Suuns were originally formed  in 2006. It was Ben Shemie (vocals/guitar) and Joe Yarmush (bass) who started creating the music. They were actually just hooking up to create some tunes and then it led to write a few songs. Later then, Liam O’Neill (drums) and Max Hendry (keyboard) joined the duo to complete the formation of the band. Four years later, the band did a debut album via BreakGlass Studio. The debut is produced by Jace Lasek and it got praised by New York Times. In 2011, Suuns were busy to do their debut performances in some festivals like SXSW, Primavera, and being here-there-and everywhere for Canadian music festivals. And in 2012, Suuns signed with Secretly Canadian, the band started topping off the materials for their second album, ‘Images Du Futur’.

It took four years for the band to create their debut, Zeroes QC. The first album is full of krautwork, erratic guitar riffs and a bit of moody space-prog. Suuns claimed that their debut is just their documented music that they have to release. Being with no label at that time, the band things the materials were not really self-aware. For ‘Images Du Futur’, the band believe it is much sleeker, even Pitchfork is comparing their work with Radiohead and Velvet Underground. This album also gives out a thick sense of neo-psychedelic and darker ambiance, as you can hear in ‘Eddie’s Dream’.

Suuns’ latest work has been compared with some the best names in the industry and their music was labelled by some music journalists as the mini version of Clinic. They are even being told that they lack of originality on their  music, but Shemie told Outofordermag.com “I think every band gets compared to other bands, especially when no one’s heard of you… And the Clinic one is the one that comes up the most, and I think that has a large part to do with the way that I sing.” Regarding their comparison with Clinic. The band’s name is taken from Tai words that means ‘Zero’, we definitely know that Suuns are not a new comer, and even though their name means Zero, we are sure they will be giving us more than zero through their music.

Before dreaming to be a top-notch musician, MØ previously applied to some Universities which unfortunately she got rejected,  then  it led her to study about Fine Arts. Eventhough she is still  studying fine art, her taste in music just can’t be replaced. Her musical euphoria started when she was in third grade, MØ listened to the Spice Girls, and in her adolescent years, she listened to Punk music. As she steps into her 20s, she gets influences from hip-hop music. You may find her music is full of synth, electro, pop cult, and some experimental sounds, however MØ describes that her background comes from Sonic Youth, Nirvana, Jimmi Hendrix, and Cat Power. MØ said  ”I think that one of the bands that I’ve been really crazy about is definitely Sonic Youth. I know you probably can’t hear that in the music at all – actually you really can’t. And I’m also very fond of Karen O from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Again, I’ve never been told that I sound anything like her, so I think it’s more a case of me thinking those thoughts than people being able to see it and hear it…”.

For her debut album that she released this year, ‘Pilgrim’, MØ worked with Ronni Vindahl. Vindahl is  a Copenhagen-based music producer, who is also a member of NAV, a songwriting and a producer team. Her debut mostly speaks about honesty and restlessness, as she added that her song tells about being yourself, doing your own thing, and even giving a finger to the society.

MØ seems like a categorized female musician that has been around in the industry for the last two years. Her music and its influences may not see through, the contrasts in her music draws the inspirations that she put in it. MØ’s music is actually more like channeling a spirit of her idols than copying the music that she’s been listening to. Just like what she said, “It’s not because I’m aiming to sound super artsy, but I’ve always thought that music and art are interconnected and that art is about creating a universe. The same thing goes for music, in my opinion. I think that’s why I’m so inspired by Sonic Youth. Because they were – and are – part of a visual art scene.” 

With a slew of award nominations, Peace’s debut album, ‘ In Love’, produced by Jim Abiss ( who has also worked with Arctic Monkeys, Adele and Kasabian ) was declared by NME as “The finest British debut of the year” (9/10), The band have also just recently completed their first major headline tour around the USA and Glastonbury Festival.

Presale : RM 78
At the door : RM 98

Tickets will go on sale from 8th June 2013 at these outlets:
- The Bee outlets (Jaya One and Publika)
- Rock Corner (Bangsar Village 1)

By the time when we hit 2013, we start hunting down amazing new bands. We’ve been thinking to put Swim Deep as one of the featured artists for our weekly feature, The Next Big Thing. However, for some reason, the plan got to be delayed and then we decided to replace Swim Deep with some other names. Since they’ll release their debut album in July, guess it’s the best time to put Swim Deep in!

