The 405 'Ones To Watch' for 2010
The following list is not our way of claiming we're the Nostradamus of music. Oh no.
Making a list of bands that we think will be huge next year to prove just how 'on it' we are would be fairly easy. Any mother and their dog could predict that Marina & The Diamonds or Ellie Goulding will probably be huge next year but that's not what this site is about, or this list.
Our list represents the bands that we feel deserve to be huge and that could be if they get the coverage they deserve. Will any of them actually gain commercial success? Who knows. All we know is that they're awesome and that's all that matters really.
Not only are we giving you a nice list (16 in total) of bands to check out, thanks to the bands (and their PR/Label/Management people) we have a lovely compilation for you to download (at the bottom). The cover design was made by Emma Charleston (www.emmacharleston.co.uk & http://emmacharleston.blogspot.com) and we want to thank her for doing it, especially with such short notice.
Let us know what you think of our choices!
Signed to Sub Pop, Avi Buffalo are an amazing band from Long Beach, California. They have a surfery quality which you would expect from a west coast band but it's not watered down. The Beautiful vocals mixed with shimmery guitars results in a band with huge possibilties for 2010.
Check out Avi Buffalo on Myspace
An ensemble group ( in the noble tradition of Broken Social Scene ) who make darned good, honest music. This Leeds combo mixes wind instruments, glockenspiels (connected playfully through guitar effects for your listening pleasure) and then top it up with the usual weapons of choice. Their fizzy, diet chamber pop is made by 8 friends who know their stuff and know that the way to carry a tune is to mount a group assault and destroy all senses without any previous warning.
Milk White White Teeth's Myspace
Having won the hearts of Los Campesinos! fans when he supported them in October, Robert Taylorâs acoustic tales of heartbreak and regret, soundtracked to whistles and falsetto, will leave you in awe. A storyteller with a rapport of bad jokes and slideshow cartoons, he could be Britainâs answer to Jeffrey Lewis.
Sparky Deathcap's Myspace
With a band member called Heartbeeps and songs rarely clocking past the two-minute mark, you know that Internet Forever are going to be twee. But they also have a dirty, fuzzy and distorted sound that resembles Times New Viking grappling with proper pop harmonies. Short songs, sweet sound.
Internet Forever's Myspace
We all love Stagecoach at The 405. Big time love but that doesn't exclude them from our list. If they can build on what they created this year ('We Got Tazers') then 2010 could be quite special for this 'impossible to dislike' band.
Stagecoach's Myspace
Hailing from a small Scottish town called Stonehaven, Copy Haho excel in the spunky indie sound youâd associate more with American legends like Pavement and Guided By Voices. Although they also share the same kind of pop pedigree as The Futureheads. Try not tapping your foot while listening to âWrong Directionâ, itâs near impossible.
Copy Haho's Myspace
Letting Up Despite Great Fault's premier single "In Steps" could at once be described as a dance or a dream, a description that well represents their overall sound. This hot new band has the pulsing catchiness that excels in a disco and the shoegaze-washed electro-acoustic textures that sound just as sweet on a car stereo. Whether they're destined for the club or the beach is anyone's guess, but Letting Up is bound to get stuck in your head either way.
Letting Up Despite Great Faults Myspace
Theyâve already been played on Radio 1âs daytime shows and starred on the Introducing Stage at Reading and Leeds in 2009. Everything Everything make an intricate racket of avant-garde pop that fuses together too many genres and intangible lyrics. It should be a mess but it works. An original and inventive sound.
Everything Everything's Myspace
Mount Kimbie is part of the hyped Hot Flush stable, delivering tetchy dubstep over a skewed palette of ambient fragments. The formulas are jumbled, the beats unpredictable. In a genre bound by the crude accusation of ârepetitionâ Mount Kimbie provide evidence that there is potential for dreamy boundary-less experimentation.
Mount Kimbie's Myspace
Danceable pop mixed with mad freak-outs is what this incredible four piece are about. Loved by The NME, Moshi Moshi and pretty much anyone that has manged to catch them live this year, Chapter 24 are destined for big things.
