A New Band A Day! » ANBAD Radio

Extra Happy Ghost!!! Misery!! Pop!! Forever!!

Joe Sparrow — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 09:25:44 +0000

Today, it’s startling easy to construct FM-friendly million-selling dead-eyed-pop SMASH HITS by brazenly using entire Garageband loops and popping some warbling about Umbrellas over the top.

And while there’s something horribly pleasurable about the thought of the vast producer’s fee which the makers of that song claimed for the act of shuffling a couple of pre-made loops around, it’s more heartening to hear music makers experimenting with their own equally delicious sounds.

Extra Happy Ghost!!! craft clanking bursts of miserably soaring pop to make the music which a Prozac-soaked mind would hear when presented with excitable Euro-Disco.

To make a song that sounds just as much like the End Times as it does Good Times takes a special talent, and Lo! that’s exactly what So At One reveals the band to be.

Soft, close, gloomy and woozily euphoric, here’s a song that connects with any emotion you care to be experiencing and wrings it dry.

Extra marks are always doled out on ANBAD when a band judiciously scatters punctuation around in their band and song titles, but in Extra Happy Ghost!!!’s case these bonus points are unnecessary, simply because the band are so darn good.

MORE: myspace.com/extrahappyghost

RADIO SHOW // The Best Bands From September 2010

Joe Sparrow — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 09:15:13 +0000

September was a hugely fertile month, sprouting great new band after great new band, and it was a tough job to whittle them down to four for this new podcast.

But if we’re anything here at ANBAD, we’re definitely troupers of the hardiest calibre, and so such complex comparisons were undertaken with GREAT SUCCESS.

Listen and feel your knees weaken with awe:

ANBAD Radio Show // September in Review

The bands:

Cloud Nothings // Tortoiseshell // Ducktails // Pope Joan

The In The City info + posts:

ITC Midweek Mixtapes One and Two

ANBAD Podcast – ITC Special

ANBAD PODCAST // IN THE CITY SPECIAL

Joe Sparrow — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 08:24:54 +0000

Here’s a bonus ANBAD podcast, all in celebration of the upcoming In The City Music conference here in Manchester. I’m getting hopelessly excited about ITC, mainly because there are so many stupendously good bands who I haven’t previously had the chance to see, but also because I was moving flat during last year’s event, and so was under more stress than Beth Ditto’s belt buckle.

ANBAD IN THE CITY PODCAST #1

In this podcast, I’m talking enthusiastically around songs by bands who are appearing at ITC, and also hailing from Manchester. It seemed like as good a place to start as any. Click their names below for more info on them.

Egyptian Hip Hop // Young British Artists // Golden Glow // Brown Brogues // Plank!

For the full ITC line-up, tickets, pictures, mp3s and minutiae to bore your hipster friends with, all wrapped up in a whizzy website, click here: www.inthecity.co.uk

ANBAD is back on Tuesday next week

RADIO SHOW // Last Month In Review: The Best Bands From August 2010

Joe Sparrow — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 08:06:46 +0000

Urgh – I’m still recovering from my kinda-holiday, but now have to face up to the reality that normal service must resume.

As last month was interrupted somewhat by a week or so off, there were fewer bands to choose from in the round-up – and yet, the standard of brilliant bands was as high as ever. Go figure.

ANBAD Radio Show // August 2010

So here’s the show, complete with gob-smackingly excellent bands from August – share and enjoy.

YUCK // The Shondes // Wolfy and The Bat Cubs // Young Mammals

BONUS ANBAD RADIO SHOW! Summer Special

Joe Sparrow — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 09:52:07 +0000

FYFI: ANBAD is on holiday for a week and a bit. That’s why the vaguely holiday-themed tag is dangling up there at the top of the page.

But because I a) am obsessive-compulsive; b) am outrageously kind and c) love the sound of my own idiot voice, here’s a special bonus ANBAD Radio Show, covering the ‘lost’ best-of shows from the months when I was moving flat and didn’t even have time to sob quietly in a corner, let alone record a radio show.

ANBAD Bonus Radio Show!

So clickaroo, listen, enjoy some of the (genuinely) greatest bands ever featured on ANBAD, and imagine me sipping cocktails on a Spanish beach – because imagining is exactly what I’ll be doing too, as I’m not actually going anywhere at all. Sigh.