Swim Deep are an indie-rock band from Birmingham who were formed in 2011. The Birmingham boys are Austin Williams, Tom ‘Higgy’ Higgins, Zachary Robinson and Cavan McCarthy. The story of Swim Deep is started by Austin and Tom who worked at the same place, and one of the founding members is Wolfgang Harte, who was positioned as a bass player decided to left the band and then replaced by Cavan.

In 2012, Swim Deep signed with Chess Club and released their debut single, ‘King City’. And in the end of 2012, the band went to Brussels to work with Charlie       Hugall for their debut album, ‘Where the Heaven Are We’. Charlie Hugall is a British producer who has worked with Florence Welch, the Maccabees, Kaiser Chiefs, and many more. ” He’s one of us, he gets it. I swear to God he was in Beastie Boys in a past life or something.” said Austin regarding the experience working with Charlie. Swim Deep have performed along with Spector, Mystery Jets, the Klaxons, and Two Door Cinema Club. You might find Swim Deep closely sound like most of the great indie rock bands, but believe it or not, the band grew up with musics like Lionel Richie and LL Cool J. Yes, you heard that.

Swim Deep are promising to give a bunch of surprises in their debut album, which Austin confirmed that we can get their debut’s vibe by listening to the latest song, ‘She Changes the Weather’. Swim Deep step in the year as the ones to watch, NME also put them on their ‘Best New Bands in 2013’ list. Just like how they describe the music, Swim Deep are more ‘Roll’ than ‘Rock’

We put Django Django on our “Top 10 New Musicians of 2012” and after seeing what they have achieved throughout this year, we are really sure these Edinburgh fellas will be the next big thing in the industry. The quartet consists of Vincent Neff (singer and guitarist), Jimmy Dixon (bassist), Tommy Grace (synth operator) and David Maclean (drummer and producer). The band are a college mate at Edinburgh College of Art, the drummer (who happens to be the producer) is a brother of John Maclean, the former member of the Beta Band.

The band launched their first single, ‘Storm/Love’s Dart’, in 2009, but it’s the band’s self-titled album which took the band to their limelight. The band describe their music as The triple distilled essence (and sensibility) of an artistic huddle of mischievous musicalsWith a sound of tribal drums and a dip of a tropical psychedelic makes their tracks into something with what most of the indie band has lost. Many people say that Django Django’s debut is one of the most inventive debut and gives a proof that guitars rule. The album is hailed by NME and the Guardian, Rolling Stone also listed the album on their “Top 50 Albums of 2012”. “It’s an album characterised by its sharp stylistic swerves, but never feels jumbled or incoherent. It’s a dream of the psychedelic tropics, a heady explosion of colours, an album that takes what it means to be ‘in an indie band’ and gives it a good shake” said by NME’s James Fullerton on the band’s self-titled album. In the same year, Django Django’s debut album was nominated for Mercury Prize 2012, which was won by Alt-J. Then in 2013, the band did a North-American Tour, a national TV debut for US’ the Late Night Show with Jay Leno and even headlined NME Awards Tour 2013 along with Miles Kane, Palma Violets, and Peace. And the band also got shortlisted for Scottish Album of the Year Award.

Django Django have the je ne sais quoi in their music. Listening to Django Django’s music will make you feel like you’re at a cool corner of middle-east’s souk and hanging out with a chic sheikh.

“No! We’re like Birmingham’s biggest buzz band but we just want to represent London,” said Ellie Rowsell, the frontwoman of Wolf Alice, to NME. We’ll put that as a starter just in case you guys will put them along with Birmingham’s bands like Peace or Swim Deep. Wolf Alice might be your average indie band, but they are starting to be the ones to watch. The band consist of Ellie Rowsell, Joel Amey, Joff Oddie, and Theo Ellis, were formed in 2010. Wolf Alice’s early root was basically a country slash folk-infused psych rock but later when the rhythm section joined, they turned into rock-pop with some fiery and loud tunes in it.

At the beginning, Wolf Alice was Ellie Roswell’s solo project. The story is simple, Ellie and Joff were planning to create a MySpace’s page, then later completed by the additions of Joel Amey and Theo Ellis. If you listen to their ‘Leaving You’, you’ll recognize them as a solo affair, but the song gradually shows a sound of a fully-formed band. The name of the band was picked from an Angela Carter’s novel.

