[SKOA Christmas Premiere] Vesta - "The Voyeur"

Over the last year, Pittsburgh rock outfit 1,2,3 has has garnered the attention of the blogosphere as one of the most interesting and diverse surprises of the year. The band offered listeners a rock record that wasn't trying to create an identity for itself, it just wanted to give you ten awesome tracks that you'll want to listen to over and over. It was this carefree attitude that stood out the most on their debut album New Heaven, with each song evoking the passion and enjoyment that each band member had while recording it. It was simply an enjoyable album, one that you never wanted to put down; it was one of the bigger surprises of the year.

One of the best traits of 1,2,3 was the charisma and the positive attitudes of the band members, and this translates into incredibly fun music. Chad Monticue, 1,2,3's bassist and backup vocalist, has brought this exact attitude to his other band, Vesta, the project that was born out of the break up of Monticue's indie pop band The Juliana Theory. Over the past few months, Monticue and his bandmates Joshua Fielder, Josh Kosker and Justin Niedzwecki have been recording with the help of their friend and engineer Jonathon Gunnell. So far, the band are recording and perfecting a digital and vinyl set for release before summer of next year, with the song "The Voyeur" to be included on that album. According to Monticue, the track is a rough mix, but from the moment I pressed play, I was hooked. The song is our first taste of what the Pittsburgh outfit will offer up next year, and SKOA is proud to premiere "The Voyeur" on Christmas as a holiday gift for the SKOA readers and the 1,2,3 fans. The fantastic 'rough mix' of "The Voyeur" is available to stream and download for free below, and expect more coverage of Vesta and 1,2,3 in the New Year.

[SKOA Premiere] Vesta - "The Voyeur" by Some Kind of Awesome

[SKOA Exclusive] Sleeper Agent - "Love Blood" (Live At Tidball’s, The End, and The Manor)

Bowling Green's finest (and recent SKOA favorites) Sleeper Agent have put together this fun collection of live videos with the help of Yellowberri Creative Studios for their surefire toe-tapping number "Love Blood" from their debut album Celebrasion which you can grab over on Insound. The video was shot over the course of a few shows at The End (Nashville, TN), Tidball's (Bowling Green, KY), and The Manor (Bowling Green, KY). It's hard to say that the video perfectly displays their playful yet energy packed shows, but that's because we have been fortunate enough to witness them perform on multiple occasions, including our CMJ party a few months back at The Delancey.

Speaking of our CMJ party, The Audio Perv managed to get his hands on footage of the band performing "Get Burned" from that very show. Head on over to TAP to have a look for yourself.

[Interview] Garbage Lead Singer Shirley Manson Talks Struggle, Loss, Renewal

For six long years, there has been a void in the rock music community. After releasing Bleed Like Me and announcing that they were taking an “indefinite hiatus”, it was hard to believe that we would ever hear from the likes of female-fronted rock outfit Garbage again. While most bands praise being signed to a label as a means of gaining exposure for their music, Garbage lead singer Shirley Manson explained in an interview with Some Kind of Awesome that it was actually all of the “really greedy expectations” and getting caught up in “working to fulfill a corporate fantasy” that caused the massive break. With the band happily shedding their corporate skin and announcing that they will be releasing album number five in Spring 2012, Manson dishes how the break could not have come a better time in her life and how it also gave the band the chance to celebrate their uniqueness.

In 2008, Manson went from “feeling powerless” about the contracts that the band was tied up in to being as she put it, “an almighty powerful robot that got to kill every asshole that she came across” in her role as the liquid-metal Terminator impersonating Catherine Weaver in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.Although the experience for Manson was “absolutely liberating” because she didn’t have to feel any of the pressures or being a lead singer, she noted, “The one thing that I learned on the TV show was that I really missed my band. Really missed making music. Really missed playing."

“When I lost her I was like ‘Oh my god. I have to go back to who I really [am]…’”

This was intensified later that year at the end of November when her mother passed away due to complications of dementia.“When you lose a mother it changes your whole life and changes your outlook on everything,” she said, ”when I lost her I was like 'Oh my god. I have to go back to who I really [am]… I've been a musician since I was 15. I really don't know anything else. I think I felt like I needed to get back there to regroup myself, so I said ‘It’s time to go back and start making music again. It’ll make me feel a bit better' And it did.”

