Shazamers' Blog

To celebrate the release of their latest album ‘This Modern Glitch’, UK indie upstarts The Wombats have launched The Wombatizer: a unique web tool that lets you take-over any website and hunt for competitions and prizes!

All you need to do is head here, enter any website URL you want to take over and start searching. After Wombatizing the page, you’ll be able to scratch over images with your mouse and reveal hidden content from the band; including exclusive videos, pictures and competitions.

When you find the above picture, use your Shazam app to identify the unique audio and you’ll receive a competition code. Enter that code with your name and email, then you could be in with a chance to see the band in at Sala Apolo in Barcelona on May 21^st. The prize also includes flights and accommodation for you and a friend*.

We also have an exclusive download of ‘Jump In The Fog’ (Crystal Fighters Remix), for all Shazamers’ readers. Head here to claim your free mp3.

*Terms and conditions apply.

Jon Davies Competitions The Wombats

Wretch 32 follows up the huge success of ‘Traktor’ with ‘Unorthdox’.

Stephen Titmus Shazam New Release Chart UK Wretch 32

Shazamers – you can do your bit to help rebuild Japan by downloading “Songs for Japan” – a 38 track benefit album featuring hits from the world’s top recording artists, including an exclusive remix of Lady GaGa’s “Born This Way“, Bruno Mars’ “Talking to the Moon“, Adele’s “Make You Feel My Love” and more.

All proceeds go directly to the disaster relief efforts in Japan through the Japanese Red Cross Society. The artists, music labels and music publishers have all waived their royalties and proceeds from worldwide sales of the album to ensure the JRCS receives as much support as possible.

Songs for Japan is available now through iTunes – priced $9.99/€9.99/£7.99.

LeeMc News

Britney’s latest ‘Till The World Ends’ claims another week at number 1.

Stephen Titmus Shazam New Release Chart USA Britney Spears

Matt and Kim are a feisty NYC duo who take an inventive spin on indie rock, combining Kim’s innovative drumming with Matt’s vocals and keyboard – producing destructive dance-punk melodies.

Whilst in the UK we caught up with the pair to set down a small challenge; to see who could name a song faster; Matt and Kim or Shazam? With three million recognitions made every single day on our apps and an exhaustive musical database, could Matt & Kim compete? To find out what happened in the challenge watch the video above.

Matt and Kim formed in 2004 and last year they released their third studio album ‘Sidewalks’, to purchase the new album head here. The band are also touring in Europe in March and then a comprehensive American tour in June, you can check out the list of dates here.

Hazel Savage Shazam Sessions Matt & Kim

This week Lady Gaga broke another milestone, by becoming the first person to reach 9 million followers on Twitter. The ‘Born This Way’ singer has now overtaken pop sensation Justin Bieber, who follows with 8.4 million. Gaga now also commands a larger online following than Barrack Obama and Britney Spears.

Today also marks the singers 25^th birthday, to celebrate she Tweeted a picture of a birthday message scribbled on a table with the message, “Drawing on table at restaurant. If I had to give it all back, but got to keep my fans, that’d be ok.”

The singer is currently taking her live show ‘The Monster Ball’ across the US and this week received a visit from Rock and Roll legend Alice Cooper.

Jon Davies News Lady Gaga

Hassling Kanye West in the middle of a radio interview is not usually a great idea, but it paid off big time for Sean Anderson. Big Sean not only left a big impression but also a demo tape, a recording which eventually saw him signed up to West’s GOOD Music label. Under West’s tutelage Sean got cracking with a trio of mixtapes to lay the ground for his debut album, the appropriately titled ‘Finally Famous’. The album not only featured a massive roll-call of A-list contributors, The Dream, Drake to Mr. Hudson and Mike Posner to name a few, but also had Mr West in the producer’s chair. ‘My Last’ was the first single from the album and sees Sean team up with Chris Brown and legendary Chicago producer No I.D (Common, Jermaine Dupri) to come up with a piano driven number underpinned by some neat chord progressions and rolling percussion. Brown adds a smooth touch to the choruses but it’s really a platform for Sean to show what he’s made of.

