Video Alert: The Sharps - Cage of Love

It's always nice to share something from friends of mine, and The Sharps are a great band that I've had the pleasure of sharing the stage with during my time at Uni on a number of occasions.

Enjoy the band's video for 'Cage of Love' below; The Sharps always have a lot of fun with their videos and never take themselves too seriously. They're always refreshing, entertaining, and original and Cage of Love is no exception.



The Sharps are a hard-working 3-piece rock/funk outfit hailing from Norfolk, and have a real Chili Peppers/Strokes vibe about their sound. Be sure to keep up to date with the guys on Facebook.

New Artist Alert: The GoAround

There are many brothers who join forces to create a band and attempt to hit the big time, and Anthony and Alexander Saddic from The GoAround are no exception to this rule. Since its inception in 2006, the band has seen many-a plethora of members come and go, but A and A have held firm and, as The GoAround's core members, released their debut album 'Restating the Question' in August this year.

Hailing from Pennsylvania on the East Coast where they are still based, The GoAround, an alt-rock/pop duo, have video plans in the works for the singles from the album, 'Her Love is Like Glass' and 'When I Hit the Bottom'. Of their songs, the band say: "[Our] songs lyrically serve to motivate people to analyse what they stand for... Everybody is essentially chasing the same things: love acceptance and happiness. That to me is the common thread that unifies all of mankind..." Profound words indeed, and these guys really sound like they've got something to say.

'Her Love is Like Glass', a steady alt-pop tune, manages to draw in influences from country rock to fist-pumping stadium feels, whilst churning along delicately thanks to some great vocal harmonies. The texture thickens somewhat as we meander into the second verse, the layers slowly building as the track progresses, ebbing and flowing with its short verse and chorus stabs. There's a lot of ideas crammed in here, perhaps some not as effective as others, but the track's got a feelgood quality to it that you can't help but love.

'When I Hit the Bottom' is torn from a slightly different cloth; the country flavours are still nestling in the mix but there's an altogether grittier, bluesier tone apparent. The vocals are as strong as ever, the music busy and rich, and introducing and returning to little stabs and riffs often to maintain the listener's interest. Unlike 'Her Love is Like Glass', the second verse feels a little flat, maybe I'm used to the building blocks and expected a little more the second time around, and the second chorus drops into a short-ish guitar solo section; I'd love for an explosion that vamps upwards to match the passion and energy of the lead vocals. Again though, there's a great feel to the track and that's what it's all about. The mouth-organ towards the end is lovely and the 'jam-band' drive assures me that these guys are ones to catch live.

Keep up to date with all things The GoAround on Facebook and grab yourself a copy of Restating the Question on iTunes now!

Video Alert: Lower Lands - Socialise with Closed Eyes

This just in! I Am Mighty Records are pleased and proud to announce Lower Lands have released a video for their track Socialise with Closed Eyes which you can check out for yourselves below. Fans can get a copy of the single and a B-Side 'Conversation 2.0' by joining the I Am Mighty mailing list.

The video has barely been up a few days and has already notched up almost 4,000 views! Here's the what the band have got to say about the track:

"This song is a letter to a Someone who stopped being a friend because they let things in life get on top of them and they stopped listening to others around them and started just pitying themselves. It's sort of a last resort wake up call from us to them. It's also sort of a good guide to 'how to be a bad friend' by Lower Lands! Do all these things, and people will 100% guaranteed think you're not a fun person to hang out with."

And here, the band share their views on the video itself:

"The video is kind of our take on the whole reservoir dogs thing. It's like "what if we took this open letter to this person, but then kidnapped them and read it directly to them?"
We wanted to keep it light though to match the vibe of the song so we brought in the humour element with some ridiculous torture methods going on and they seemed to really work because by the end of the video our boy's nothing if not compliant! Filming in suits, although it looks badass, was a pain. We had to do loads of running and LOADS of performance takes with the hot sun beating down on our adonis-like figures. So things got a little bit sweaty out on the locations, but we had bottles of water at the ready etc. We shot the video with Oh My Dog! films and it was an absolute pleasure. The guys were all really professional, had loads to input in the video and even brought us some lovely food to keep us going throughout the pretty much half marathon we ran to get that 10 seconds of a chase scene! We put so much thought and effort into this video and really wanted to step things up in terms of production value, storyline and the song in general so we really hope you enjoy it. Peace!"

Here's the video, it's a great pop track with a fun video! 



In other I Am Mighty Records news, 'Maycomb' have joined the family which is great to see this indie label growing and developing and extending their rostra of artists. The bands debut album, 'I Opened My Heart To Caustic Things', will be released later in the year and the opening track 'New Storms' is available for a listen here. Enjoy!