ultCult

It’s only a matter of time before ultCult are making waves in the music industry. They already have a UK tour supporting Tokyo Police Club under their belt amongst other accolades such as opening for Los Campesinos! I’m not exactly sure where they are from; they played the local swimming baths a few months ago so I’m assuming they’re from Wakefield or the surrounding area.

The music is pleasantly mysterious; whenever I listen to ultCult they bring a smile to my face similar to when the smell of my Nan’s Sunday dinner floats around the corner from the kitchen. The use of organs, accordions and glockenspiels is quite refreshing with the amount of plain guitar bands that are about at the minute. The soft female vocals provide the bubblewrap to complete this lovely lo-fi pop package. Most of the songs including ‘Odious Emporium’ and ‘Kite Augen’ sound pretty much like bedroom demos but with a bit of polishing could be real gems.

MySpace: www.myspace.com/ultcult

Get Hold Of: Saphire Memories, Russia, 5 Bedrooms, 2 Lounges

Looking Forward To

Late Of The Pier – Fantasy Black Channel

I’ve resisted the niggling temptation of downloading this for about a month as I just know this is going to be one cracking album and I physically want this beast in my hands before I lob it into the CD player. Thankfully it’s out on Monday so I haven’t got much more pain to endure. I’ll be honest it took me a while to get into LOTP, I went on their MySpace before all the hype began but nothing struck me. I went back to it a couple of times after all the raving reviews and ended up with Bathroom Gurgle on my mp3 player, still to be convinced. Then a few months later I saw the video for ‘The Bears Are Coming’ and hated it at first. I’m still not keen on it but when I heard ‘Space And The Woods’ I fell in love with the little Fockers. The last single ‘Heartbeat’ was another belter, I’m hoping the likes of the two previously mentioned and Focker haven’t been changed too much as they’re near perfect tracks. I’m really looking forward to seeing how the old Zarcorp Demo’s have evolved on the album and there are a couple of new tracks that I cannot wait to hear such as ‘The Enemy Are The Future’. Oh and Erol Alkan’s on the job which it makes it even more exiting.

Released: 11.08.08

Kings Of Leon – Only By The Night

Crawl. Sex On Fire. Wow. Just wow. Crawl was the first song that appeared online, the first little taster the Kings from over the pond. It’s a gritty distorted number with ‘You better learn to Crawl’ spat out throughout. It ends with guitars that sound like a classroom full of kids are scratching a blackboard with their nails. If that wasn’t enough to whet the appetite the epic Sex On Fire leaked. Caleb admitted that he was just messing about with phrases to accompany the hook and he came out with ‘this sex is on fiyeeeerrr’ which he didn’t like but the rest of the band did and it stuck. If the rest of the album is as up to scratch as the two tunes it’s going to be one brilliant album to accompany the other three.

Released: 22.09.08

Bromheads Jacket – TBC

Bromhead’s are a band that deserved to force their way into the indie mainstream after the release of the brilliant debut LP ‘Dits From The Commuter Belt’. Sadly it didn’t happen and they remain one of the most underrated bands in the country currently. Their raucous live shows alone should be enough to get them more recognition. Anyway, they’re back in September with their follow up and three brand new haircuts to compliment it. The titles yet to be confirmed by the band but is already being furiously debated on the official forum. Their first single from it ‘Speakerbox’ was released a couple of months ago. I’ll be blunt. It was awful. I couldn’t have been more disappointed when I first heard it after months without a Bromheads fix. It’s just over a minute and a half long which is a joke in itself for a single and has some odd organ playing throughout. It’s almost like most Tokyo Police Club’s songs where it’s just getting good then it ends. Thing is ‘Speakerbox’ doesn’t even start ‘getting good’. The B-side ‘Don’t Leave’ is a lot more like it and I’m hoping the album veers in this direction rather than going down the road of the A-side. Despite the abomination of ‘Speakerbox’ I’m still looking forward to it. I’m just hoping it can live up to the likes of ‘Poppy Bird’ and ‘One Nautical Mile’ on the debut. If it does it’ll be a stonker.

Released: 22.09.08

Front Crawl July Mixtape

The ABC Club - 43

Adam Gnade - And On Bad Days We Were...

