Category: Buzz Chart

When a band makes a name for itself dwelling in one area of music, and then dramatically brings introduces something very different into the equation then there’s bound to be curiosity. Imagine being presented with a fillet of salmon on your traditional steak night. Precisely, it could go either way.

Many may be delighted with the new dish, whilst the others get all grumpy and refuse to eat again. In Liam Hodge-Bane’s one-man musical army, Venerari‘s case, I’m hungry for seconds. Hell, chuck in a side order as well boss.

Liam, who labelled his stage persona ‘Venerari’, the Latin for ‘adore’, already had a fine reputation for his acoustic performances. He was gathering more respect from his peers for his dedication towards his music, and learning numerous instruments to spice up his melodies.

However, in this case he’s recorded two demos of pure Nintendo, 8-bit electronica. Quite the change. However, despite only being at early stages in this excavation, and with the possibility of more layers and vocals on the top, these songs are already something special.

“Bullets Become Wizards” immediately grabbed my attention with it’s Valve Soundsystem worthy bassline, combined with a wonderous hook that takes me back to the days of Ninja Gaiden on the Sega Mastersystem. It’s a belting track, and getting plenty of love on my iPod. Now, if only I could be arsed to go into my attic and fetch my Sega out.

Joe Moynihan

If you like your bands to sound like they have grit under their fingernails, a few shots of whisky in their bellies, and plenty of Johnny Cash CDs in their record collection, then you’d be well advised to get acquainted with Murder By Death.

The Indiana quartet, who are named after a 1976 Robert Moore film and count a cellist amongst their ranks, supported kindred spirits Against Me! on their UK tour last year and have been making plenty of new friends on these shores ever since.

‘In Bocca Al Lupo’ is the band’s fourth full-length offering, and as you might expect from song titles like ‘Sometimes The Line Walks You’, it’s a wonderfully dark-hearted affair. The band mix elements of folk, country and honest ol’ rock n’ roll into tunes that – despite vocalist Adam Turla’s world-weary tones – are brimming with vitality and infused with the band’s trademark gallows humour.

Check out ‘Sometimes…‘ on the link above, and try to catch MBD live when they return to the UK for a handful of shows in April:

10th – Cardiff Barfly
11th – London Bush Hall
12th – Manchester Roadhouse
13th – Liverpool Barfly
14th – Glasgow Barfly
15th – York Fibbers

You know the deal when some girl just won’t leave you alone. She’s forever calling your phone, bombarding you with constant annoying texts and just won’t accept that your voicemail means you don’t wanna talk. Well, even for us guys who’ve never been popular with the ladies, let’s just pretend that sales people who keep calling you trying to sell you shit is a broad who won’t leave things be.

Still with me? Good. TTC, the french collective featuring Teki Latex, Tido Berman and Cuizinier, coupled with DJ Orgasmic on the beat for this track, have penned this absolute cracker of a jam, all about girls who won’t stop calling them. In fact, it gets so bad for them that Teki starts thinking about Dinosaurs because phone’s weren’t around then – lucky bloody Raptors!

TTC’s electro-hip hop gets floors packed and people dancing and this track from their recent album 3615 TTC is an extension of the amazing stuff they did on Batards Sensibles. Even if you can’t understand the words, you’ll understand the language of fat fucking beats and when you’re busy dancing with new girls whilst trying to forget the old ones, you won’t give a shit what language its in.

Now then, how do I put this thing on silent…

Abjekt

A genuine D.C. and Dischord Records super-group, Channels feature members of Jawbox, Kerosene 454 and Burning Airlines. Spearheaded by Jawbox mainman J Robbins, Channels is classic Washington D.C. post-hardcore pop all the way, with Robbins crafting some of his finest songs and addictive melodies since the early-nineties heyday of Jawbox before they took the major label route and promptly floundered.

