Victoria Hesketh (born 4 May 1984), known professionally as Little Boots, is a British electronic musician. She sings, plays synthesizers, the Yamaha tenori-on and the stylophone. She was the former lead singer/synth player in Dead Disco.

Hesketh was born in Thornton-Cleveleys near Blackpool, Lancashire and now lives in London. She attended Rossall School, Blackpool Sixth Form College and then the University of Leeds, gaining a first-class honours degree in Cultural Studies, with a dissertation on “The concept of originality in the music of Jamie Cullum”.

At the age of 18, Hesketh participated in television talent show Pop Idol, being eliminated after three rounds. She went on to form a Jazz trio, toured Europe with a big band, and later formed the dance-pop band Dead Disco, gradually shifting away from the band and their style, she began to write songs of her own and left Dead Disco in August 2007. Her solo stage name comes from a nickname given to her by a friend after watching Caligula (the Latin name Caligula translates as “little boots”).

Little Boots appeared on Later… with Jools Holland in November 2008. She has collaborated with electropop band Hot Chip. In December 2008 she was completing her début album with producer Greg Kurstin.

The track Stuck On Repeat was produced by Joe Goddard from Hot Chip and was released on limited 12” white-label vinyl in March 2008. The track gained popularity via attention from many popular music blogs.

She released her second single Meddle on 18th August 2008 on the 50 bones label. It was available as a limited-edition 7” and was produced by both Joe Goddard and Greg Kurstin.

In January 2009, she won the BBC Sound of 2009 previously won by the likes of Keane, Mika and Adele. (BBC link)

Her début album “Hands” was released in June 2009, with the lead single “New in Town” charting at #13. “Hands” peaked at #5 on the UK charts.

Little Boots performed at numerous festivals in summer 2009 to support the début album.

Little Boots is now known to be a popular electro and indie star with the youth community.
www.littlebootsmusic.co.uk

Little Boots - Remedy from David Wilson Creative on Vimeo.

Los Ex is a Chilean rock band. It consists of Colombina Parra (vocals), Claudius Rieth (bass), Hernan Edwards (guitar) and Octavio Bascuñán (drums). They have released three records, Caida Libre (1996, as Ex), Cocodrila (2007) and Pistola de plastico (2009)

Rosal from Argentina.

Their first record “Educación sentimental” was recorded by Marcelo Ezquiaga during 2002 at Montreux studios. It includes a Leo García remix of the song ‘Educación Sentimental’ and also a video of the same song directed by Ignacio Masllorens. At the recording Maria Ezquiaga (guitar and lead voice), Julieta Ulanovsky (bass y chorus) and Sebastián Ostolaza (drums) played. This album had the collaboration of guests such as Pedro Giorlandini (piano), Pablo Kessel (guitar) y Marcelo Ezquiaga (keyboard and chorus).

On November 2004 Rosal recorded their second album, live at Concreto studios. They finished after only three days and barely without any over recordings in order to keep the real essence of the group at their shows.

“Música para el cuidado de un jardín.”

The Muffs are a rock band based in Southern California, formed in 1991.

After releasing their initial 7” EPs and singles independently and on local labels, The Muffs signed to Warner Bros in the early ’90s. The band was heavily promoted along with acts such as Mudhoney in the hope of repeating the commercial success of Green Day. Despite the wide exposure afforded by appearing on a wide variety of movie soundtracks (“Clueless” director Amy Heckerling, in particular, had taken a keen interest in their songs) as well as a lucrative Fruitopia commercial, The Muffs were eventually dropped from the label. The Muffs have since continued to release new records on various independent labels.

The Muffs’ leader is singer-songwriter Kim Shattuck. The original lineup also included guitarist Melanie Vammen (like Shattuck, a former member of 1980s all-female garage rock outfit The Pandoras), bassist Ronnie Barnett and drummer Criss Crass. Vammen and Crass left after the band’s self-titled debut album. Crass was replaced by Jim Laspesa for their 1993 tour with the Goo Goo Dolls, and later by Roy McDonald in 1994. Ironically, McDonald’s former band Redd Kross had released a 1987 single, “Play My Song,” whose chorus was viewed by many as directed toward The Pandoras, who had recently moved into a hair metal direction: “No metal sluts or punk rock ruts for me, oh no.” The Muffs have been a 3-piece since 1995 with members Kim Shattuck, Ronnie Barnett and Roy McDonald.

The Muffs are currently taking a long break from music but have announced they have not broken up.

A character on Mr. Show (HBO, 1995-1999) was named Dr. Shattuck, this was a reference to the lead singer of The Muffs.

Denisse Malebrán (born May 28th, 1976 in Santiago, Chile) is a chilean singer-songwriter, and former vocalist of Pop rock band Saiko. In 2006, after 8 years, she decided to left Saiko to pursue a solo career. In August 2007 she released her first solo album, Maleza, which featured more Pop folk/acoustic-oriented songs, which marked a difference to her previous works with her former band. Her first single, “A veces tú”, was a hit in local radios, as well as the second one, “A viajar”. Her support band is formed by Paulo Ahumada (Guitar), Alexander Yearling (Bass) and Rodrigo Kanamori (Battery).

