The Hostiles
Posted by jamie on Jan 27, 2010
The Hostiles
Jamie
27th January, 2010
It’s getting on for a year since The Hostiles first detonated all over the UK, when Always Looking Forward came out on SYWP and the guys backed up with a storming tour all over the UK. Since then they’ve played with everybody from Neville Staple to the King Blues and they’ll be all over their native Scotland and the north once again from the 29th (I wish they’d come here). If you’re new to the band, they play fairly contemporary take on the ska / ska-punk thing: comparisons with Fandangle don’t end with the fact that they’re from the UK and have an American singer. That said, though, their sound is pretty different. Actually, it’s pretty different from a lot of bands out there at the moment: sexy, feel-good horn lines mashed up with some giddying, good-time singalongs but at the same time with enough references to more old-school stuff and plenty of upstrokes and super-skankable melodies in there too. It all adds up to mean they can play at any show, and they pretty much have: from Chase Long Beach and Jaya the Cat to Random Hand and even Leftover Crack [eh? I had to check that one. But it’s true. J] the Hostiles get on every bill they can, and generally storm it. As they’re readying themselves to do it all again in 2010, Bananatown collared Josh (guitar, vocals) and Lynsey (alto sax) and got the lowdown on what’s new in The Hostiles’ world.
BT: Hey. How are things?
Josh - Good! New year, new plans, new shoes, its all good.
Lynsey – Things are ace thanks, life is pretty top notch at the moment.
Cool. So, just to get started, 2009 sounds like it was a big year for you guys. You must be pleased with how much you managed to get done?
Josh - Of course, we worked really hard this year. We released an album, cleared 85 shows and got to play with some of our favourite bands. You know when a wine connoisseur takes a drink from his glass and says “ahhh that was a good year”? That’s what 2009 was like for us!!!
Lynsey – Haha… Hostiles vintage 2009 could be said to be very full-bodied, packed with edgy kick but shame about the smell! We’re well chuffed about what we’ve achieved this year, its been very busy. I’m the newbie and only joined a year ago and it’s been non stop ever since.
You must feel like you’re really on the map now? I mean, we’re only just north of Watford, even we’ve been converted (admittedly the word came from our northern comrades at Bomb Ibiza). How does that feel?
Josh - Awesome! There is no better feeling than turning up to a place you have never been to and have people you never met excited to see you.
Lynsey – Yeah I spotted a few Hostiles t-shirts at Leeds this year - and I didn’t even know the person wearing them! Big Cheese gave our album a great review, and along with gigging as much as possible and word of mouth, especially thanks to all the folks in Manchester and the north of England, TNS, Ska Mutiny and the like, we’re pushing south, east and west!
Ha ha, cool. But you have been together for quite a while now, so how did it all start? Josh - My little bro (the 6′4 bass player known as Chris) and I moved over here in 2001. I’d been in a band in the US and still wanted to be a part of one. We met some friends at school, jammed out a bit, some vile cocktails made from random things from my mom’s kitchen were consumed, and BAM you have a band. Admittedly we were quite lazy the first half of career….we didn’t really take it seriously until a few years ago.
And your first love, you’ve said, is playing live. Is that what it’s all about with you guys?
Josh - Hell yeah! It’s up there with that big fat paycheck we get for playing! [note: he is joking here, alas, though the Hostiles would be richer than Beyoncé were there any justice]! Ha ha, but seriously I envy the bands that get to gig 200 times a year and I would love to get to that stage.
Lynsey – Playing live is what it’s all about for us; Random Hand had a wee sleeve note in their first album which totally rings true for me. It was along the lines of: you can stare at tarmac for 5 hours on the way to a gig and play to 10 people, but if those 10 people are all having a kick-ass time its defiantly worth it. And if they don’t at least you got another practice!
True words, I guess. Ah, the pen of Robin Leitch. So, does that mean it’ll be a while until we see a follow-up to Always Looking Forward? Because that’s fine too: ALF is supreme, but we’d love to get hold of another.
Josh - We have been quite busy the last few months with writing new material. Now we are in the process of recording demos for a second release so it might not be as long as you think [he says, with a cheeky wink. Watch this space!]
