The past twelve months have seen the Room Thirteen Myspace site become an integral part of the magazine. After a dash of trial and error, a pinch of creativity and a shed load of hard work and teamwork, we now have a site that not only supports the main site by helping to boost readership figures week in week out, but which has taken on the role of unearthing the hidden gems of the mystical world of myspace music and bringing them to the attention of our readers. Here we round up the acts that have helped make this year such a success, many of whom we believe will be breakthrough acts in the coming year. Remember you heard them here first!
Click the band name to head to their Myspace site.
Tight tunes and even tighter jeans: it’s the Indie bunch
The Indelicates
The Indelicates had us popping on our dancing clogs back in August with their delightful upbeat indie rock, which soon became a personal favourite of the editorial team here at R13. Tracks ‘Sixteen’ and ‘Julia We Don’t Live in the 60’s’ are a perfect example of what the band does best.
The Stopmotion Men
The impressive alternative rock trio hailing from Cardiff were one of the early highlights of this year’s myspace slot, way back in the spring. ‘It’s All Gonna Catch Up With You’ proceeded to rattle around our myspace jukebox for sometime, and the band have recently recorded a new demo called ‘Pirates’ that demands attention, catchy plundering riffs aplenty me’hearties!
Hijak Oscar
Easily this years biggest success story from our myspace artists, the blues rock sextet from York have received plenty of publicity recently by reaching the semi-final of Channel Four’s MobileAct Unsigned competition. This, coupled with a support slot on the Shed Seven reunion tour, has marked an interesting and productive year for the band, with surely more to come through 2008.
The Electro Rock Contingent
Medallist
Medallist have already twice graced the pages of Room Thirteen this year, as we first unearthed them in our Myspace Musical Maze series in Bristol back in the summer. Since then the band have been busy writing new material for their forthcoming album to be released in 2008 by Gut Records. Having caught them live recently, we can assure you that the new material is excellent indeed, and has proceeded to go down a storm with their local following. Most definitely one to watch in 2008, don’t be surprised to see Medallist catapulted into the mainstream.
This Is My Lawnmower
The Manchester based electro rockers came to the fore during our
In The City coverage recently during October. Established R13 writer Andy Latham, ears pricked and meandering, soon found himself strangely drawn to the quintet and described them as one of the highlights of the annual new music showcase event. Still young and maturing musically, R13 will watch with interest as to how these lads develop.
King With No Throne
London duo King With No Throne caught the eye of Deputy Editor Simon Webb while playing live in the capital back in the autumn. Suitably impressed, we wasted no time in making them Band of the Week during October. This lot are tricky to pigeonhole since if you listen to a track before seeing them live, you might expect a full band to be playing expansive, Floyd-like rock. However keyboards and drums is all you get, and with influences stretching from prog-rock to break beat, they're definitely one worth further investigation. The duo will be busy writing and performing new material around London in 2008.
Colt
We've been big fans of this band here at Room Thirteen for some time, their debut album 'These Things Can't Hurt You Now So Throw Them In The Fire' featured in our records of 2005 list. As far as a description of their sound is concerned, who better to ask than vocalist Andrea Kerr, who said this when we caught up with her back in the spring. “It's sort of electronic with real bits. Some of it is melancholy and some is angry, but less angry these days. You’re best finding out for yourself!” We highly recommend that you do just that.
Deluka
It’s been a busy year for the highly danceable electro fiends from Birmingham, with the quartet having released a double A-side single, completed a BBC 6 music session, performed live in Bucharest and Paris, and been interviewed on Channel 4’s 4Talent website, and notching up plays by both Steve Lamacq and Zane Lowe. Of course, none of this compares to being our Band of the Week! With melodic hooks and dance charged beats, Deluka are sure to be garnering even more plaudits through 2008. Watch this space.
Pencil Toes
Hereford’s finest occupied our latest slot this year. In fact, we deemed their material so impressive we actually extended the slot for one extra week to fit them in. Praise indeed! The talented teens formed just over a year ago, and have wasted no time in building up a solid live following while writing some cracking melodies, all drenched in rich warm synth syrup, just the way we like it. Rumoured to be having been courted by labels towards the end of this year, expect the Toes to be one of the breakthrough acts of 2008. You heard it here first!
Genre Breaking
The two bands in this category are deserving of special praise indeed for their originality. Please stand and show your appreciation for the pioneers of ‘chav-core’ the sensational Floors and Walls, and the hottest harp-wielding metal tribute band around, Harptallica.