Chapter 24's Myspace
Mat Riviere's blend of dreamy, distorted 'devil' pop is outsanding. We've only seen the first few glimpses of what this Norwich man can do but if he manages to continue his great form ('FYH') into 2010 then we expect him to kill it. Seriously great stuff.
Mat Riviere's Myspace
Judging from the onslaught of new bands that sprouted up this past year, it's obvious that 2009 was the year of "Lo-Fi", and in the sincere and desperate hopes of this going away, Fang Island couldn't have come along at a better time. This Brooklyn-by-way-of-Providence shred-pop outfit will be sure to put the "High Five" in what looks like will be the year of "Hi-Fi". With their sprawling guitars, chants and hollers, Fang Island are here to warm our hearts and melt our minds.
Fang Island's Myspace
The 405 fell in love with My First Tooth and their gorgeous brand of folksy pop when they played at the Alcopop Christmas Show at the end of â09. Violins, bouzoukis, melodicas, acoustic guitars and sweet boy/girl vocals combine in to something itâs impossible not to fall for. Itâs a bit like Bon Iver, but actually cheerful.
My First Tooth Myspace
The Girls At Dawn are a 3 piece from Brooklyn, NY. Think Vivian Girls but WAY more Lo-Fi and you'll be on it. As a relatively new band they've still got to put the final jigsaw pieces together but I have a feeling 2010 will be the year they crack it.
The Girl's at Dawn's Myspace
We've been fans of this band for quite some time now. We even put them on. They're a relentless band and easily the most aggressive of our picks for 2010. If you like(d) At The Drive In, prepare to love these guys. They're explosive, home wrecking bastards and we love them.
Hold Your Horse Is Myspace
Cartwheeling and somersaulting their way along the balance beam between cringeworthy pretentiousness and eye-twitching tweeness comes Exlovers. Endearing indie guitar-pop is the order of the day, with unfussy and traditionally British-sounding arrangements in the vein of The Smiths and The Cure. Debut EP You Forget So Easily merely hints at triumphs surely to come
Exlovers Myspace
Download our 'Ones To Watch for 2010' compilation by clicking here! Or just click on the song you want below!
1. Avi Buffalo - Whats In It For?
2. Chapter 24 - Hepcats
3. Copy Haho - Pulling Push Ups
4. exlovers - New Years Day
5. Fang Island - Daisy
6. Sparky Deathcap - Glasgow Is A Punk Rock Town
7. Hold Your Horse Is - Broken Sound
8. Internet Forever - Pages Of Books
9. Letting Up Despite Great Faults - In Steps
10. Mat Riviere - FYH
11. Milk White White Teeth - The Calendar Will Crawl
12. My First Tooth - Typewriters
13. Stagecoach - Break
14. The Girls At Dawn - Every Night (Live)
15. Everything Everything - My Keys, Your Boyfriend (Live)
16. Mount Kimbie - Maybes (Video - below)*
Due to time restraints we couldn't get a hold of a Mount Kimbie song for you all. Instead, here's an unofficial video from Youtube for their song 'Maybes'.
Signed to Sub Pop, Avi Buffalo are an amazing band from Long Beach, California. They have a surfery quality which you would expect from a west coast band but it's not watered down. The Beautiful vocals mixed with shimmery guitars results in a band with huge possibilties for 2010.
Check out Avi Buffalo on Myspace
An ensemble group ( in the noble tradition of Broken Social Scene ) who make darned good, honest music. This Leeds combo mixes wind instruments, glockenspiels (connected playfully through guitar effects for your listening pleasure) and then top it up with the usual weapons of choice. Their fizzy, diet chamber pop is made by 8 friends who know their stuff and know that the way to carry a tune is to mount a group assault and destroy all senses without any previous warning.
Milk White White Teeth's Myspace
Having won the hearts of Los Campesinos! fans when he supported them in October, Robert Taylorâs acoustic tales of heartbreak and regret, soundtracked to whistles and falsetto, will leave you in awe. A storyteller with a rapport of bad jokes and slideshow cartoons, he could be Britainâs answer to Jeffrey Lewis.
