alexmcloughlin's Last.fm Journal

An Introduction to MONA (The Band)

Mon, 15 Nov 2010 16:39:26 +0000

An Introduction to MONA (The Band)

By Alexandra McLoughlin

MONA are a four piece alternative rock band that play a combination of romantic rock n roll with songs for the City Folk.

They were formed in Ohio but moved to Nashville, Tennessee where they are currently located. The band comprise of Nick Brown (vocals, guitar, keyboards), Vince Gard (drums), Zach Lindsey (bass), Jordan Young (guitar).

MONA's debut single’Listen To Your Love’ was recorded in their basement and released in the UK on 13 Sept 2010 by their own Zion Noiz recordings, unfortunately for some fans, the 7” limited edition vinyl got sold out by the date of its release.

Their second single Trouble On The Way is scheduled to be released on 13 Dec 2010 but once again in a limited edition 7” vinyl. it comes with a bonus song on B-side titled Brick Shoes. The single is currently available to pre-order from Rough Trade on: http://www.roughtrade.com/site/shop_detail.lasso?search_type=sku&sku=333434

The British press have being going nuts about these guys with so much great stuff being written about them. They have been featured several times in NME magazine including a FULL page article and even been included in the NME's BEST NEW BANDS OF 2010 list. That’s before the band had played any shows in the UK or released a single. As well as NME, they have had top mark reviews in the likes of Q Magazine, Clash Music, The Fly, The Guardian, Music News, The Mirror, The Sun and many more.

Mona’s debut track ‘Listen To Your Love was played a couple of times in the BBC Radio 1 (Zane Lowe) with great feedback from listeners. The band also did a live session for XFM where they unveiled their second single “Trouble On The Way”.

The band have caused a huge impact in the UK and following a successful first visit to London, it seems that MONA have left their new fans craving for more only 3 shows played in Sep/oct 2010.

Their debut show at the Flowerpot in Camden (London) got so packed that Security had to stop people from entering the venue. Fans were left queuing outside and despite the cold and the rain they refused to leave the area hoping to at least hear the guys from where they were standing.

MONA are set to tour the UK in December when they will be performing at various venues including, Glasgow, Brighton, London, Manchester and many more.

They have also been selected to play at the famous WINTER WONDERLAND run by XFM Radio at the Brixton Academy on the 15th December where they will be sharing the stage with some great including Manic Street Preachers, White Lies and The Drums.

In the meantime the band had to stop mixing their new album at a recording studios in LA for a quick flight to the UK for their British TV appearance on Later With Joos Holland
which was broadcast live BBC2 Tue 16th with an extended version of the show on Fri 19th November. On the same show performing live along side MONA where Robert Plant (Led Zep), Arcade Fire and Adele.

Whilst this short trip the band also filmed a live session at the NME studio and did a couple of interviews, including one for Clash Mag.

Find out more about MONA and get the lastest gossip on the band by visiting their Facebook Fanpage and Myspace

http://www.myspace.com/monatheband
http://www.facebook.com/pages/MONA/43495831313

Despite having being compared to U2, KOL,The Srokes and others, MONA have an unique Rock 'n' Roll sound, so go and listen to them. Check out their music/videos and make your own judgements.

Here is MONA's video for their debut video Listen To Your Love

Here are MONA's video for their secong single Trouble On The Way

AN INTRODUCTION TO HATCHAM SOCIAL

Mon, 2 Feb 2009 15:23:29 +0000

An Introduction to Hatcham Social

By Alexandra McLoughlin

HATCHAM SOCIAL are a trio formed in New Cross, London. They are composed of brothers Toby and Finnigan and their friend Dave.

Although they were formed in 2006, their influences are from indie pop bands from the 80s and 60s such as The Pastels, Orange Juice, and Josef K, as well as post-punk and shoegaze bands such as The Jesus & Mary Chain and The Fall .

Most fans of Indie music however will find that these guys sound quite different from any band out there as their music has a certain consistency on the beat which produces a nostalgic happy vibe. Not surprisingly the band have been welcomed by various music critics with some great reviews, The Guardian for example described them as ‘irresistible’ whilst Alan McGee (founder of Creation Records who also signed Oasis and managed the Libertines) once described them as ‘a wonderful pop group with the world’s coolest Drummer‘.

