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Amongst freshly cut grass, children playing in the snow and the late October appearance of Christmas decorations in my local supermarket here is a list of discernibly nice things that are nice to like ( in no particular order):

Cage The Elephant — My new favourite band. I shall not bore you with blurb, but the boys met via a hippy commune in the deep south of America, stole the show on Never Mind the Buzzcocks a couple weeks back and rocked the chapel at the first gig of the Mencap Little Noise Sessions this week- Think jumping on pews and causing a right ‘ol ruckass. Great gig featuring White Lies, The Killers and Glasvegas — Eleanor Conway Presents: Glasvegas interview — to come shortly.

Stricken City — spangling, jangling pop — perfect for the Crimbo season. You should go see them just on the strength of Rebekah Raa’s (singer) name alone. Quality.

Ladyhawke — She’s a lady, but no hawk—She’s doing wicked things since speaking with us a month ago (check out the interview here) and her new video for Delirium is unleashed on the general public on the 8th of Dec….

Say aha - perhaps in a Alan Partridge or a Morton Harket kind of way but preferably in a Santogold’s latest-single-kind-of way… ‘Aha’ by Santogold. Released soon. The 24th of November to be exact.

Don’t forget to join the Eleanor Conway Presents: facebook page here for your chance to win a signed copy of Goldfrapp’s album ‘Seventh Tree’

And don’t forget to vote for Eleanor Conway to win the the Global VPass competition, closing ends end of November and you could win tickets to your local V Festival as well as a warm fuzzy feeling……… Click here to vote.

Wesley Pentz aka Diplodocus aka Diplo, has been on the scene for a minute killing it with his unique style. Arguably he’s best known for 1. Releasing one of the illest mixtapes ever with M.I.A called Piracy Funds Terrorism and 2. For dating M.I.A. But really, what he should be recognized for is introducing North America to Baile funk. In ’06 he formed his label, Mad Decent, which brings us to today as Abe Vigoda, Telepathe, Boy 8-Bit and Diplo are on 24-city tour throughout North America.

On Thursday night I got the opportunity to check them out, but admittedly I was only able to show up for parts of Boy 8-Bit’s set, but got to see Diplo’s amazing set. With that said I can’t comment on the other two acts, but when I walked in Boy 8-Bit had the crowd dancing pretty hard with his unique 8-bit like stripped sounds, hence the name. One of the joints he played had me gettin’ loose and that was the “Township Funk” remix, the build-ups and dips in that track on a great stereo system is amazing.

At around 11pm, while Boy 8-Bit was still spinning, a make shift DJ booth with lights was wheeled into the middle of the dance floor. Had everybody anticipating and wondering if Diplo was going to be spinning on this spot. They wouldn’t have to wait long as he jumped on shortly after it was wheeled out and the crowd lost their shit.

He started the set playing reggae, reggaeton mixed with RnB and transitioning into hip-hop. When his remix of N.E.R.D’s “Everyone Nose” came on, the crowds were freaking it hard on the dance floor. From there he would mix in Naffie’s “Satisfaction”, a little AC/DC, Santogold’s “Creator” before going into Lil’ Waynes “A Millie”. The song would set off a string of what I would like to dub as some serious hood anthems. Playing “Money In Da Bank”, “Hustlin”, “Hip Hop”, “Paper Planes”, and “It’s Going Down” to name a few tracks. To change it up he went from Yung Joc straight into MGMT’s “Electric Feel”, now how’s that for a complete 180, somehow it worked though.

The set would go on for about an hour and a half before he was told he had to shut down, but then was told to do two more songs. As he was selecting his tracks, my home girl, Shiva, shouted out “PLAY SOME SLOW SONGS!”. To which he obliged and dropped The Flamingos “I Only Have Eyes For You” flavored with his drums of course and followed it up with Ginuwine’s “Pony” before ending the night with the final track B.O.B from Outkast.

Probably one of the nicest dudes I met as he hung around to share some of the Girl Guide cookies he had with him and take pictures with his fans.