We’re used to describing you guys as a sextet (or sometimes a six-piece). Is there any news on a new trumpet player? Am I badly out of date? It does happen sometimes. Josh - I prefer sextet as it contains the word “sex”. According to a national poll “sex” is good and we want to be involved as much as we can with said goodness. But getting back on point, we’ve been talking to a guy from our hometown for a few weeks now about getting him on trumpet, but we’ve been sooo busy lately that bringing someone else in and then getting them up to scratch has just been impossible. Hopefully soon we will bringing the “sex” back to the people.
Lynsey – Sadly, with Josh as our frontman, the sexy aspect is always going to be limited!
Josh - Yeah limited to awesomeness!
Lynsey (ignoring Josh) – ..having a trumpet does make such a difference to our sound, though, so we’re keen to get it sorted ASAP. I’m a fan of bands like Streetlight Manifesto that have a big horn section, and we miss that full sound and the sweet harmonies when we’ve only sax and trombone.
Yeah, and then the tour is coming up soon..
Josh - We will just carry on as a…pent-tet? As a band with 5 members, anyway!
Lynsey – Yeah, we’ll just have to skank on and rock on regardless!
And when will we see you in the South? Shall we start pestering promoters for you?
Josh - We will be down your way in early March. Sadly, it’s quite hard getting down that far.
I see. Because you guys do have “real” jobs as well, right?
Josh - Unfortunately so. Well, I don’t, I go to uni but the rest of the band have proper jobs which we have to work around.
Lynsey – Yeah as with a lot of other bands at our level, we have to supplement our income which is a pain in the ass. But we’re a multitalented bunch: we’ve got a trainee chemist, an optometrist, a joiner and a finance expert in our ranks!
Josh - You said bunch…like bananas
So what can we do to get you down here?
Josh - Tell our story….let people know we exist and that we are the kinda people you would lend your car to.
Lynsey – Yup spread The Hostiles word! We’re trying to sort out a tour for later in the year that’ll include the south of England and Northen Ireland so keep your peepers peeled. Thanks Banana Town!
Josh - Haha you said peeled….like a banana
The Hostiles’ record Always Looking Forward is available direct from their myspace page (for the actual cd) or as a download from amazon, play, spotify and itunes - all links on the myspace. Their tour begins on 29th January, 2010.
Johnnie Toney
Posted by chips on Jan 21, 2010
Johnnie Toney
21st January
Jamie
Johnnie Toney used to play with the Brummie outfit Cueball 8 *sigh* and, up until recently, that was where we knew him from: Johnnie Toney from Cueball 8. “I’ve started this whole thing alone”, he says, of his new solo project, “and it is possibly the strangest experience I’ve ever had! Good, but strange”. After seven years together, the guys split up at the end of last year having doubled in size since they first appeared on the scene as a three-piece, and appeared with Jimmy the Squirrel and Sonic Boom Six as well as Bad Manners, Neville Staple and the Beat. Oh, and Bryan Adams. Yes, really. In front of 29,000 people at Murrayfield stadium (where Scotland play Rugby). And they played weddings. In fact, Johnnie appeared just about everywhere with the band.
He wants to do more, though. “I have spent most of my career writing ska and reggae music and, as it is my first love, I will continue to do so. But I also have a lot of songs that I have written that were never quite right for CUEBALL8 so I’d like to experiment with those and see where we go”. In fact, next to Bradley Nowell and Goldfinger, he lists the Cat Empire, manu chao’ and even Zero 7 as influences. No surprise, then, that while there’s an easy going, rootsy vibe to his solo stuff it’s a teensy bit electro and has more ambience than Giant Bill’s Ambient Shack when there’s a half-price sale on ambience. It sounds mint, and seriously needs checking out. Bananatown grabbed Johnnie to find out what the crack is.
Hi Johnnie.
Hey guys.
What’s new?
Just about everything at the moment! We played our last gig as CUEBALL8 in our hometown Stratford upon Avon on Christmas Eve, and since then it’s been a whirlwind of new projects, opportunities and quite a steep learning curve with solo work. CUEBALL8’s last show was a fantastic night selling out the venue and partying till the small hours: Christmas Day was not a chirpy day, I can tell you!
True that. I guess a lot of this all feels pretty different at the moment? I mean, I’m not a musician but “alone” and “with people” are very different things, eh?
