Preview: 2000Trees Festival, Cheltenham // 7th-9th July

In 4 weeks time I'm going to be heading to 2000Trees festival for the first time. It's a much talked about festival and one highly respected as a place to find some of the top up & coming talent. Based in Cheltenham the festival is in it's 10th year and previously had the likes of Frank Turner, Guillemots, Frightened Rabbit & Deaf Havana headline. This year Scottish indie band Twin Atlantic and punk legends Refused headline and it's a year not to be missed.

We're going to do this preview a little differently (as I'm going to the festival) and I'm going to share with you the bands I'll be seeing each day.

Thursday:

• Max Raptor // The Cave
• Oxygen Theif // Axiom
• Milk Teeth // The Cave
• Black Peaks // The Cave
• We Were Promised Jetpacks // The Cave
• Beans On Toast // Axiom
• *Special Guest* // Axiom

Max Raptor are the first band on over the weekend and they are definitely one of my favourites. Having released their 3rd album this year (Stereo Brain rating: 7.5/10) and with a slowly growing fan base they'll bring some of Britains best punk to the festival. Milk Teeth, aswell, will be bringing some of the UK's best early on in the festival. Compared to the likes of Nirvana and early Weezer their debut album Vile Child brought a modern take on 90's grunge to the excellent list of music released this year.

Black Peaks are another band ruffling feathers this year, their debut album Statues received amazing reviews from critics far and wide (Stereo Brain rating: 8.5/10) and was featured heavily on iTunes. Tipped for big things they will be one to watch at this years festival.

Possibly my favourite Scottish band from the line-up We Were Promised Jetpacks also grace The Cave stage this year. Their brilliant blend of indie rock will certainly something to look forward to with the added bonus of possibly hearing some new material with a 4th album supposedly on the way.

Most interestingly, however, for the Thursday is the 'Special Guest' headlining the Axiom stage which will be taken over by Xtra Mile Recordings for the day - a label most famously known through their success with Frank Turner.....

Friday:

• Vant // Main Stage
• Press To Meco // Axiom
• The Smith Street Band // Main Stage
• Moose Blood (Acoustic) // Forest Stage
• Kagoule // Axiom
• Will Varley // The Croft
• Neck Deep // Main Stage
• Basement // The Cave
• Twin Atlantic // Main Stage

Opening the main stage on Friday are the brilliant Vant who will bring their brilliant brand of fast paced indie-punk and possibly be one of the best smaller bands of the weekend. Also taking to the main stage on Friday are Australian pop punky band The Smith Street Band who having released 3 albums have a slowly growing fan base in the UK.

Press To Meco and Kagoule will be punking-up the Axiom stage, both bands have a cult following and Kagoule's debut album 'Urth' even breached the UK vinyl top ten last year!

Will Varley is another addition to the lineup from Xtra Mile Recordings, his funny and often initmate live shows should translate brilliantly to a festival of this size and will be one you don't want to miss.

Closing off the day on the main stage are generic pop punkers Neck Deep and scottish indie-rockers Twin Atlantic. Don't be fooled by Neck Deep's teenage following their show will be raucous and full of mayhem. Twin Atlantic, headlining the festival for the first time, will put on one hell of a show and have the whole festival up & off their feet. With a new album on the way too there may be a chance for fans to get a glimpse of the new material.

Saturday:

• Itch (of King Blues) // Forest Stage
• Creeper // Main Stage
• Black Foxxes // The Axiom
• Arcane Roots // Main Stage
• The King Blues // Main Stage
• Tigercub // The Croft
• Black Honey // The Croft
• Refused // Main Stage

Refused, the fathers of modern punk, will close off the festival on the Saturday with a raucous and messy show. However there are many acts to catch before them on that day.

The King Blues recently returned from what was thought to be a final split to release a new EP 'Off With Their Heads', we saw them support Enter Shikari in Cardiff and will definitely be high up our list to see on a packed Saturday.

Despite being headlined by one of the oldest bands at the Festival, Saturday is about the youth. Excellent young bands like Tigercub, Black Honey, Creeper and Black Foxxes all take the stage. Black Foxxes long awaited debut is out soon and both Black Honey and Creeper are hotly tipped to make waves wherever they go. DO NOT MISS THEM!

Sunday:

There isn't any music on the Sunday. This is pack up, leave and nurse your hangover day.

2000Trees is one of the best festivals out there for new and upcoming acts and we can not wait to hit it up!

If it tickles your fancy, tickets are available HERE

Mental Health Awareness Week // Stereo Brain

For more information on Mental Health Awareness Week, go HERE

From the 16th to the 22nd of May 2016 it's Mental Health Awareness week and It's something I want to talk about. I know this is primarily a music blog but in my experience the two things go hand in hand.