Cut Copy - Hearts On Fire

Grammatics - Polar Swelling

Mi Mye - The Last

That Ghost - And The Night

Tubelord - Feed Me A Box Of Words

UltCult - Saphire Memories

Wave Machines - Punk Spirit

Worriedaboutsatan - The Last Song

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=8UTV577M

Wrinkled Dinosaurs

I'm sure i've mentioned today's band before but it's about time I did a proper post on them. They became my favourite new band at the end of last year and they still are today. 'They' are Dinosaur Pile-Up. The band is the creation of Matt Bigland formerly of Mother Vulpine. The tunes are catchy indie but some songs have a heavier feel. The recordings at the minute are pretty rough bedroom recordings but you can tell they're ready to be polished into diamonds. Songs such as My Rock N Roll and Let's Get Up show American influences of Weezer and Jimmy Eat World. The song that got me hooked is Our Love's a Boat And We're Sinking (not a bad metaphor, eh?) It's an absolute belter of a tune with just one riff repeated throughout the whole song. The chorus of 'Honey, our love is a boat and we’re sinking' is screaming to be bellowed out by the festival masses.

When I've seen them live on some occasions there's barely been 30 people in the room but they've still blown the roof off. It's fair to say they're one of the best up and coming live acts at the minute. To say there are only 2 recordings on MySpace and about 6 recordings floating about overall they aren't short on material. They played at least 5 songs I'd never heard the other night. All of which sounded brilliant.

MySpace: www.myspace.com/dinosaurpileup

Get hold of: Love's A Boat, What Howard Says, Melanin

Next is a little treat for any Cribs fans. Before the band formed the lads were in various other bands, namely Kavolchy, Rat Monkey and Wrinkle. Wrinkle included the twins Gary and Ryan and listening to them you can see the lo-fi punk element which was more prominent in The Cribs' earlier material, especially their self-titled debut and demos such as Song From Practice 1 and Death To The Dead Bodies. Below's a link to 'The Source The Flood'.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=GAPV46CB

Summers gone away..

I've heard a few things about The ABC Club (formerly The Debuts), I think they were playing at Live at Leeds. Anyway I hadn't listened to them until now, but i have to say I'm impressed. They're managed my !Forward Russia's Whiska's, they're nothing like !FR however. In fact they're a good band to listen to if you're relaxing in the garden with a few cans of lager, that's not going to be the case at the moment because the summer looks like it's buggered off already.

Tinkering Teacups and 43 are their stand out tracks. Both containing jingly guitars complimented by gorgeous female vocals. It's all a bit shoegazey. Imagine a more mellow Strokes with a frontwoman and you'd be halfway there.

Myspace: www.myspace.com/wearetheabcclub

Get hold of: 43, Tinkering Teacups, Get Set Go

Now for something a bit different from the usual stuff I post about. An American bloke who talks over atmoshperic background music. His name's Adam Gnade. Think of the The Cribs' brilliant 'Be Safe' featuring Lee Ranaldo's spoken word, Gnade's concoctions are of a similar style but each song tells an actual story. Some of them even connect with each other as characters are introduced and further tales are told.

Last year he toured with Youthmovies and created the unlikely contribution named 'Honey Slides'. The EP combines Gnade's spoken word at a faster pace with Youthmovies unusual electronic sounds providing the bottom layer. His solo work isn't as quite as upbeat as the Honey Slides EP, with many of his songs such as Providence and Palaces having a more country and folk feel.

Myspace: www.myspace.com/gnade

Get hold of: We're Unknowing, And On Bad Days We Were, It's Five O Clock In America

Front Crawl June Mixtape

I’ve compiled a rar of ten tracks I’ve been listening to a lot the past month. There’s a mixture of B-sides, demo’s, remixes etc in there so give it a bash.

UltCult – Sapphire Memories
Mi Mye – Itchyear Eacyear
Bromhead’s Jacket – Don’t Leave
Elbow – Friend’s Of Ours
The Subways – Strawberry Blonde
Ladyhawke – Paris Is Burning

Foals – Gold Gold Gold
Younghearts – This Love
Racecar Red – New Tie
The Backhanded Compliments – Master of Disguise

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=TRQGM8B9

Revision, Revision, Revision

I’m writing this after a disaster of an English exam. Anyway I’ve decided that the feature on Wakefield is going to be a continuous one so from now on there’s going to be a mix of bands from all over the place. I would say that updates have been slow because I’ve been knee-deep in revision but in all honesty I haven’t done much. Just before I get stuck into today’s new band I’ve just got to say I’m currently listening to the new Coldplay album, I’m not their biggest fan but I’m really enjoying it especially Lost!, Violet Hill and Viva La Vida.

