Posted: 13/01
Baby Dee will tour the UK with full band in February & March, calling at Queen Elizabeth Hall in London on 6 March.

The marvellous new album Book Of Songs is out 1 March.

Artist: Baby Dee
Title: Book of Songs album
Label: Tin Angel
Cat Number: TAR O11
Release Date: 1 March 2010
Distributor: Shellshock
Website: www.myspace.com/theonlybabydee


Baby Dee UK Dates:
Mon 22 Feb Newcastle The Sage 2, £10-£12.50 www.thesagegateshead.org
Tue 23 Feb Leeds 7 Arts Centre, £10 www.wegottickets.co.uk
Wed 24 Feb Reading South Street Arts Centre, £11 www.readingarts.com/southstreet
Sat 27 Feb Coventry St Johns Church, £10 www.wegottickets.co.uk
Mon 1 March Norwich Arts Centre, £10 www.ueaticketbookings.co.uk
Tue 2 March Manchester Band On The Wall, £10-£12.50 www.ticketline.co.uk
Sat 6 March London Queen Elizabeth Hall, £14 www.southbankcentre.co.uk
Sun 7 March Brighton Hanbury Ballroom, £10 www.wegottickets.co.uk

After the overwhelming response to Safe Inside the Day in February 2008, the unique Baby Dee returns with Book of Songs. It will be released by UK indie-of-repute Tin Angel (home to a wide ranging roster that includes Devon Sproule and Polar Bear) and Drag City in the US. What was telling about the response to Safe Inside the Day was the purity of reaction. The back story (let’s face it, Baby Dee is the epitome of the phrase), never overshadowed the fact that she gives everything and that is what connects with critics and audience alike.

While the last album was helped along enormously by Will Oldham and Matt Sweeney producing, this one was lead by the calming presence of Maxim Moston (part of Antony and the Johnsons touring band and arranger of some standing). “She sent me the demo and I was floored – here was a true collection of lieder, or art songs” What he envisaged in his words were “song cycles performed in their entirety and stripped of all excess, just piano and voice, poetry and melody”. Gone are the more bawdy ruminations to be replaced by a glowing heart of a record. Hermetically sealed and lovingly passed on so that we can understand what love could mean from Dee’s consuming perspective. It is at times jaw-dropping in its profundity.

“Everybody has a right – the right to really be the lover, to really be the beloved. Regardless of how fucked up and inadequate we are or how short our time is together. We never lose that opportunity” – Baby Dee 2009


Baby Dee Safe Inside The Day UK Press Quotes
“It may well be one of the first great albums of 2008” 4/5 Uncut
“A mini masterpiece in visionary music” 4/5 Mojo
“Baby Dee’s cannon teeters between bawdy and quietly moving, both delivered with the same disarming tenderness and honesty” 4/5 OMM
“Oh for more albums as ambitious, mysterious and haunting as this” 4/5 Sunday Times
“Dee is a one woman force of nature” 5/5 Sunday Telegraph (live review)
“Life-affirming” 4/5 Q
“Safe Inside the Day is on of the most incredible things you’ll hear this or any other year” 4.5/5 The Sun
“The most remarkable album of the year so far” Daily Telegraph
“The music grows as complex and thrillingly wayward as Dee herself” 4/5 The Guardian
“As vivid and original as they come” 5/6 Time Out
“She’ll (Baby Dee) be everywhere that counts in 2008” NME
“Baby Dee has delivered one of the year’s most distinctive and strangely alluring albums” Music Week
“immediately striking… a set of richly entertaining and often very touching songs” Wire
“A voice like an angel who fell from Heaven” Vice
“Album of the Week” 4/5 Metro
“4/5” The Independent

Posted: 13/01
First Aid Kit release their glorious debut album The Big Black and The Blue on 25 January.

Their UK tour begins in February, playing the Union Chapel on 4 March.

