2011 July | Bananatown

New Town Kings: M.O.J.O

Posted by jamie on Jul 14, 2011

New Town Kings

M.O.J.O – Bomber Music, 2011

13^th July 2011

Jamie

There was a long time where we didn’t hear from the New Town Kings at all. Having fallen well and truly in love with their splendid debut album when Do the Dog Music released it way back in 2007 it was all I listened to and spoke about for weeks. They were all over the place, and then, all of a sudden, they weren’t. All of a sudden the failure on the Northern Line that made me miss their set supporting the Slackers at the Astoria (RIP) was the focus of a deep-rooted, festering, bitter sense of frustration. There were other shows, but they seemed to be fewer and further between until recently, when I bumped in to them supporting the Skints at Nambucca. If it was a surprise to stumble upon them, it was nothing of the sort to see that they’d brought an enormous crew in from deepest, darkest Essex, and somewhat inevitable that they were absolutely incredible.Next Monday (18^th July) Bomber Music will release the New Town Kings’ second studio album, and, to be frank, someone there ought to be getting knighted for putting this one out. It’s absolutely incredible.

The New Town Kings play a sassy take on two-tone and ska that can sometimes be ever-so-smooth and gentle on the ears, with a rich, warm soulful vocal, and at other times gets going with a quick tempo and plenty of pep and energy: all upstrokes and short, sharp bursts on the horns. Whatever the speed of the rhythms, or of the tune as a whole, they’re always easy on the ear: Chris’s vocal is warm, rich and deliciously soulful. At no point, though, is M.O.J.O as easy on your feet as it is on the ears. It’s so smooth, so easy to listen to that your neck and shoulder muscles relax and drop down like they’re being massaged. It’s that smooth. But your feet are a different deal altogether: from first moment to last, they won’t stop moving while this is playing. The skank-factor on this is ridiculous: it’s got sun, soul, and keys and a three-part horn section and the tunes are out of this world if you’re up for getting a dance on. The trumpet line, in particular, are superb: really uplifting, old-style reggae hooks that roll out over the guitar riffs in waves.

It’s fairly subtle, this, in a lot of ways, and musically, while it’s not exactly ground-breaking, it’s certainly distinctive in today’s musical landscape: it’s unashamedly smooth, easy going, almost easy-listening, even. Where its lead vocals are effortlessly smooth and so soothing, it’s also embellished, throughout, by some delightful group backing vocals giving pitch-perfect harmonies, catchy little question-and-answer hooks, or, in some places, both. There’s plenty of that vintage classic-pop song writing in here, and, in general, it’s fairly faithful to those rules. The songs are an absolute joy, and the performances here are excellent. It already feels like a well-worn and much loved pair of slippers, and I’ve only had it a week. Careful, though: your feet might be hankering for those slippers if you let them skank as hard as they’ll want to.

M.O.JO. is released 18^th July on Bomber Music.

Stand-out tracks:

Dynamite
Stringalong
Newstand
Star of the Show
Brighter Days

Big D: For the Damned..

Posted by jamie on Jul 12, 2011

Big D and the Kids Table

For the Damned, the Dumb and the Delirious - Side One Dummy, 2011

12^th July 2011

Jamie

There’s something about this umpteenth Big D and the Kids Table full-length that’s instantly and unmistakably striking. It’s been out for one week now, although sadly it was apparently leaked online in a few places several weeks before. Those people want to take a long, hard look at themselves if you ask me.What grabs you, or grabs me, at least, about this record, though, is just how Big D Big D have managed to sound, and from the very first second. It’s like them on a stick, as if they’ve sat down and worked out everything that makes them so wonderful and taken each of those factors and cranked them up to twelve out of ten. Addictive basslines? Check. Sassy horn parts? Check. Punch-the air gang vocals? Rich, smooth female backing vocals? Killer reggae and ska melodies, peppered with upstrokes? Check, check, check.

Overall, it’s snottier, more East-side than their mellower, more reggae-influenced material usually is, but it’s not a punk rock record, by their standards, by any stretch. With the exception of the sombre, eerie story telling in It’s Raining Zombies on Wall Street and the impassioned spit of the vocal on Set Me Straight, it’s an up-tempo coming together of ska-punk, reggae and two-tone, delivered with a peppy, spiky East-Coast vibe and plenty of upstrokes and vocals that communicate urgency and frustration in the way they’re enunciated so directly from the front of the singers’ mouths. There’s a couple of places here where a reggae-style drop out comes with a hollow, tinny, spooky echo that could have come straight from one of the very first dub records, but then on Brain’s-a-bomb Dave goes off on a startling first-person spoken word rant.The quality of the songwriting and arrangement here, and the depth of the arrangements, both in the number of things going on and the way that they’ve been put together so perfectly, are ingenious and thoroughly enjoyable too. The attention to detail, both in the off-mic additional vocals, like Rob’s cough in My Buddy’s Back and the effort that’s gone in to the selection of the samples, the arrangement and placement of the harmonies and backing vocals, and the addition of so many extra instrumental parts, is really delightful. There’s real breadth to the sound as well, and that, along with the fact that all of the songs are of such excellent quality, has made it really hard to pick favourites, so I’ve broken my own rules and gone for six. At the moment my absolute favourite is the sax- and bass-driven radio-friendly swing/doo-wop/ska-punk fusion thing Stringers, but that, for example, morphs quickly in to the warped-dub-meets-upstroke-led-two-tone of Destination Gone Astray. There’s some crazy reverb going on in that, and some lovely work from the horn section.

