Great Caesar - Hey Mama

1.    Who are these lovelies?

Great Caesar are a socially conscious indie rock band with a brass section that sashay out of Brooklyn, New York.  Hey Mama (March’16) flows off the Great Caesar E.P. Jackson’s Big Sky (March’16).


2. What’s the tune like?

Hey Mama starts out a soulful acoustic song, vocal led and dripping in emotional resonance. The brass lightly brings up the rear and the instruments blend slowly in. No fear. The vocal only breakdown sends a frisson down your spine and then the band and brass dime out and Hey Mama becomes transcendental. Ticks all the boxes.


3. Who do Great Caesar sound similar to?
 
Operation Every Band have their finger on the pulse with The Decemberists, Bronze Radio Return and Hey Marsailles. Throw in The Lumineers if you must.


4. What is the good word from the press?

“An uplifiting ode” – Nerdist.

“A compelling emotional performance” – My Space.

“Simple and stark” – Ear Milk.

5. Who put the lolly in Great Caesar’s music?

Great Caesar are influenced by The Beatles, Paul Simon, Elton John, Arcade Fire, Mumford & Sons and The Dave Matthews Band and have sent some love to Sufjan Stevens. The band also have a background in ska.
 

6. Why should I give Hey Mama a crack?

Great Caesar have played prisons and talked to the folk in there and Hey Mama is the good oil from those visits. Compelling musically, spiritually and emotionally. Frontman John Parker has said the EP is “our first real statement.” Real is exactly what Hey Mama is.
 

7. Do Great Caesar have any more of these treasures?

Hey Mama stands head and shouilders above the rest. Don't Ask Me Why is popular.

 

8. More words fool?

John Michael Parker, band frontman, said the coolest thing about the difference between being a musician and a doctor in this interview.

 

“I wanna be where a boy can be free,

But I’ve got time that I owe the state”

It would be rude to go past The Lumineers for the second innings. The Lumineers are an indie folk rock band from Denver, Colorado by way of Ramsey, New Jeresy. They are crazy popular and their debut album The Lumineers (2012) went to number two in the Billboard Charts, sold a million half and the single Ho Hey (2012) topped the charts and sold two million plus. Cleopatra (March'16) is the second single from The Lumineers second album Cleopatra (April'16) and is a cracking tune about a woman The Lumineers came to know through “...a friend. “She drives taxis and is this badass lady – she’ll pick you up at the airport with a cigarette hanging out her mouth and a beer can between your legs.”

 

“Damn your wife, I’d be your mistress just to have you around”

 

 

The Best Indie Songs of 2015 - WIN WIN

WIN WIN are a production collective, long time bros, and an indie-electronic band from New York. Waster (May’15) is a B-side from their single release Couch Paranoia and a bonus track on their third album Primaries (Jun’15). The tune was called “a debaucherous psychedelic anthem for the rebellious youth”  by Turntable Kitchen and “...pure hedonistic pleasure-center music” by Stereogum. The bands influences are classical to no-wave to trance and psych-rock.

Waster is a feel-good slacker soundtrack with psych-rock stylings. There are handclaps and dirty glam guitar married to a shout it out chorus and a sense of urgency in the driving drum beat. No fucking doubts about it, this is a track that will have you smiling like a masturbating retard. Waster is one of the best indie songs of 2015.

“Find another lover

Take another pill”

 

Shit you need to know:

The band are based in Brooklyn, New York.

WIN WIN’s music has been described as  “grafts rock music to dance music...rooted in pop.”

The bands record label spouted this verbal diarrhoea about the new album Primaries, “an elastic and hyper-modern album of seductive pop permanence and psychoactive electronics.” Inner Speaker were much more precise “...a somewhat confusing mix of electro and psych-rock.”

WIN WIN have remixed tracks for Thom Yorke, Björk, TV On The Radio and Kylie Minogue.

Roofeoo of TV On The Radio is friends and has collaborated with the band.
 

The singer from Hot Chip, Alexis Taylor, sang on one of their tunes.
 

The band fluffed for The Cribs in September in Montreal.
 

Another WIN WIN tune that doesn't felch from a dead hobbos arse is Been So Long.

 

 

Stirring the porridge is English indie rock greats The Cribs and their finest rocker Come On, Be A No-One (2012).

“I was trying so hard to enjoy everything
that i ended up enjoying nothing”