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Three More Bands To Watch in 2010 – Run Toto Run/The Middle East/Small Black.

January 20th, 2010 · 2 Comments · News, Previews

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1. Run Toto Run (Twee/Electronic/Folk)


Run Toto Run are a relatively new Manchester band who garnered a lot of blogosphere attention last summer thanks to their electro-folk cover of Passion Pit’s Sleepyhead (MP3). They combine fragile female vocals with what often becomes hard-edged electronic experimentation; don’t be caught out by the ecstatic violins and merry harmonies of the Passion Pit cover – if you look hard enough there are themes much darker than they first appear. They finished last year with another cover – this time of Bombay Bicycle Club’s Always Like This (MP3), and began 2010 with a 7″ single Catch My Breath (MP3) (Jan 11). You can order their new Plastic Gold EP on Itunes or via their website.


Download the Plastic Gold EP from Amazon, for just $4.45


2. The Middle East (Folk/Acoustic/I
ndie)

The Middle East are a band from Queensland, Australia which I came across recently on the Hype Machine. Their perfectly executed, rich, slow-strummed acoustic folk songs quickly won me over. With dreamy vocal harmonies,
Blood (MP3), and a careless, late summer evening feel – The Middle East are probably most accurately described as ‘Local Natives in minor’ down to not only the uncanny vocal similarity (best showcased on The Darkest Hour (MP3), but also the sliding acoustics which ring ever so clearly in the way the music is recorded. This is music anyone can relate to from a band about as far away from me as its possible to be. They formed in December 2005 and their debut Recordings Of The Middle East hit stores on October 27, 2009. Soon after this, they supported Grizzly Bear on their Melbourne Dates at the end of last year.

The Recordings of the Middle East on Amazon.


3. Small Black (Shoegaze/Electronica/Dream Pop)

I first introduced Small Black on to the blog in November 2009 (original post), as ‘dancefloor-filling shoegaze’ and I stick by that to this day. Their Small Black EP came out on Cass Club in that October, and now the rumours are starting to stir of a debut full-length from the band dropping some time this year. Single Despicable Dogs (MP3) got almost instant Pitchfork love – and they certainly appear to be another solid bet for what the magazine will throw its full weight behind in 2010. Bad Lover (MP3) is another top track from the grim NYC shoegazers, where shady echoes of the Big Pink and MBV more prominent than ever before shine through in their full force.

buy the Small Black EP in cd format for $8.99 or via Amazon MP3 for just $4.45.


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2 Comments so far ↓

  • FireFly

    >Ey Bro!
    The Middle East are here and here to stay, brilliant band, pity they come from Australie ; ) check out my post on them at: http://www.indiearto.com/2009/12/middle-east-recordings-of-middle-east.html

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This should run only one more time for all our existing users, then they will just be getting the upgrade function if it exists. if (!get_option('k2installed')) { add_option('k2installed', $current, 'This options simply tells me if K2 has been installed before', $autoload); add_option('k2aboutblurp', 'This is the about text', 'Allows you to write a small blurp about you and your blog, which will be put on the frontpage', $autoload); add_option('k2asidescategory', '0', 'A category which will be treated differently from other categories', $autoload); add_option('k2asidesposition', '0', 'Whether to use inline or sidebar asides', $autoload); add_option('k2livesearch', 'live', "If you don't trust JavaScript and Ajax, you can turn off LiveSearch. Otherwise I suggest you leave it on", $autoload); // (live & classic) add_option('k2asidesnumber', '3', 'The number of Asides to show in the Sidebar. Default is 3.', $autoload); add_option('k2widthtype', 'flexible', "Determines whether to use flexible or fixed width.", $autoload); // (flexible & fixed) add_option('k2deliciousname', '', 'Makes use of Alexander Malovs Delicious plugin to show the delicious links on the sidebar.', $autoload); add_option('k2archives', '', 'Set whether K2 has a Live Archive page', $autoload); add_option('k2scheme', '', 'Choose the Scheme you want K2 to use', $autoload); add_option('k2livecomments', '0', "If you don't trust JavaScript and Ajax, you can turn off Live Commenting. Otherwise I suggest you leave it on", $autoload); } // Here we handle upgrading our users with new options and such. If k2installed is in the DB but the version they are running is lower than our current version, trigger this event. elseif (get_option('k2installed') < $current) { /* Do something! */ //add_option('k2upgrade-test', 'this is the text', 'Just testing', $autoload); } // Let's add the options page. add_action ('admin_menu', 'k2menu'); $k2loc = '../themes/' . basename(dirname($file)); function k2menu() { add_submenu_page('themes.php', 'Cutline Options', 'Cutline Options', 5, $k2loc . 'functions.php', 'menu'); } function menu() { load_plugin_textdomain('k2options'); //this begins the admin page ?>

    Cutline Options

    Archives Page

    Enabling this checkbox will create an Archives Page, which will show up in your blog menu as the first page.

    Get help with Cutline at the Cutline support site.

  • Run Toto Run @ 60 Million Postcards Bournemouth, 6/8/2010

    [...] any of my expectations going into this gig. This band have been hard at work since my humble ‘band to watch’ post earlier this year, and surely from what i’ve seen there must be an album on the cards. The set was lacking any [...]

