CHARLI XCX: New, fresh and nostalgic

   / Goth-Pop, Dance-Pop, Electro-Pop, UK.          (Released in Danish, 2012 March 8th)

I went surfing on New-York music blogs and found a concert by female London singer: Charli XCX.

She sounds so fresh and different that she must be mentioned here.

The genre is described as Goth-Pop.

Charli XCX's real name is Charlotte Emma Aitchinson and she is just 19 years old. She is inspired by the synth-pop wave of the '80s, eg Talk Talk, Johnny Hates Jazz and The Cure.

(More below the video Nuclear Seasons)

She self-published her song. There is not much more to say about the girl yet, she is pretty undescribed. Learn more via the links at the bottom.

Edited:

Charli XCX has by now released three albums, are doing her own gigs with over 1,000 tickets sold per night and are touring with big names like Coldplay, Ellie Goulding and Kate Perry. Read more about her, see links below these videos, released later than article was first published.

Here a hit called Boom Clap

Below: the video Break The Rules

Finally: Famous (live, London)

M U S I C Click:

The video Superlove
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPWcX-16A9Y

Charli XCX on Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charli_XCX

Charli XCX's website
http://charlixcxmusic.com/

LUKAS GRAHAM = New + Danish + Groovy + Funk + Soul

   / Soul, Funk, Denmark.          (Released in Danish, 2012 February 27th)

One of my musical friends (Ravi) has drawn my attention to this new Danish band, called Lukas Graham...

The band consists of:

Lukas Forchhammer - lead singer

Mark "Love Stick" Falgren - drums

Morten "Kirk" Ristorp - keyboards *

"Magnum" - bass

Lukas is of Danish / Irish origin (his father was a folk singer), and was a child actor in the movie Krummerne (he was the kid "Grunk") and also did voice work on cartoons. He grew up in the famous Danish social-experimental, originally hippie-based township of Copenhagen called Christiania.

(More after Ordinary Things, performed in German TV)

Lukas began writing and singing songs and recording demos in New York, and assembled a swinging band. In October 2011 they released their debut single Ordinary Things and it quickly became a big hit on Youtube and radio - it was (by listeners) selected for 2011's best Danish "Powerplay of the Week" on P3 ... and it led to a number of sold-out concerts.

They are now popular and have lots of bookings, and were playing at the P3-Gold awards 2012, at many festivals and more. 

More info below their hit video Drunk In The Morning

Gaffa (the best and biggest Scandinavian music magazine) says Lukas Graham will be big in 2012 - Lukas Graham is among the 12 Danish names for 2012 because "Lukas Graham is an excellent singer and songwriter and has a serious Danish soul music band of international class in 2012". They releaseded their debut album Lukas Graham in february 2012.

(Edited: * Lukas Graham's keyboardplayer is now Kasper Daugaard. The band has won several awards, their 1. album was the top-seller and most streamed on Spotify in Denmark in 2012. It has by now sold 4x platinum in DK. They toured Europe and did release the album in other countries, and it vent #1 on German iTunes. In 2013 they signed at contract with Warner Bros Records. In 2015 they released their second album Lukas Graham (Blue Album), by now selling 2x platinum in DK.)

M U S I C Click:

Lukas Graham on Facebook

http://da-dk.facebook.com/LukasGraham1

SKYLAR GREY: singer-songwriter in a new millenium

   / Dark-Pop, Hardcore-Ballads, USA          (Posted in Danish, 2012 February 15th)

As a consequence of my general curiosity I had to test MTV Push (mentioned in the previous post). It took 4 attempts and I found something very interesting!

Skylar Grey (her real name is Holly Brook Hafermann; the first album is released under the name Holly Brook) is an American singer-songwriter and record producer.

She has worked with Marilyn Manson, Rihanna, Eminem, P Diddy and Dr. Dre. She was nominated for a handful of Grammys 2012 in cooperation with others, but did not win.

More info below ...

She started her career as a child: she performed in a folk duo with her mother, and at age 15 she sneaked into bars to perform / play with jazz musicians in Wisconsin. At age 18 she moved to Los Angeles and made a demo. She was discovered by Linkin Park guitarist Brad Delson, who helped her progress.