Harptallica
We discovered them by chance, appropriately enough, while nosing around Myspace. They’re two college friends from the States, who met through a shared appreciation for playing the harp, and decided to experiment by adapting metal songs to make classical music pieces. If we’re honest, we’re not experts in that particular instrument, but the end results sounded pretty fine to us.
Floors and Walls
Touted by some as ‘Chav-core’ pioneers, Brighton’s Floors and Walls have certainly had a successful year; with their debut release ‘What Can We Do Today’ also featuring in our 2007 Album of the Year list. Their track ‘Tracey’ received the most plays out of all the material featured on our myspace player this year, and has been a permanent resident in our myspace editor’s car stereo. We recently caught up with bass player Ian Booth to talk about their 2007, and expectations for 2008. This band is destined for big things given the right break.
Rocking Out
Fighting With Wire
Talented Irish rock trio Fighting With Wire first appeared on our radar via the Myspace Musical Maze Northern Ireland featured back in the summer. Having released their debut album ‘Man vs. Monster’ towards the end of 2007 on indie label Small Town America, the band will be touring the new material through the beginning of 2008. With an aggressive, hook laden guitar sound combined with excellent vocal melodies, the trio are sure to win over many more fans in the coming months and deservedly so.
Champagne On Ice
The Brighton rockers audibly assaulted our writer Andy Latham in the nicest possible way back in October. In his own words, "Straight From Hell! Leapt out of the speakers & smacked me in the face". Describing their sound and live shows as “party-rock”, the quintet make it their priority to ensure everyone has a damn good time and create an electric atmosphere. ‘Straight From Hell’ is a fine example of straight up old-skool rock and is well worth checking out. 2008 is expected to herald the arrival of new material from the ever-improving band.
Your Army
Close ties with our Myspace editor Adam Venton have enabled us here at Room Thirteen to witness, at close quarters, the development of this hugely talented Brighton based quartet. From the childhood remnants of a Muse tribute group, a band has flourished that has their own identity, ideas and above all, their own sound. What a sound it is; raucous, riff empowered rock. Their live performances are rapidly gaining a reputation for being musically tight, energetic, and very, very loud read a review to see what the fuss is about. With an EP recently recorded and set to be unveiled early 2008, Your Army will almost certainly be marching into your town very soon.
Where’s Billy
If there was ever proof that picking a novel name gets you attention, then this is it. We checked them out by chance at Guilfest, and were so impressed by their ability to entertain a crowd, as well as the quality of their music, that we immediately featured them on the Myspace site. Although their liking for Foo Fighters, Queens of the Stone Age and Feeder are clear to the ear, Where’s Billy are far from your average back of a pub band. This Kent-based act has the songs, and the determination to really go places. We for one hope it works out for them.
Kill Stereo
2007 has seen the London three-piece become underground rock heroes, a status confirmed with the release of their critically acclaimed self titled debut album. Towards the end of the summer we posted a widget on our myspace site that streamed the whole album for a free taster of the material. This led to Kill Stereo receiving one of the highest number of plays of all this years featured artists, and rightfully so in our opinion. Armed with not one, not two, but a handful of potential anthems, 2008 is looking rosy for the Londoners. Watch this space.
Singer Songwriters
Laura Colegate
We first spotted folk singer/songwriter Laura Colegate opening one of the smaller stages at Guilfest in 2006; one year on she was back, and so were we, to see her with a full band in toe, and playing higher up the bill and on a larger stage. It’s clear that there’s talent there, she has a fantastic voice and is no slouch on the guitar either. She plays a lot around Surrey, Berkshire and Oxfordshire and if she can get spots in London or Brighton where the press tend to hang out, then it’s possible things could start to really move for her.
Alan MX
We end back at the start, with the first artist we featured back in March. One man band Alan MX deserves a special mention as he was signed to Small Town America Records on the back of our coverage early in the year. Deploying a unique brand of experimental electro and citing Bjork, PJ Harvey and “the future” as major influences, Alan MX resembles the process of post-‘Ok Computer’ era Radiohead outgrowing its cocoon and morphing into some evolutionary experimental butterfly with three wings and eleven eyes. Sound weird? Yep, you’d be right. But it’s great!
So that was 2007. We’ll pick up where we left off in the New Year, so check our Myspace site each week for a new artist we think deserves exposure. Plus, if you’re in a band or want to point us in the direction of one for consideration, head over to Myspace.com/r13mag and send us a message with the details and a link to their profile.
Click here to see the other Myspace Musical Maze features, which take a closer look at the world of metal, and new artists coming out of Northern Ireland and the West of England.