Artist: First Aid Kit
Title: ‘I Met Up With the King’ single
Release Date: 1 March 2010
Label: Wichita Recordings
Formats: Digital
Cat Number: WEBB243SDL
Website: www.myspace.com/thisisfirstaidkit


“The Big Black and The Blue introduces a bewitching sound pinned down by mesmerisingly strong vocals. Big things await” NME
“An impressive first effort” 4/5 Q
“4/5” Uncut
“Sublime” 4/5 The Fly
“Blessed with the voices of plaid-clad angels” The Guardian
“Narrative folk so charming and wise that it’s easy to forget they’re still teenagers”
Dazed & Confused

The mesmeric ‘I Met Up With the King’ (released March 1) is the second single to
be taken from the already acclaimed forthcoming debut The Big Black and The Blue, from swooning Swedish duo First Aid Kit, due out on 25 January.

Inspired by a line from Gram Parson’s Return of the Grievous Angel, ‘I Met Up With the King’ isn’t about Elvis (or indeed Michael Jackson), but of fallen stars, social outcasts and championing the voiceless. The song displays Johanna and Klara’s surging, crystal clear voices and innate song writing abilities that spans well beyond their tender years.

The girls will be taking their lush harmonies on tour around the UK in February/March, playing London’s Union Chapel on 4 March. If their special invite only show in December 2009 is anything to go by, these dates will be beautiful and all consuming. They are also confirmed to play an in store show at Rough Trade East in London on January 26th at 7pm.

First Aid Kit UK Dates:
Fri 19 Feb Edinburgh Sneaky Pete’s £8 www.gigsinscotland.com 08444 999 990
Sat 20 Feb Glasgow King Tuts £8 www.gigsinscotland.com 08444 999 990
Mon 22 Feb Birmingham Rainbow £8 www.seetickets.com 0870 2643333
Tue 23 Feb Manchester Deaf Institute £8 www.seetickets.com 0870 2643333
Wed 24 Feb Leeds Brudenell Social Club £8 www.lunatickets.co.uk 0113 2454650
Thu 25 Feb Stockton The Georgian Theatre £8 www.teesmusicalliance.org.uk
Fri 26 Feb Hull Adelphi £6 www.seetickets.com 0870 2643333
Sat 27 Feb Nottingham Bodega £8 www.alt-tickets.co.uk 08713 100 000
Mon 1 Mar Sheffield Bungalows and Bears FREE
Tue 2 Mar Norwich Arts Centre £8 / £9 www.norwichartscentre.co.uk 01603 660352
Wed 3 Mar Oxford The Jericho Tavern £8 www.wegottickets.com/event/64487
Thu 4 Mar London Union Chapel £10 www.livenation.co.uk 0844 5765483
Sat 6 Mar Bristol Louisiana £8 www.alt-tickets.co.uk 08713 100 000
Sun 7 Mar Southampton Hamptons FREE
Mon 8 Mar Brighton Hope £8 www.ticketweb.co.uk 0844 4771000

Posted: 08/01
Please note, Thao’s wonderful new album 'Know Better Learn Faster' has now gone back to 15 February.

Thao plays the Barfly in London on 1 February, please get in touch for more details.


Artist: Thao with The Get Down Stay Down
Title: Know Better, Learn Faster album
Release Date: 15 February 2010
Label: Kill Rock Stars
Formats: CD, LP & Download
Cat Number: KRS500
Website: www.thaomusic.com
www.myspace.com/thaomusic


“Terrific second LP” Dazed & Confused
“Wittily wayward, folkish psych-pop and skittering, Pavement-like ditties” Time Out
“Somewhere between Natasha Khan and Chan Marshall… an extrovert sharpness and insouciant wit” Uncut
“plaintive and playful… an album of wonderful musical and emotional contradictions” The Fly
“4/5” The Independent
“You owe Thao’s ex a thank you” Flux
“Know Better Learn Faster is a more mature record but no less playful and with no less personality… Thao conveys a warm exuberance that keeps the music spry despite the weighty subject matter” 7.8 Pitchfork

“The album is named Know Better Learn Faster because you can’t. By the time you realise you should, it’s too late. And I enjoy the predicament and the totally devastating, unfunny humour of that.” Thao Nguyen

Thao and the ever-versatile Get Down Stay Down (Adam Thompson on bass, keys and additional guitar, and Willis Thompson on drums and percussion) return with the follow up to the breakout success of their critically lauded and riotously applauded album We Brave Bee Stings and All, the best-selling record of 2008 for Kill Rock Stars.

