WAX FUTURES - SINGLE REVIEW

Wax Futures - Breadcrumbs (Wolftown DIY) 

Wax Futures - Breadcrumbs

I love it when I get emails from bands saying "you reviewed our mates so will you review us?". It makes about as much sense as approaching a girl in a bar and asking her if she fancies a bunk up based on the fact that she's already done the nasty with your best mate. However, as much as that chat-up technique sound ridiculous it's bound to work once in a while and so does sending out demos to blogs that have reviewed your mates. Wax Futures (they're mates with Beat The Poet by the way, I knew that would niggle at you if I didn't tell you) are a trio from Telford who specialise in the urgent, the desperate and the relentless. Lead track, 'Breadcrumbs', lurches in to life with a circular, almost mechanical riff that makes me want to reach for my Young Knives collection before the vocals kick in and everything becomes much angrier. There's a very British feel to this music with bands like Reuben and Hundred Reasons seeping through despite the obvious At The Drive-In tendencies. 'Histories' is a more arty, considered track with name checks for Romero and Verhoven and the lyric "Just between me and you, I learnt my moves from Terminator 2" appealing to the film geek in all of us. Wax Futures have a tight, punchy sound that is infectious and never more so than on final track, 'Smoke & Mirrors' which has the early 00s post-hardcore scene running right through its bitter, twisted core. As with the majority of bands in this genre, relentless gigging, death defying live shows and endless nights sharing the same sleeping bag await but they have the songs to back it up so it's just a question of whether they have the cajones.

More information: https://www.facebook.com/waxfutures

Live dates:

8th June - Midwest West Midlands @ The Wagon & Horses, Birmingham

CATFISH AND THE BOTTLEMEN - SINGLE REVIEW

Catfish And The Bottlemen - Homesick (Communion Records) 

Catfish and the Bottlemen - Homesick

Release Date: 17th June

Contradiction. Great word. I overused it in my A-Level English essays but then I got myself an A so I must have used it right well. Catfish and Bottlemen are a beautiful contradiction of a band that I'm finding it hard to ignore. For example, within their microcosm, they have a band name that sounds like a minor character from Neighbours backed by a bunch of unemployed milkmen but they swagger and sneer like Llandudno's answer to the Strokes (finally). This, their debut single, is a punky two minutes and 27 seconds long but features an atmospheric intro, a stadium sized chorus and chunky guitar solo. They sound like Kings of Leon at their peak or the latest offering from the Maccabees but look like the Arctic Monkeys when they just started out or Hot Hot Heat before it all went wrong. Contradiction is a wondrous thing in music though and it's much more exciting to play a song that you have preconceptions about only to have them turned on their head than it is to, say, open up a bag of Skittles only to find that they switched all the flavours and colours around (seriously, who thought that was a good idea? There will be backstage staff in stadia the world over doing their nut about which ones to take out for the headline act). Anyway, I digress, for a single this is a great tune but for a debut single by a bunch of young lads from a small town this is immense. They're touring hard to there's no excuse not to go and see them so get your sweet asses out there and support something genuinely exciting.

More information:

http://www.catfishandthebottlemen.com/ 

Live dates:

May 31st - Friars Court, Warrington

June 3rd - Barfly, London

June 5th - Victoria Inn, Derby

June 6th - Central Station, Wrexham

June 13th  - 10 Feet Tall, Cardiff

June 14th - 53 Degrees, Preston

June 15th - Telford's Warehouse, Chester

June 22nd - The Cockpit, Leeds

July 6th - X & Y Festival, Liverpool

July 21st - Tramlines Festival, Sheffield

SOUVENIR STAND - EP REVIEW

Souvenir Stand - Days (Beautiful Strange) 

Souvenir Stand - Days

Stephanie Cupo is a New Jersey native with a penchant for the 60s and an aversion to looking directly at cameras. She is also the sole driving force behind the sublime Souvenir Stand, the latest offering from the absurdly talented Beautiful Strange label. Souvenir Stand's latest offering is a four track EP limited to 100 copies on an orange cassette tape, natch. From the opening lazy bass notes and subsequent perky guitar flicks of 'Wherever You Go', you know that Cupo is all about the authentic and that sunny 60s vibe just floats effortlessly through my speakers. 'All I Want To Know' could have been lifted straight from the Phil Spector stable and is adorable with its delightful mix of puppydog-eyed sadness and childlike melodies played out on the xylophone and Beach Boys-esque organs. Indeed, throw in the thundering timpani drum percussion and a fade out ending and, well, I'm pretty much hooked on this girl already. Cupo is part Dusty, part Sandie and is cute as a button but would be able to hold her own in a fight - she's a Jersey girl after all.