Share and enjoy…

Featured artistes:

Young British Artists // Bermuda Bonnie // The Horn The Hunt // Takeda

Oh, and here’s the really rather good Kopparberg Spotify Playlist I helped compile:

Kopparberg Spotify Playlist

RADIO SHOW // Last Month In Review: July’s Top 5 New Bands

Joe Sparrow — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 07:53:08 +0000

In July, when the World Cup finished, a huge, endless void opened up in your writer’s life; a void that could no longer be filled with hilarious slo-mo HD replays of England footballers shrugging their shoulders and visibly counting down the minutes until they could get back to crashing Bentleys full of strippers into lamposts.

Perturbed, that void was filled with tons of blisteringly good new bands. And, in celebration, here’s an all-new ANBAD radio show featuring the best five from July. GOAL!

ANBAD Radio Show // Last Month In Review: July’s Top 5 New Bands

Links to the full articles, info and songs: [all links open in a new tab]

Lenin Was A Zombie // Zebra And Snake // Post Post // Illness // Tristan Burfield

And here’s the interview with the brilliants, elusive and electrifying ISLET:

Islet: Out There Somewhere

RADIO SHOW // The Best New Bands From June

Joe Sparrow — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 09:13:06 +0000

Wow, that was a two month gap wasn’t it? Stupid me. I can blame a few things for the absence of ANBAD vocal stylings, and indeed, if you listen to the show below, such excuses will be lamely put to you.

But despite such jabbering it’s very much worth a listen, because there are some brilliant bands from last month, plus HOT CHAT in between.

Like a great new band iPod, set to shuffle, with interfering chinwagging in-between. Good times. Get clicking!

ANBAD RADIO SHOW // The Best Bands From June 2010

Links mentioned in the show:

THE TOP FIVE BANDS IN JUNE:

Wild Nothing // B-Lock And The Girl // Li Diaguo // Mariee Sioux // Prince Rama

AN INTERVIEW WITH ME, WITH A MAN CALLED HAGOP:

Joe, Hagop, and 30 minutes of HOT BLOG CHAT

RADIO INTERVIEW WITH IDIOT BLOGGER

Joe Sparrow — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 06:32:51 +0000

***BONUS THURSDAY POST***

My friend Hagop – crazy name, crazy guy – is setting up a website to help people who are starting new bands. He’s one of those ultra-hyper people who has boundless energy and a zillion interesting stories to tell – he was in a band who played to tens of thousands, he worked with Hot Chip, yadda yadda.

Funnily enough, his fatal flaw is to believe that I have something of use to tell the rest of the world, and so he interviewed me. We talked excitedly, and at peculiar length, about how bands can help promote themselves to music bloggers.

The result was actually interesting, and strangely useful if you’re in a new band:

Interview With Joe Sparrow From A New Band A Day

Reciprocal Promo Bit: Hagop’s new website starts today! and it’s specifically designed to help new bands ‘niche’ there way through the nascent stages. He has a ton of material, like this interview, about helping your band get to where you want to go. Have a look here

RADIO SHOW // The Best New Bands From March

Joe Sparrow — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 11:43:01 +0000

Last month was awash, indeed, with excellent new bands, and what better way to celebrate the fact than with a brand spanking new ANBAD Radio Show?

Well, maybe there are actual better ways, such as ruminating on these matters on a Mediterranean beach whilst drinking cocktails served by supermodels, or even just buying their records, but this will just have to do.

Oh, go on, it’s only 15 minutes of your life:

The Radio Show:

ANBAD RADIO SHOW // March’s Best Five Bands

The Bands:

Evan Voytas // Fists // Trash Kit // Wu Lyf // The Bowery Riots

RADIO SHOW // February’s Top Five New Bands

Joe Sparrow — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 10:45:50 +0000

February went fast didn’t it? It’s almost as if it was shorter than the other months or something.

Inevitably, the great new bands intruded our lives thick and fast, and here is a 15 minute radio-riffic celebration of February’s Five Best New Bands:

ANBAD RADIO SHOW // February’s Top Five New Bands

And here’s the links to the bands mentioned in the show:

Martial Arts // Something Beginning With L // Memo // Broken Deer // Scary Mansion

And then here’s the links to the interviews mentioned in the show:

Egyptian Hip Hop // Interview

Stained Glass Heroes // Interview

Ace Bushy Striptease // Interview

Phew. That’ll keep you busy. Some great bands coming up this week – keep ‘em peeled…