It’s been a couple of years since Paddy Hanna emerged with a pair of tracks – ‘Austria’, and then ‘Underprotected’. In May, and December 2015 respectively. There was something of the Jens Lekman, Jarvis Cocker and Alex Izenberg about those songs.
He’s the kind of DIY artist that makes much grander music than you’d expect for one photographed in the pub have a nice, quiet, unassuming pint of stout. It’s elegant, absorbing stuff.
He now has a couple of new tracks, the first of which, ‘Bad Boys’ you can hear below. “We all have one of those in our life,” he says by way of introduction.
There’s also a new track coming called ‘Sunday Milkshake’ which is really good. The songs are being self-released later this month. He also has a gig at Dublin Whelan’s on 5 May.
There’s a reason we regularly find ourselves writing the sentence “recorded at Suburban Home studios, Leeds, with MJ from Hookworms.”
It’s not only because it’s a local institution and go-to place for decent DIY bands from the surrounding area, but also that the scene around those parts is currently flourishing.
The latest band to catch our ear is Drahla – a three-piece from Leeds and Wakefield.
After releasing a couple of tracks – check out the excellent ‘Fictional Decision’ – they’re the next artist lined up to put out a track via Too Pure Singles Club. ‘Faux Text’ will be available on 28 April, but you can listen to it below.
Co-vocalists Rob Riggs and Luciel Brown join forces on the track which builds to a clattering conclusion.
There’s more information too, here, on Too Pure Singles Club. They’ve already put out some great stuff this year, including this track from Unqualified Nurse Band.
Of course there’s a lot of people talking about the return of Lorde today. But hey, while not as many people have been watching Kane Strang’s new video maybe they should be.
The clip for ‘Oh So You’re Off I See’ features Kane, and band, performing in the rugged surroundings of Central Otago, New Zealand. That’s where he’s from.
If you dig Weezer, Car Seat Headrest or just garage-rock in general, it might be for you. He put out an album, ‘Blue Cheese’, in 2016, and has now signed up with Dead Oceans who’ll put out another one some point soon.
He’s going to be in the UK to play The Great Escape in Brighton.
HMLTD are our current cover stars, and in that interview, they set out a few basics about the band but they’re also still an enigma. Plus, there’s no getting around it, the London-based collective are divisive. Some people hate them. Really hate them. There’s little denying that there’s something to them, though.
They’ve just added to the small collection of songs they’ve posted online with this new one ‘To The Door’. There’s a lot going on in it, including a chorus which doesn’t sound unlike Franz Ferdinand.
They’ve made a video with it, too. It features the band in the Wild West dressed as ghosts, chopping bananas and lots of blood. Frontman Henry Spychalsk, looking like Fischerspooner, also rides a Bucking Bronco before things get a bit gross.
Here’s a quote from Wavves talking about his experience of working with Warner Records on his last two albums.
“I’d never come in contact with such a poorly run company in my life. It was anarchy. Nobody knew what they were doing. Turnover rate was like an American Apparel. It was really all cons – unless you’re a cash cow. For everyone else, major labels can’t help you. Maybe at one time they could, but that time is dead.”
No mincing!
After the success of his excellent 2010 album ‘King of the Beach’ Nathan Williams signed up with the major label. It didn’t go to plan. Or, maybe it did. He spent his advance on his own company, Ghost Ramp, which isn’t just a small label anymore but a legitimate business putting out records, merch and other stuff. He’s say he’s done things the smart way.
It’s been a couple of years since his last record, ‘V’. He’s just announced a new one, ‘You’re Welcome’, out on May 19 via his own label.
With it, he’s just shared two new tracks, Daisy’ and ‘You’re Welcome’. He’s gone back to the place where he recorded ‘King of the Beach’ too and maybe there’s a little bit of that magic in there.
Lucas Fitzsimons may have been born in Buenos Aires and brought up (for a period) in the hip-hop-filled streets of Compton, but the sounds closest to his heart are those of ’60s folk and psychedelia.
The ghosts of Lou Reed and Syd Barrett don’t so much as linger but crawl all over the sound his band The Molochs.
Following the release of their second album, ‘America’s Velvet Glory’, earlier this year, they’re following it up with a new EP, ‘AVG Sessions’, out via Innovative Leisure on 3 March. Now, they’re sharing a new track with it, you can listen to ‘Come Softly With Your Hidden Spoon’ below.
Lucas Fitzsimons from the band has this to say about it:
“…Hidden Spoon’ is about revolutionaries imprisoning and executing their King in Paris in 1793. It’s just a good story and can apply to any period of time. The song is a vivid ballad… something that can bring the story to life in someone’s head.”