What with this coming out on cassette tape and all, I'm assuming that track three, 'Days I've Spent With You', is the start of side 2 and what a huge tune to start with. Motown pianos with punctuating tambourines underpin Cupo's sultry voice as she sings of the seasons passing in a song that, for some reason, reminds me of Michelle Pfeiffer singing 'A Girl For All Seasons' in Grease 2 - not necessarily a bad thing. The EP finishes up with 'We Will Have Our Day', perhaps the darkest song in this collection, suggesting that Souvenir Stand have a future as a songwriting operation with the breathy, Beatlesy organs adding a wistful tone to the layers of honky-tonk piano before the song ends up like a closing number from Annie or a really sad episode of Sesame Street. I'm genuinely dumfounded by this collection as the music, references and sentiment are so pure that it seems impossible to imagine that someone who has grown up in the modern era could have created it. The childlike qualities juxtaposed with the maturity of the songwriting make this an enthralling listen that, I fear, may go down as one of those underground hits that nobody ever hears about. Still, from New Jersey to Devon via London is not bad for reaching out to the world and that would've taken weeks and a year's wages in the 60s so I guess the modern world isn't all bad, eh?

More information:

https://www.facebook.com/souvenirstand?fref=ts // http://beautifulstrange.bandcamp.com/

HOOK AND THE TWIN - SINGLE REVIEW

Hook and the Twin - That Was A Day

Hook and the Twin - That Was A Day (Free Download)

During my 10 year stretch in London I met and befriended a number of people who had been born outside the UK but had come here to follow dreams, fall in love or just to live a life they couldn't live elsewhere. I always felt that these people, if they hung around long enough, seemed to become more English than I was in that they knew more about real ales, could play cricket and had more early Bowie records than I did. Hook and the Twin kinda remind me of these people in that, in my head, their music couldn't sound more continental but this song has an undeniably English feel to it. Drummer Marcus Efstratiou and Everything-else-ist Tom Havelock, for they are Hook and the Twin, have created a dreamy, electro-acoustic pop tune that is a modern day version of the Beatles' 'A Day In The Life' which is hard to resist - not that you should try. 'That Was A Day' is the bastard child of some kind of inter-genre love in between Kraftwerk, the Beach Boys, LCD Soundsystem, Temposhark and Ben's Symphonic Orchestra and you can tell it's parents had fun making it. Insistent beats, dreamy vocals and twinkly, sprinkly synths make for a perfect summery record that should soundtrack many a morning-after-the-night-before realisations and clean up operations at house parties around the UK this summer. There is an album to follow in June and, for once, here is a band that seem to have got their timing just right - providing summer decides to turn up that is...

More information & Free Download:

http://www.hookandthetwin.com/

Live Dates:

14th June - Old Blue Last, London

ATHLETES IN PARIS - ALBUM REVIEW

Athletes In Paris - Head.Bowl.Custard.

Athletes In Paris - Head. Bowl. Custard (The Animal Farm Label)

Release Date: 1st May

When I reviewed the single 'Borrowed Time' by these chaps a while back I thought that would probably be that, as they say. It was a jaunty, well constructed indie-pop song that had a lot going for it but the cheeky North Easterners didn't do anything to suggest that they had a whole album in them. So when their album, 'Head. Bowl. Custard.' landed in my inbox I honestly didn't know what to expect - apart from the fact that it's pretty much one of the worst album titles I've ever come across. What I'm pleased to report is that Athletes In Paris have managed to create the improbable sound of Maximo Park mixed with Wham! There is an impossible amount of sunshine and fun in this music for a band that spends the majority of its time in the grey North East and they should be applauded for that if nothing else. Songs like 'Suzie' and 'Heartbeat' are infectiously upbeat and 'Borrowed Time' sounds as good as ever (possibly even better) in the context of the album. Handclaps aplenty, jangly guitars all over the shop, pumping dance beats and harmonies dripping in an irresistibly regional accent (I'm a sucker for singers with accents) make this a guilty pleasure that I feel guilty for calling a guilty pleasure (do you follow?).