There is something special in the way Finnigan hits those drums, he actually manages to hit them pretty close to dead centre with a sharp rap. In the music business this is something that only the genius can do.

As for the vocals, the charismatic Lead Singer, Toby, has an unusual melodic tone to his voice which gives an incredible smooth sound to their music and yet uplifting.

The Bassist Dave has a pretty tricky way of combining the sound of his bass to Toby’s guitar. Unlike most bass players that have pitch problems in the upper positions, Dave has a convincing technique that stops from that to happen which proves him to be a talented musician.

All in all, the three band members work as a unit so they all share the same energy that rev up the crowd. They are obsessed with getting the crowd to go mad and yet they have the ability of keeping everyone in calm mood however hyper they might be. It is like being in “limbo” and yet thoroughly fun to watch.

The guys have been very busy since playing at the London Calling Festival in Amsterdam and the La Fleche D’Or Club in paris and headline a show at The Borderline in London last month. They have also been recording some taster tracks which is available as a FREE download EP to members of their forum at http://www.aclearinginthewoods.co.uk

The download only EP of cover versions includes 5 songs and one of them is “Love Buzz” which was written by Robbie van Leeuwen of Dutch rock band “Shocking Blue” and later the American grunge band “Nirvana” recorded a cover version of the song for their debut single which gained a lot of popularity in the early 90's. However Hatcham Social's version is a little different and must be heard...

You can listen Hatcham Social’s amazing version of “Love Buzz” right now on their myspace at: http://www.myspace.com/hatchamsocial

In regards to their debut album which is called “You Dig The Tunnel, I'll Hide The Soil" produced by Tim Burgess and Jim Spencer will be released soon (possibly in March) through their UK record label Fierce Panda and in the USA through TBD Records.

And finally, if you still can’t get enough of the boys, tune in for my radio show (Don’t Let Me Get Me Show) at Wired Radio which is the Radio Station for Goldsmiths College part of the University of London this Saturday the 7th February from 1.00 to 2.00 PM (UK time) where Toby will be talking about the band and I will be playing some of their music. The show will be streamed online so everyone shall be able to listen to at: http://www.wiredradio.co.uk and don't forget to visit the band’s myspace on:
http://www.myspace.com/hatchamsocial

For those of you that are more comfortable speaking and reading Spanish and Portuguese I have tried my best to translate my introduction on the band in both languages on the Spanish and Brazilian Lastfm sites at:

http://www.lastfm.es/music/Hatcham+Social/+wiki
http://www.lastfm.com.br/music/Hatcham+Social/+wiki

Background Information:

Members

Toby
Finnigan
Dave

Band Introduction by Alexandra McLoughlin

Hatcham Social Myspace

By Alexandra McLoughlin

My Slipknot Gig Review at the Hammersmith Apollo in London

Fri, 5 Dec 2008 02:06:41 +0000

My Slipknot Gig Review At The Hammersmith Apollo In London On The 3rd December 2008

Are they monsters? Are they explosive metal machines? Or are they just masquerade mutants in limbo? They are everything that has been mentioned and more… we are of course talking about the 9 piece metal band from Iowa, Slipknot that have been busy entertaining huge crowds at the Hammersmith Apollo in London.

Every time that the Grammy Award winning band Slipknot, produce an album each member makes a distinctive change to their mask and as this tour was based on the new album All Hope Is Gone the fans were very excited and looking forward to seeing what masks they would be revealing this time.

When the band finally appeared on stage the waiting was over, there was a huge explosion of sound coming from the drums and lead man Corey Taylor started to shout at the crowd. It became obvious that chaos was on its way...

Shawn Crahan looked hilarious as he kept zipping and unzipping his mask whilst their sound and lighting effects went beyond expectations, with pyrotechnics and a phenomenal strobe effect with a pinch yet an electrifying darkness!

During the violent performance of “Duality” Shawn Crahan attemped to break an empty barrel with a baseball bat and at that point the crowed became even more insane that empty bottles were thrown on the stage.

It seemed the crowd couldn’t get enough of Corey's aggressiveness, although having said that, the mosh pit was a huge success and unstoppable even after when a few fans had to be dragged out to recover.

