Big hair, waxed moustache, bohemian clothing and girls praising his steaminess at live shows. With this striking image, you might not realize how good Charles Costa aka King Charles' music actually is. The folk-pop prodigy has been able to write rocking melodies, which make you dance and mature lyrics that you'd be surprised to know the king is only 24.
Despite of young age, King Charles has already been touring with acts such as Mumford and Sons and Noah and the Whale, while having a huge loyal fan base of his own growing every second. He's one of those acts that words aren't enough to describe; you need to go see him live to understand the whole picture.
THE BEST
NEW BANDS
NINE UK VENUES
THREE BANDS A NIGHT
2-12 FEBRUARY 2012
TEN POUNDS A GIG
February 7th, 2012
On The Garage's special menu we had fiN., Dog Is Dead and King Charles. The first two we had no idea about until that evening. All I could say that it was a successful night of discovering great music and cherishing the one already discovered. Keep in mind that last year's festival had acts such as Anna Calvi and James Blake, and look where they are now.
Southwest Londoners with an ungoogleable name, which makes Finnish people smirk. That mixed with indie rock, you'll get a music enthusiast going nuts when trying to search for some good tunes.
I thought the stage was too small for them, as the members moved around like crazy... Eventually causing a guitar to break.
Don't let Nottingham-based quintet's name fool you, since they do also have cheerful songs, which will make the audience jump and sing as a choir. Most notably, the band has appeared on Skins and supported Bombay Bicycle Club. The best part, though, is that one of our bands Athletes In Paris will be supporting them in Newcastle February 27th! That's a great match that one.
Last but not least, the King himself! The Londoner with the big hair, moustache and who is much shorter in real life for my surprise, is what someone from the audience called 'hot, steamy, sexy'. Pure love!
Last blog post of 2011 folks! And no, it's not going to be about myself. I realize that the title is very distracting, but it's a band's name. The name is quite bad yes, however let that be the only negative fact to be said of this London-based, originally from Melbourne act! Okey, that's pretty much what I know of them, so a missing bio will be the last minus said! I can assure that, by proudly declaring [ME] being the first support act, whose performance I didn't see, but ended up being on my 'new favorite bands' list.
You can read the story from my Evanescence gig post, but shortly we got to the gig a bit late and just saw 30 seconds of [ME]'s performance. Luckily someone was there handing out flyers of the band, which I found a month later under a pile of clothes when I was cleaning up my room. Poor flyer was thrown away after doing its job well, as I did check the band's sites and gave the songs a listen.
And hooray! Proper rock is back with style!
The music is like Panic! At The Disco and Muse having a lovechild and somehow Billy Talent's singer getting in between.
Speaking of which, the band will be supporting Panic! At The Disco in their winter UK tour (previously they've supported Evanescence and Kasabian). I was kind of 50/50 whether I'd go see Panic!., but having a support act like that, I'm definitely going. I'll also try to go to the HMV Next Big Thing (last year's acts were for example James Blake and Anna Calvi).
If you aren't convinced yet, then I need to mention of the label they're on; Lizard King Records. This record label has previously had e.g. Santigold signed to, and the owner has before been the co-owner of the label, which signed and launched the career of The Killers. Quality? Yes!
And why so many '!', because I'm in a hurry to go celebrate the last day of the year! Have an awesome 2012! and let it be full of great music as 2011 was.
Ps. you can like my blog's Facebook page here, and also give ideas of what my 100th blog post could be about either there or here! Thanks! X
