The Bonus Track: Southern, 'No woman no drive' and James Blake

A sideways look at the world of music

We are family

The Carpenters, Donny and Marie, Julia and Angus Stone, new Bonus Track favourites Bat and Ball … there’s usually something magical in the air when brothers and sisters team up to make music together. And now you can add the Belfast-born, Liverpool-based spooky-blues duo Southern to that list. Thom and Lucy Southern release their self-titled debut EP next month and play their first headline London show on 10 December. Ones to watch in 2014, for sure, in the meantime check out their self-made video for “World Don’t Shine”

Saudi TT

As Saudi women protested for their right to drive last week, a satirical video posted by the Saudi-born ­comedian and ­musician Hisham Fageeh went viral across the Middle East. “No Woman, No Drive” is an a cappella version of the Bob Marley song with topical lyrics: “I remember when you used to sit / In the family car, but back seat.”

For one day only

… While we’re in the Middle East region, the Israeli singer-songwriter Asaf Avidan brings his show to London’s Shepherd’s Bush Empire on 12 November. If you haven’t heard Avidan’s music, watch his international hit  “Reckoning (One Day)” and prepare to be astounded (not least at why this guy isn’t better known in the UK)

When James met Joni

“High brow … simply too cliquish to be a feasible winner”. Well done that tabloid pop pundit whose verdict of James Blake appeared the day before he won the Barclaycard Mercury Prize. Bonus Track’s favourite Blake moment? His cover of Joni Mitchell’s “A Case of You”

Next week’s biggie …

What will Kevin Harley make of Lady Gaga’s Artpop? Listen to the lead single, “Venus”