Sparky Deathcap's Myspace
With a band member called Heartbeeps and songs rarely clocking past the two-minute mark, you know that Internet Forever are going to be twee. But they also have a dirty, fuzzy and distorted sound that resembles Times New Viking grappling with proper pop harmonies. Short songs, sweet sound.
Internet Forever's Myspace
We all love Stagecoach at The 405. Big time love but that doesn't exclude them from our list. If they can build on what they created this year ('We Got Tazers') then 2010 could be quite special for this 'impossible to dislike' band.
Stagecoach's Myspace
Hailing from a small Scottish town called Stonehaven, Copy Haho excel in the spunky indie sound youâd associate more with American legends like Pavement and Guided By Voices. Although they also share the same kind of pop pedigree as The Futureheads. Try not tapping your foot while listening to âWrong Directionâ, itâs near impossible.
Copy Haho's Myspace
Letting Up Despite Great Fault's premier single "In Steps" could at once be described as a dance or a dream, a description that well represents their overall sound. This hot new band has the pulsing catchiness that excels in a disco and the shoegaze-washed electro-acoustic textures that sound just as sweet on a car stereo. Whether they're destined for the club or the beach is anyone's guess, but Letting Up is bound to get stuck in your head either way.
Letting Up Despite Great Faults Myspace
Theyâve already been played on Radio 1âs daytime shows and starred on the Introducing Stage at Reading and Leeds in 2009. Everything Everything make an intricate racket of avant-garde pop that fuses together too many genres and intangible lyrics. It should be a mess but it works. An original and inventive sound.
Everything Everything's Myspace
Mount Kimbie is part of the hyped Hot Flush stable, delivering tetchy dubstep over a skewed palette of ambient fragments. The formulas are jumbled, the beats unpredictable. In a genre bound by the crude accusation of ârepetitionâ Mount Kimbie provide evidence that there is potential for dreamy boundary-less experimentation.
Mount Kimbie's Myspace
Danceable pop mixed with mad freak-outs is what this incredible four piece are about. Loved by The NME, Moshi Moshi and pretty much anyone that has manged to catch them live this year, Chapter 24 are destined for big things.
Chapter 24's Myspace
Mat Riviere's blend of dreamy, distorted 'devil' pop is outsanding. We've only seen the first few glimpses of what this Norwich man can do but if he manages to continue his great form ('FYH') into 2010 then we expect him to kill it. Seriously great stuff.
Mat Riviere's Myspace
Judging from the onslaught of new bands that sprouted up this past year, it's obvious that 2009 was the year of "Lo-Fi", and in the sincere and desperate hopes of this going away, Fang Island couldn't have come along at a better time. This Brooklyn-by-way-of-Providence shred-pop outfit will be sure to put the "High Five" in what looks like will be the year of "Hi-Fi". With their sprawling guitars, chants and hollers, Fang Island are here to warm our hearts and melt our minds.
Fang Island's Myspace
The 405 fell in love with My First Tooth and their gorgeous brand of folksy pop when they played at the Alcopop Christmas Show at the end of â09. Violins, bouzoukis, melodicas, acoustic guitars and sweet boy/girl vocals combine in to something itâs impossible not to fall for. Itâs a bit like Bon Iver, but actually cheerful.
My First Tooth Myspace
The Girls At Dawn are a 3 piece from Brooklyn, NY. Think Vivian Girls but WAY more Lo-Fi and you'll be on it. As a relatively new band they've still got to put the final jigsaw pieces together but I have a feeling 2010 will be the year they crack it.
The Girl's at Dawn's Myspace
We've been fans of this band for quite some time now. We even put them on. They're a relentless band and easily the most aggressive of our picks for 2010. If you like(d) At The Drive In, prepare to love these guys. They're explosive, home wrecking bastards and we love them.
Hold Your Horse Is Myspace
Cartwheeling and somersaulting their way along the balance beam between cringeworthy pretentiousness and eye-twitching tweeness comes Exlovers. Endearing indie guitar-pop is the order of the day, with unfussy and traditionally British-sounding arrangements in the vein of The Smiths and The Cure. Debut EP You Forget So Easily merely hints at triumphs surely to come
Exlovers Myspace
