Get ready for the latest and greatest from Leeds post-punks, Eagulls. Announced this week, their self-titled debut is due March 4th 2014 on Partisan Records.
The thunderous sounds Eagulls have crafted here hold such a dark, brooding appeal. The sincere howl of frontman George Mitchell takes hold and shakes you, but at the same time ‘Tough Luck’ is completely uplifting and anthemic. The guitars are utterly momentous and driving without being ridiculously heavy and overdriven. They’re dipped in an 80’s post-punk pool of effects, left shimmering with gritty retain. All this paired with some heavy, mechanical bass work, and tight rhythms blasting from the kit confirms ‘Tough Luck’ as an absolute belter. Press play and turn this up.
Check out everyone’s favourite musical film makers MGMT and their latest efforts in ‘Alien Days’. Naturally this is trippy as ‘owt, with a host of powerful, psychedelic imagery. Turn up your speakers and prepare to be eternally spooked.
This is a top ten sound-a-likes stand off. Taken from all corners of the record cabinet, these tracks span through genres and decades, naming and shaming the most sinful musical thievery we could find. It’s only a laugh though, all (most) of the artists below are deservedly great so don’t panic, leave a comment below and add your own rock rip-offs to the list.
Killing Joke – ‘Eighties’ / Nirvana – ‘Come As You Are’
What better way to kick off than with this old chestnut? Killing Joke decided to take legal action against Kurt and the gang due to an uncanny riff resemblance between these two tracks. Luckily these accusations were put to bed soon after Cobain’s tragic death, and Dave Grohl ended up playing drums on Killing Joke’s 2003 album. No hard feelings.
2.52 minutes in and Graveyard here decided to meltdown their rocking steez into the exact riffs that the wonderful Texan psyche band Bubble Puppy famously crafted for their ‘I’ve Got To Reach You’ track at 4.20. Graveyard’s ‘Hisingen ‘ tune was released in 2011, Bubble Puppy’s incredible ‘A Gathering of Promises’ was born back in 1969. Go figure.
Paul Weller – ‘Changing Man’ / E.L.O – ‘10538 Overture’
Weller is proven guilty here, nicking riffs of old and passing them off as his own like a musical magpie. This didn’t slip by Jeff Lynne’s radar unnoticed though. Allegedly Lynne tried to sue Weller, despite the fact that the riff in question bares striking resemblance to The Beatles’ ‘Dear Prudence’. So there you have it, both crooks, each with a silly hair do.
It’s no surprise that Elastica made the grade for this list. The Britpop bunch famously pinched melodies from post-punkers Wire, specifically the main riff in ‘Three Girl Rhumba’, replicated on Elastica’s synths to provide the key hook in ‘Connection’.
Coldplay – ‘Yellow’ / Pavement – ‘Here’
Bit of a weird one here, I wonder if Chris Martin was getting really into his Pavement albums when he wrote ‘Yellow’.
Fugazi – ‘Place Position’ / Manic Street Preachers – ‘If White America’
Some schmuck out there would probably try and point the finger at the most resilient post-hardcore band going and say that one of their tunes sounds a lot like a song by that Welsh band Manic Street Preachers. But it’s not going to be us…
Chemical Brothers – ‘Setting Sun’ / The Beatles – ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’
It’s safe to say the Chemical brothers were influenced by ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’, supposedly referring to it as their manifesto for their 1996 tribute ‘Setting Sun’. Both absolute crackers.
Puddle of Mudd – ‘She Hates Me’ / Suicidal Tendencies – ‘I Saw Your Mommy’
Who would’ve thought it, Puddle of Mudd pinched their most famous guitar hook from Suicidal Tendencies. Puddle of Mudd’s 2002 chart topper ‘She Hates Me’ uses a practically identical riff to that in the ’83 Tendencies track ‘I Saw Your Mommy’.