Absolutely mate, the way I’m writing now is a completely different process as I’m playing everything myself - even a brand new melodica (a little Christmas prezzie to myself). I mean before I’d just get an acoustic guitar and jam out a song, bring it along to a band practice and the guys would put their stamp on their section and we’d bash it out until it gelled. But writing in this way you have to start from the bottom building upwards and piecing together the song as you go. It’s a cool new experience and I think you end up with a good sound but I don’t think you could get any further away from being in a band.
It was a shame about Cueball 8. These songs do sound great, though. You must be excited that going it alone will give you the chance to work on them the way you want them to sound?
Dude, no one was more gutted than me about the whole CUEBALL8 thing. I mean, being in a band is like being in a family: you play music together but it’s so much more than that. You get to a stage where you know exactly what each other is thinking musically or personally, and that, as an education in life, is a wonderful thing, but nothing stays the same, you have to adapt and change with whatever life throws at you. I’m really excited about going it alone and it is a great chance to make music exactly how you want to, but I’m still going to jam with some of the guys and ask their opinion on the songs I’ve written - how would I know I wasn’t writing complete and utter shite! I had the privilege of playing with one of the best drummers on the UK ska scene, and he is one of my best friends, and the lead guitarist is now my brother in law so we’ll definitely be keeping in touch!
How different do you think the Johnnie Toney thing is going to be, and in what ways is it going to be different?
When I wrote songs for CUEBALL8 there was always an emphasis on trying to write bouncy, jump up ska songs that got whatever venue we played in hitting the roof! I still want to write songs like that, but I also want to incorporate and make room for some songs that i have written over the years that are great album tracks, ones you can sit down at home with your favourite tipple and really appreciate a great song. Manu Chao was always a great guy for doing that, and I’ve spent many an evening dissecting the mass of sounds he incorporates to make his masterpieces. If you ever get the chance to see him live, dude, you gotta do it, it’ll change your life!
Note taken. You’ve put “a lot of things” in the “sounds like” box on your myspace. Are there any surprising influences about to jump out on us?
I like so many different genres: if you ever listen to CUEBALL8’s songs they are so eclectic not just your standard reggae or ska tracks, which I think is why we had a problem getting picked up by labels such as Do the Dog as you couldn’t put us in a box. One track would have a true ska beat like Mirror in the Bathroom, and then the next track would whisk you away to the Mediterranean with heavy Spanish guitar solo’s and slutty muted trumpets! I like what I like and I think you start to bore yourself if you stay restricted within your music styles, so if its got a good vibe to it, I’m into it.
What are you looking forward to about 2010?
Well, I’m currently in the middle of setting up my own small studio and giving myself somewhere I can just hide away and play music constantly, listen to some crackly vinyl and immerse myself into music again. I’ve also been putting my music out through the joys of the world wide web - and landed a contract with Global Surf Industries Australia, so I now have my songs featured on the Noosa 2010 surf festival DVD’s and am getting paid for the first time in 7 years which is a very welcome anomaly (well if you will be in a band with 6 members you cant expect to get paid that much!) I’m also working with a guy called Phil Latham who owns Loosefims, a surf company that films documentaries for up and coming surfers - and he features unsigned artists on his vids. But most excitingly I’m in talks with Billabong Surf TV which transmits in America and Australia and am hopefully gonna get a foot in the door there with my music on the channel!
Wow. That’s really impressive. Hopefully it’ll work out. What do you think will happen next?
Well, I want to see where the whole surf video thing takes me as its combining the two things that I really love: surfing and music. While that’s ticking along I’m getting all my songs finished and recorded and booking some dates up. If a signing came up, I wouldn’t say no but then again who would?! I’m falling in love with the mistress that is music all over again and it’s the best feeling in the world - but don’t tell the wife, she hates being second best!
Dirty Revolution sign to Rebel Alliance.
Posted by chips on Jan 21, 2010
Cardiff’s Dirty Revolution have become the latest new act on the Rebel Alliance roster.
“On ‘Before The Fire’, they’ve created the perfect taster of their distinct brand of rebel music which fits in perfectly alongside the Rebel Alliance roster as well as providing a nod to the old-school ska and punk of bands like The Slits and The Selecter.” say the Rebel Alliance folk. Exciting stuff. More news, we’re told, will follow soon, and, as soon as we get it, it’ll be on here.