She changed her artist name to sound more original and less feminine - "it's more masculine. I'm not a very feminine person." she says.

She works with a lot of other artists and has been nominated for her good work.

She has released two albums - the third published 2015.

M U S I C Click:

Skylar Grey video "Invisible":

http://youtu.be/NVVrT_wNw_Y

Skylar Grey's website:

http://www.skylargreymusic.com/

MTV Push Denmark:

http://www.mtv.dk/shows/mtv-push/

FOSTER THE PEOPLE - super brilliant!!!

   / Indie-Pop, Indie-Rock, USA 

Here is a big new name: Foster The People. 

Foster the People origin from Los Angeles, they started in 2009 and consists of Mark Foster (vocals, keyboards, piano, synthesizers, guitar, programming, percussion) + Cubbie Fink (bass and backing vocals) + Mark Pontius (drums and extra percussion) + they have two extra musicians on stage, on tour.

Before further info, here's Call It What You Want, one of their many great tracks:

Mark Foster has had a long "non-career" and was, in spite of great talent and many songs written in many genres over many years, unable to find a group and a breakthrough. When he finally got together with someone and started a band, things went just as slow ... until it suddenly sped up. "Everyone is calling me and emailing me - what do I do? Who are the good guys, der er the bad guys?" Mark said, as he went from being a guy who could not get hold of anyone to a guy who suddenly gets hundreds of emails. "For so many years, it was slow, playing in front of pretty small crowds and trying to get your friends to show up ... And then all of a sudden, it kind of took off ..." 

Their cool debut album (Torches, 2011) made gold / platinum in the USA, Canada and Australia. The single below: Pumped Up Kicks (2010) went #1 more places around the world, it was nominated for a Grammy and won a Billboard Music Award.

Foster The People are nominated for 1 Brit Award in 2012 and 2 Grammy's in 2012 (where they will be playing with The Beach Boys and Maroon 5). They have been nominated for 2 MTV music awards 2011, 2 Q awards 2011 and at SharkOneAwards they won the New Artist of the Year-Award. They have recently been on MTV Push ("Do you need a new favorite band? Then MTV will help! Each month, we Push you the newest and hottest acts in the world and, of course, explains why they are so special."; O)

Foster The People did release 2 albums and 2 EP's, so far.

M U S I C Click: 

Foster the People website: 

http://www.fosterthepeople.com/us/home

MTV Push: 

http://www.mtv.co.uk/mtv-push

SKRILLEX - evil electro in a whole new league

   / Dubstep, Electro-House, USA.          (Released in Danish, 2012 January 23rd)

This is Skrillex. A brilliant electro-musician, who seems to be nerd / genius and a rising star.

Skrillex is Sonny John Moore, born in 1988 in Los Angeles, a former frontman of the post-hardcore band From First To Last. In 2007 he started his solo carreer. Skrillex has made 1 album, 14 EP's, some singles, remixes in amounts and been a guest artist on various people's tracks.

23rd of december 2012 he released a new music video, quite "noir" (especially when you look at the date it was released and the story in the video), watch closely ...

Skrillex informs that the music he started listening to was Aphex Twin, The Prodigy, Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson ... which tells us where he gets "it" from. He has made electro music since he was 14 years old!

In 2011 he was nominated for 5 Grammy's (including Best New Artist), the BBC's Sound of 2012 and MTV's best Electronic Dance Music. He has won a total of 6 Grammys by now.

Skrillex will be playing for the first time in Denmark 5th of may 2012. The concert at Store Vega was sold out in 24 hours and the gig was moved to Forum. Ah, would like to have been there :)

If you want an impression of Skrillex Live, you can search Youtube for the clips from one of his tours: listen to "Skrillex-The Mothership (Massive Mix)"there are 8 parts - he mixes "every genre of techno known to man!!!!" - It IS massive :-) (Link below)

M U S I C Click:

Skrillex - The Mothership (Massive Mix):

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Skrillex-The+Mothership+%28Massive+Mix%29

Skrillex website:

http://www.skrillex.com/

Skrillex at Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skrillex