Green Day – ‘American Idiot’ / Dillinger Four – ‘doublewhiskycokenoice’
Dillinger Four supported Green Day on tour in 2001 shortly before the release of Green Day’s 7th album ‘American Idiot’ in 2004. Have a listen to D4’s 1998 track ‘doublewhiskeycokenoice’ and see where you think Billy Joe Armstrong got his inspiration from for Green Day’s Platinum single.
Green Day – ‘Warning’ / The Kinks – ‘Picture Book’
Another little naughty from Green Day here, that catchy bass-line was pilfered right from original Kinks bassist Pete Quaife’s fingertips.
The Cult – ‘Love Removal Machine’ / The Rolling Stones – ‘Start Me Up’
When Mick and Keith were busy rowing over whatever it was they were rowing about throughout the 80’s, The Cult snuck in through the backdoor and nabbed a copy of ‘Start Me Up’. Six years later they release ‘Love Removal Machine’. Luckily for The Cult, Mick and Keith are still too busy arguing to care but it all turns out OK in the end.
Cheatahs have announced they will release self-titled debut album on 10th February 2014 via Wichita Recordings.
This is very exciting news for us in the Crossfire office as we had their breakout single ‘The Swan’ on repeat for weeks when it came out. It also ranked a respectable #2 position in our ‘Top 20 Tracks of 2013 so far…’ feature back in June.
September AA side release ‘Cut The Grass’/’Kenworth’ followed in the same anthemic vein with another shed load of warped fuzzy chords and whammy bar action.
The ear splitting riffs and fuzzed out chords that surely lay within this upcoming debut are bound to be killer. Keep your eyes peeled for this one in the new year. And while you’re here why not give this a spin for old times sake!
New York punks Cerebral Ballzy have released a brand new music video for their A side single ‘City’s Girl’. Taken from their forthcoming 2014 album Jaded and Faded, this video is directed by front man Honor Titus himself. See if you can spot the cameo appearance in there too.
Montreal melody maker, Mac Demarco has landed in London to kick-start his European Tour and my has he pulled quite the crowd. Having sold out this Kings Cross cavern many moons ago his fans are packed in from miles around. Hungry for something good, they get it. A quick wave hello and Mac and his band plunge into album opener ‘Cooking up Something Good’ and immediately everyone’s in sync.
Watching Mac Demarco perform, you appreciate both his skill as a song writer and the musicianship of his band. His songs are catchy, simple pieces of pop, full of lyrical wit and could totally work stripped down with Mac strumming an acoustic on his own. However bassist Pierce is the cherry on top of this tasty musical cake, bringing a funky element that feels essential to these simple songs. Macs music feels dead honest too, there’s nothing hidden behind effects pedals or matching outfits here. This lot turn up, plug in and play, just the way it should be.
Although essentially guitar pop, there’s a lot going on. In ‘Rock n Roll Night Club’ Mac adopts a deep, Elvis style croon and ‘Ode To Viceroy’ extends to a slack Pavement drawl. The dreamy tale of ‘The Stars Keep On Calling My Name’ holds the indie sincerity of Blur while mixing in the upbeat sweetness of Best Coast.
But where does this genre bending end? After rattling through the highlights of his debut 2, there’s time for a bit of larking around. Jamming the likes of Rammstein, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin and even Metallica gets a good sing-along going before veering into ‘She’s Really All I Need’.
Downing his guitar for set closer ‘Still Together’, Mac reveals his inner romantic. Down on one knee, he’s holding the crowd in the palm of his hand, with everyone singing his heartfelt lyrics straight back at him with full force. As the final chorus of “Together…” rings out i wonder if this choice of set closer is more a thank you to his fans than just an ode to his beloved. Either way, following a rapturous applause, encore ‘My Kind Of Woman’ harnesses the sexy atmosphere and sends sparks flying, albeit mostly amongst the lads down the front hoping for a high five from the main man.
