overjoyed' and the ever crowd-pleasing 'Flaws'. During Bastille's encore they were joined by my personal highlight of absolutely anything Ella Eyre to perform mixtape track 'No Angels' before closing their performance with number one single 'Pompeii'. Bastille really are a live force to be reckoned with.

Cher Lloyd - Sorry I'm Late

I've never really got Cher Lloyd before but goddamn 'Sorry I'm Late' is a perfect example of what a pop album should be. Every track is punchy and catchy, the ballads aren't boring, and the content all just seems quite real. Cher's definitely come along way since that God awful 'Swagger Jagger' single back in 2011. The only thing that does let this album down a tad is the entirely unnecessary T.I. feature on 'I Wish'. She was doing just fine without you mate.

High Tyde: Karibu 

I don't know what it is about this track that makes it so great. Maybe it's how carefree the lyrics are, or maybe it's that indie surf pop vibe or maybe it's the video's tour around Brighton. Who knows, who cares. High Tyde are great and that's the bottom line.

Years & Years: Take shelter
My mind is sufficiently blown every single time I hear this song. If ever there was an incredible amalgamation of genres rolled into 4 minutes, this is the perfect example. Years & Years have also just been announced as the main support for Clean Bandit's Autumn tour, so they must be good!

The Hell: Groovehammer
It's the mother fucking hell you dick. Coming in at 32 minutes long, The Hell have managed to create the best "what-should-I-listen-to-I-don't-know-this-will-do" album of all time... as long as you're into swearing and loud shouty stuff. But even if you don't there's still half an hour of pure amusement packed into The Hell's second full-length offering.

Dae Zhen: '94
Upon posting, I said something like this would be the best song I posted all month. And if it wasn't for Years & Years and High Tyde that would be very true. Regardless '94 still makes the top three. It's really refreshing when rappers sing their own choruses rather than drafting in others to make the hook hookier. This track is also up for free download along with the rest of Dae Zhen's album reet here.

Justifiable July Mentions:
  • Jungle - Jungle
  • That New Look butterfly skort
  • The Ark sale
  • Wireless Festival (Click here full the full review)
  • MXCI
  • Cards Against Humanity
  • The World Cup
  • Joel Compass - Natural Habitat
  • Tortilla
  • Roam, Light You Up, As It Is, Trash Boat at Garage, Islington
  • Flood Of Red at The Black Heart
  • Redfest (Full review will be posted next Wednesday, keep an eye out!)

Next month's round up will probably be a little bit different. I'll be out of the country for the last week of August. I'm hoping to put together a special summer round-up vlog but we'll see how things go. 


Sunday 27 July 2014

ICYMI - This Week on WIIHAMB - 2014 Week #30

In case you missed it - You shouldn't have, but just in case you did.

WIIHAMB has been in a bit of disarray this week as a lot of my focus has been on Redfest, but hopefully we'll all be back on track next week.

Keep up to date with all of these daily goings-on over at WIIHAMB Daily

Monday



Tuesday



Wednesday



Throwback Thursday



Friday



Saturday





Sunday





July playlists so far: YouTube / Spotify / Deezer

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Wednesday 23 July 2014

My Life Is Average

A personal yet relevant post today.

A lot of my friends have just graduated or will be over the next few months.
I didn't go to university.
Working in the music industry was and still is the dream.

A dream which I have somewhat fulfilled - I manage a label whose main focus is tribute and karaoke content. Dan and I also run the show at Sing King Karaoke.



So that's cool.

Obviously I've been running this old thing for a year and a half. I've volunteered at The Great Escape twice and it will be my fourth year volunteering with the boys at our home from home, Redfest, this weekend.



It's just that sometimes I wish I'd kept music as a hobby. In hindsight, I might have gone to university to study criminology or forensic science or criminal phychology.Whilst writing this I've actually briefly looked into online and Open University courses in these subjects so that's always an option.

Now you know a little bit more about what goes on behind the scenes of this and why WIIHAMB isn't always quite as focused as I would like it to be.