Many of you who read this blog will be unaware of the origins of 'Stereo Brain'. The name, in fact, comes from the idea that there is a link between mental health and music and for me that's true. In my darkest moments and toughest days I've always turned to music for comfort and that's where 'Stereo Brain' began. 

Escaping from the world and losing myself in an album, a gig or even writing a piece became a primary way of coping with the things inside my head about 3/4 years ago and to this day partly fuels my passion for music. There's something about being able to switch yourself off and lose yourself in music that appeals to me and many other people that suffer from mental health issues which makes it an important topic to discuss.

Many people who suffer from mental illnesses turn to music as not only an escape but an outlet for their feelings. Brendan Lukens from Modern Baseball, for example, suffers from bipolar disorder and it's something which he covers in his songwriting in their new album. Frank Turner, also, is known for discussing coping with self harm and depression in his work and these are not isolated examples.

I'll talk more about this later this week in a series of articles we're writing to raise awareness of mental health and it's connections with music. In the meanwhile I want to talk about '#PickCardiffUp'.

This was an idea we launched last week in which people send us their 'pick me up' playlist/song/albums to spread the word about mental health and hopefully but a smile on people's faces at the same time. If you wish to contribute tweet us (@stereo_brain) with a link to your song or playlist and we'll add it to the playlist! So far we've had contributions from Team Up Cardiff, The Young Promoters Network and Cardiff based bands; The Broadcasts, Chroma and The Fused - check out the full playlist below.

Mental Health Awareness Week Site - HERE

Artist Spotlight // Frank Turner

Members:
Frank Turner

Location:
Winchester, Wessex

Description:
Former punk band front man who's found a home in meaningful acoustic songwriting

Songs To Get You Started:
Get Better (2015), Recovery (2013), A Ballad Of Me and My Friends (2007), Dan's Song (2009), I Still Believe (2011)

Discography:
Studio Albums:

1. Sleep Is For The Week (2007)
2. Love, Ire & Song (2008)
3. The First Three Years (2008)
4. Poetry Of The Deed (2009)
5. England Keep My Bones (2011)
6. The Second Three Years (2011)
7. Last Minutes & Lost Evenings (2012)
8. Tape Deck Heart (2013)
9. The Third Three Years (2014)
10. Postive Songs For Negative People (2015)
11. Ten For Ten (2016)

EP's & Singles:

1. Vital Signs (2006)
2. Campfire Punkrock (2006)
3. The Real Damage (2007)
4. Photosynthesis (2008)
5. Reasons Not to Be an Idiot (2008)
6. Long Live The Queen (2008)
7. The Road (2009)
8. Poetry Of The Deed (2009)
9. Isabel (2010)
10. Try This At Home (2010)
11. I Still Believe (2010)
12. Rock & Roll (2010)
13. Peggy Sang The Blues (2011)
14. If I Ever Stray (2011)
15. Wessex Boy (2011)
16. Recovery (2013)
17. The Way I Tend To Be (2013)
18. Losing Days (2013)
19. Oh Brother (2013)
20. Losing Days - EP (2013)
21. Polaroid Picture - EP (2014)
22. Polaroid Picture (2014)
23. The Next Storm
24. Mittens - EP (2016)

Interesting Facts:

• Frank used to front the critically acclaimed UK punk band Million Dead
• In 2016 Frank will play Reading & Leeds Festival for the 10th year in a row - a new record
• Xtra Mile - the record company Frank is on - intended on 'Positive Songs For Negative People' to reach number 1, unfortunately that same week Dr. Dre surprised the world with his first record for 16 years
• (Proceeding the above incident) The week of the album release Frank played a song in dedication to Dr. Dre at a tiny intimate show in his home town of Winchester
• Frank is known for never not being on tour and is approaching nearly 2000 live shows!

Social Media:

Frank Turner Twitter
Frank Turner Facebook

Find more articles on Frank Turner HERE

Find more artist spotlights HERE

#tbt - Positive Review From Negative People

After the success of ‘Tape Deck Heart’, album number 6 from Frank Turner had a lot to live up to. Dubbed as the album which launched Frank Turner into the public eye along with his appearance at the Olympic opening ceremony three years ago, it was going to be a hard act to follow, however ‘Positive Songs For Negative People’ has lived up to every expectation.

With sing along anthems like ‘Get Better’ and ‘The Next Storm’, the album highlights a new direction in Frank’s music, reflecting his feelings and a turn for the better in his personal life. These songs are extremely difficult to not dance down the street to, or at least mouth along to while looking like an idiot to everyone else.