In 2012, they released their first self-titled EP and a single, ‘Leaving You’. Wolf Alice’s Leaving You has earned an airplay on BBC Radio, the band also have spotted by NME to their Radar’s list and featured as one of the most exciting new bands in 2013. In the same year, Wolf Alice did some touring with Peace. The band are not bringing some heavy material music (that contains of random idealist thoughts) but they bring this sweetness, light, full of friendship stuffs, especially in their song ‘Bros’. Ellie Roswell described their music as “It was teen self-indulgence in a way, if that makes sense. When you’re 16 and you hate your parents, boys don’t fancy you and your friends didn’t invite you to their sleepover. You think you’re going through something no one understands so you write a song about it and it makes you feel better. Also I just wanted to be Avril Lavigne…obviously.”

Wolf Alice might be known for their sweety friendship songs, but you can get yourself to listen to ‘Fluffy’, which was released in February 2013. Fluffy is more to a pop-rock loud song that will snab people’s ears with the repetitive loud part, “Set Free! Set Free!”, on its chorus. Wolf Alice are just a pure work of the London four-piece that will suit your life’s soundtrack. You may ask more about Wolf Alice’s songs, just wait for them as Ellie confirmed the band have bunch of songs that they would like to show to a wide listener, but they are only available for the live shows. So, we can only say “keep calm and listen to Wolf Alice”.

Parquet Courts are started by the circle friendship of Andrew and Austin, they both went to the same college (in Texas) and Andrew met Sean at a place that did house shows where his band came in. In 2011, the band released the classic form of their debut that most of the indie bands haven’t done for a while, they released the debut cassette, ‘American Specialties‘. This if followed by the band’s full length album, Light Up Gold, in 2012. After ‘Light Up Gold’ was released, the band and their work has been a success and giving story of ther music from mouth to mouth, and sparking them as one of the best new bands.

Andrew Savage wants to make the band as something different of what people have seen for New York, they eager to blow up the real side of New York, not the glamour or the New York’s perspective on TV. To add how they really love New York plus its scene, the band just will be the American sound not like bands who are from New York but then gradually do a transition once they step in United Kingdom’s scene. Austin put some examples to NME “ the problem with bands like the Strokes and Vampire Weekend is that they popped up over night and never paid their dues. Those bands have nothing to do with the DIY (do it yourself) scene in the city and it’s so exciting there at the moment, always has been. We just don’t relate to bands like that in anyway.”

Their songs like ‘Stoned And Starving’ and ‘Master Of My Craft’ are a great example in showing band’s genre as a fresh New York’s music (not that RnB or Jazz stuffs) and their thrashy punk.

It’s pretty clear that Parquet Courts represent the underdog culture, by seeing the band’s statement and their roots, they want to show the world the unseen space, the ugliness and the awkwardness that the world has avoided. Parquet Courts are different, “When I listen to a lot of indie-rock I feel like it’s trying too hard to be romantic and perfect and it represents a shallowness that runs through culture as a whole. Too many bands talk about ‘making it’ but what does that even mean? When you can see a band has been styled then what makes them any different to whever won American Idol?” Andrew added a strong point.

Maybe Parquet Courts sound very typical for their very underground statement, but as we see deeper, this band is genuine. People may think they are a cliche band who will say cliche things like “We only care about making musics not people who listen to them”, however Parquet Courts will show the global how to make it real and do it their way.

The brothers have been making music for about 8 years until 2011, then they started forming the Family Rain and collecting materials. The Family Rain’s idea is to mix up all of their influences like the Beatles, Rolling Stones, and AC/DC. As a trio, they actually sound pretty heavy and rich, by bringing classic rock blues and a slice of hip/hop ,the Family Rain spark out their talent as one of the bands which will buzz 2013. Their track “Trust Me, I’m A Genius” is a show off of why they come with what people have labelled them, “It’s great to be considered as a buzz band this year and we’re looking forward to getting out there and showing people why we have that label …. There seems to be a lot of bands with a bigger hype around them than us, so we’re not feeling the pressure too much, as least not as much as others might be…” said William to musicradar.com. The latest single from the band titled “Carnival” will burst your feet to dancing to its fuzzy guitars, the song is pretty refreshing and raw yet modern with a texture of classic rock (and again a slice of hip/hop).

The Family Rain are currently working on their debut album (with a help from Jim Abiss) at Hansa Studio (it’s the same place where U2 produced the major part of their “Achtung Baby“), Berlin. Well, we are so looking forward to see how this year will shape the band into! And if you are a fan of Jack White , the White Stripes, or the Black Keys, the Family Rain should be on your pick for new artist to watch!

