it wasn’t that long ago now that i saw slaves play a show in one of london’s grottiest venues; power lunches in dalston. the venue, which is dark as fuck and not very pretty, was the perfect location to see this band for the first time. made up of drummer/singer isaac holman and guitarist/singer laurie vincent, slaves played their set in the audience, with a limited kit set-up, and a lot of fucking shouting. it was intense, and really powerful. the track above should give you an understanding to what it’s like to see this band live. it’s traditional, grotty english punk, but there’s elements of modern bands thrown in too. in this track, i can sense elements of the kills, which if not intentional, is still quite refreshing in a sea of regurgitated punk bands, who are obviously jaded as fuck. a lot of people will probably hear these tracks and think of someone like gallows, but frankly, that’s a bit too easy a comparison. what we have hear is the sound of the buzzcocks or the damned revamped for a modern audience.
fucking hell! is it that time again to talk about the next 60 million postcards show?! it only seems like a week ago that we had crushed beaks and playlounge come down and tear that place apart! well, saturday is the second of many monthly events that this scene isn’t dead will be bringing you in the bournemouth area. this event is gonna be special, as we’ve somehow managed to convince london 4-piece FANZINE to travel down and play a show for us. bournemouth locals YOOFS will be opening up the night, and we’ve even got rich board from BOS ANGELES down to spin some tracks ahead of their own headline show on june 30th with BEST FRIENDS and SLOWCOACHES. a lot to look forward to then! anyway, here’s a little preview of the bands if you’ve never heard of them before. hopefully you’ll hear these two tracks, and think: “fuck! i need to spend my time worrying about how i better not miss this show!”. well, hopefully anyway.
this first track is the latest single from FANZINE. released at the end of april via best fit records, it’s a piece of slacker-rock brilliance. having toured with the likes of yuck, unknown mortal orchestra, the pains of being pure at heart and many others, fanzine are definitely a band to watch out for this year. they could happily implode at any moment. here’s ‘L.A.’:
the other band is bournemouth 3-piece yoofs. if you know anything about this blog, you’ll probably know that this is actually my own band. obviously, giving myself a gig is pretty cool, so obviously my own band must be fucking brilliant, right? that’s all i’m gonna say about YOOFS. here’s our tune ‘love at 140’, which we put out about a couple of weeks again.
so those are your two bands for saturday. should be a lot of fun, and hopefully i will see some of you down there having the best time of your life. here’s the poster:
there, of course, will be free mixtapes to give away again, but be quick as there’s only a limited number! here’s the tracklisting for TSID MIXTAPE #2:
1. Splashh - All I Wanna DO
2. Bos Angeles - Beach Slalom (appearing 30th June @ 60 Million Postcards)
this tune is quite convenient as it covers two awesome things that have been featured on this website. the first is the actual song. back last year, i posted about the awesome original by keel her (which you can check out here), and i’ve also posted some lovely words about playlounge about a month ago (which you can also view here). now, both of those things have combined and i’m literally shitting my pants in excitement over how awesome it really is. if you like pop-punk with catchy hooks, then this is definitely up your street. playlounge take the slack original and beef it up tenfold. the melody beams out of it like a fucking lazer, and you do get the feeling that this track maybe should have been given to the duo in the first place.
it’s been a pretty uncertain few months for bos angeles. after posting some pretty bummed out facebook status’, mentioning that the band had no label, no management, and were missing two thirds of the original line-up, you would’ve been safe to bet that the project might not last for much longer. well, since then, rich board has written some killer new tunes, recruited members from two bournemouth buzz-bands, and played some gnarly shows. however, the comeback may not be written on the wall just yet, having had to pull out of a few big-profile appearances. at the end of the day, though, when rich board is unleashing these sort of tracks into the blogosphere, who really gives a fuck what they do and what they don’t? if you’re into good music, then that should be what matters. and ‘pretend for you’ definitely delivers on that. whilst majority of bos angeles’ previous tracks have been tight, solid-beat pop tunes, ‘pretend for you’ is a funkier number, that shows off rich board’s crooner side. the hook is fluid throughout, and the bass line rumbles through your skull as the track progresses. it definitely shows a side of the project that people might not have necessarily imagined when they first heard ‘beach slalom’. if there’s still some life in bos angeles, then you should probably be excited, as there will be an EP somewhere down the line for you to devour. however, until we get an official sign that something will happen, we are left in the dark wondering “what the fuck is going to happen?”.
