Playlist: HITS magazine

To celebrate the release of our first print issues, here's a playlist featuring all artists involved.

HITS x Berlin

We hosted our very first live gig in Berlin - and this is what it looked like.

Cover The HITS

Our latest video series - covers performed by our favourite acts, exclusively for us.

Video Interview: Scenic Route To Alaska

Melting away in front of Stuttgart's castle, we had a chat about touring, band names, Toy Story and a lot more.

Find us on YouTube!

Visit us on the 'tubes for interviews, exclusive performances and outtakes.

Monthly round-up: October


Hey guys,
last month I started the monthly round-up series and got really nice feedback from you.
Thanks for that! :)

Due to that I'm definitely going to write a post about what happened in October.
I must say this month has been crazily busy - I wrote about 20 reviews in 14 days, roadtripped through the country and met some really wonderful people.

A few incredible things happened behind the scenes which means they'll be online in November.
Starting tomorrow. ;)

I hope you enjoy this reflection.

EP Review: 'Sundial' by Ben Barritt


 Artist: Ben Barritt
Title: Sundial
Genre: Acoustic, Folk
Label: unsigned
Release: 19th April 2013
hits rating: 9/10
_____________________________________

 Hey guys,
Ben Barritt is a singer/songwriter from London, residing in Berlin.

I remember when I first saw him playing guitar in May 2012 during the JK headline tour I was already really impressed.

Shame it took about a year to finally get in touch and get this wonderful EP.

Needless to say I'm really excited to review his EP 'Sundial' for you now. 


Album Review: 'Honestly' by Tyler Ward (Bonus Edition)


Artist: Tyler Ward
Title: Honestly
Genre: Pop
Label: Sony Music
Release: 18th October 2013
hits rating: 8/10
_________________________________

Hey guys,
if you're familar with YouTube you probably have heard the name Tyler Ward.

He's a singer/songwriter from Denver (US) who started out by putting cover songs on YouTube in 2008.
Since then Tyler built an incredible fan base all over the world making it possible for him to tour through the US and Europe.

Now he's here with his debut album 'Honestly' and of course I'm here to review it.

Concert Review: Martin and James | Universum Club, Stuttgart - 24th Oct 2013


Main Act: Martin and James
Tour: Life's A Show Tour (with band)
Support Act: Jim Kroft (acoustic)
Date: 24th October 2013
Venue: Universum Club, Stuttgart
hits rating: sorry, they broke the scale/10
____________________________________________

Hey guys,
I again was lucky enough to see my three favourite musicians on stage.
Yes, I visited another Martin and James concert where Jim Kroft was opening. 

Interview: elias (part 2)



Hey guys,
today I present you part 2 of my interview with the German band elias.
Again there's going to be the 'original' version in the beginning and you'll find a translation if you scroll down. 

If you haven't seen part 1 yet, hurry up and do it!
Click heeeeeeeeere.

So Leute, jetzt nochmal auf Deutsch.
Heute gibt's Teil 2 des Interviews mit elias, die Links der Jungs findet ihr wieder nach der Ãœbersetzung.

Wer Teil 1 noch nicht gelesen hat, sollte das ganz schnell nachholen!
Klickt hiiiiiiier.

Interview: elias (part 1)


Hey guys,
today I've got some quite different content for you.
Yeah, it's an interview but in German.
But don't worry, if you scroll down you'll find a translation. ;)

Hallo Leute,
ich werde wohl immer eine Weile brauchen, mich auf's Deutsch schreiben umzustellen,
aber gut.
Letzte Woche war ich in Berlin und habe dort Elias, Max und Adrian von der Band elias zum Interview getroffen.

Get To Know: The Assist



Hey guys,
the very cool guys of The Assist gave house in the sand a quick visit and answered some questions so you can get to know them.
Enjoy! : )


Who are you?
We are a 4 piece indie/alternative band from Walsall.
The lads are Mikey Stanton on Vocals, Ryan Stanton on Guitar, Jak Baker on Bass and Ben Faulkner on drums

Instagram, please save me.



Hey guys,
I have to be honest with you: I forgot to prepare a post for today.
Normally things like this don't happen but apparently I'm just human and I make mistakes.

All posts I'm currently working on take an awful amount of time to finish so there's nothing I could show you today - 

except: some pictures.
Instagram pictures to be exact.

I quite like this app and I love sharing random photos so here are some.

Again, I hope you can forgive me for not preparing anything. I guess the upcoming content will be worth today's mess. :)

Concert: Martin and James | Magnet Club, Berlin - 17th Oct 2013


Main Act: Martin and James
Tour: Life's A Show Tour (with band)
Support Act: Jim Kroft (with Ben Barritt)
Date: 17th October 2013
Venue: Magnet Club, Berlin
hits rating: 10000000/10
___________________________________________________

Hey guys,
wow. 

 I returned home from a two day trip from Berlin to interview the band Elias (online soon) and see Martin and James in concert. 

Of course I took pictures and even filmed (yay me!) so I'm going to share all of this amazing stuff with you.

EP Review: 'Look.See.Don't.Trip' by Kismet Ryding


Band: Kismet Ryding
Title: Look.See.Don't.Trip
Genre: Rock
Label: unsigned
Release: 14th October 2013
hits rating: 9/10
 ______________________________________________

Hey guys,
Kismet Ryding, a psychedelic garage rock band from Grisby (UK) just released their new EP 'Look.See.Don't.Trip'.

The band formed in 2009 after a party in the Humphreys kitchen. Starting in the kitchen the guys have taken a good walk and manage it to be played on a handful radio stations and are loved by the blogosphere.