And then a quartet from Birmingham, Peace, came to the rescue. They have taken the airwaves since last year with their debut extended play, Delicious. Their first single, “Follow Baby”, is a mixture of Madchester-esque melodies and American alternative sound. Their other single, “Wraith” and “Bloodshake” contains a catchy guitar riff. It was like a newborn baby of Foals and British 90s music.

Their debut album, ‘In Love’, is about to come out next week (March 25^th) and there are lots of people expecting something out of this album. Guardian and NME have listed them as “band to watch” and “purveyor of 2012’s catchiest song”. BBC have listed them in the “Sound of 2013” list.

Their album was produced by Jim Abbiss, the producer of Arctic Monkeys’s “Whatever People Say I Am….” And contained re-recorded version of 3 of their hits such as “Wraith”, “California Daze”, and of course, “Follow Baby”.

So, are you ready to follow them to the airwaves?

The dynamic duo brings back the baggy music to the 2000s era. If Baggy doesn’t ring you a bell, we’re going to explain it. Baggy  was a dance-oriented music which was such a happening music in british in the late 1980s – early 1990s. Baggy was pretty much on the same way as the madchester’s band. And Yes, The Stone Roses and Happy Mondays can be considered in having baggy influences. Enough with the music history lesson and now Back to Jagwar Ma! Jagwar Ma attract the praises from the press after releasing another song “The Throw”. The press applauds the dup for their skillful way in mixing the music, the madchester scene got intertwined with a psychedelic glazed and more groovy tunes.

According to their Facebook page, Jagwar Ma got their influences in making music by Aphex Twin, Phil Spector, and Martin Hannett. In the early 2013, the duo were chosen to be one of the line-up for Big Day Out 2013’s side show. The duo are now with the label Future Classic ( which also has worked with Tensnake, Classix, Flight Facilities, and many more).

Jagwar Ma are just another prove of how great Sydney’s music scene in building their amazing new music. And eventhough we are still confused why they put their location into “Antartica” as they also said that they are living in Sydney plus having great moments in Berlin and Tours. Those places don’t even have a connection with Antartica, well, You shouldn’t even care to stuffs on Face Book (And why are we discussing it anyway). We just can’t wait to see how Jagwar Ma wrap up their debut album and demolish their greatness, mate!

Hi guys! Based on my research, you guys keep saying about how hard it is to make a living in Sweden and those stuffs. Is it actually the main reason of why Holograms were formed (as in to earn money by making music)? Or you guys want to deliver a message to the world about something that happens in Sweden?

We are four guys with no real marketable skills so for us it’s hard to get a job, youth unemployment has been pretty big since the nineties around here.

Our economic situation has definatly not been the main reason for being in a band, as in we have less money now than when we started the band. We also don’t want to be a political band in any way, our lyrics are more internal than external.

Can you tell me more about the true meanings of song “ABC city”?

It’s mainly about the area where me and Anton Strandberg lives in Stockholm called Farsta. The lyrics come from my interest in architecture and the feeling of living in a failed modernist utopian worker commune. A-B-C stands for Arbete(work), Bostad (dwelling) and Centrum (Center, basically a mall). Here’s a pic .

NME rated your album 8 out of 10, and even said that Holograms are bringing an original perspective. as I quoted them labelled you guys as “New flesh, fresh blood. Not just another punk band”. Are You surprised with their review? Or You actually have expected that people will think so?

When we started we had the ambition of doing something serious for once but we never really expected this much attention. It’s pretty much unheard of as a scandinavian band with no real music business contacts to be signed on an american label and get to do the things we’ve done in such a short time. We’re really fortunate.

Also we had no expectations on what people would think at all as we’ve been a bit isolated up here. The most important thing is that we enyoy our own songs.

So in 2012, I heard that you ran out of money and even stranded in France for more than a week! How did you guys make it through?
Yeah we did a disastrous tour in may of 2012, we bough a car for a 1000 euros that ended up braking down in a town called Nantes in france. We we’re extremely lucky that we found such helpful people, like the guys in Von Pariahs, a local band. We ended staying in this guys apartment in paris for maybe one and a half weeks, we ate one kebab a day and explored the city. We lost all our money.

It seems like your journey in music and touring was such a winding road, did you guys actually thankful for those craziness thing? was it actually such a fun thing to be experienced?

In hindsight everything we did in the past year have been amazing but some of the realities of touring and poverty have a tendency to be pretty difficult in the moment if you know what I mean.

How is the music scene in Stockholm? Is it a good place to make music or to be a musician? and Please describe Sweden in your very best sentence!