The night was absolutely amazing as he was able to mix it up throughout the night dropping songs you wouldn’t expect but adding his recognizable drums overtop of the tracks. Definitely check this out if this hits your city. Oh and I just got word for those out in the DMV (DC, Maryland, Virginia) area, Diplo is doing a pre-show set at Commonwealth in DC before his show at Black Cat. A big thank you goes out to Sealed With A Kiss for hooking this show up. As always check out www.sealedwithakisspresents.com for upcoming shows, as they’re always bringing in talented acts. Check out more reviews at www.killahbeez.com.

Check out the rest of our pictures here.

Tour Dates:
10-16 New York, NY - Webster Hall
10-17 Cambridge, MA - Middle East (Downstairs)
10-18 Montreal, Quebec - Cabaret Musée Juste Pour Rire
10-20 Ottawa, Ontario - Babylon
10-21 Toronto, Ontario - Circa Nightclub
10-22 Detroit, MI - Magic Stick
10-23 Chicago, IL - The Abbey
10-24 Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue
10-25 Lawrence, KS - The Granada Theatre
10-27 Denver, CO - Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom
10-28 Salt Lake City, UT - Kilby Court
10-30 Vancouver, British Columbia - Richard’s on Richards
10-31 Seattle, WA - Nectar Lounge
11-01 Portland, OR - Hawthorne Theater
11-03 San Francisco, CA - Great American Music Hall
11-04 Los Angeles, CA - Echoplex
11-05 Phoenix, AZ - The Brickhouse
11-07 Austin, TX - Emo’s
11-08 Dallas, TX - Palladium Ballroom
11-10 Atlanta, GA - Masquerade
11-11 Carrboro, NC - Cat’s Cradle
11-12 Washington, DC - Black Cat *
11-13 Baltimore, MD - Sonar
11-14 Philadelphia, PA - Starlight Ballroom

Every year, the music industry descends like hawks throughout the bowels of New York City for a week in October. 100,000 people watch 1000 bands perform in 65 different venues for CMJ (College Music Journal)’s Music Marathon. Bands crash in vans and on floors in Brooklyn, bloggers crash on couches and under their computer desks, and no one gets enough sleep. It’s pretty much musical mayhem as well as euphoria for indie rock lovers and journalists like myself because CMJ remains one of the only really true “taste-maker” festivals (like SXSW and POP Montreal). True, 80 percent of the bands you see, you’ll never hear of again but it’s the sweet 20 percent you savor: those unfound music ingenues who will set the trends for the year and become legends in two years. Daftpunk, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Spiritualized, the Foo Fighters, The Beastie Boys, Lenny Kravitz and L L Cool J all performed in a small dank bar somewherein CMJ’s 28 year history.

This year, CMJ the schedule includes: A Place To Bury Strangers, Beach House, Broken Social Scene, Cool Kids, Crystal Castles, Deerhoof, Donavon Frankenreiter, Gang Gang Dance, Jay Reatard, Lee “Scratch” Perry, Lykke Li, Minus The Bear, Roisin Murphy, Mark Ronson, The Dears and Yo Majesty.

Like last year, I am shooting CMJ for CMJ, so I’ll be sure to fill you music.virgin.com peeps in on the best and worst performances, the drama behind the DJ booth, and any or all inappropriate dance moves. To give you a taste, I included my favorite shot last year of most ‘memorable moment’ of Philly-based rapper Spankrock kissing a random audience member upside down; let me know what you think. (I might add that night, Spankrock, who performed with Santogold, invited half the crowd onstage and then towards the end of his performance, simply curled up behind the DJ booth and passed out.)

Santogold, an American songwriter, producer and singer, cannot be easily categorised. I really enjoy her music and her style can’t be put into words. She straddles indie rock, dub, new wave, punk rock, psychedelic rock, art rock, electronic, synthpop… But she has been compared to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and M.I.A. and has said that she is inspired by 1980s pop music also citing Blondie, Grace Jones and James Brown as influences.

She’ll be supporting Coldplay for most of the stops on the North American leg of their tour. I think thats more then a big deal eh?

Whatever your sound taste is I’m sure she can accommodate you in some way… that’s why I’m naming her as an artist to watch…