Friday 2 December 2011

Mathew Priest's Top 10 Tracks from 2011 (Dodgy Advent Calender)

This is Mathew from Dodgy and I'm pleased to be delivering this list of my Top 10 tunes discovered this year as a contribution to the Dodgy Advent Calender 2011 (you can still get more offerings as part of the Dodgy Advent Calendar by signing up to the mailing list @ www.dodgyology.com) and they are... in no particular order...

01. TREEFIGHT FOR SUNLIGHT – Facing the Sun
What would we do without BBC 6Music? ... I'm pretty sure that's where I first heard this track and full marks to Denmark, firstly for giving us some great TV with The Killing and then this; a prime cut of Scandinavian indie 60's pop - what's not to love?
On the new Dodgy album 'Stand Upright In A Cool Place' we've got a track called 'What Became Of You' and Treefight For Sunlight appear to have a track called 'What Became Of you... and I', so we're obviously thinking on similar lines somewhere.
Treefight For Sunlight website: www.treefightforsunlight.com

02. WALLPAPER – #STUPiDFACEDD
Dodgy have adopted this tune to get us vibed up before we go onstage. Amazing song - even better video. Met the guy who is Wallpaper in San francisco when I was on tour playing with Electric Soft Parade and he was playing in this crazy but brilliant prog rock band Facing New York. This guy is in a different league and very much one to watch and listen out for...
Wallpaper website: thisiswallpaper.com/music

03. SYREETA - Harmour Love 
A tune I 'discovered' this year heard as the play out song on the film Junebug that I saw for the first time. For some reason it took me ages to find out the name of the song. Syreeta's best known UK hit was probably 'Your Kiss Is Sweet' and sadly she died of breast cancer aged only 57 in 2004, she looks so beautiful in this video.....

04. THE LOVELY EGGS - Don’t Look At Me (I Don’t Like It)
God knows where I first came across this, probably Facebook. Just ace pop-punk with a belting cameo from John Shuttleworth, presumeably a nod towards his previous musical alter ego creation Jilted John, in the video. Just noticed their new single is out on Monday (Dec 5th) so might be also be worth a listen.
The Lovely Eggs website: www.thelovelyeggs.co.uk

05. LAURA MARLING – Sophia
I’m very rarely onto an artist early; when I am, I feel like the coolest fella in the world. Then somebody invariably comes along and says “Oh yeah, she’s ace, have you heard her first album” ..shit.
Laura Marling website: www.lauramarling.com

06. H.HAWKLINE – You Say Love Me

If you haven't heard Cerys Mathews' show on 6Music you should, wonderfully eclectic and some great discoveries. That's where I first heard this and it leapt out at me from the car radio. He's got a lovely Welsh twang and sounds likey a mixture of Gruff and Syd Barrett. Worth seeking out the full band version as well.
A H Hawkline website: hhawkline.bandcamp.com

07. CHASE AND STATUS – Chase & Status - Blind Faith ft. Liam Bailey
There's an article somewhere about the high percentage of collaborations and 'featurings'(ft) in the singles chart this year, don't know whether you should be expecting Dodgy featuring......??????.. Chipmunk? anytime soon as we attempt to crack the upper regions of the charts - perhaps not.
Anyways got to have a banging tune in this list and this is it. Great UP tune. Amazing video, I never thought I could get flashbacks from watching a video until now.
 Chase & Status website: www.chaseandstatus.co.uk

08. BLAKE SHELTON – Austin
We were lucky enough to get to go over to Texas in July to mix the new Dodgy album and admitedly I was a little tiddly on the plane when I became obsessed with this song... I played it over and over, much to the chagrin of Dodgy guitarist Andy Miller who had drawn the short straw and was seated next to me. It set us up for our adventure over there. OK it is cheesy beyond Gorganzola and might be percieved by some as being a bit crap as well but it soundtracked an important part of 2011 for us and for that time me and and Blake were like brothers..
For some reason, Blake (or his people) don't want us to embed the official video, in all it's shiny red car glory here but you can get it by following the link below
www.youtube.com/watch?v=bb1DTsxBOfE
Blake Shelton website: www.blakeshelton.com

09. WHITE DENIM – It’s Him
First track on the utterly bonkers album ‘D’.  First heard about these Texas, psychedelic indie-prog-rockers on the brilliant website www.anydecentmusic.com and then with their single “Is And Is And Is” on BBC 6Music which to these ears sounds a bit like Coldplay mixed with Deep Purple - should be wrong but it's right...
 White Denim website: whitedenimmusic.com

10. MVPs – Turning My Heartbeat Up
That’s the great thing about Northern Soul, you keep discovering absolute BELTERS and this rocked my sox this year not just because it opens with the line "listen to the sound of a drummer...". I’m pushing for Dodgy to do a cover of this as we’ve got a scooter rally to play next year- I'll keep you posted.

What tunes have rocked your world this year?

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