Sonic Boom Six: stage times.
Posted by chips on Jan 21, 2010
The Sonic Boom Six have some scarily early stage times during their tour with Big D and Reel Big Fish.
“Norwich and Manchester are the one’s to watch”, says Barney, “with doors at half past 7 and us on at quarter to 8 and the second London show, with the unholy door time of 6pm and the Boom on at quarter past 6. As long as the indie kids get their NME night afterwards, that’s the main thing!”. Pah. NME. Pah, pah, pah.
New Riot: cheeky studio pictures
Posted by chips on Jan 11, 2010
Me seen these pictures of the New Riot making the album when me looking on facebook. Have a peek here.
True Beat: Back to Square One
Posted by jamie on Jan 10, 2010
True Beat
Back to Square One
Self-released
Jamie : 10th January 2010
It’s difficult not to like True Beat. I met Tom (guitar, vocals) on myspace a few months ago and he seems a thoroughly nice chap and there’s a lesson here, if I can find it, about writing passwords down. Obviously, though, try and keep them in a safe place or just don’t be as forgetful as me. When things go wrong I can get quite the skatty chappie. All of which means it’s something of a surprise, then, when their debut full-length Back to Square One lands on the doormat out of the blue. A thoroughly pleasant surprise all the same, mind, and in the two days it’s taken me to sit down and write about it I’ve scarcely stopped humming the infectious melodies to myself.
Back to Square One is a cheery, cheesy stomp through ten tracks of joyfully retro guitar-led ska-punk. True Beat are a four-piece band with drums, bass, two guitars and two vocals and play a peppy, upbeat variety of almost second wave ska similar to Bad Manners or the Beat, but without horns.
Someone in Big Cheese writing about DeConstruction festival aaaaages ago, that “[spunge] are the first band today not to feature horns”. True Beat don’t sound like [spunge] but the formula is similar, I guess: heavy on upstrokes and ska style basslines, and plenty of chances for anyone who fancies it to shout and chant along to well placed “oi”s and “whoah-oah”s as well.
It’s easy-going and good fun, and great for dancing to. The two vocals mix nicely together and are usually pretty upbeat too, although there’s a few choice words for the inland revenue, perverts on busses and those ads that say “have you had an accident that wasn’t your fault?”. Most of that’s pretty funny, too, and the likes of Payday, 28 Percent and My Distraction (the TV Song) will have you singing along joyfully. Their lyrics are well observed and very amusing.
And in a nutshell, that’s this album for you really. Good, old fashioned style ska played by a classic four-piece line-up. It’s cheeky and cheerful and great for singing along or shaking your booty to. It’s funny, good for a skank and giggle and is basically everything you’d want in a record. Well worth picking up.
Advantage: Future Echoes
Posted by jamie on Jan 10, 2010
Advantage
Future Echoes EP
Self-released
Jamie : 6th January 2010
[Sorry, again, that this has taken so long to publish. Bah.]
It can’t be easy to follow up on a record like Advantage’s eponymous debut EP, which landed on my doormat last year and instantly commanded attention and affection. The word “different” gets bandied around almost as much as talk of things that claim to be bandied around a lot that aren’t bandied around at all by folk who regularly bandy with the best of them, but that’s for another story. When they strode purposefully into the CD players and the hearts of a loving nation in 2009, Advantage were most definitely different. But how to follow that? Well..
Hot on the heels of that incredible first little disc, Future Echoes takes what Advantage were already doing and does it better. This one goes down just as well as the first, and if anything, musically it’s even better.
The three songs on this record again demonstrate Advantage’s startling development as musicians and increasingly innovative and ambitious approach to songwriting. Everything’s refreshingly new about the music here, it’s ambitiously epic, again, with horn riffs ducking in and out of the guitar parts. Perhaps it’s the sheer size and strength in Advantage’s music that makes these arrangements a necessity: there are six of them, but with the amount of different vocal, string and brass parts here, it must take some shuffling around to get them all in. The classic joke about elephants in a mini seems relevant here somehow. However it’s happened, though, the extra edge that vocal and horn harmonies have given to their second set of songs have really helped to improve Advantage’s sound as so many hooks battle for attention. It’s actually pretty exhilarating sitting here with the title track, Future Echoes playing in Media Player. As happened on their first record, Future Echoes the song build up slowly, in layers, opening with just a lead guitar part and growing step by step before finally exploding in to a soaring, gloriously epic rock chorus. It’s very much Advantage as we grew to love them through their first record, but somehow, bigger. This track goes down a treat: the vocals fading out over a horn refrain just at the end of the song is particularly impressive as is the song’s initial climb, backed by increasingly powerful guitar parts to that original chorus. The first time you hear that it’ll pin you right back in your seat, trust me. It’s surely destined to be a real highlight of watching the band in concert (it’s a while since I’ve watched them play live. Must fix that.)