While his previous group Burning Airlines showed promise, they never quite lived up to the high standards that Jawbox set but ‘Waiting For The Next End Of The World’ sees Robbins back on form and tracks like ‘The New Mandarins’ and ‘The Licensee’ are crammed full of raw emotion and melodies that will raise the hairs on the back of your neck. You could, if you were lazy, call this emo but Channels have nothing to do with the cry-baby indie rock fashion parade that has taken on the phrase. Channels harks back to the eighties D.C. emotive hardcore rock of Rites Of Spring, Embrace and Fugazi and is worth it’s weight in gold. Get it!

James Sherry

Hailing from Adelaide, Wolf & Cub have been making waves in the UK with an extensive touring schedule, and support slots for Wolfmother amongst others (what is it with the Wolf-theme names for Australian bands?) The four piece took the decision to record their debut album back home but transferred to Glasgow for Tony Doogan (Super Furries, Mogwai) to work his magic on the mixes. The result is a mesmerizing piece of art, one that stands out starkly amongst its contemporaries.

The albums sets the pace with a seven minute opening title track, which explodes out of your speakers, raw guitar feedback swirling into under currents of heavy bass, frontman Joel Byrne repeating his mantra ” How does it feel?”. Wolf & Cub string you up and rip into you, psychedelic progressive sounds merge with sweat-soaked rock, heavy bass lines that culminate with the heavily instrumental ‘Conundrum‘, which as the title suggests, seems to be the band working out their sounds in a powerball of a track.

With two drummers, the beats hammered out are thunderous in parts as they roll through the record. ‘Steal Their Gold‘ ups the anti, with user friendly parts that slip into insatiable instrumentals.”This Mess’ and ‘Rozalie Bizarre‘ both become a little repetitive, and Byrne’s high pitched vocals can grate on the nerves a little, but fleshed out with the fuzzy guitars and almost Kula Shaker-esque vibe, it works. Doogan’s mixes create a jagged edge, rough-around-the-edge dirty sound that really works for the band, and has created a debut album that twists and turns, rolling onwards, careering almost out of control until the final track ‘Vultures‘ clocks onto ‘cool down’ mode, and the listener’s allowed to relax, and sink into a track that brings the album to a shuddering halt. And……breathe.

If Wolf & Cub can recreate their studio sound live, then they’re going to the one to watch for 2007. ‘Vessels‘ takes us on a heart stopping journey, and lays down exciting promises for the future. These Australian upstarts turn tracks on their head and give a new progressive slant to Australian rock, and with a start like this, their future looks very bright indeed.

Dee Massey

Harrow has been more famous for Death Skateboards than indie rock bands, but not any more as The Natives have come to remind the UK that London can still produce great bands and that the North is not the only provider thesedays.

The band are about to hit the limelight with their debut single ‘Bright Lights‘ released this week on Beyond Bedlam Productions. This single is more of a ballad than the rest of their attitude filled set which sees them take a distictive U2’esque sound showing Jim MacIntyre’s guitar skills with help from producer Jake Fior who also assisted Peter Doherty’s sound with his track For Lovers a while back. With the addition of Darren Gallagher ‘s voice and a thumping rhythmn section, this 7″ on ltd colour vinyl will be worth picking up for the future before people jump on this band and they blow up during the summer of this year.

I had the pleasure of seeing this band at Club NME in January in London and they held their own until the last tune with ease, maybe it’s the understanding of the 3 brothers that play in this band, this unit is tight. That night, the crowd were blown away so much so that The Natives have been booked to headline the same club later this month. Don’t miss them!

The Natives on tour:

March
(with The Rifles)

Thu 1st Stoke-On-Trent Keele University 01782 206000 £9.50
Fri 2nd Northumbria University 0191 2210201 £9.50
Sat 3rd Glasgow Garage 0870 1690100 £9.50
Mon 5th Manchester Academy 2 0161 8321111 £9.50
Tue 6th London Astoria 0870 0603777 £11.50
Wed 7th Southampton University 023 80632601 £9.50
Thu 8th Warwick University 024 76572794 £9.50
Fri 9th Luton University 08700 600100 £9.50

Headline shows…

Fri 30th London Koko Club NME
Wed 4th London Proud Galleries Dirty Boots
Sat 8th London Barfly All Ages All Dayer
Mon 23rd London Barfly Levis Ones to Watch

Let’s get it straight from the very start – on its own, Zombie Nation might sound shit. Especially when its played at Palace on a Saturday afternoon in a vain attempt to get us to pretend our season still has a purpose. And then we get onto Crunk, which basically sounds a bit naff unless you’re in a club with speakers the size of a small country vibrating your brain from pillar to post.