What I love about Frank Turner is he can write anthems but also craft songs like ‘Mittens’, ‘Demons’ and ‘Josephine’ which to an untrained ear sound very upbeat but listening to the lyrics it still reflects Franks emotional intensity which you can hear a lot more obviously in his previous albums. Despite this being less obvious, his way with words is still present and is rivalled by very few songwriters (a close second to Scott Hutchison in my book but that’s just me (still waiting for a collaboration guys)).

More importantly he revisits his old stripped down style in this album, not seen as much in ‘Tape Deck Heart’, and there are a few more intimate songs such as ‘The Angel Islington’ and especially ‘A Song For Josh’ which certainly brings a tear to the eye in a touching tribute for his friend who committed suicide in 2013. These songs recognise the journey Frank’s been on and despite this album being titled as ‘Positive’, there are still bad times in anyone’s life. Songs like these show that you have to move through the bad times to make the good times better, a theme present throughout the album.

Overall this is a stunning album, reflective of Frank’s usual skilful lyricism but with a positive twist: 9/10

-Luke

Reading & Leeds 2016: Who We Hope To See

So today the next part of the Reading & Leeds line-up was announced with the likes of Foals, Disclosure, Nothing But Thieves and Two Door Cinema Club announced. But who else is going to be announced? We have no idea but here's who we want to be announced!

Frightened Rabbit
Okay this ones a bit on me. One of my favourite bands of all time, releasing their 5th album this year would them to be booked (hint hint festival organisers)

Frank Turner
If Frank showed up this year it would be his 10th year in a row and after headlining the Festival Republic stage last year we can only hope he goes further up the order again this year!

The Milk
Another one I'm being slightly optimistic for, but after their stunning album received huge critical acclaim last year making it as one of BBC 6 Musics albums of the year, who would blame the Festval organisers for booking them!

The Last Shadow Puppets
With a new album due in April and their new single 'Bad Habits' reviving memories of their epic 2007 debut hopefully Miles and Alex will make an appearance at this years festival.

Fat White Family
Another band with a new album due and going on tour in March could they be bringing their roudy set to R&L

Modern Baseball
After being announced last year but unable to play due to illness and with a new album on the horizon, they;ll hopefully be able to make it this year!

Wolf Alice
After storming 2015, it seems the next logical step is for Wolf Alice to be bumped up the order a bit at R&L. With huge UK, EU and US tours coming up we can only hope they end their summer ar Reading & Leeds.

Tame Impala
The huge success of the album Currents as propelled Tame Impala far up the musical pecking order and hopefully into the forefront of festival organisers minds.

Jack Garratt
After winning BBC's Sound Of 2016, it does look like 2016 could be Jack Garratt's year. I saw him perform at last years festival and he was stunning and with his album 'Phase' due in February, hopefully he'll make an appearance at R&L again this year.

Catfish & The Bottlemen
After a stunning, tent filling performance in 2015, Catfish look set for a bigger slot this year, especially with a new album rumoured to be on the horizon, we can't wait.

Bloc Party
Headlining the NME awards tour in 2016, Bloc Party look dead set to play the NME stage at R&L/

2015 Review

Between the 26th February to the 23rd December I saw 100 bands, safe to say 2015 has been a good year, here are my highlights.

New Bands

The best thing about seeing so many bands is that some you may never had heard before. Bands like Slaves (who I saw on a whim in May), Nothing But Thieves, Pretty Vicious, Wonk Unit and Arcane Roots. All fantastic, but for me 2 small, maybe unrecognised bands stood out above the rest: The Lion & The Wolf and MOK.

I saw both for the first time at Blissfields (full review here) and they were both incrdible. MOK are a genre breaking band with elements of electronic, hip hop and rock all mashed together, a live spectacle and all round pleasing to the ears. Having featured on local BBC introducing radio shows I'm hoping 2016 will be a good year for them because they are a fantastic band.
The Lion and The Wolf are very different for MOK, I saw lead singer Tom (also at blissfields) do a solo performance in a tiny acoustic tent. It was a beautiful set incorporating songs from his first album 'Symptoms' and new material as well as a cover of Death Cab For Cutie's 'I Will Follow You Into The Dark' which reduced my friend to tears. With a new album coming out this year again I'm hoping this artist has a great year,

The Lion and The Wolf @ Blissfields

MOK @ Blissifelds

Incredible Shows

This last year I've some absolutely incredible shows... Foals' secret at Reading Festival, Frank Turner at the tiny The Railway Inn in Winchester, a raucous Southampton show from Modern Baseball, the list goes on. By far my favourite, however, was the first of the three times I saw Slaves.