Today I’m focusing on The Spills. They’re a Wakefield band and it’d be true to say that I’ve been doing exactly what their MySpace address states. You can see the local influence on the band, The Cribs being a primary example but beneath that there’s even deeper punk feel, possibly even a Nirvana-ry grunge element to the band.

If I had to recommend you one song of theirs to listen to it would be ‘Ghost of the Day’. It’s a mysterious epic. Guitars quietly jingle in the intro then after a minute of calm the roof comes tumbling down. Distortion turned up to the point it won’t turn anymore. The Spills have just announced they’re here and that they won’t be going anywhere soon.

They’re releasing a split EP with Piskie Sit’s which includes Reactions and Ghost of the Day I believe, named ‘Dogs Are Faithful, Cats Are Clever’. You can pick it up on Saturday and Escobar and the launch night where they’ll be playing, as will the amazing Dinosaur Pile-Up. Should be a cracker.

MySpace: www.myspace.com/bumthespills

Get hold of: Ghost of the Day, Poor Health, Safety in Numbers

Napoleon IIIrd

Napoleons been around for a while but is relatively unknown outside of Yorkshire. On the odd occasion I used to go and watch Wakefield FC get battered I always used to see his blue camper van parked near the ground with some species of Bonzi tree on the dashboard.

Last October he released ‘In Debt To’ his debut album. I’ll be honest at first I wasn’t too keen on it but I didn’t give it much of a chance. But recently I’ve really got into it. It was pretty much by chance that I started listening to it; I stumbled in at 4am, banged on a shuffle on the old MP3 player and the brilliance of ‘Anti-Patria’ converted me instantly. The effects of being under the influence, eh?

If I had to define Napoleon IIIrd’s genre I probably wouldn’t be able to. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’d invented some of his own instruments for this album, there is mish-mash of some extremely strange sounds. Some of the songs sound like he’s cut up a bunch of tape reels and pasted them together and added vocals over the top, strangely enough they all fit together perfectly. His sound isn’t even slightly similar to anything in the mainstream at the minute. Don’t let that put you off though.

MySpace: www.myspace.com/boney3

Get hold of: The Conformist Takes It All, Anti-Patria, Hit Schmooze For Me

Skint and Demoralised

Skint and Demoralised, named after the lyrics of one John McClure, have been on our radar since October 2006. At 17 Matt Abbot began writing poems about going out, getting lashed, girls and some-good old scrapping. After a few performances in between bands at local venues Abbot continued writing and came across Sheffield based producer Mini Dog. Suddenly these promising tales of trips to Blackpool ‘Seaside Shenanigans’ and teenage tarts ‘Happy Slapper’ turned into songs. Since then Matt Abbot and Skint and Demoralised haven’t looked back with support slots for one of Abbots influences Reverend and The Makers and recently signing a deal with major label Mercury.

The Sheffield link is visible in the songs and you can see influences of Alex Turner and The Reverend in Abbot’s lyrics, however he puts his own spin on things in a Skinneresque fashion. His witty stories of Northern life combined with his West Yorkshire accent and catchy riffs are surely onto a winner. This is simple indie-pop at its best.

MySpace: www.myspace.com/skintanddemoralised

Get hold of: Red Lipstick, Withdrawal Symptoms, It’s Only Been A Week

The Old House

The Old House reformed in 2006 after taking a couple of years out. When they first formed they were touring the toilets of Yorkshire along with The Cribs and they still have that lo-fi sound that was more prominent on early Cribs songs. In 2007 they released ‘Weekend Driver’ on a limited number of 7”s through Louder than Bomb Records with Russell ‘The Disaster’ Research accompanying them on stage for a number of gigs.

Like I said it’s quite lo-fi indie, ignore the links with The Smiths there’s more of a Pavement feel about them, catchy guitars and a real raw edge to the songs. ‘Ruff Idea Of Smiling’ states ‘You know that girl, she held me so tight and said I made her night in Wakefield feel so rosy’, they’ve made a fair few people’s nights in Wakefield feel ‘rosy’ and long may it continue!

MySpace: www.myspace.com/theoldhouse

Get hold of: Ruff Idea of Smiling, Weekend Driver, Calvin D Cline