Just when you thought UK hip hop was no more. You remember Homecut (a.k.a Testament, Andy Brooks) exists…

This incredible specemin of human talent has been on the scene and making waves since I can remember Leeds even having a scene. Vibing with the likes of KidKanevil (manifested DOPE), the lovely Corinne Bailey Ray, Andreya Triana and a personal favourite, Soweto Kinch (who we had the pleasure of seeing at last years Garforth Music Festival) in the latest of his musical ventures, Homecut is really making moves and proclaiming a message that illuminates the reality of life. DEEP. In fact, I feel bad that I havn’t caught up with this man’s live performance of late. THE SHAME.

Ironically, this cheers me up every time.

Believe.

Just remember I said: ONE TO WATCH. The reviews for Common Prayer’s debut ‘There Is A Mountain’ are rolling in thick and fast, with the general consensus being that it’s completely awesome. NME said of it “music doesn’t get much more care-free sounding than this” - and RISE couldn’t agree more. Great news for the UK is that Jason Russo and co are heading over to the UK for a handful of dates, starting off this Saturday and carrying on all the way into August. Full schedule below.

Last but not least, Common Prayer have made a little video in preparation for the forthcoming tour. Watch it below:

Common Prayer UK TOUR 2010 Trailer from ILL FIT RECORDINGS & PROMOTION on Vimeo.

Live Dates:

July 17 - ABINGDON, OXFORDSHIRE Truck Festival Warm-up Show, Details TBA
July 18 - CARDIFF @ Buffalo Bar w/ Dreaming Spires
July 20 – OXFORD @ The Cellar w/ the Dreaming Spires
July 22 - LONDON @ The Relentless Garage (Upstairs) w/ Neil Halstead, the Silent League / Maps
July 25 - TRUCK FESTIVAL UK with Teenage Fanclub, Mew, Fucked Up, Los Campesinos!, and many more
July 26 - KEMPTOWN, BRIGHTON @ The Coach House, Kemptown w/ Caroline Weeks (Bat for Lashes)
Aug 1 - CAMDEN @ Shhh Fest

With their latest album Down The Way holding the No 1 spot in the Australian charts for the second week running, sibling duo Angus & Julia Stone get set to release a new EP on April 26th. The four-track EP is available for download only and kicks off with Big Jet Plane taken from their sophomore album. Two new songs are included – Living On A Rainbow; and My Malakai, taken from the sessions from their debut album, with Julia’s acoustic, stripped down re-working of You’re The One That I Want, taken from the Grease soundtrack, wrapping up proceedings.

Big Jet Plane is accompanied by a stunning extended video clip directed by Australian filmmaker Kiku Ohe and starring AFI award-winning actress Emily Barclay which you can see above.

A music video of insane proportions, packed with humour and intelligence. 5*’s without a doubt, putting to shame the tonnes of crap churned out by others every year.

Hot Chip - I Feel Better

Hot Chip | MySpace Music Videos

I have been told and witnessed the truth in the flesh that Scouting For Girls’ have a new single ‘This Ain’t A Love Song’. The single is out on 29 March, just ahead of their new album ‘Everybody Wants to Be On TV’ on 12 April. BOOYA.

If that isn’t enough the guys have also made a series of Scouting for Girls TV ‘webisodes’, where Roy, Greg and Pete give news bulletins on their new single, album and their charity London-Brighton bike ride for WellChild.  It’s fun and will bring a smile to your face.

Check out a couple here:

Episode 5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2cl7TySuag

Episode 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzKXSW6cKlI&feature=channel

For the naive, in 2008 Scouting For Girls became the biggest selling new British band of the year. Having toiled for ten years unsigned, the boys sold over 900,000 records of their eponymous number 1 debut album, and were nominated for three Brit Awards (British Breakthrough Act, British Single and British Live Act) to become the UK’s most successful new pop band.

Fronted by exuberant showman Roy Stride, Scouting For Girls quickly became renowned for their contagious piano-led pop songs (She’s So Lovely, Heartbeat, It’s Not About You), that connected with a huge audience and reaped multiple sell-out tours. Those live shows grew as Scouting For Girls mania gripped, buoyed on by huge radio support, and venues were upsized across the country and sold out just as quickly. By the end of 2008, they had performed to hundreds of thousands of fans, and outsold bands twice their size in the live arena.

The initial recordings of their forthcoming second album Everybody Wants To Be On TV were ruthlessly scrapped after the Brit Awards in 2008, when the band decided it needed re-writing and re-shaping. Whole tracks were dropped in Roy Stride’s mission for a collection of perfect pop songs. The resulting album, produced by Andy Green at Helioscentric Studios in East Sussex, is unshakeably bold and confident, a genuine step up in sound that loses none of the band’s early charm but builds and expands upon it as infectiously as only they know how to be.