They’re playing SXSW in March because that’s an important thing to do. They’re in the UK and Europe this spring, too, playing the following shows:
Glasgow, Broadcast – 14 May Newcastle, Cluny – 15 May Brudenell, Leeds, Brudenell – 16 May Amsterdam, Q Factory – 20 May London, Shacklewell Arms – 22 May London, Montague Arms – 23 May Paris, La Mecanique Ondulatoire – 24 May Lyon, Nuits Sonores Festival – 25 May Nyon, La Parenthese – 26 May Lugano, Spazio Morel – 27 May Athens, Passport – 29 May La Roche Sur Yon, Fuzz&Yon – 30 May Angouleme, La Nef – 31 May Barcelona, Primavera Sound – 1 June Nijmegen, Doornroosje – 6 June Berlin, Bassy Club – 7 June Hamburg, Molotow Club – 9 June Copenhagen, Pumpehuset – 10 June
I’ve lost count of how many albums Flamingods have put out now, and on what formats. Part of that is because in the modern world it’s pretty impossible to know what counts as an album and what doesn’t (was ‘If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late’ Drake’s forth LP, or first mixtape? Even he doesn’t know. And who really cares?), but it’s also because this collective of cosmic jammers from Bahrain via Brixton don’t operate much within conventional boundaries (their first show lasted all day in an ATP chalet), and their freeform music follows that vein of its-fun-to-play.
If you think a GOAT live show is full of abandon go and see Flamingods (dates below), who’ve just announced a new EP for the Moshi Moshi label, called ‘Kewali’ – in stores May 26th.
Here’s the EP’s (and it definitely is an EP) title track. Of which the group says:
“Kewali is a song deep rooted in love and the idea of celebrating what’s around you; to be accepting and open to new experiences and cultures. It’s something we felt particularly passionate about whilst writing the EP, given the uncertainty felt by so many around the world right now”
03 March 2017 – SHEFFIELD, Outlines Festival 15 March 2017 – SXSW – British Music Embassy @ Latitude 30 16 March 2017 – SXSW – Levitation / Future Days @ Hotel Vegas Annex 17 March 2017 – SXSW – Esther's Follies 23 March 2017 – LONDON, Village Underground 31 March 2017 – TALLINN, Tallinn Music Week 04 April 2017 – AZORES ISLANDS, Tremor Festival 22 April 2017 – READING, Are You Listening? Festival 29 April 2017 – LEEDS, Live At Leeds 30 April 2017 – MANCHESTER, Sounds From The Other City 12 May 2017 – BRISTOL, The Lantern 13 May 2017 – CAMBER SANDS, The Soundcrash Funk & Soul Weekender 16 May 2017 – OXFORD, O2 Academy Oxford (w/Comet is Coming) 24 May 2017 – LONDON, Heaven (w/Comet is Coming) 03 June 2017 – LONDON, Field Day 09 July 2017 – MACCLESFIELD, Bluedot Festival 30 July 2017 – EAST LULWORTH, Camp Bestival
Right now the 21-year-old is in her final term of university at Goldsmith’s in London. She’s been juggling her studies with an ever growing spotlight on her music the last year or so.
Now, Bentham, who grew up in North Shields (just outside Newcastle), has a new track ready to go and a summer diary full of plans, including the release of her debut EP. She says this new one is “a bitter song about mild lust.”
It’s called ‘Heavy and Ephemeral’ and you can listen to it below.
In the spring, she’s going on tour with John Smith.
Brighton, Komedia – 29 March Leeds, Howard Assembly Room – 31 Sheffield, Upper Chapel – 1 April Birmingham, The Glee Club – 2 Exeter, The Phoenix – 3 Bristol, The Lantern – 4 London, The Union Chapel – 6 Manchester, Dancehouse – 7
In recent times Idles have perfected a knack for making great videos on a tight budget. Like this one for ‘Stendhal Syndrome‘.
If you’ve seen the Bristol band play live, you’ll know well their track ‘Mother’. It’s a highlight of their unhinged live show.
Now, Idles have made a new video for it, which you can watch below. In it frontman Joe Talbot, looking slightly possessed and dapper in a salmon suit, performs in front of a giant image of his mother, and smashes to bits a range of china ornaments. Sometimes you’ve just got to do these things.
Here’s a message from him about it:
“Whatever we do, our fate’s the same. So Smash and dance and hold love in. We all know ourselves, we just don’t know it yet. So smash and dance and hold love in. Kill your quiet, kill your qualms and smash and dance and hold love in.
Mothers weren’t always so. I like to see this song as a brief glimpse into what she did and what she was and what women are to me and what they were.
Enjoy.”
Idles start a big ol’ UK tour on 5 March at Bedford Esquires. They also release their debut album ‘Brutalism’ on 10 March.