Destruction Unit / Puce Mary
The Old Blue Last
23rd October 2013
After what feels like forever, Puce Mary unfolds half an hour of noisy gadget ambience. Armed with a staggering collection of synths and effects she undertakes a self-assault, manipulating her own vocal into deep, dark layers of sound. The atmospheric sounds Puce Mary creates recall of the more left field work of Aphex Twin. Bottomless bass drones underneath her distorted, broken speech create a devastating soundtrack. And if one aural assault wasn’t enough, fear not. A gang of the most villainous guitar slingers and freaks of feedback are approaching.
As Destruction Unit take to the stage there’s a call for darkness, ridding the glare that dazzles the stage with a mere flick of the hand recreating the dingy basement atmosphere these guys clearly prefer. There’s no clear beginning to the set tonight, but it would be disgustingly crass if Destruction Unit did ‘introductions’. Rather than a conventional tune up, an adjusting of feedback occurs. Each member toys with their own frequencies until they’ve merged into the zone before erupting into album opener ‘The World on Drugs’.
From here on in, this set is an all-out psychedelic attack. The songs played tonight from ‘Deep Trip’ morph into one another via extended wah pedal abuse and ear-splitting feedback. Destruction Unit are not just punk as fuck, hard and fast, ferocious noise makers though. Well, they are. But they conduct their noise in a manner that fully entrances you rather than inducing a frenzied rage. ‘Night Loner’ has its moments of both chaos and order, easing into a (relatively) laid back mid-section that rides out for what feels like half an hour.
It’s from this point in the set that I really lose clarity of where one song ends and another begins. But this is definitely how Destruction Unit want you to feel. They want to induce that exciting discomfort, disposing of convention; it’s an initiation to the Deep Trip.
When you think it couldn’t get more chaotic the whirlwind of noise builds into a full on psych-out close. The rhythm section hold it down while singer Ryan Rosseau and guitarist Nick lose their shit, scaling the rigging of the Old Blue and balancing atop their amplifiers in search for god knows what, but it’s fucking exciting to watch. During this intensified rhythmic activity I realise how Destruction Unit is the perfect name for this band. The five members work together as a small army, dependent on each other to morph into the next cue and ready for whatever impromptu freak-outs occur on stage.
Although Deep, this trip is a short one. Playing for just over half an hour, I feel like I could’ve ridden it out for longer. But one thing’s for sure, this band is driving a big, silver, mind-expanding machine that can only get faster. I can’t wait to watch them play live again.
Perfect Pussy
‘I Have Lost All Desire For Feeling’ Bandcamp Ph:Brett Davis
Bandcamp is a pretty wonderful site. There’s definitely something more satisfying about transferring money directly to the band rather than giving your money to Apple and every so often you’ll stumble upon something truly exciting. One such discovery we made this week was the brilliantly named Perfect Pussy who hail from Syracuse, New York.
Bringing a tenacious hardcore energy to noise-pop, Perfect Pussy thrash out four distorted, fast-as-fuck, fuzzed out smashers in their EP I Have Lost All Desire For Feeling, which the band put out a few months ago. The four tracks are simply titled as I, II, III and (you guessed it), IIII and bring to mind the experimentalism of Melt Banana, the more ferocious moments of Trail Of Dead, but with pop hooks like our pals Joanna Gruesome. There’s even some shoegaze elements in there for good measure! I Have Lost All Desire For Feeling is exhilarating, intense, intoxicating and above all massively exciting.
Singer Meredith may snarl, but the lyrics are often confessional and introspective – not that you would know it due to the heavy distortion layered on. On ‘III’ she laments: “Every dog deserves forgiveness, no matter who he bit. I’m a real lost cause. I’m a real piece of shit” before “I’ve been lying to get attention, I’ve been lying and lying. I think I’ll just stay home forever this time” – often the simplest lyrics can be the most gut wrenching.
There’s not a hell of a lot about these guys online at the moment, in fact they don’t even have a Facebook page, but we’d love to think that you’ll be hearing more from them soon. From photo evidence, their shows look equally intense, so keep your fingers crossed for a UK tour sometime soon.
Give them some money for their EP and let them crash at your house if they do ever make it over here.
