Fancore

It’s a bleak world out there, with every new band claiming that they’re the “next big thing” and some malevolent machine continuing to relentlessly pump out soul-less, unoriginal husks of bands into the world. Thankfully, FANCORE has wad e d through the shite and given you a guide to the best picks of new talent. So feast your ears on the delights of seven bands that deserve to make it and really do warrant your attention.

From the first few minutes you hear Nightmare Of You it’s impossible to think that this is a band that are not firmly printed on the inside of everyone’s lips. The incongruity comes from the fact that their biggest appeal; the quartet’s idiosyncratic sound, will possibly be their biggest hindrance when it comes to ensnaring the approval of the mainstream. Instead of the usual shallow song fare that other bands focus on, NOY’s signature song, ‘Thumbelina’ tells the tale of a woman with an impossibly large thumb, hailing down perverts by the road. Interested? You certainly should be.

Far outstretching the narrow-minded Indie-rock tags placed on them, the fact that most press are forcing them into the current Indie takeover is criminal and does little justice to a band that name check a variety of influences, from The Smiths to Led Zeppelin and yet sound like nothing like you’ve ever heard.

 Retaining punk sensibilities evident in their politically-charged debut the band have recently left their old label in favour of a new indie base, allowing them the most control over their creations. The fact that Nightmare Of You refuse to settle and sell out only adds to their charm, creating a band who actually have something to say and aren’t going to bend over backwards to ensure that you like it.

 With new album Infomaniac out on August 4th, finally 2009 looks to be the year that NOY jump from being underground darlings to their rightful place as kings of eccentric spiky sing-along rock.

For fans of: Eccentric brit-pop tinged rock.
Download: “My Name Is Trouble” (Nightmare Of You), “I Was Never A Normal Boy” (Bang!) and New song “I think I’m Getting Older” (Infomaniac- unreleased).
Check out more at www.nightmareofyou.com and www.myspace.com/nightmareofyou

Playing a muscular brand of melodic heaviness, Metalcore crew Heart In Hand have been putting in the hard yards touring up and down the UK in anticipation of their self-titled debut EP due out on 15th June. Vocalist Charlie Holmes, formerly of Trigger The Bloodshed, explains: “The main objective of this band was to have fun, write music we enjoy and play as many shows as humanly possible.”

 The band may play an uncompromising brand of steel but Holmes explains: “Only a few of us actually listen to metal on a regular basis. Other than that, it’s a lot of acoustic and pop and rap.” This has done nothing to blunt the edge of one of the few UK Metalcore bands really pushing the boundaries of the genre. As Charlie explains, “We’ve all been in the music scene for a long time. If anyone told me I couldn’t do what I was doing, I’d laugh and walk away.  People like that need to understand that things progress.”

 Heart In Hand have been steadily gaining support through their impressive live shows: “I don’t think we have played a show and gone down badly yet, as most people can find something in our music they enjoy”, admits Charlie.

Heart In Hand are on the road this June with Lower Than Atlantis, We Stare At Mirrors and This Distance.  They will also tour in September with Many Things Untold and Through Solace, catch them while you can.

 For Fans Of: Johnny Truant and Suicide Silence.
Download: “Loyalty”, “Getting Married In Vegas” from www.myspace.com/heartinhandband

 Formed in Washington D.C by three college friends, Jukebox The Ghost play a shinybrand of hard-to-categorise Pop/Rock/Indie. With a clutch of catchy tunes about not setting yourself on fire, the trio have gained a reputation as an exciting, if somewhat peculiar proposition, awing and flooring crowds with live shows that refuse to relent and pretty much guarantee that if you don’t feel pleasure equivalent to an orgasm, you’ll at least go away with a smile and a warm feeling in your belly.

With a sound that both evokes and draws from They Might Be Giants, Barenaked Ladies, Flight of the Conchords and a host of other Pop-Rock reference points, JTG are slowly but surely edging into the sort of fame they deserve.

For fans of: Instantly likeable, crazy and kooky piano-pop-rock. See Smash Mouth with the depth of Barenaked Ladies.
Download: “Victoria”, “Hold It In” and “Under My Skin”. Infact just buy debut album “Let Live and Let Ghosts”. Check out more at www.myspace.com/jukeboxtheghost.

VOODOO SIX

Voodoo Six are men with only one thing on their mind. Straight up rock and fucking roll. Hailing from London, the five-piece are a rare beast, playing balls-to-wall classic rock in a world where there’s synthesized pop songs aplenty and a massive abyss of any new bands coming up who actually know how to rock hard. Rest assured, at a V6 show lighters will be hailed,  leathers will be donned and the room will be blown away with such swagger that you’d think you’d woken up on the wrong side of the 80’s.

However, Voodoo Six are not just a covers band, nor a nostalgia show. Axeman Matt Pearce is keen for the world to know that V6 have a place in the 00’s: “We’re not looking to recreate an old sound or to follow trends but to make music that lasts. We want to play classic rock similar to the bands we grew up with but with a more modern edge and sound.”

Their blend of classic songwriting, face-melting riffs and solos are certainly gaining them some high-profile attention with the band already bagging major support slots with the likes of Iron Maiden and Alice Cooper, bands whose cataclysmic fame they could have shared if they’d formed twenty or so years ago. Matt, however is slightly more optimistic about the current state of rock: “Everything goes round in cycles and now it still seems like a very good time for bands playing rock.”

And regardless of who else is around, a strict diet of Voodoo Six’s breed of hard-faced balls-to-the-wall Rock and Roll will be enough for anyone to make it through the rest of the year fully satisfied.

 For fans of: AC/DC, Iron Maiden.
Download: “Saints and Sinners”, “Walking On Nails”, “Ain’t No Friend Of Mine”
Check out the new album to be released autumn and www.voodoosix.com  to keep ahead of the game.

My Sleep Therapy

WHO ARE THEY?: Hawaiian kids living in
the 90s.
WHat ARE THEY?: Pop-punk how it should be.
SOUNDS LIKE: Blink 182 on a beach holiday with New Found Glory.
FOR FANS OF: Pop-punk with balls. You Me At Six need not apply.