A fantastically dark and unsettling debut. Deceptively light on the ear at first, Polly’s curious mixture of the everyday and the fantastic carries a serrated knife-edge. The musical backdrops - odd piano loops, discreet guitars, flutters of synth and adeptly deployed electronic percussion frame songs in which you can’t get away from what Polly emotes. She has set a high-water mark for herself with this debut that she can and surely will surpass. The mind boggles - in a great way - as to exactly what she’ll be up to in 10 years time.” - NME - 8/10 Polly Scattergood is a singer songwriter from Essex, England. She has been described as ethereal, dark, intense and quirky while her musical style has been described as “early 21st century electro-dance-pop of London proper”. On November 10 2008 Scattergood was a guest on the Rob Da Bank show where three of her songs were played (“I Hate The Way”, “Untitled 27” & “Nitrogen Pink”). Da Bank called her “The Kate Bush of the 21st century”. Later that month, on the 28th, she played an acoustic set on the Janice Long show (“I Hate The Way”, “Please Don’t Touch” & “I’ve Got A Heart”). When asked about her discovery of music, she replied, “I found a guitar when I was about 12, in the coat cupboard, it had maybe 3 strings on it … I just taught myself”.

Polly Scattergood - Other Too Endless from Mute Records on Vimeo.

Sonic Youth is an influential experimental rock band which formed in New York City, New York, United States in 1981. The current lineup consists of Thurston Moore (vocals, guitar), Kim Gordon (vocals, bass, guitar), Lee Ranaldo (vocals and guitar), Mark Ibold (bass) and Steve Shelley (drums). In their early career, Sonic Youth was associated with the No Wave art and music scene in New York City. Part of the first wave of American noise rock groups, the band carried out their interpretation of the hardcore punk ethos throughout the evolving American underground that focused more on the DIY ethic of the genre rather than its specific sound. As a result, Sonic Youth was pivotal in the rise of the alternative rock movement. Sonic Youth have expressed a wide variety of influences, ranging from the influential protopunk musician Patti Smith to composer John Cage. The band has been praised for having “redefined what rock guitar could do”, using a wide variety of unorthodox guitar tunings, and preparing guitars with objects like drumsticks and screwdrivers to alter the instruments’ timbre.

Dead Disco were Victoria Hesketh (now known as Little Boots), Lucy Catherwood and Marie France (now known as Video Villain). Together they formed one of the most thrilling and stunning new bands in the UK.

Dead Disco stepped straight out of the burgeoning Leeds’ music scene – onto indie dancefloors and into hearts. With a terrific mix of new wave, indie and pop, they instantly created a buzz amongst locals and all over the UK.

Lucy and Marie met Victoria in August 2005 whilst at University in Leeds, United Kingdom and the trio instantly bonded over a mutual love for The Bangles, Blondie, The Killers, Billy Idol, Gang of Four, The Slits and The Rapture. They released four singles: ‘The Treatment’ (High Voltage) ‘City Place’ (Playlouder) ‘Automatic’ (Fierce Panda) and ‘You’re Out’ (679).

For both ‘The Treatment’ and ‘Automatic’ Dead Disco teamed up with producer du jour James Ford. The result sounds like an unlikely, but genial, meeting between Ladytron and Girls Aloud (with added guitars), making ‘Automatic’ an incredibly infectious slice of pop perfection. ‘Automatic’ has an equally contagious video (directed by Saam Farahmand - the guy responsible for the Klaxons’ ‘Gravity’s Rainbow’ and ‘Atlantis to Interzone’ Videos) that features the girls stylistically thrashing about inside a revolving cube. Dead Disco disbanded in December 2008 because of unknown causes (you can read here).

After this, the girls concentrated on their own projects: Victoria Hesketh on Little Boots, Lucy Catherwood and Marie France on Video Villain.

Jenny Vegas (guitar/vocals), Claire Blake (bass), Dawn Mandarino (guitar), and Michelle Lemoignan (drums) formed the Canadian power punk outfit Tuuli in 1997, with the ambition to assimilate Nuggets-styled garage punk (the Chocolate Watchband, the Kingsmen) and Detroit rock (the Stooges) with more slanted, hook-laden indie in the vein of Blondie or the Manic Street Preachers. Retaining a base in Toronto, Tuuli worked a series of Canadian music festivals and began a handful of infrequent tours to the United States, opening for the likes of Kittie and Cheap Trick, and peppering the visits with sporadic spots on a few national television shows. Their reverence for their heroes could be heard early, on EPs like the limited self-released Hotrods & Honeysuckle and the more widely available Rockstar Potential disc, offering an alternative to the Ramones idolatry of similar girl groups like the Donnas.