The band is so brand new it doesn’t even have a wikipedia entry yet – but I can throw you this bone I found in an interview in the Burnley Express from June this year.

Musical influences include as diverse a crowd as Metallica, Duran Duran (who were recently bumped to second place on my “laminated list” to make room for new #1 crush: Alan Rickman), The Cure, Queen and Guns’N'Roses.

I won’t write much now – mostly because I haven’t been able to find a whole lot more than the above. Hopefully that’ll change soon.

You can listen to the appetizers from their upcoming studio album on their website and on their MySpace profile. Or just click “Play” below!

Enjoy the summer – and don’t forget to bring music.

UPDATE: ‘You Make Me So Electric‘ is now available on iTunes

Photo: Charles Michael Photography. Source: melissapolinar.com

We realized something awful today: Latebar is fiercely dominated by male artists and bands! Wonderful boys, obviously, and we love them all equally! But we need more girls to visit the bar, so on that note, I would like to introduce you to Melissa Polinar.

We came across her video “Sing to me” on YouTube, (long story, can’t be bothered accounting for the details), and immediately fell in love.

All the videos on her YouTube channel have served as our feel-good soundtrack to a grey Danish Sunday, all morning and way into the afternoon, and they have assisted the cappucinos and candles in keeping us warm.

She masters a mix of her own original songs and covers of various artists with an equally unpolished and honest nerve. I love the videos of her alone with her guitar, and I especially love this duet with her cousin, Jesse Barrera:

It has been difficult to find anything written about this Ft. Worth, TX girl in any European media, but here are a few facts we found in our preliminary googling efforts:

• According to her official website, she has released a few singles and two EPs, “Sound Vault Sessions“, and “As of now” – all available on iTunes, Amazon and bigcartel.
• She manages her own bookings but currently has no shows or events on her calendar (whywhywhy??? And is she planning a European tour?).
• She contributed to the 2010 version of “We are the World 25 for Haiti (YouTube edition)“.
• According to an interview on Key of Grey, she has had classical training on the violin but no vocal, guitar or piano training – she is self taught in those departments.

We’ll try to dig up more gems for you. For now, we hope this makes your Sunday sunny, no matter how grey it may be where you are.

The former member of Thin Lizzy and Skid Row leaves behind a great vacuum to thousands of dedicated fans and guitar lovers along with a smashing career that provided the world with numerous outstanding tunes and performances.

Belfast Telegraph: “Rock legend Gary Moore found dead”
Irish Times: “Former Thin Lizzy guitarist Moore dies”
BBC: “Rock guitarist Gary Moore dies”
SkyNews: “Thin Lizzy Guitarist Gary Moore Dies”

Personally I have no further words to add. So we’ll let Gary take it the last leg. Thanks Bob!

Since it’s been a rollercoaster ride and the world has become several significant melodic milestones richer. David Bowie is still with us and being one of the key inspirations to this blog (check ‘About Latebar‘) it is only natural that we pay our tributes to the british artist.

David Bowie was one of the first artists to really embrace the internet and all the possibilities of direct interaction with fans it provides. Around the internet the birthday is celebrated by the fans.

One Twitter-feed you can follow #bowiebirthday and a special birthday site with videos has been set up and (of course) ultrafan Peter ‘Starman’ Jones has set up a Facebook-celebration-page in Bowie’s honour.

From the team behind Latebar.org – Happy Birthday, David

One of London’s most charismatic female pop artists turns 50 today. Kim Wilde (born Kim Smith) turned into an instant mega-star in 1981 with the chart buster ‘Kids in America‘. A piece that holds evergreen qualities and are still played everywhere in clubs around the world.

Many superhits has since followed. And though Wilde also persued a succesful carreer as a gardener (my sparetime favorite hobby too), she is still around doing records and concerts, thank God. Her latest album ‘Come out and Play’ has been in the shops since August 2010.

From the entire staff behind Latebar.org – Happy 50th birthday, ‘Perfect Girl‘.

Kim WILDE perfect girl by RAQUELLE

The screen you often get when trying to view DD’s ‘Boys keep swinging’.

The culprit this time is LA-based Manimal Vinyl, who makes a double own goal. By NOT letting bloggers, Facebook-users, Twitters and fans et al spread the music, they hinder more knowledge of the David Bowie-tribute-album of witch the earnings go to ‘War Child‘ – a group of charity organisations helping children of war around the globe.