fuck… the gig is tonight. the real question is, am i ready to pretend i’m any good at being promoter? i’m gonna say yes, but the real REAL question is will you be there to watch crushed beaks, YRRS and playlounge tear 60 million postcards a new one? well, the answer should again be yes. anyway, if you’re coming to the gig tonight, you might have heard they’ll be some free mixtape cds floating around. the rumours are true, but there’s only 10 of them, so grab one quickly. the only place you’ll be able to find the tracklisting is on here, and it’s coming up… now?
yuck aren’t a band who shy away from putting out new tracks every now and again. so what the fuck is this up here? well, looks like it’s the new single from yuck. it’s called ‘chew’, and if you were ever into their 90s revivalist slacker-pop from last year, you’re probably gonna be just as happy with this new single. not a lot has really changed, and this could’ve happily been another cut from their self-titled lp, which was out last year. in this writer’s opinion, it’s a grower. at first, it’s like you’ve heard it all before, and maybe done a little better by the same band, but don’t let that stop you from spinning it a second time. the hooks shine, and the vocals dazzle, and it reminds you just why they were an awesome prospect in the first place.
having released an album last year that was really fucking rad, it’s always nice to see some tracks that didn’t make the cut for black lips’ ‘arabia mountain’. now, when it comes to tracks that aren’t good enough for a band’s previous lp, they usually suck balls. however, with ‘dance with you’, the band were clearly fucking dumb to leave this track in the dark. it’s really really awesome. the punky tempo changes leave you wanting to throw a brick through a nightclub window, and the howl of cole alexander just leaves you wanting to party in that same nightclub. it’s also a free download, and you can get it here. you’d be really stupid not to check it out above.
for more info on black lips, check it out: http://www.black-lips.com/. ‘arabia mountain’ is available everywhere via vice music.
today, i bring you the second part of our series on where you should be this summer. the series basically shows you the best of what the uk festival scene has to offer, and to guide you to the best festivals of the year. today, i present you with latitude 2012:
from that poster, you can basically see that there’s a LOT to offer this year. however, as we’re mainly focussing on the bands, you’d be a massive fool not to buy a ticket for this year’s event. although the festival may take a big chunk of your summer funds, with tickets being around £180 for this year’s event, the line-up for this year definitely worth your hard earned cash. with exclusive performances from the likes of bon iver, m83, explosions in the sky, kurt vile and deus, it really shows the diversity in the line-up, compared to other big festivals like reading and v festival. the exclusives don’t even make the line-up, though, as you’ve also got awesome additions from the likes of battles, to richard hawley. from the war on drugs, to lang lang. there’s something for pretty much everything here, as you’ve also got performances from the likes of simple minds, lana del ray and paul weller. however, whilst the line-up for latitude is very impressive, it’s not even the bands that make this festival one of the highlights of the summer. it’s everything else. you have film, theatre, poetry, comedy, art, literary, and literally everything else creative you can think of. not only does the festival cater for everyone in the world, it also is set in the gorgeous landscapes of the suffolk forests. my personal highlight of the festival is the wooded area in which the sunrise arena is located. hidden deep in the woodlands, i saw some absolutely breathtaking sets from the likes of braids, steve mason and gold panda in the woods last year, and it’s definitely one of the reasons i will be back this year.
there’s no real way to sum up how great latitude is for most people, but with a ticket price of £180, it might put some folks off. if you are discouraged by just the ticket price, then my advice is to just buy the ticket, wait until july, and let the festival show you how worthy of your money it really is.
