Tom George, AKA The Lion And The Wolf, is a brilliant songwriter. His music is guaranteed to soothe, invigorate, and energise via gently overdriven guitars, healthy dollops of spacious reverb, and carefully structured rhythms. Beautiful.
As far as paternally-oriented tribute tracks go, My Father’s Eyes is perfect – and B-side Barstools washes, Read more…
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Some musicians are impossible to forget. They leave an indelible imprint on your memory, permanently branding their art on your brain. For TMMP, Beardyman is that kind of artist – and here are a few reasons why you, the open-minded, intelligent, and no doubt deeply attractive regular reader and boundary-free music fan, are more than a little likely to feel the same way:
He’s more than just a beatboxer.
Beardyman was the first beatboxer to win the UK Beatbox Championships two years in a row, and spent the time between the 2006 and 2007 championships honing his skills to the point of Jedidom. He was also the guy behind the Kitchen Diaries YouTube video, through which Beardyman has taken over five million viewers step by step through the birth of a sick break:
But Beardyman is no one-trick pony. While a quick stroll around central London will quickly yield a bunch of Read more…
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The singer-songwriter market is oversaturated. Full of countless clones plying folky wares with serious-as-cancer faces buried in their own backsides. Crammed, stuffed, and a little bit boring.
Hatton Manor offer something more than their pretentiously affected contemporaries. A guitar-and-vocal duo, Matt and Hannah (Hatt & Mannah = Hatton Manor) are simply better than the next pair. This is a big statement, but it’s easily justified. Even the briefest listen to Eden opener Mountain Man, for instance, proves their class and classiness. Hannah’s voice is bloody awesome, equal parts soul and control, while Matt’s multi-tasking guitar/vocal/percussion skills are Read more…
Imagine you’re a guy with an acoustic guitar. You practice a lot. You get good. You experiment with every technique you can possibly think of. You record an album, with the goal of getting gigs. It works – a bit too well. You end up touring for several years, performing in countless countries and covering every continent on Earth.
Things are going pretty well by the time you record a solo performance video for a song that, on paper, shouldn’t have commercial appeal. It’s six-and-a-half minutes long, your vocals aren’t auto-tuned so badly that you sound like Hatsune Miku, and you don’t have your hair cut in a trendy style that makes you look like an Iced Gem. But it also goes viral on the back of the fact that by now, you are a legitimate and undeniable Jedi-level virtuoso. Praise comes flooding in from every corner of the world. You win fans as diverse as Stephen Fry and Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee.
When you’ve been through a journey like that, and it’s still ongoing, you could probably be forgiven for developing a big head and being a bit of a knob. Jon Gomm, however, remains a true gentleman despite social media success, global popularity, and the fact that his star remains deservedly on the rise. Whether you’re a long-time Gomm fan (Gommaholic?) or just curious, read on as Jon Gomm digs deep into the story behind his new live album Live In The Acoustic Asylum and discusses authenticity, drunk Italian dockers, and the counterintuitive reality of being a bipolar performer…
Your new live album Live In The Acoustic Asylum is out next month. What thoughts and feelings are going through your head right now?
Fear, I guess! Not so much about the album release, but just kind of releasing the songs onto the Internet one at a time – because that’s where they get the most added exposure – and then, you know, are people going to like it, are people going to be into it, is it going to be popular, and all these different things.
It’s a little like being a bird with babies in the nest, and then you push them out pretty much hoping they’ll fly, and if not they’ll go splat on the ground, and you’ll be pretty upset!
How did you go about selecting the songs you recorded for the album?
Well, at my gigs it’s pretty noticeable – particularly in the UK – that there’s generally two kinds of fans Read more…
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Understatement of the day: Jon Gomm’s CV is quite impressive. The guy sells out gigs across the world, has performed on every continent on Earth, is welcomed at classical, folk, and metal festivals alike, and has won over fans as diverse as Stephen Fry and Tommy Lee. Behind his viral hit Passionflower – a solo guitar-and-vocal tour de force with a view count well into eight digits – lies a sizeable collection of songs guaranteed to both boggle the mind and brand themselves on your memory.
Live In The Acoustic Asylum is a collection of specially-recorded fan favourites. Passionflower is notable in its absence, but this collection doesn’t suffer for that fact in the least. Twelve-year-old instrumental Stupid Blues kicks things off with rugged pulsations and sharp waves of notes before Read more…
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Few things in life feel as good as immersing yourself in something you love. Diving deep into awesomeness, allowing the world’s worries to slip away, replacing baggage with better things. Escaping.
Of all the modern world’s escape hatches, music remains one of the most enigmatic and rewarding options. However, everyday life offers few opportunities for extended periods of musical immersion. You can walk down the street under headphones, spend a lazy Sunday in the company of your sound system with the curtains drawn, or spend an evening at a top-class venue taking in a few bands – but for many music fanatics, such experiences still don’t go deep enough.
2000 Trees certainly does. Situated on an out-of-the-way Gloucestershire farm in a 3G-free dead zone, the Trees site is an ideal location for digital disconnection, and reconnection with simpler things. The feeling of sun on your face, wind on your skin, and pure live music vibrating every cell in your body.
Arcane Roots’ (95%) set was the perfect reward for an Read more…
The Lion And The Wolf (aka Tom George) is a master of melancholic songcraft. TMMP talked to Tom about his upcoming 2000 Trees set, his earliest gig, and going for a pint with Bill Murray…
You’re playing 2000 Trees this year. What can the curious expect from your set?
Well, it’s just me and my guitar – so normally people can expect some fairly melancholic numbers but with light-hearted Alan-Partridge-
What’s the story behind the first gig you ever played?
Ever? Oh man – I guess it would be back at school in 1999, or maybe 2000. [My band was] called Exit 540, and I was beyond terrified. It was in front of everyone in our year and we messed up half way through and all I can remember shouting was “…keep going!” and needless to say, it didn’t go overly well.
Your music tends to be very layered. What’s your creative process like? Where do your ideas come from?
Recording-wise, with Symptoms, yes – it was layered. We built the record around Read more…
Pop is a relative rarity on TMMP – but this EP is exceptional. Few songs have the capacity to cut as deep as I Took A Pill In Ibiza (confessional songwriting at its best), emote as effectively as Read more…
Since 2007, 2000 Trees has evolved into one of the UK alternative music scene’s most treasured institutions. Combining a fiercely independent ethos with a super-positive DIY attitude and the backing of many brilliant musicians, this festival is not one to miss. For TMMP, the lineup alone is absolutely mouth-watering.
Eclectically-minded music buffs are guaranteed to find themselves satiated at 2000 Trees. Diversity is key at big events, and Read more…
Aldershot is on fire right now. Not literally (unless the football’s on), but in terms of incredible musical output. twothirtytwo look set to lead a fresh horde of fucked-off Aldershotians into the future, fuelling that rush with levels of theatrical passion which Read more…