PUP - Sleep In The Heat

1.    Who are these lords of rock'n'roll? 

PUP are a popular punk rock band from Toronto, Canada. They have been tearing shit up since 2013 and Sleep In The Heat is from their second critically acclaimed album The Dream Is Over (Aug'16). 

2. What's the tune like?

Sleep In The Heat is a mid-tempo, abrasive punk song with gang vocals and a warm gooey centre. It doesn't over stay it's welcome.

3. Who do PUP sound like?

Weezer (early), Cloud Nothings and The Bronx. 

4. What have the prats in the press said about the album The Dream Is Over?

“Nothing but glorious redlining guitars and pile-on group chants” – Pitchfork. 

“One of the best records you’ll hear this year” – Punk News.

“PUP have levels of on-record energy that I’m just not used to hearing in 2016” – Stereogum.

5. Which bands have inspired PUP's brand of mayhem? 

Their main influences are Built To Spill, The Bronx,Queens Of The Stone Age, Dillinger and Mastodon.

6. Why should I give Sleep In The Heat a spin?

Because it's no fat on the bone, raw, punk rock with a singalong. PUP are for real. 


7. Do PUP have any more of these beauties? 

Go no further than the party rock anthem DVP, the best song PUP have made. 


8. Any more words? 

PUP do a stonking cover of The Buzzcocks' Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've) 

“And I’ve said so many goodbyes,

In the 25 years that I’ve been alive”

Schmutzki are a punk pop band from Germany. They started kicking arse and taking names in 2011. Schmutzki sound similar to Blink-182, Brings and Offspring. Their major influences are The Clash, The Misfits and Die Toten Hosen. Sauflied is a track off their second album Spackos Forever (Aug'16) and is the finest fucking punk song this cunt heard all year.

“German shit”

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”

 

 

Frightened Rabbit - Get Out

 

 

1. Who are these great men?

Frightened Rabbit are an indie rock band from Selkirk, Scotland. Started in 2003 Get Out(March’16) is the second single from their fifth album Painting Of A Panic Attack (June’16).


2. What flavor of marvel is Get Out?

Get Outtakes time to land but when it does it explodes into life. Evocative and emotive indie rock at it’s best.


3. Who do Frightened Rabbit sound like?

We Were Promised Jetpacks.

Consensus on Drowned In Sound says Frightened Rabbit sound like The Twilight Sad.


4. What are the peons of the press saying about Get Out?

“They now unleash the bittersweet but triumphant wall of sound to stratosopheric heights” – Gigwise.

“An upbeat number, explosive chorus” – Consequence Of Sound.

“Epic, atmospheric rock with big hooks” – Brooklyn Vegan.

 

5. Who put the frisson in Frightened Rabbit's music?

Frightened Rabbit are influenced by The Band, Wilco, Ryan Adams, Belle and Sebastian, Mogwai and The Delgados.

 

6. Why should I give Get Out a lash?

Get Out is evocative of both the agony and the ecstasy of addiction and the dramatic grandeur of the Scottish landscape.

 

7. Do Frightened Rabbit have any more morsels of greatness?

The Woodpile is Frightened Rabbit's best song, an indie anthem and a peach.

 

8. Any more words?

Painting Of A Panic Attack was produced by Aaron Dessner of The National.

In 2013 Frightened Rabbit singer and songwriter Scott Hutchinson said he hated Mumford and Sons and their album Babel (2012) was “shovelling the same old shit”.

 

 

“Chased it and for a moment I was floating dead”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dessert is served by terrific Australian garage rock band Animal House. Hailing from Brisbane these rock gods have a triumvirate of smash singles to their name and English Girls  (Oct'15) is the latest. English Girls is not just a a cocksure missive that lands bullseye on the topic of English girls, it has more bounce than a retard on a trampoline.

 

“English girls they always have boyfriends,

English girls they never seem to love them”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Best Indie Tunes of 2014 - Strand of Oaks

Strand of Oaks Goshen’97 (Apr’14) is insistent, raw and emotive. Wailing guitars provide the intro and then it's more guitar galore, more rock than indie and more story-telling than big chorus indie pop. Think The Hold Steady, The Gaslight Anthem or The Airborne Toxic Event and The Boss most obviously.

Music for the top six inches not the six between your legs.

 

 

Strand of Oaks are singer/songwriter Timothy Showalter’s project. He plays out of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,  and has four albums under his belt. 

This missive is from the fourth album HEAL (June’14).

Showalter declares himself “so into U2” and but there are a lot of folk influences in there too.

Other tunes worth a crack are Shut In and Same Emotions.

 

 

 

 

 

The Airborne Toxic Event are an indie rock band from Los Angeles, California. They started in 2006. Their main influences are Bruce Springsteen, U2 and The National. They have been compared to Arcade Fire and The National. Numb (2011) is from their second album All At Once (2011) and is a song Spin called "a gorgeously wailing new wave soundtrack."

  

 

The Best Indie Songs of 2014 - The Twoks

 

There is an ethereal sense to The Twoks First Light (Feb’14) that transcends the usual. An aural recreation of dawn’s first sunray’s illuminating a dark valley bringing happiness and warmth. First Light is evocative and really very good. Xani Kolac’s voice has the kind of strength you find in singers like Pat Benatar or Cyndi Lauper.

 

First Light is a lovely and emotive indie pop song

 

 

 

 
The Twoks are a violin and drum duo from Melbourne who have been making dance pop music for about four years. First Light is off the the E.P. of the same name First Light (Oct’14).

They get their mojo from listening to Sigur Rios, Leonard Cohen, Kate Bush and “anything good really”.

Is your soul crying out for more? Check out  the brilliance of 240 Volts, Hey or the instrumental Sailing Away. But especially 240 Volts.


 

 

There’s something dark, atmospheric and fantastic in the music of The Mispers, and violins, so there’s that. Here they are with their best tune ever, the majestic Coasts (2013).