Liberty Bell: New Music Monday - Fryars, Walking On Cars, Tanya Tagaq

Cool Like Me - Fryars

Fryars, the solo artist turned Lily Allen collaborator, has released another song from his forthcoming debut album, 'Power'.

Cool Like Me is a wonderfully sophisticated synth-pop track. The slightly tongue in cheek lyrics (You owe it to yourself / You could be cool, cool like me) are layered with vocoders and set amongst house-esc strings and piano, making the whole effect incredibly chic. Think Justice meets Pheonix, that level of chic.

Liberty Belle: The So So Glos

Does anyone else miss punk bands? In my teenage years they were everywhere, yet it came as a shock to recently find a punk album in our inbox – such is the current musical landscape. The band were Brooklyn’s The So So Glos, and I had to meet them. Luckily enough for me, they were in town supporting The Hold Steady.

Liberty Belle: Chit Chat With Florrie

As part of the ‘Coffee House Sessions’ tour, Sheffield University was treated to an acoustic performance from Florrie recently. The singer, who has also played drums for Girls Aloud, showcased her new single ‘Little White Lies’ alongside reworked versions of songs by George Ezra and Imagine Dragons. We caught up with her afterwards for chit chat.

Liberty Belle: Pierces Feature

The Pierces, two sisters from Alabama, have been singing together since they were children. Since then, they’ve released five full-length albums, had their music featured on ‘Gossip Girl’ and ‘Pretty Little Liars’ (to name a couple), and supported none other than Coldplay at the itunes festival. With the sisters currently on tour supporting their latest album ‘Creation’, I spoke to Allison before their Leadmill show about the album and touring life in general.

Liberty Belle: New Music Monday

Mondays are pretty dreadful, there’s no escaping that. But in order to make them just a tiny bit brighter, we at Liberty Belle have set about making a new weekly feature. Every Monday we’ll cipher through the stacks of music we get sent to us and present to you the new music you need to power through the week.

Liberty Belle: 'Higher' by Sbtrkt ft. Raury

Following on from his collaboration with Ezra Koenig of Vampire Weekend, London based artist Sbtrkt has put out ‘Higher’ – the third piece from his forthcoming album ‘Wonder Where We Land’. 

Liberty Belle: 'I belong in Your Arms' by Chairlift

"This is a track I stumbled across whilst browsing a playlist made be The 1975. Whatever your opinion on the guys who sang ‘Chocolate’, they do have very good taste. Their playlists always contain artists like David Bowie, M83, My Bloody Valentine… The kind of lists that make music critics go weak at the knees, basically.

Liberty Belle: Blessa Feature

"Blessa are a five-piece indie band from Sheffield, who first introduced themselves via debut single ‘Between Times’. The song, typical of their sound, couples dreamy pop music with a stylistic nonchalance that effortlessly sticks in your mind.

Since then the band have released a four track EP titled ‘Love is an Evol Word’, as well as a video for opening track ‘Unfurl’. We spoke to Jake from the band to find out more about, amongst other things, the video, the reaction to their EP, and the future of the band."

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Liberty Belle: Y Not Festival Preview

"Set in the depths of Derbyshire, Y Not is one of the UK’s most popular independent festivals. With its relatively small size and annual fancy dress day, it’s garnered a reputation for being fun and friendly. This is a reputation I personally testify to. During my first visit to Y Not, myself and two others, who would have been strangers before the festival started, managed to get a picture with two members of Dog is Dead in the middle of the arena. I’ve been to many other festivals and this kind of friendly atmosphere is uncommon, let alone having bands casually hang out with festivalgoers."

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This is a piece I wrote for Y Not Festival as part of our press pass agreement. The article talks briefly about the festival in general before going through the lineup recommending artists for people to see. As well as the written piece I included a spotify playlist for artists from the line up to provide a soundtrack to the article.

Liberty Belle: Tramlines Festival Feature

"After three days of live sets, surprisingly good weather, and struggling to decide the best way to Queens Social Club, Tramlines has sadly come to a close. Despite a string of line up clashes and a slight ticket kafuffle, we’ve managed to survive the heat and report back to you on some of the best acts to perform at the festival. There might be a special mention for one of the worst too… Enjoy!"

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After live tweeting throughout the festival, I tried to incorporate this into the piece by embedding some tweets. Sadly, due to the limitations of our web host, the tweets couldn't be physically embedded and so had to be included as screen shots. As you can see, for whatever reason, this led to the tweets appearing blurry and slightly dampening the presentation of the piece. However, I think the tweets still made the review feel more authentic, albeit pixelated as well.