So how comes Flosstradamus‘ mash up of the two is fucking great? Well, maybe that’s something no-one will ever be able to answer, but basically the long and short of it is that this is a track that shouldn’t work, but really, really does. From Lil Jon and Three 6 Mafia giving it the “YAYUH” to the Zombie Nation bassline pounding behind the vocals, this is something that you’d love to hear in a club. You just won’t admit it.

Flosstradamus recently blasted the shit out of Cargo on the Catch An Attitude tour with A-Trak, Craze and Kid Sister and when you hear this and imagine it amplified a million times, you’ll understand just why they went down so well.

They also persuaded me I should buy a trillby. No, seriously, I’m gonna.

Abjekt.

Super Producer/DJ Mark Ronson is back with another blast from his upcoming album Version. After having teased us all with his ODB sampled re-working of Britney’s Toxic, he’s now back with his Allido protegé Daniel Merriweather.

This time the song which gets the Ronson treatment is Stop Me by The Smiths and trust me, if you think it can’t work, it does and after listening to this belting single, you won’t be in any doubt at all. Australian Merriweather’s stunning voice grabs your attention from the outset as the bass and strings take over and thrust you into the unbelivably party-vibed drums.

With his trademark horns thrown into the mix too, Ronson completely reworks Morrissey & co.’s original and gives it a totally new feel, one that will see you pushing the ceiling in clubs from now til Christmas. There are many great tracks on the album, but this is definitely one of the stand outs for sure.

Abjekt.

Chicago is famous for many bands, – you can start at Negative Approach and Big Black, then add Shellac, Jesus Lizard, Kepone and so many more to the never ending list of cool indie rock.

The Ponys can be added to that list, especially after you hear the follow up to their most talked about Celebration Castle from 2005. Their new album ‘Turn The Lights Out’ released now on Matador has a psychedelic edge to an already swirling garage sound that should blow your nuts off in the most mellow way possible.

This release certainly shows the band at their very best with tracks such as the epic Double Vision, the incendious Exile On My Street and the grinding Everyday Weapon on offer to gratify your aural needs. These were all recorded with the additional production skills of Joe Agnello (Breeders, Dinosaur Jr, Sonic Youth, Witch etc and with his input, the soverall sound of this album is both dirty and most rocking.)

The Ponys are back with what can only be described as one of the indie rock records of 2007 and will be back to the UK in May to tour it. ‘Turn The Lights Out’ is released on March 19th, go find it!

The Ponys are also featured on this month’s Crossfire Indie radio show, click here to get there.

Last year we brought The Milk Teeth to you when they released their debut single Cold Climate and since then they have simply grown into molars ready to take a bite from the bigger slice of the pie.

Their brand new single out this week (March 12th) ‘Go Faster Stripes‘ is a perfect follow up to where they first started, mixing razor sharp garage rock with massive choruses. This track is rocket fuelled and ready to blast into your life as soon as you press play and the other wonderful observation is the Chris Massey directed video to go with it. The b-side to this gem “As Good As It Gets‘ has more of a Dick Dale influenced surf feel and oozes pop sleeze with slide guitars and muchos catchiness by the barrel load.

Basically this single is going to take some beating, so look out for Simon Clark’s fronted 3 piece in your local indie store today as this is certainly gonna put a smile on your face!

Watch the video for Go Faster Stripes on YouTube here.

Watch the video for As Good As It Gets on YouTube here

Upcoming live shows:

22 Mar 2007 – 20:00 – Nambucca London
31 Mar 2007 – 20:00 – Purple Turtle London
4 Apr 2007 – 20:00 – The Fly London
15 Apr 2007 – 20:00 – Lazy Sundays @ The Spice of Life Soho, London