James the Fang and Serious Sam Barrett
‘The North Country Steed’ Ya Dig? Records
Last summer the UK was treated to a Skate Folk tour consisting of Serious Sam Barrett, the Pine Hill Haints and legendary skate rock pioneer Tim Kerr (of Big Boys fame). The shows that I caught were highlights of a fairly washed out slog of a summer. Skating in the day, then cracking a can and on to the show felt like the dream as it’s meant to be lived. Despite a slimmed down trip this time round – with no Tim and only Jamie from the Haints – the couple of weeks it hit the UK was still a whirlwind blast of skating, boozing and good tunes as their sound was bolstered by various crew members in different cities. The tour was in support of new record The North Country Steed, which sees the two put down 13 songs which pay homage to country, folk and rock n roll with a bite gained from identities forged in punk rock. Love, cowboys, skateboarding, whiskey and jailhouses are all fair game for subject matter and the record draws the listener in from the opening title track, with Jamie alternating vocals and fiddle over a mesmerising guitar lick.
‘RWTB’ is the natural sequel to Sam’s ‘Hennessey Nights’, perfectly encapsulating most given weekends in Leeds, while ‘I’m in so much Trouble’ is vintage rock n roll done acoustic replete with Ramones-esque harmonies. The album also includes ‘Silver Dagger’, released as a free mp3 last year with the Serious Sam Barrett/Pine Hill Haints split, and the first studio recording of ‘Mole in the Ground’, long a part of Sam’s live set and here complimented by some impassioned fiddle playing here. Closing proceedings is a cover of Dubliners’ song ‘The Nightingale’, the two taking on the monumental task of covering Luke Kelly in his prime and coming through with a touching version that does the folk legend justice.
Both these guys have been relentlessly touring, sleeping on floors and putting out music for years now and their mutual shows have already demonstrated how their styles complement each other, but it’s awesome to finally hear that put down in the studio. With the two taking turns at vocal duties over for the most part just a guitar and fiddle, the sound has a sharpness and clearness that isn’t always associated with strictly DIY operations but definitely shines through here.
As I have mentioned the record covers various themes, but at its core it is a dedication to music itself; playing, listening and generally immersing yourself in what you love. Stick it on the turntable, crack a can, make a brew or head out and slappy grind the curb on your back street; it’s bound to fuel the hype.
Spring King
‘In All This Muck and Dirt’
(unsigned)
Spring King make raw, scuzzy garage pop with a twist. Their debut album, In All This Muck and Dirt is not just any old lo-fi jingle jangle, each track is radically different from the next. The Springsteen-esque motoring of ‘Better Man’ is a total contrast to the piano led, ballad like ‘Heat of The Summer’ but this totally works. The vocals of Tarek Musa keep this ship on course; his flow feels relaxed and natural, easing you into the pop magic, in the same way as Craig Dermody of Scott and Charlene’s Wedding does.
‘Drummer Girl’ is so shiny and summery you need to listen to it wearing sunglasses. And what follows is something quite unexpected. The 80’s organ warble on ‘My Sleeves’ comes with an unexpected trumpet solo creeping into the mix, having its own jazzy freak-out amidst the guitars. It’s not all Miles Davis though, single ‘V-V-V-Vampire!’ is a scruffy punk ditty full of guitar grit and thrashing drums.
Musa is the brains behind this operation, responsible for the recording and mixing of all the tracks on In All This Muck and Dirt as well as writing all the songs too. His talents are also spread across other bands, namely the indie vibes of Kankouran, another triumph for Musa, writing and recording all the songs himself.
With allegedly over 50 more tunes in the bank, Spring King are a well-oiled, garage pop producing machine. Surprisingly the five piece are still unsigned, recording and releasing everything they do themselves, online, with no visible help from any industry folk. Surely it’s only a matter of time before these guys cut a deal and get a record pressed. Watch this space.
Eagulls
Check out everyone’s favourite musical film makers 
New York punks 
Destruction Unit / Puce Mary
Perfect Pussy
James the Fang and Serious Sam Barrett
Spring King