She wasn’t the only one who was feeling a sense of loss that year. As she explained to us, “A lot of crazy shit had started to happen the year that I lost my mother. Friends of mine also lost their six year old child, one of my best friends lost their husbands and was left with an 18 month child and two other kids. It was a really crazy year. It was terrifying. It's like watching your friends get swept up in this cyclone of horror. It definitely propelled me [toward making music again]”. In fact, while performing at the funeral of six-year-old Pablo Castelaz, son of her close friend and Dangerbird Records co-founder Jeff Castelaz she ran into fellow Garbage member and producer extraordinaire Butch Vig. It was there that the two of them started talking about making music again.

According to Manson, recording this new album was actually a pleasant experience this time around, which she partially attributes to the fact that they are free of all of their corporate deals. They’ve had their masters reverted back to them, they are out of their publishing deal. She noted, “For the first time in a long time we have felt no external pressure. We’re free and clear to do whatever we want and how we want to do it. We have no record company A&R douchebag coming into the studio and proffering their opinions. That is amazing.”

It clearly was affecting the overall morale in the studio because she was very outspoken on the subject, adding, “You have no idea how that rains on your parade when a fucking idiot who you don't even want in the room in the first place comes in sits, listens to your music and proffers some opinions upon you know that aren't welcome. But you know you have to be polite so you're kind, you know, tolerant, but you want to take this person and throw their head down the toilet. Not that we have to listen to these people but having that vibe cross into your world all of a sudden it stops anything fun ‘cause all of a sudden you're aware that there's people who have expectations and they want certain things form you and they expect certain things at certain times."

“To be unique in a world that has an infinite sea of music is something that we value.”

Although it’s been six years since their last studio album, Manson isn’t worried about competing with the buzz bands of the week. As she explained, “We’ve looked back after six years of not doing anything and realized that no one was sitting in our seat. We realize that we are unique. For better or worse we make records that don’t sound like anybody else. To be unique in a world that has an infinite sea of music is something that we value. We’re proud of it.”

While Garbage fans far and wide anxiously await signs of studio album number five, which Manson considers to be their “strongest collection of songs” to date, she is looking forward to touring more than anything else. “We just want to go out and play some shows and actually reconnect with something in ourselves,” she said, “it’s not really about record sales or ‘Wow are we gonna get A listed on Radio One in the UK?’ We don’t really give a shit. It would be nice, but we don’t really give a shit.”

Be sure to follow along with us in the coming months for Garbage updates. Garbage is on Twitter and Facebook. You can also see what Shirley Manson is up to on her Facebook page.

[SKOA Premiere] General Fiasco - "Waves"

After a summer of gigs across the country, General Fiasco return with the first taste of their new EP Waves. Today SKOA is proud to give you the premiere of the aforementioned EP's title track, and it's a goodie. The boys from Northern Ireland have crafted a catchy overdriven guitar filled track with a great sing-along chorus that will no doubt become lodged into your subconsciousness for the foreseeable future.

Give it a play or two at the bottom and look out for their EP when it drops on the 14th of November via Dirty Hit. If you like what your ears are hearing then after the jump you can peep some tour dates for their October tour. See you at the Deaf Institute in Manchester if you go along!

General Fiasco - Waves by Dirty Hit

General Fiasco UK Tour:

Oct 22^nd Academy 2 Dublin

Oct 23^rd Thekla Bristol

Oct 25^th King Tuts Glasgow

Oct 26^th Rainbow Birmingham

Oct 27^th Academy 2 London

Oct 29^th Deaf Institute Manchester

Oct 30^th Queens Belfast

[SKOA Exclusive] Charlie Simpson - "Don't I Hold You" (Wheat Cover)

We recently got to listen to the great debut track from Charlie Simpson titled "Down Down Down", with an acoustic guitar and some delicate vocals nicely intertwined making for a nice listen from start to finish. The track served up was a good appetiser for what's to come from Charlie. Today we have an exclusive download for you to enjoy. Check out his cover of Wheat's "Don't I Hold You", in which he's taken a little more of a subtle approach than the original, with the drums being a slightly less prominent, sitting in the back of the mix a bit more. The focus in turn is directed more towards the vocals and progressive guitar line which works well for Charlie's style. The result is a really nice cover and it's yours to enjoy again and again below.

The lead single from Charlie's up coming full length, Young Pilgrim, "Down Down Down", hits stores on May 16th if you like what you hear and want to grab a copy. In the mean time you can enjoy this track and the 3 track EP he has offered up on his official website and this great cover below.

Charlie Simpson - Don't I Hold You by Mud Hut Digital