Stephen Titmus Tag Of The Day Big Sean, Chris Brown, KanYe West

This year’s Coachella Festival is rapidly approaching. With around 250,000 festival goers set to enjoy sets from Kanye West, Kings Of Leon, The Strokes and Arcade Fire; all in the gorgeous desert setting of Indio, California. Tickets for the event sold out in a matter of days, so those who weren’t quick off the mark will have to wait till next year. For the people who grabbed tickets in time, Coachella boasts a fantastic line up to rival any festival this year.

To get you in the mood, Brooklyn duo The Kickdrums have compiled a Coachella 2011 Mixtape – that’s free to download from their website.  The pair have remixed a variety of artists from Kanye West to Peter, Bjorn & John and have also worked with 50 Cent, Ben Harper and Good Charlotte. On the mix The Kickdrums mix a variety of genres, Whiz Khalifa and Cee Lo Green feature along with Ariel Pink, Duran Duran and DFA 1979.

For those lucky enough to attend, it will provide the perfect warm up. And for us less fortunate ones? Just enjoy the mix and the fact that you’ll escape the inevitable “Coachella Neck” sunburn.

Kanye WCoachella 2011 Mixtape by The Kickdrums

Jon Davies Gigs/ Events Coachella

James Blake returned last night to the cozy premises of St. Pancras Old Church, the same venue that just a few weeks ago was chosen for the presentation gig of his eagerly awaited debut album. The religious building became the perfect environment to showcase the warmth of his remarkably soulful voice, as well the intimacy and ethereal quality of his tracks. Support came by the hand of two new folk-rock acts from London, Cloud Boat and Catherine Okada, who nicely set the quiet but vibrant tone for the evening.

James Blake hit the stage with a band formed by a drummer and a guitar player, also in charge of some of the samples. The short but impressive set mostly focused in the tracks of his recent album and left behind favourites from the early groundbreaking EPs that helped cement his reputation as one of electronica’s most gifted young artists.

His live performance was an assured display of both technical skill and experimental spirit. A background in the fields of minimal techno and dubstep provided the heavy sampled bass lines that echoed through the church’s acoustics; building up magnificent and quite scary array of wall shattering effects. All in perfect harmony with his voice, which he uses as the main instrument for his compositions, treating it with multiple effects and creating vocal loops that when juxtaposed, form a hypnotically polyphonic impression.

Among the highlights, ‘I Never Learnt To Share’ was close to literally bringing the house down and his breakthrough cover of Feist’s ‘Limit To Your Love’. The track which opened the doors of radio stations and a wider public to the South Londoner - earning him comparisons with former electronica artists turned soulmen, Jamie Lidell. Live it reached new sonic heights; as did the latest single ‘The Wilhelm Scream’, which featured supporting band Cloud Boat back onstage adding some brass.

For the encore, Blake performed another cover, his rendition of Joni Mitchell’s ‘A Case Of You’ that has become a fixture in the blogosphere since he first played it during a recent BBC session. Here, we saw the artist’s in full acoustic manner at his most stripped down, just piano and vocals; mind-blowingly simple, yet truly touching. Altogether, one of the best live shows we’ve seen this year; strong enough to convert even the most cynical among those few who still remain unconvinced of James Blake’s unique talents.

Roberto Gonzalez Gigs/ Events james blake

Crystal Fighters are undoubtedly one of the most conceptually original bands to emerge from British shores in recent years. Their sound mashes erratic electronic sounds with traditional Spanish folk music to create a surprisingly palatable result and, on their latest single ‘At Home’, something that has impressive pop leanings. During a short interview the band’s lead singer Sebastian dropped a few interesting factoids about the group. The fact that the group take their name and chief inspiration by an unfinished book written by one of the band’s grandfather is pretty cool. As is the fact that the Txalaparta, a xylophone type instrument that seems to underpin a lot of the group’s most catchy riffs, was originally made from beams in cider factories.

The group also revealed a love of some seriously eclectic odd-ball music. From Frank Zappa to Spanish proto-punk, below Seb reveals five tracks that are currently getting heavy rotation on the Crystal Fighters’ tour van.
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Stephen Titmus Shazam Playlist Crystal Fighters, Frank Zappa