It is a welcome return by this everyday trio, writing a bright new chapter of British pop for 2010.

www.scoutingforgirls.co.uk

Believe

Sarah Blasko has been announced as the Special Guest on her fellow countrymen The Temper Trap’s 14 date UK tour in April and May. Having won the ARIA Award and Rolling Stone Award for Best Female and the coveted J Award for Album Of The Year with her 2009 release ‘As Day Follows Night’ in Australia, Sarah is relocating to Europe for much of 2010. ‘As Day Follows Night’, which was produced by Björn Yttling (from Peter, Bjorn and John) and recorded in Sweden, is Sarah’s third album but the first to be released in Europe.

If you’re keen to get to see the shows, you need to move fast….nearly a third of them have sold out already:

27 April - O2 Academy Bournemouth
28 April - O2 Shepherds Bush Empire, London- SOLD OUT
29 April - O2 Shepherds Bush Empire, London - SOLD OUT
30 April - O2 Shepherds Bush Empire, London - SOLD OUT
1 May - University, Cardiff
3 May - Rock City, Nottingham
4 May - Birmingham O2 Academy
5 May - UEA, Norwich
9 May - The Academy, Manchester - SOLD OUT
10 May - Newcastle O2 Academy
11 May - Leeds O2 Academy
13 May - Glasgow O2 Academy
14 May - The HMV Picture House, Edinburgh
16 May - Liverpool O2 Academy - SOLD OUT

The release of the album on April 5th will be preceded by her debut UK single ‘We Won’t Run’ on March 22nd on Dramatico Entertainment.

Quick introduction to Mr D.Bedingfield, musical wizard and all round good guy. He’s just released a short vlog, his vloggin debut actually, so please enjoy and hopefully we’ll be seeing more from him here on the RISE blog in the future.

Take it away Dan…

Im still growing ever so tired reading about the what, who’s and now in the current music industry hype. Actually that’s a lie, I’m not. I still want to look ahead though as to who is doing what BIG in 2010 and where the heat is really ‘gonna come from in the upcoming months sure to define the next decade.

One man subliminally doing that, partially taking over and defining online music marketing in order to raise his very own music and arts collective is Mr.Ryan Leslie.

Tadaah!

This man is a genius…..  with a blend of Carribean, Dutch, Chinese, African Barbajian, Irish and Trinidadian heritage you can’t get any more versatile and thats frogetting the music! He graduated Harvard at 19!!!

So to the music.

While working as producer Leslie went on to create NextSelection Lifestyle Group, his music-media company. Mr.Leslie signed his first artist, Cassie in 2005. Under Ryan’s guidance, Cassie went on to become one of the fastest rising R&B acts that year. Her breakout smash “Me&U” (written and produced by Leslie) spent 20 weeks on the Top 40 and went on to reach number three on the Billboard Hot 100, selling over a million digital units. 

Recently, Ryan signed Krys Ivory as his newest act under NextSelection. Wanna see? Check his YouTube channel out … http://www.youtube.com/user/RyanLeslieTV

February shows his self titled album released on the 10th…im not missing it.

BELIEVE

Hello world, ’tis a glorious day in the North-East where I reside in a air-raid shelteresque structure half buried with nature’s wonder….snow.

And who am I you may ask?

The name is Matt Miller, the newest addition to the RISE-Worldwide blogging crew (throws one up for the Hi5 but is dismayed to find a lack of response from a slightly narrow screen).

For those who don’t know me, here’s the shortest description i could find without drawing any racial tension upon a brand that have spent years building a solid reputation and promoting fairness and equality whilst encouraging creativity.

My trainers are red..yes red

Today’s current choice of footwear, straight up representing GOLA (www.gola.co.uk) which is (in my opinion) one of the baddest footwear hounds around. Someone has to remember the days where they made naff TRADEX footwear? Their game has got alot bigger since then with a flagship store hailing on my personal favourite London location, Carnaby Street.

So Hello!

For those of you actually expecting some interesting information in the world of ….well the world right now I guess I could indulge.

Rolling Stone Magazine’s Hot List, Mobo and O Award Winning Nneka’s new album ‘Concrete Jungle’ is set to drop Feb 2nd and failure to cop that album may result in life expulsion…go figure.

Nneeka's coming

If you also havn’t heard Israel Houghton is currently chilling out with Michael Gungor in Abbey Road Studio’s London for the recording of hisnext album! So you know what that means…

hello mr.gungor

That’s right…no more of that ‘Power of One’ malarky (despite there being SOME gems on that 14 track-a-lack. Mr Houghton is taking it back to what made him big from the start when this man played his guitars and wrote all his tunes (if you didn’t already know). Yeah you know, all the big tunes you sing like ‘I am a friend of God’, ‘Lord You are Good’? Yeah Gungor’s masterpieces…so be ready for some more songs to blast on a sunday for the next decade!

One more?

We’ll i could leave you with the news of Britney breaking up with her latest boyfriend again…OR 17 year old Miley Cyrus getting a tattoo under her left breast….but how do you benefit from that knowledge?

You remember that Canada based trio Keys N Krates who we featured some time back? Well they have a sick mixtape out, ‘Live Remixing 101′

it's big

 Get your copy via http://blog.keysnkrates.com/ mmhmmm!

I’m off to crack an egg.

Believe.