It wasn’t until Corey screamed these words “Fuck it all, fuck this world, FUCK EVERYTHING YOU STAND FOR!” that loud gunshot noises came out from Mick Thomson, Jim Root and Paul Gray's guitars and the crowd became even more uncontrollable.

The fans enjoyed their performance of “Wait and Bleed” but what everyone was really looking forward to was the controversial performance of “Spit It Out” which is also referred as the “Zero Bullshit”. Near the end of the song there was a pause with a coda where the music builds up to a highly energetic section and Corey Taylor screamed very loud to the crowed:

“Get the f**k down on the ground”

So all the fans obeyed as if they were in a concentration camp.

Then he said: “when I say jump the f**k up, what are you gonna do?!”

There was a silence.

Then Corey shouted again: “I asked you a f**king question, when I say jump the f**k up, what are you gonna do?!”

Crowd answered: “JUMP DA F**K UP!!!

The screams and the jumps were so powerful that it appeared the ceiling was going to collapse especially because the ground was vibrating intensely.

To make things even more exciting Shawn Crahan’s elevating drum kit ended up in the air as it slowly spun and Sid Wilson decided to dangle off it and start swinging. When he wasn’t attached to Shawn’s drums, Sid Wilson continuously ran around the stage and even jumped onto Chris Fehn’s drum as it tilted backwards and forwards.

Craig Jones’s spike mask looked lethal whilst he was head banging along to the to Joey Jordinson’s sensational drumming. Both members were definitely having a good time and putting all their energy into pleasing the crowd.

All in all the show was extraordinary, unpredictable, fierce and had everything you could possibly expect from a “metal band”. Spectacular!! *My rating* 10/10

Review by Alexandra McLoughlin

Article on Simple Plan by Alexandra McLoughlin

Tue, 2 Dec 2008 23:44:20 +0000

Article on Simple Plan

THE CANADIAN BOYS "SIMPLE PLAN" WERE BACK IN TOWN

After having sold over SEVEN million copies worldwide on their two albums the Canadian boys Simple Plan were back in London to promote their third self titled album “Simple Plan” which has already gone Platinum in Canada and Gold in Mexico.

The boys kept their promise of treating their British fans to a signing section at the HMV Store in Oxford Street. The event which took place on the 29th November 2008 at 5.15 in the afternoon had fans lining up at the store as early as 8.00 am however no one was disappointed having the opportunity of not only meeting the guys on their last day of their UK tour but also the chance of grabbing their latest album.

The band sold out gig at The Forum in Kentish Town London was another huge success in a goody bag full of funny surprises and great entertainment. Despite having plenty of energy to feed those starving fans with greatness and glory and yet they have managed to leave them feeling hungry for more.

Their new single “Save You” was written in tribute to Pierre’s brother who was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma at the age of 28 and the boys are trying to increase awareness of this illness by setting up the Simple Plan FOUNDATION where all the proceeds from each download sale will be distributed through their foundation to cancer charities around the world.

Check out the band's mypace on:
http://www.myspace.com/simpleplan

My Intervew with As I Lay Dying

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 20:30:08 +0000

As I Lay Dying are a Christian Metal band from San Diego signed to Metal Blade records.

They recently released their new album ‘An Ocean between Us’ and won an award for ‘Ultimate Metal Gods’ at the MTV2 first All that rocks special.

I Alexandra McLoughlin was lucky enough to grab a quick chat with guitarist Phil to find out about their faith, restaurants and more…

From what I have heard about you, it seems you are an admirable set of people. What do you say about that?

Phil- Errr (Laughs) I dunno.

(Me) I’ve heard about your religious beliefs and you are very proud of them, personally I admire that. Have you ever done talks about it before?

(Phil) Yeah we met other people or certain other musicians and just chatted to them about it and what it was like growing up and when we first became Christian and stuff like that.

Why did you decide to play heavy metal music in the first place?

(Phil) It’s just a lot more energetic and there’s something about fast drumming and fast guitar playing that’s a lot more aggressive and I guess that was something I was kinda drawn to when I was in high school.

Have you ever broken your guitars before?

(Phil) My guitars are always broken but I don’t break them intestinally.

You toured with Bullet for my Valentine this year. What were your favourite moments of the tour?