On '24/7 Job' the lads flex their creative muscles and show off their abilities to play with rhythms, toy with harmonies and grapple with more meaty lyrical content. 'All Systems Go' has a clockwork-like rhythm that is hard to resist and 'Echoes Louder Than Voices' shows the band exploring their heavier side - albeit in a slightly Savage Garden kinda way. Let's face it, this is uplifting and shameless pop with indie references but it is expertly crafted and is a million miles better than just about anything else calling itself pop these days. For one thing, every song is original, written by the performers, features no samples and I'd bet you any money that Will.I.Am. hasn't even heard of Athletes In Paris (his loss, not theirs....or ours for that matter). I'm a bit concerned that on 'No Bridge, No Crossing Allowed' there seems to be a drunk saxophonist just dicking around in the background trying to drag the band back in to the 90s, but if Muse can get away with 'Panic Station' then I'll forgive these guys one wig-out per album. Another clue that this is a pop album is that it comes in comfortably under the half hour mark and, as it finishes with the mellowed out 'Just Decline', you get the strong feeling that with a couple of huge singles these guys could be entertaining sun drenched crowds at various summer festivals for some time to come. The other option is that they could start churning out hits for the likes of Olly Murs and Cheryl Cole in their sleep but I think that would be a waste of their talents and would only keep Olly from more pressing matters - like concentrating on the best angle to dip your head to in order to look up and be cute to maximum effect. Athletes In Paris then; poppy, sunny, fun, talented and much, much more than just a bunch of hat racks.

More information:

http://athletesinparis.com/

BRIGHTLIGHT CITY - SINGLE REVIEW

Brightlight City - Start At The End 

Brightlight City - Start At The End

Release Date: 13th May

What do you get when you mix Hard-Fi, Vampire Weekend and Fall Out Boy? Surrey quintet Brightlight City is what you get, and not in a good way. This is classic example of having most of the right ingredients but not having a clue how to put them together to create a dish that's fit for consumption. Sure, the guitars are tight and there is a big, shouty bridge that is obviously designed to get the crowd singing along but everything just needs a bit more effort. The vocals sound too high in the mix, the bass is almost non-existent and the pace of the song just sounds like the moment when you realised that your walkman batteries are starting to run down - the song sounds OK but you always get to the chorus a fraction of a second before the band do.  According to the band's facebook page, they are all involved in projects like ghost hunting and running a radio station - I would suggest that they take some fingers out of those other pies and get back in to the studio to get this sound refined because at the moment it feels rushed, unloved and unfinished. Which is a shame because the cover art for this single is ace. 

More information:

https://www.facebook.com/thebrightlightcity

Live dates:

Thursday 2nd May – The New Cross Inn, New Cross

Friday 10th May – Jack Rabbits , Bognor Regis

Saturday 11th May – Scream Lounge, Croydon

Friday 17th May – SINGLE LAUNCH The Workshop, Shoreditch, London

Saturday 18th May – Redfest Comp @ Hobgoblin, Staines

Tuesday 21st May – No Quarter @ NottingHill Arts Club, London

Wednesday 12th June – The Islington, London

Saturday 22nd June – Club Go Go Disco, Bullet Bar, Camden

Saturday 13th July – Rock in the Park, Wantage

BEAT THE POET - SINGLE REVIEW

Beat The Poet - Kerb Crawling Love (The Animal Farm Label) 

Beat The Poet - Kerb Crawling Love

Release Date: 27th May

BOOM! UGH! SMASH! THUD! That's the sound of Beat The Poet hitting you around the head with their leather clad, testosterone fuelled rock and it feels gooooood. 'Kerb Crawling Love' is the debut single from this hard living trio and it's an absolute belter of a tune about, well, picking up hookers. The drums are relentless, the grinding bass is seductive and the guitar winds around you like the devil leading you in to temptation and delivering you straight to evil. Queens of the Stone Age, Buckcherry, the last couple of Arctic Monkeys albums and even a bit of At The Drive-In all swirls around in this hedonistic soup of rock'n'roll debauchery. Chuck in a huge chorus, just the right balance of arrogance and talent and it's obvious that these guys are on to a good thing. Well worth a listen if you like your music ballsy, heavy and sounding great in your car stereo!

More information: www.facebook.com/beatthepoet

Live Dates:

8th May - Rattlesnake, London

17th May - The Fishbowl, Brighton (Alternative Escape @ The Great Escape)