Keep up to date with all types of shenanigans:
WIIHAMB Daily / BLOGLOVIN / TWITTER / INSTAGRAM / PINTEREST


Sunday 20 July 2014

ICYMI - This Week on WIIHAMB - 2014 Week #29

In case you missed it - You shouldn't have, but just in case you did.

Keep up to date with all of these daily goings-on over at WIIHAMB Daily

Monday



Tuesday



Wednesday



Throwback Thursday



Friday



Saturday





Sunday





July playlists so far: YouTube / Spotify / Deezer

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Wednesday 16 July 2014

You Wanna Know


Just a little update post to keep everybody... well... updated.

NUMERO UNO: The new feature
At some point a new feature will pop up 'pon WIIHAMB Daily. It will probably be titled something along the lines of 'Not Always On Time', which is the best I can come up with at the moment. This feature will showcase stuff that's really good but I unfortunately missed when it was brand spanking new. This is probably something that I'll use when I go on holiday and need to queue far in advance.

NUMBER TWO: Le camera
I finally purchased a real life digital camera of my own. I'm having a bit of difficulty deciding on how personal to make WIIHAMB. The idea of the camera is to do more vlogging but the majority of the video #content will be music based so that still kind of works right? There's only one way to find out...!

That's about it for now. Make sure you follow all of those links below... or else!


Sunday 13 July 2014

ICYMI - This Week on WIIHAMB - 2014 Week #28

In case you missed it - You shouldn't have, but just in case you did.

Keep up to date with all that new music over at WIIHAMB Daily

Monday





Tuesday



Wednesday



Throwback Thursday



Friday



Saturday





Sunday





July playlists so far: YouTube / Spotify / Deezer

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Wednesday 9 July 2014

Wireless Festival 2014


On Sunday we took to Wireless Festival in Finsbury Park, prepared for all weather conditions - this came in handy! Opening the Pepsi Max stage was Raleigh Ritchie and to be quite honest he smashed it. Bouncing around the stage, Jacob Anderson was packed with energy and put on an incredible show. Elli Ingram over on the Boombox stage sounded immense with her soul meets hip hop tone. Our biggest mistake of the day was leaving three songs in to watch Neon Jungle; the less said about that, the better. John Newman managed to pull a fairly hefty crowd in front of the main stage by 3pm for this well executed yet safe set. Rixton were definitely the surprise of the day. We weren't sure what to expect and that was possibly what made it so great. Catchy songs and synchronised dance moves in tow, we would definitely pay to see them again. Clean Bandit had the Pepsi Max stage overflowing with festival-goers eager to catch a glimpse of the classically trained ensemble. Although Clean Bandit's set takes a while to get to "the hits" they didn't disappoint especially with the appearance of Stylo G for their new single 'Come Over'.

It took a while for us to fight our way out of the tent by which time we'd missed the beginning of Ellie Goulding's set on the main stage, but of what we did see she was true to form showcasing over five years worth of material showing that she's still going from strength to strength. Let's be honest, up until now everything was good, but everyone had really been waiting for Outkast. The park erupted when Big Boi and Andre 3000 (sporting white wig with a black boiler suit) took to the main stage. The entire crowd danced their way through the hour long set accompanied by the only bouts of rain all day to the likes of 'Ms Jackson', 'Roses' and of course 'Hey Ya'. A quick stop off for the second half of Naughty Boy's set on the Boombox stage who was joined by surprise guest Emeli Sande for 'Heaven' and 'Lifted'. Bruno Mars finished off proceedings back over on the main stage, with his performance jam-packed with possibly every single he's ever released in the UK. For a man of his stature it was a huge show with a whole lot of choreography for a guy behind a guitar, rounded off with fireworks to complete the weekend.

It's safe to say, our first Wireless festival definitely will not be our last.

Sunday 6 July 2014

ICYMI - This Week on WIIHAMB - 2014 Week #27

In case you missed it - You shouldn't have, but just in case you did.

Keep up to date with all that new music over at WIIHAMB Daily

Tuesday



Wednesday





Throwback Thursday



Friday





Saturday





Sunday





July playlists so far: YouTube / Spotify / Deezer

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