Savages - City's full

Time for some post-punk goodness now, as we join by far the loudest new band in London! This song - 'City's full' - off of recent album 'Silence Yourself', is absolutely cracking. It begins with a cacophony of rolling drums, dirty guitars and a bass line that really grooves. In fact, I feel that it is the bass that makes this song really great. It's not at all complicated or particular busy, it just has this incredible effect whereby it feels as though it propels each song forward. It definitely adds to the effect of singer, Jenny Beth's, french-accented monotones that seem to grip you by the shoulders and shake you till your sick...in a good way. In that it makes them seem more angry, more crazed.
Then you have the truly remarkable guitars. What is so undeniably excellent about the fret-work in this song is that one minute it is screaming and howling only to be intricate and mellow the next. This is a key aspect of this bands effect, the slow building up of the music into huge crescendos of noise and then falling straight back down into another slow build-up etc.
What you have, overall, is a great new brand of post-punk music. And it's pretty damned good!

5Q Interview - Castellers

Been listening to this 60's influenced band for a couple weeks and thought I'd get in touch for an interview. This is what happened when I interrogated Russell from The Castellers;

 

 

1. What bands or artists would you say influenced your sound?

 

Our sound is massively influenced from the 60s Mod, garage & psychedelia scene. Bands such as The Doors, The Who, 13th Floor Elevators, The Creation, The Kinks, The Who, The Byrds... we could go on but that should cover it.

 

2. What was the inspiration for your song Five Days Time?

 

 

Five days is about a bad acid trip. It fits together as a song because lyrically, which is predominantly Ryan's forte, its pretty abstract & paranoid, the wondering mind drifting in & out of trips. Musically it's a psychedelic waltz which is the perfect backdrop. On the solo breakdown, towards the end of the track, the tumbling guitar/bass line is our take on Alice falling down the rabbit hole, a bit pretentious but its cool.

 

3. What are you up to at the moment?

 

Still releasing our first set of demos, there's a few online with another two still to come. Lack of funds are slowing the process down though. They're all recorded but just need mixing.

Just about to start a set of gigs too, first of which is in Sheffield at the Lava Lounge, Thursday 18th April.

 

4. Do you have any plans for the near future?

 

More gigs, hopefully London, Manchester, Liverpool & Tramlines Festival in Sheffield. We're dying to get back in the studio as we've a load of new tracks & ideas; a Hammond organ driven song, a sitar based tack & a lot more psychedelia. But we need to find pennies to sort all that.

Management & label required!

"We're working on a sitar based track"

5. What new acts have you got you're eyes on at the mo?

 

Temples, love them. Can't remember the last time we've been this excited about a debut album.

 

 

Follow them on twitter @thecastellers

 

Album of the week- 180 -Palma Violets

This weeks album of the week is '180' by Palma Violets. I have listened to this album basically non-stop for a week. All the songs seem incredibly raw and rough, tracks like 'Johnny Bagga Donuts' and 'Tom The Drum' sound positively clash-like. The songs bass player and vocalist Chilli sings on are very punky, he has quite a raw, shouty voice, but this offers a nice contrast between the generally smooth vocals of Sam Friar, the guitarist. The lead single 'Best Of Friends' is by far the best song on the album and probably the best single of 2012. It's an absolutely classic; brilliantly catchy chorus, beautiful irreverent lyrics. A quality piece of music. But at points you feel as though songs like this prop up others like '14', 'All The Garden Birds' and 'Chicken Dippers' (although it probably has the best song title ever!). Although, after seeing them live at the NME awards tour you can tell these songs do work live. '14' in particular is a belter live, a proper sing-a-long song, but just doesn't work on the album. This is probably due to it having only two lines of lyric; 'Oh fourteen, Oh fourteen take me home, through the night.' The production also seems slightly off in places, violins in 'All the Garden Birds' almost feel awkward and really aren't necessary. But, these slight blips ignored, it's a cracker of an album. Chock-full of anthems and with really quite interesting numbers (like the slightly proggy 'Last Of The Summer Wine') it shows promise and room to grow. Which is what a debut should do!

8/10

Temples

Thought I'd write a little something about this band that have been around for a few years but with little mainstream recognition. Now, with new single: Shelter song, and air play from the likes of Huw Stephens and Steve Lamacq they've begun to get the recognition they deserve.
Tame Impala have stolen the psychedelic show for the last year and now, I think, is time for some home-grown psych talent to make it into the big time.
And, my word, have they got the tunes! Shelter song sounds very poppy and Beatles-esque. With it's easily memorable melodies and smooth, scalic keys the song immediately makes a strong (positive) impression. But the real gem of this single is the delicate, beautiful B-side; Prisms. This song highlights the crisp vocals and the complex but totally mesmerising keys.
Overall, definitely a band to watch out for in the future.
Can't wait for the album to come out later this year.

Neon Rouge - Fisty Cuffs

This band describe themselves, quite rightly, as blues-grunge, and this song certainly fits that bill.
With the main guitar riff being a heavily over driven, bluesy, angsty affair that gives off a distinct whiff of Black Keys, you can immediately get a feel for the sound they are going for; heavy blues-rock.
The vocals enter and sound very much like Jack White, the singer clearly has very good range and the recorded version has slightly distorted vocals which give the piece some grit and add's some nice raw vocal tones. The chorus is big, just how I like them and has some lightning quick vocals that offer something interesting and exciting to the song. Complete this with some steaming guitar licks and you've got yourself a very decent song. Check it out here;
https://soundcloud.com/weareneonrouge/fisty-cuffs
Another single; Black Mamba is available on soundcloud as well.
Look forward to hearing some more tracks from this lot.
Sam.

Peace new single- Follow Baby

What a tune! The guitar at the start! That's how guitars should be played; screeching with feedback and loud as you like. Then Harry Koisser's lovely croaky croon kicks and what d'you know! It's brilliant! A belter of an outro tops it all off. A proper song! 9/10! Single of the week.
Bob's yer uncle!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkUJXSvWiYE

The Strypes

I have decided to tackle the subject of The Strypes.
This Irish 4 piece have been accumulating a bit of excitement around them recently mainly because Elton John signed them and they have attracted various celebrities to their gigs (Noel Gallagher, Paul Weller etc) and also because they have a combined age of about 4.
Now I see no problem with this so far. But I then endeavoured to listen to their music and found that they we're almost entirely producing covers of old blues songs. Now, yes, they are barely toilet trained so I will give some lee-way there and the covers are good. Good. Just good, not excellent and not nearly as good as the originals. So this leaves me confused about the furor of biblical proportions that seems to surround them.
But stop Sam, you say! They do do originals! Yes they do. Three in total, and they are all completely and utterly indistinguishable from the covers they do. The songs are exceptionally mediocre. The same, worn out blues-rock format that has already been modernised and developed by the excellent White Stripes and the less excellent, but good, Black Keys. What we need is some high quality NEW music not Elton John and co weeing their knickers about what is essentially an over-rated wedding band.
I do feel, however, that given a chance to develop, this band could become a great little outfit. After all, the musicians are great and the vocals are of a reasonable standard. Why don't we all just leave them alone and give them a chance to create something new and exciting.