Something to Say is similarly powerful and just as impressive. It brings the horn section in earlier and is a catchier number, closer in composition to a pop song. Its chorus, “we will have the advantage” is peppered with gang vocals of “hey” that will have a lot of pits chanting and bouncing along. Again, midway through, the song drops out and sinisterly, tantalisingly sneaks back up on you before running off in to a massive guitar solo and finally stomping back in to that big, chant-along chorus. It’s perfect.
The Fear is the last song on the CD and the first to open with a brass hook, and the vocal parts much earlier as well. The sound here is, at times, closer to a more traditional pop-punk song, but, again, the song itself is very different. The dual vocals in its chorus, and the points where vocal duets with the brass section and then back in to vocal harmony is charming. The horns then lead the second verse in and, at times here, with the addition a tiny little harmony that’s absolutely lush, and, listened to quietly on your own in your room, will make you go all mushy on the inside and then quickly slaps in to one last little chorus, all toot-toot on the horns and then skips away, leaving you on your own feeling all happy and wanting to hug something, is the one part of this disc with the most uplifting elements of vintage pop songwriting. It’s actually lovely in a sort of soft way and a teensy bit emotional. When you’re on your own. Against the barrier that’ll be the bit when you grab your breath back and try and find your shoe. And then it’s gone, and with it the whole CD stops. It’s lovely, and it’s got everything you need in a small set of great songs. It’s a gem.
Massive Sonic Boom Six merch sale
Posted by jamie on Jan 6, 2010
The Sonic Boom Six are offering “cheapest item free” on merch until 13th January.
“Boom news on the way very soon”, we’re told. Here’s all the details on the merch sale thingummy.
That’s right. In the official SB6 store HERE simply choose three items and get the cheapest item for absolutely free! Offer valid from 10am 6th January to 10am 13th January 2010, GMT time.
Simply add two items to your basket, checkout and write a third choice of lesser value in the ‘Add Special Notes to Merchant’ box in Paypal. REMEMBER TO INCLUDE SIZE AND COLOUR IF APPLICABLE.
Chris Murray (in the USA)
Posted by jamie on Jan 5, 2010
Are you in the US? The Chris Murray Combo top a four-band bill at the Bluebeat Lounge on Friday 8th January. $12 in. Full details here.
MEGA update: TNS records
Posted by jamie on Jan 5, 2010
We don’t usually do this, honest. But, but, but the splendid folk at TNS Records (Manchester) have so many exciting bits to announce it’d take all night to post them separately.
Saturday 16th January - LIVE at Retro Bar
TNS presents the Stupids, Revenge of…, the Emos, Tool of the Regime, Penis Goes Where?
7pm, djs til late, £5 advance.
“Please buy your tickets in advance if you know you are coming.” Paypal £5 (and your address) to Andy at thatsnotskanking@hotmail.com, or pick them up from Rockers on Oldham Street in Manchester. Both of these ways will avoid a booking fee. Alternatively get them online here.
Facebook event here.
TNS will feature in the City Life section of the Manchester Evening news on Friday. It’s free, but you have to be there. Revenge of… also have a feature in the latest issue of Big Cheese and there is a TNS feature in Chimp magazine so grab copies of them too.
The Beat the Red Light ep is available for pre-order from the TNS webstore next week for just £4. “Imagine a hybrid of Slayer and the Slackers”, says Andy. Win. First 15 orders get a free poster too.
It goes on. TNS now have a weekly international podcast in conjunction with www.punkrockdemo.com (USA). Subscribe through itunes and podcastalley.com (just search for TNS) or listen at ww.tnsrecords.co.uk.