    // end comment callback function (note: no need to close with
  • ) function create_archive() { global $wpdb, $user_ID; get_currentuserinfo(); $check = $wpdb->query("SELECT * from $wpdb->posts WHERE post_title = 'Archives'"); if(!$check) { $message = "Do not edit this page"; $title_message = 'Archives'; $content = apply_filters('content_save_pre', $message); $post_title = apply_filters('title_save_pre', $title_message); $now = current_time('mysql'); $now_gmt = current_time('mysql', 1); $post_author = $user_ID; $id_result = $wpdb->get_row("SHOW TABLE STATUS LIKE '$wpdb->posts'"); $post_ID = $id_result->Auto_increment; $post_name = sanitize_title($post_title, $post_ID); $ping_status = get_option('default_ping_status'); $comment_status = get_option('default_comment_status'); $postquery ="INSERT INTO $wpdb->posts (ID, post_author, post_date, post_date_gmt, post_content, post_title, post_excerpt, post_status, comment_status, ping_status, post_password, post_name, to_ping, post_modified, post_modified_gmt, post_parent, menu_order) VALUES ('$post_ID', '$post_author', '$now', '$now_gmt', '$content', '$post_title', '', 'static', '$comment_status', '$ping_status', '', '$post_name', '', '$now', '$now_gmt', '', '')"; $result = $wpdb->query($postquery); $metaquery = "INSERT INTO $wpdb->postmeta(meta_id, post_id, meta_key, meta_value) VALUES('', '$post_ID', '_wp_page_template', 'archives.php')"; $result2 = $wpdb->query($metaquery); } } function delete_archive() { global $wpdb; $check = $wpdb->query("SELECT * from $wpdb->posts WHERE post_title = 'Archives'"); if($check) { $burninate = $wpdb->query("DELETE from $wpdb->posts WHERE post_title = 'Archives' and post_status = 'static'"); $result = $wpdb->query($burninate); } } function setup_archive() { global $wpdb; if (file_exists(ABSPATH . 'wp-content/plugins/UltimateTagWarrior/ultimate-tag-warrior-core.php') && in_array('UltimateTagWarrior/ultimate-tag-warrior.php', get_option('active_plugins'))) { $menu_order="chrono,tags,cats"; } else { $menu_order="chrono,cats"; } $initSettings = array( // we always set the character set from the blog settings 'newest_first' => 0, 'num_entries' => 1, 'num_entries_tagged' => 0, 'num_comments' => 1, 'fade' => 1, 'hide_pingbacks_and_trackbacks' => 1, 'use_default_style' => 1, 'paged_posts' => 1, 'selected_text' => '', 'selected_class' => 'selected', 'comment_text' => '%', 'number_text' => '%', 'number_text_tagged' => '(%)', 'closed_comment_text' => '%', 'day_format' => 'jS', 'error_class' => 'alert', // allow truncating of titles 'truncate_title_length' => 0, 'truncate_cat_length' => 25, 'truncate_title_text' => '…', 'truncate_title_at_space' => 1, 'abbreviated_month' => 1, 'tag_soup_cut' => 0, 'tag_soup_X' => 0, // paged posts related stuff 'paged_post_num' => 15, 'paged_post_next' => '« previous 15 posts', 'paged_post_prev' => 'next 15 posts »', // default text for the tab buttons 'menu_order' => $menu_order, 'menu_month' => 'Chronology', 'menu_cat' => 'Taxonomy', 'menu_tag' => 'Folksonomy', 'before_child' => '   ', 'after_child' => '', 'loading_content' => 'Spinner', 'idle_content' => '', 'excluded_categories' => '0'); if (function_exists('af_ela_set_config')) { $ret = af_ela_set_config($initSettings); } return $ret; } // if we can't find k2 installed lets go ahead and install all the options that run K2. This should run only one more time for all our existing users, then they will just be getting the upgrade function if it exists. if (!get_option('k2installed')) { add_option('k2installed', $current, 'This options simply tells me if K2 has been installed before', $autoload); add_option('k2aboutblurp', 'This is the about text', 'Allows you to write a small blurp about you and your blog, which will be put on the frontpage', $autoload); add_option('k2asidescategory', '0', 'A category which will be treated differently from other categories', $autoload); add_option('k2asidesposition', '0', 'Whether to use inline or sidebar asides', $autoload); add_option('k2livesearch', 'live', "If you don't trust JavaScript and Ajax, you can turn off LiveSearch. Otherwise I suggest you leave it on", $autoload); // (live & classic) add_option('k2asidesnumber', '3', 'The number of Asides to show in the Sidebar. Default is 3.', $autoload); add_option('k2widthtype', 'flexible', "Determines whether to use flexible or fixed width.", $autoload); // (flexible & fixed) add_option('k2deliciousname', '', 'Makes use of Alexander Malovs Delicious plugin to show the delicious links on the sidebar.', $autoload); add_option('k2archives', '', 'Set whether K2 has a Live Archive page', $autoload); add_option('k2scheme', '', 'Choose the Scheme you want K2 to use', $autoload); add_option('k2livecomments', '0', "If you don't trust JavaScript and Ajax, you can turn off Live Commenting. Otherwise I suggest you leave it on", $autoload); } // Here we handle upgrading our users with new options and such. If k2installed is in the DB but the version they are running is lower than our current version, trigger this event. elseif (get_option('k2installed') < $current) { /* Do something! */ //add_option('k2upgrade-test', 'this is the text', 'Just testing', $autoload); } // Let's add the options page. add_action ('admin_menu', 'k2menu'); $k2loc = '../themes/' . basename(dirname($file)); function k2menu() { add_submenu_page('themes.php', 'Cutline Options', 'Cutline Options', 5, $k2loc . 'functions.php', 'menu'); } function menu() { load_plugin_textdomain('k2options'); //this begins the admin page ?>

    Cutline Options

    Archives Page

    Enabling this checkbox will create an Archives Page, which will show up in your blog menu as the first page.

    Get help with Cutline at the Cutline support site.

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