Know Better Learn Faster is an unabashed ‘break-up’ album, but it’s far from your typical break-up album blueprint. Containing 13 tracks of scuzzy, anti-love pop songs, the heartbreak is bedecked in upbeat rhythms and plucky melodies. Opening with rabble-rouser ‘The Clap’, Thao and a group of friends wail repeatedly “If this is how you want it okay! Okay!” until it breaks into a foot stomping and hand clap frenzy. A fierce warning, Thao prepares us for what lies ahead; a brutal and honest depiction of failed relationships. Well, you asked for it!

Upcoming single and title track ‘Know Better Learn Faster’ has the ever talented
Andrew Bird lending his inimitable whistle and bow to wondrous effect. Beautifully arranged, layering Bird’s skilful strings with gentle percussion, it has the Bird trademark sound all over it as it builds into a galloping, barnstorming hootenanny.

From the Pavement slack-style lilting guitar on the ferocious ‘Good Bye And Good Luck’ to the soft oriental strings on ‘The Give’ and the parched-out funk of ‘Easy’, the album spans a gamut of moods, all the while remaining faithful to Thao’s distinct style, sharp wit and infectious melody. The Get Down trio’s formidable musicianship is a delight, showcasing Thao’s rich and diverse song writing.

Know Better Learn Faster considers all the little details of love with unrefined joy, giddy melancholy and exuberant desperation that grins mischievously at the heartrending irrelevance of it all.

Thao with The Get Down Stay Down UK Dates:
Mon 1 February London Barfly, £6 www.seetickets.com
Tues 2 February Manchester Deaf Institute www.thedeafinstitute.co.uk
Wed 3 February Glasgow Captains Rest, £7 www.ticketweb.co.uk

Posted: 08/01
Artist: Jesca Hoop
Title: ‘Feast of the Heart’ single
Label: Last Laugh
Distribution: Republic of Music
Release Date: 22 February 2010
Format: Digital Download
Website: www.myspace.com/jescahoop


“So startlingly original… the Manchester based Californian whose remarkable new album Hunting My Dress confirms her as one of alternative folk-pop’s most arresting recent arrivals” Sunday Times
“Friends in high places never hurt, but Jesca Hoop hits the heights all by herself”
4/5 Mojo
“A beguiling first step” 4/5 Q
“Murder of Birds’ is, literally, startling” Word
“Devastatingly delicious” 4/5 Time Out
“Hunting My Dress sounds like the sprouting of a wondrous new talent” 4/5 The Guardian
“An assured innovative, impressive piece of work” The Observer
“Strange but delightful” The Sun
“Sheer force of passion and personality render Hoop’s free form digressions bright and utterly beguiling” The Independent
“A new sound that is both studied and inspired” 4/5 The Times
“Genuinely gorgeous… the likes of which come along all too rarely” Music Week
“Pitch-perfect folk” Grazia
“4/5” Uncut
“4/5” Metro
“4/5” Evening Standard
‘Album of the Month’ Diva

It has been a whirlwind couple of months for Jesca Hoop, the Tom Waits endorsed Californian who relocated to Manchester last year and whose self-released album Hunting My Dress was released in November 2009 to huge critical acclaim and heavy rotation on BBC 6 Music. Following a spellbinding sell-out show in London where The Observer noted that Jesca “spins a balance between play and poignancy, complexity and catchiness without breaking a thread”, a string of UK dates have been announced for the UK in February 2010, with a single ‘Feast of the Heart’ due for release on 22 February.

