MMX – FOLLOW

Fans of Francesqa cried themselves to sleep – probably clutching a framed photo of singer Ashley Wilkie who is, admittedly, a slamming babe – when the band announced their decision to stop releasing music and playing gigs at the end of 2011. They were a little bit You Me At Six for my taste and, as it turns out, for theirs too. Since last December the four boys have stayed together under new moniker MMX and have a good go at creating something more lasting, less Paramore-y (who are, I’ll admit, my interminable guilty pleasure), and have recently released a couple of singles, ‘Cold World’ and ‘Follow’. The latter in particular, I think, goes a long way in demonstrating a development in their sound and what with the previous popularity of Francesqa, I don’t think it’ll be long before MMX are properly, completely famous.

STEVE AOKI & ANGGER DIMAS feat. IGGY AZALEA – BEAT DOWN

Now, I’ll concede that this is a bad video. I will 100% admit to that and, yes, a sense of humour and a fistful of salt might be necessary to see the greatness in this but, say what you want about Iggy Azalea, this IS great. Much has been made of Azalea’s style – she’s a white, Australian woman, rapping like a black American. So what? She’s got all of the attitude and flow I need to consider her a legitimate hip-hop artist. Come on, we got over the fact that Eminem was white years ago. Need we go through it all again just because now, instead of having a white rapper on our hands, we have a white FEMALE rapper? Please. See also ‘My World’ and ‘Pu$$y’ for her solo efforts.

GALLOWS – LAST JUNE

Yeah okay. I can definitely get on board with this. Having wrestled with mixed feelings regarding Gallows’ output, I’m pretty pleased with ‘Last June’. Frank Carter’s vocal efforts put their debut album ‘Orchestra of Wolves’ firmly in my mental list of top 10 albums, but their follow up, ‘Grey Britain’, fell horribly short of expectations – what had started as a relevant, contemporary take on the punk genre had regressed to a Johnny Rotten-esque parody of itself. With Frank Carter now pursuing different musical avenues with new band Pure Love, former Alexisonfire vocalist Wade MacNeil has taken the baton, and, with ‘Last June’ we see a return to the greatness of ‘Orchestra of Wolves’ in its energy and attack. Killer bassline too.

Just a little hello…

So this is just a place that I’m using to write a few things about a few bands/artists I like/don’t like.  Everything is obviously just my own opinion – just got a lot to chat about.