One of the better things with Stockholm as a musician is that you can get subsidised rehearsal spaces. But there are a lot of negatives too. There’s really no good places to play as a new band that isn’t totally horrible as bars and public spaces are very controlled in the sense of loudness, sanitation and being able to sell alcohol. I guess it’s fine for a lot of genres but if you want to play loud and with not that many restrictions it kind of sucks.

We have one guy who has helped us for years, Thomas Savage (and of course his partner Lotta Hallin). They put up shows on this old boat, it’s kind of a speak easy. When no one wanted to book our previous bands (and holograms) they were the only ones who let us play. If you’re in stockholm check out their store http://pushmybuttons.se/ or go to one of their gigs.

Sweden: Hearts of stone, long for the summer.

As we see now, some indie bands made it to the Grammys, has it ever crossed in your mind like “Guys, maybe we can be nominated for Grammy one day!” or Grammy is the thing that you guys dont even care?

We don’t care

When I try to google you guys, the first thing that this site suggested to me was “Tupac”, what do you guys think about it? hahaha. If it was not Holograms, what the most possible name that you would like to use?

It’s pretty funny, the whole “Tupac Hologram” came like the week after we released ABC City.

I hate to come up with band names, it’s fucking hard and everything has been taken. I’m really happy with the name we have.

So there’s a sad story behind your vintage synthesizer, KORG-MS10. Do you guys also dedicate your music to him?

I have in the band that we played together in. Sometimes I think of doing one for him but certain feelings are best kept to yourself. I don’t want to feel like I exploit his memory in any way.

To Andreas, apparently u r a huge fan of Street Fighter! Why do you like it so much? Is there any game that you think is as good as Street Fighter?

I am, I have been playing SF since I was a child. I started with Street fighter 2 for the super nintendo.

When you are really hardcore into fighting games it becomes extremely satisfying, like a sport. The competitivness and the complexity can really lead to obssession. Sometimes I miss it when I’m on tour. If I ever get to Asia I’d like to visit some arcades and play.

What do you guys expect from people who listen to your music?

Just take the music to heart.

The last question, what is your short term goal and your long term goal?

We don’t plan ahead but our short term goal is to release our next album and try to pay some rent.

Well, that’s all from them! Maybe you think that The Hives would be the only great talent from Sweden, but here comes the big contender. We are totally sure that this Stockholm’s quartet will be giving another huge hit that will surprise you!

It started by when the musical partners, bassist/vocalist Chilli Jesson, guitarist/vocalist Sam Fryer, keyboardist Peter Mayhew and drummer Will Doyle met at Reading Festival’s campfire. The band were formed in 2011, the main reason of why Palma Violets were formed is they just don’t feel the music when they saw other bands and it seems bringing the band to the another level. The band also felt like they need to do something out of their boredomness with pub and clubbing. It brought them to host an event at a converted Georgian terrace in Lambeth, which’s called Studio 180. By performing there, Palma Violets got the turning point of the band’s career. Rough Trade, the well-known indie label who released bands like The Strokes and The Libertines, snapped their performance that night.

Eventhough Palma Violet has passed some levels that many other new bands are aiming to, they still think they need to be covered from such a media coverage of their music. NME is one of the examples, NME labeled the band as “The best new band in Britain” and also put the band to be the next generation of The Libertines and The Strokes. This gives a different reaction from the band. The drummer, Will Doyle, said that this thing is such an over the top statement since the band only have three songs and it’s way too early to call them that way while the band are still in the very early stage of their career.

Palma Violets’ musical influences are garage rock and psychedelic, but the band that brought them into music are far from those rock star names who are famously known, it’s “Snatch and The Poontangs”. Snatch and Poontangs have been the band role model in making music, the band stated that Snatch and Poontangs are the best visual of how music should be created. If you know Snatch and The Poontangs, you must be very surprised with the fact of how Palma Violets put them as their role model, but if you haven’t heard of Snatch and The Poontangs before, We suggest you to look them up on the internet.

“Best Of Friends” which is the band’s first ever single, get to be voted by NME as song of the year of 2012. Zane Lowe also listed the band’s track on his “Hottest Record in The World”. Palma Violets’ debut album “180” which also worked by Pulp’s Steve Mackey, will be released on February 25th 2013. Palma Violet also join Django Django, Miles Kane, and Peace for NME Awards Tour 2013
Well, Palma Violets might only have done few songs, but we are sure once their debut album hit the store, it will reveal their purely great music. (Alcander Alonzo)