‘Feast of the Heart’ is in the words of Jesca Hoop “made up of just two basses, a totally haphazard drum track and my voice”. She neglects to mention that it also drips with pop passion, as if Marc Ribot is joining a rampant Hoop letting her tresses a go-go, with military drums adding to the maelstrom.

Hoop’s artistic ambition and a near obsession with sound and sensual wordplay are the rule of thumb all over this delightful work. We should be proud that she now resides on our fair isle after a lifetime living in the US.

In Hunting My Dress, she has made the album that she most wanted, and in turn we should dive right in and sample this distinguished talent and her work.

Jesca Hoop UK dates:
Wed 3 Feb Cardiff Barfly, £7 www.ticketweb.co.uk
Thu 4 Feb Brighton Latest Bar, £8 www.ticketweb.co.uk
Fri 5 Feb London Jazz Café, £10 www.ticketmaster.co.uk
Sun 7 Feb Birmingham Glee Club £7 www.glee.co.uk 0871 472 0400
Mon 8 Feb Nottingham Bodega, £7 www.gigantic.com/alttickets
Tue 9 Feb Bristol Thekla (supporting Fanfarlo) £8 www.seetickets.com
Thu 11 Feb Leeds Brudenell (supporting Fanfarlo) £8 www.seetickets.com
Fri 12 Feb Middlesbrough Westgarth Social Club, £7 www.seetickets.com
Sat 13 Feb Glasgow Nice n Sleazy, £7 www.tickets-scotland.com
Sun 14 Feb Aberdeen Lemon Tree
Mon 15 Feb Edinburgh Sneaky Pete’s www.sneakypetes.co.uk
Thu 18 Feb Manchester Deaf Institute, £6 www.thedeafinstitute.co.uk/

Posted: 11/12
For more than a decade, Mos Def has not only emerged as one of the world's most recognised hip hop lyricists, but also as an acclaimed musician, fearless activist and rising actor of notable repute. Added to this he is hands down one of the most vibrant character’s hip hop has ever known. On the back of the runaway return to form of The Ecstatic (released August 2009) which was rightfully salivated over, he brought his live show to HMV Forum, London for a special sold out performance at the end of November. The thunderous applause just keeps on building, with Mos Def receiving two Grammy nominations for Best Rap Album and Best Solo Rap Performance. A very big deal indeed and rounding off quite a musical comeback. He has also received further plaudits in the shape of iTunes ‘Hip Hop Album of the Year’ and high rankings in End of Year polls for the likes of Mojo, Q and the Sunday Times, as well as a nod in the Telegraph’s Top 100 Album’s of the Decade.

For an example as to why people have reacted in such an ebullient fashion, please check out his recent showing of ‘History’ with Talib Kweli & The Roots on ‘Late Night With Jimmy Fallon’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeptzl3-sKs
As a counterpoint, here’s a killer turn during a posse cut with Eminem and Black Thought, with DJ Premier on decks from the 2009 BET Hip Hop awards http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4SQ8QBJUaI

Praise for The Ecstatic album:
“Mos Def is back on form… the album flows beautifully from beginning to end”
4.5/5 Echoes ‘Album of the Month’
“Improbably impeccable fifth album… it offers a thrillingly accessible demonstration of hip-hop’s limitless creative possibilities” 4/5 Observer Music Monthly
“It’s in this record’s studied self-absorption that its excellence both hides and resides” 4/5 Mojo
“Exhilarating listening… Hollywood’s loss is, it seems, hip-hop’s gain” 4/5 Q
“Mos Def can still create the year’s finest hip hop album” 4/5 Uncut
“The Ecstatic is simply terrific… a stunning return to music” Word
“Def’s best album since 99’s Black on Both Sides” 4/5 FHM
“An innovative return to form” 8/10 Clash
“Incisive and inspirational… it all adds up to Mos Def’s best album for a decade”
4/5 Mixmag
“An LP that may just save hip hop” Dazed & Confused
“Proof that Mos Def’s grip is as sure as ever is right there in the grooves”
4/5 Time Out
“An undisputable return to form” Esquire