So thanks Manimal Vinyl for NOT working for the music
So thanks Manimal Vinyl for NOT working for the artists
So thanks Manimal Vinyl for NOT helping the children of war

I urge everybody to buy this album anyway and NOT let the children down!

Quote:

After a 15-year wait and months of eager anticipation we can confirm that the rumours are indeed true: Robbie and Take That are back together and releasing an all-new album.

Following the reunion of all reunions in New York last September, Robbie, Gary, Howard, Jason and Mark have secretly recorded a full studio album with producer Stuart Price, which will be released later this year.

“I get embarrassingly excited when the five of us are in a room,” said Robbie, who also duets with Gary Barlow on new solo single, Shame. “It feels like coming home.”

Bandmate Mark Owen added, “Getting the five of us to be in a room together, although always a dream, never actually seemed like becoming a reality. Now the reality of the five of us making a record together feels like a dream. It’s been an absolute delight spending time with Rob again. But I’m still a better footballer.”

And what does Jason Orange think about Robbie’s re-joining the boys? “Flippin’ brilliant, absolutely brilliant,” he said. “I’m over the moon that Robbie’s back with us, however long it lasts. I just want to enjoy our time with him. Life is beautifully strange sometimes.”

Between them, the five-piece have have sold 80 million albums, performed to over 14.5 million people live, won 19 BRIT Awards, had 13 number one albums, 17 number one singles, eight MTV awards and five Ivor Novello awards!

Take That’s forthcoming album, which is currently untitled, will be released in November 2010, a massive twenty years since the band first performed live together in 1990. Wow!

“They so fucking blow me away, I can’t put it into words”

“Their music stirs my soul. I haven’t had that feeling since my younger days in the 80′s”

“Artistic, emotional, dark, hopeful, sends chills…brilliant ..//.. I’m 55, finally something I can listen to, think about, dance to. Fills my senses”

“I think you’ve achieved your goal! You both have indeed, created special music (and videos)!”

“‘Stay’ sounds INCREDIBLE!!! I’m so excited for this album, for this band”

Screenshot from the Hurts video ‘Better than love’.

Theo Hutchcraft and Adam Anderson are the names of two of Britain’s most promising pop artists. Through the spring and summer of 2010, their two singles ‘Wonderful Life‘ and ‘Better than life‘ have oozed from my preferred web channels.

With a blessed sound of nostalgia, hope and party, the two Manchester lads have created a sustainable mix of Erasurean clarity and electronic sharpness with the emotional and musical depth of Tears for Fears. There’s a third element though, I can’t quite place (yet). But bottomline is -> It’s really, really good and catchy.

Hutchcraft and Anderson use a style called ‘Disco Lento‘ (slow disco) or ‘Lento Dolorso’ (slow and painful), which they – according to Danish magazine Gaffa – picked up on a trip to Italy. But connected to 80′s stars Alphaville, Gazebo and Berlin I think Hurts has a lot more than ‘Lento’ to offer.

The piece below was broadcasted on Channel 4 earlier this year. Watch it and make your own opinion.

Hurts’ first album ‘Happiness‘ will be released on the 6th of September 2010 – I really can’t wait.

Until then there’s getting tickets for the present tour or:

- Informationhurts.com
- Hurts on YouTube
- Hurts on Facebook
- Theo on Twitter

Thanks to Claus Holm for introducing me to ‘Hurts‘. And thanks to the fans for your comments/quotes on YouTube.

One that falls in a particularly noticable category is the channel ‘DR Unga Bunga‘. A peculiar mix of indie, electronica and techpop with harmony and melody as core. But the real cool thing is that it mixes known artists with some unfamiliar to most.

While researching a little and writing this post I have heard:

- Gorillaz – ‘On Melancholy Hill’
- David Bowie – ‘Changes’
- Chemical Brothers – ‘Swoon’

In between the megastar-names AS cool pieces like:

- Filthy Dukes – ‘Messages’
- Primary 1 – ‘The Blues’ (feat. gorgeous Nina Persson)
- Giana Factory – ‘Rainbow Girl’

… appears.

Screen from DR Unga Bunga.

DR Unga Bunga is the natural alternative to Last.fm in the sense, that it presents new artists to me. As DR writes in their own presentation: “DR Unga Bunga is for the curious ear”. And it surely is interesting. Before today I had never heard of ‘Giana Factory’ or ‘Filthy Dukes’ – Both really catchy projects.

Latebar hereby recommends DR Unga Bunga to everyone. I’m sure the more web savvy user might be able to pull the feed into their own websites et cetera.