(Phil) My favourite moments were …I think it was really cool playing the Hammersmith Ballroom in London. It was crazy to see how many kids were there and there’s a huge stage. It was just really cool.

They cancelled some dates last year in November where you were supposed to be supporting them. Were you disappointed?

(Phil) Well we came back over in February and we finished most of their shows, there were only 2 shows we didn’t do.

You’ve just released your new album ‘An Ocean between Us’ Why did you choose to name it that?

(Phil) Tim our singer thought of the name. It was kinda about the separation of you with things in life that don’t really improve you, things that are not necessary.

It’s been doing really well with the critic’s as well. You must be very proud of that…

(Phil) Yeah! Most people seem to like it and I guess it’s selling better then the previous one so it’s pretty cool.

How would you compare this album with the last one?

(Phil) I can’t really listen to the last album and be as proud as I am of this new album. I love the songs that we did and it’s just very exciting to play new songs live.

Did you think it would get such great reviews from the critics?

(Phil) I dunno, I had a lot more confidence with this record. I felt that people were gonna like it more then the last album

You are playing the Mean Fiddler tonight. What have you got planned for the live performance?

(Phil) We’ve got a few new songs and we have some crazy lights and there’s not too much we can do at this venue. It’s gonna be fun no matter what!

Do you prefer the bigger venues to the smaller venues or the other way around?

(Phil) It’s different because back in the U.S we can play a thousand capacity but we’ll have more production because we’re from the states, it’s easier to move all our gear there. I like both. It’s cool playing festivals. I like indoor shows more then outdoor shows.

Why’s that?

(Phil) When you’re outdoors the sound is a lot different, the weather is a lot different and my guitars keep going out of tune. The temperature is not as stable I guess.

Do you prefer to play in hot or cold venues?

(Phil) I prefer hot because when I play it’s kinda gross but I like sweating, I like to feel like I’m putting on a show. If I get off the stage and don’t even break a sweat It seems I didn’t really do much.

I know that you travel a lot around the world. You must get really bad jet-lag. Do you?

(Phil) Yeah but we try to adapt at soon as possible. I think it’s gonna hit me tonight or tomorrow, the jet-lag.

And you’ve been here in the UK since last night. Have you enjoyed it so far? Have you looked around and seen the sites?

(Phil) Yeah! I walked down to Leicester square today and London’s great yeah. I ate some Nandos which was ok, pretty expensive. It was good.

What have you got planned for the rest of the tour, apart from obviously playing?

(Phil) Sleep and just hang around with the other bands.

Do you plan to go to Nandos again?

(Phil) I don’t think so. Maybe Wagon Mamma. I might go there.

Have you been to any other nice restaurants here in the UK so far?

(Phil) I went to a Thai Place a couple of last year. I forgot what it’s called but I guess the Thai and Indian food is good down here.

What is your favourite thing about playing here compared to playing in the US?

(Phil) I don’t really know. I don’t know.

Are the fans crazier over here then in America?

(Phil) I think in America they are but over here they are getting there. I think in the UK the fans that you get are really appreciate you a lot more then the US fans because they get to see us all the time. When they see us here, they see us maybe once or twice a year and they are really stoked on it.

Do you know roughly then you will be coming back after this tour?

(Phil) I dunno. Hopefully sometime next year maybe do a few festivals again maybe Reading and Leeds. I dunno if it’s an option because they don’t have many heavy bands but I think it would be great if we played it.

There is always a first time..

(Phil) Yes.

How about Download festival?

(Phil) Download’s great! We played it last year. It’s a great festival.

Did you enjoy that?

(Phil) Yeah I thought we put on a really good show. The kids were pretty stoked.

Thank you for letting me interview you.

No problem.

Alexandra McLoughlin

Location
Mean Fiddler, London

Interviewed by Alexandra McLoughlin on:
September 8th, 2007

Interviewees:
Phil Sgrosso- Guitar

Related Links:
An Ocean Between Us
www.asilaydying.com
www.myspace.com/asilaydying

As I Lay Dying Myspace

HERE YOU WILL FIND MY AUDIO INTERVIEW WITH AS I LAY DYING WITH A SLIDESHOW OF PICTURES I TOOK OF THE BAND.

As I Lay Dying