For the whole of April my friend had been bugging me to go to a gig with him, I'd never heard of the band before but I agreed to it, bought my ticket and the night on looked them up on youtube. I was blown away, Slaves blew me away. I spent all the next day buzzing for the gig, having bought the two singles I could find they'd released - "The Hunter" and "Where's Your Car Debbie" - I spent all day with them on repeat and boy did they deliver a show. To this day every time I think about this show, even as I'm writing this now, I get goosebumps. What a show, what a band and what a 2015 they've had.

Slaves @ Cardiff Students Union Great Hall

Frank Turner @ The Railway Inn

Amazing Festivals

This year I managed 5 Festival; Blissfields, Wickham Festival, Reading Festival, Butserfest and Dials Festival. All of which where incredible and I definitely plan on attending in 2016 as well as hopefully more!

But a special shoutout goes to Dials Festival, a small multi-venue festival in Portsmouth. A fantastic line-up with up and coming bands like Kagoule, Black Honey and Hooton Tennis Club and well deserving of their ULX festival award for Best Non-Camping Festival. (full review here)

FlashFires @ Dials Festival

Kagoule @ Dials Festival

Stunning Albums

Not only has this year been an amazing year for live music for me there have been some amazing, o many I had real trouble picking our shortlist let alone the winner! Here's our nominated acts:

Our Album Of The Year Selection

2016...

I am really looking forward to 2016! I have bands to see like the Temperance Movement, Neck Deep, Will Varley, The Algorithm, Front Bottoms and Wolf Alice to name but a few. As well as many festivals to go to.
Not only that we should have some mega albums this year with LCD Soundsystem, Kings Of Leon, Frightened Rabbit, Modern Baseball, Two Door Cinema Club and Moose Blood all in the studio or with albums ready to release. 2016 should be an amazing year for music.

Album Of The Year pt.2

So it's 10 days until we reveal who won our Album Of The Year.
But today we take our (very) long list and reduce it to a short list of 10 who could win the award, here we go:

Positive Songs For Negative People // Frank Turner

This his 6th studio album, Frank has again surpassed himself on this one. A Fantastic albu that just grows on you and takes so many emotional highs and lows it's impossible to ignore!
Our full review from the release here

The Mindsweep // Enter Shikari

Enter Shikari never dissapoint but this album is just fantastic. Simultaneously getting heavier and more electronic whith very political lyrics, it ticks every box. We love it!

Are You Satisfied? // Slaves

Again another incredible album. Slaves debut album has taken 2015 by storm and helped punk rock rear its ugly head in the public eye once again. With 3 fantastic performances on Radio 1 live lounge to get under their bel as well, it's been a fantastic year for the kent duo.

Favourite Worry // The Milk

A very different album to that of Slaves and Enter Shikari. Soulful. Smooth. Catchy. A brilliant album nonetheless, following on from a frantic first album this is an incredible addition to the discography and I can't wait to see what the band do next. A brilliant album also one of BBC 6 Musics albums of the year, worthy of winning any award.
Read our full review here.

Key Markets // Sleaford Mods

A truly divisive album this one, raw and political it doesnt tug at the heart strings. It just says what needs to be said and lyrically brilliant (if a bit explicit) in every song.

White Men Are Black Men Too // Young Fathers

I feel like we've covered an odd selection of genres in this list added to by the Scottish genre breaking tunes of Young Fathers. Having won the mercury prize in 2014 with a stunning debut, this has been a fantastic follow up. An inventive and interesting albu, with some fanastic songs.

What Went Down // Foals

Foals have taken 2015 by storm; an amazing secret set at Reading Festival and a killer new album. Topped to headline many festivals in 2016 this album might be what propels them from a good band to a great one.

My Love Is Cool // Wolf Alice

Another band who, like Slaves, have exploded into the public eye. They owned the summer busting out incredible festiival show after incredible festival show. Not only that their album is catchy and takes the world of indie in a slightl different direction - hopefully far far away from the direction bands like Years & Years are taking it.

Urth // Kagoule

Grungy and miserable is the tone of Kagoule's debut album and we love it. Reaching the top 10 in the vinyl charts this album has made its rounds this year amd there's a good reason why.

That's The Spirit // Bring Me The Horizon

Every album BMTH release they impress me more and more, adapting their style, making it reach a wider audience while still maintaining their original style. Being on before Metallica at Reading & Leeds is not something you'd expect from a band that started as a hardcore band. The new album has reached a wider audience and propelled them up to a much more prominent position amongst the metal elite.

Album Of The Year

Our 'short' list for Album Of The Year!

Before the 31st of December this going to be reduced slowly. Let us know who you think should win (or if we missed any) in the comments section below.