Album Review: 'Two Birds, One Stone Later' by NARCS


Band: NARCS
Title: Two Birds, One Stone Later
Genre: Alternative Rock
Label: Clue Records
Release: 2nd September 2013
hits rating: 8/10
_________________________________________

Hey guys,
NARCS, the four-piece band from Leeds (UK) released their debut album 'Two Birds, One Stone Later' in September.
The band had several plays on radio and managed to record it within two days.

NARCS are:
Wilko (vocals, guitar)
Joe (guitar, vocals)
John (bass, vocals)
Stanley (drums, vocals)

The HITS Playlist: part 4



Hey guys,
as you can probably tell by having a look at the topic - it's house in the sand playlist time.

The hits playlist consists of all the artists that have been featured so far.
As quite a few artists have visited the little house it's split off into multiple parts.

Here's part 4:

Album Review: 'Yellow Lorry' by Andrew Ferris


 Artist: Andrew Ferris
Title: Yellow Lorry
Genre: Folk,
Label: unsigned
Release: 8th October 2013
hits rating: 8/10
________________________________________________

Hey guys,
the record I'm reviewing today got released after a Google hangout concert which was visited by 200 people.
Those words speak a lot, don't they?
Andrew Ferris just released his album 'Yellow Lorry' and asked me to review it. Of course I didn't say no to an offer like that.
Andrew is a singer/songwriter from the United Kingdom who's currently living in Austria.
Tracklist:
1) Smile
2) Moving On
3) Lost At Sea
4) The Little Things
5) Little Bird
6) The Fall Of Man
7) Faster Than The Leaves
8) Something Changed
9) The Remainder

EP Review: 'Sea Of Yards' by Greg McEvoy


Artist: Greg McEvoy
Title: Sea Of Yards
Genre: Folk-Rock
Label:
unsigned
Release: 17th September 2013
hits rating:
9/10
___________________________________________________

Hey guys,
today I'm happy to share my review of Greg McEvoy's EP 'Sea Of Yards' with you.
Greg is a singer/songwriter from Toronto (Canada) and you could define his music is folk rock.

 Tracklist: 
1) Someone Who's Around
2) The Words In My Head
3) Alone In The Fire
4) Forever
5) Fear Of Love
6) All This Time
7) Kerouac

Interview: Ben Barritt

"Hey Ben."
"Hi."
"Can I have the set list, please?"
"Sure."
"Thanks, I'll buy your EP now."
"Oh, that's how it works?!"

And that's how I got into a little conversation with Ben Barritt.
And guess what? That conversation turned into an interview!

I'm really excited for you to get to know the singer/songwriter and guitarist (amazing guitarist!). 
So stay tuned to see what Ben tells us about starting out as a musician, John Mayer's lyrics, Jim Kroft and a lot more...

Get To Know: Eutopia


Hey guys,
 another wonderful duo sat down to answer the 'Get To Know' questions.
Eutopia are introducing themselves to you and I really hope you enjoy the lovely details they shared with us.
(I love the insight of their lives! :) )

Who are you?
We are Eutopia a London based electro-rock/power-pop duo, Alexander Kotziamanis and Leah Lennick. Alexander plays the guitars (lead, rhythm and bass) and vocals. Leah does the keys and synths and is also a vocalist.
We both write the music and lyrics as a team. Both were born and raised in London, though Alexander has greek Cypriot heritage. 

 How would you describe your music?
Our sound was once called 'Decadance'. We like this. It's hard to sum up as we try to make music that defies genre stereotypes. We mix the big guitars and choruses from classic rock, add some straight up dance beats, bass and synths sprinkle over some classical orchestration and some vocal harmonies...but then again we also like a simple, well played riff, a pretty piano line, a rough vocal with a lot of passion.
What ever fits the song.

Monthly Round-Up: September




Hey guys,
today's post is something quite new for HITS. 
It's a round-up of all posts published in September.
I thought this kind of summary of the month could be useful for those of you who are not able to check out every blogpost I write but still would like to stay up to date.

And it's nice to reflect what happened during one month, right? :)

Get To Know: Evilyn Strange


 Hey guys,
it's get to know time!
This time around it's the rock band Evilyn Strange who tells you a bit more about them.
The band was founded in 2008 and is part English, part Swedish.

All members have been playing together since 1996 which is my year of birth and that means these guys have to be good, right?


Get to know them now:

Who are you?
EVILYN STRANGE is a power trio featuring Al Strange (drums, backing vocals, Mikael Johannesson (lead guitar) and Phillip Strange (lead vocals, bass)

How would you describe your music?
The band plays a brand of guitar driven hard rock, mixing styles of the 60's, 70's, 80's and 90's. We like to cross into other genres too in order to keep it interesting.

Single Review: 'Monsters' by Bloody Diamonds


 Band: Bloody Diamonds
Title: Monsters
Genre: Hard Rock
Label: Strange Blood Records / Be One Music
Release: 12th March 2013
hits rating: 9/10
_________________________________________

Hey guys,
today I've got a 2-track single review for you.
The band Bloody Diamonds sent me their tunes a while ago to review them for you.

Bloody Diamonds is a hard rock band from Halifax (Canada) and so far they've released their debut album called 'They've Got Secrets' and their most recent single 'Monsters' which is the one I'm going to talk about today.

Tour Tip: Martin and James with special guest Jim Kroft

 
It's the unexpected things in life that make it awesome!

Hey guys,
with that being said you probably already get that I'm a bit excited right now.
('a bit'
is an understatement but that's another topic)

So informed blog readers already know that Martin and James are going on tour - this month.
And informed Twitter readers also already know that Jim Kroft is supporting them.