For the Damned, the Dumb and the Delirious is excellent throughout, in so many ways. I’m still picking out lovely little details on every listen, and can’t pick favourite songs. There’s so much to love here. The tunes should, and surely will, be instant live favourites and it’s ideal for putting on at parties too. It’ll grab you instantly and it just keeps on giving. I keep finding new things I love: the female backing vocals and then the breakdown on Roxbury (Roots ‘n’ Shoots) are my new best friend, and they will be until the next one comes along. Gem.

Stand-out tracks:

Clothes Off

Modern American Gypsy

Rotten

My Buddy’s Back

Stringers

Roxbury (Roots ‘n’ Shoots)

Home

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New Found Glory: Save Your Breath UK dates & tickets

Posted by jamie on Jul 8, 2011

Save Your Breath are confirmed as main support to New Found Glory on their UK tour later in the year.

Here’s what they’ve said:

“We are beyond stoked to announce we will be opening for New Found Glory in the UK in August!! We are so excited to be playing with one of our favourite bands of all time and we cannot wait for these shows….we’re hoping to see some old friends and make a lot of new ones at these shows. This is really a dream come true for us…

Full dates are here. Get tickets here.

New Found Glory

Posted in Tours and Shows, Uncategorized || No Comments »

The Talks: double-A-side

Posted by jamie on Jul 7, 2011

The Talks7^th July 2011

Jamie

The brief, if polite little email that arrived out of the blue one day was the first I’d ever heard of The Talks. A little research revealed they’re a four-piece from Hull, and have been gigging and making friends steadily since 2006.

It’s tough to go in to much more detail than that without courting a bit of controversy, though, because some of what I’ve already read about them seems not to apply to this particular release.

The Talks have helpfully sent a collection of quotes from other publications that talk about “frisky, guitar-jolt pop”, “edgy” and “good old-fashioned rock and roll”. Here, though, they’ve written and recorded two songs especially to pay tribute to vintage Jamaican ska, and the way in which it can moody, sombre lyrics amongst bouncy, sunshine sounds.Apparently this is a relative departure for the band, but they’ve actually stayed startingly faithful to music and atmosphere of old-town

Jamaica and managed to create something truly evocative of those old-fashioned, feel good, sunshine vibes. All the more laudable, of course, when they are actually from HullJamaica and managed to create something truly evocative of those old-fashioned, feel good, sunshine vibes. All the more laudable, of course, when they are actually from Hull

.A-side Can Stand the Rain is a breezy, mid-tempo stroll of a song, backed by a juicy bassline and picked out with rich, soothing horn lines and plenty of off-mic scat. It’s infectious: smooth, sultry and drenched in sunshine. There’s a Streets-esque little rap near the end that’s something about capital gains tax (yes, really) before the song returns to its addictive chorus and eventually disappears.

Why Did You Bring It Up?, on the reverse, is slower in pace but still gets you swaying. I’m pretty sure I heard a xylophone appear in there too, just to spice things up. There’s more going on in the music, with your years dragged quickly back and forth to make sure they take everything in. It works well, though, and makes for an equally enjoyable tune. Again, very summery, very old-school and just the right mount of sexy. Really good fun, this. Great day-time, relaxing sunshine tunes.

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SB6: new vid up

Posted by jamie on Jul 7, 2011

Sonic Boom Six have unveiled the video for their new single Sunny Side of the Street. It’s up on their YouTube page, or click the image here to watch it.

Here’s what Barney’s said about the single:

‘Sunny Side of the Street’ is Sonic Boom Six’s bittersweet love-letter to the city they call home. The track captures SB6 at their most melodic and anthemic and is already a live-favourite following its debut on The Boom’s support slot on The King Blues’ sold-out UK tour. The ‘Sunny Side of the Street’ single is complemented by the ‘Sunny Side of the Street’ Sonic Scribe remix (the winning-entry in a competition to remix the single on the official Sonic Boom Six website) and also includes the the original bedroom demo of the title track.

Sunny Side of the Street’ is available to download on 25th July from the usual suspects CD and T-Shirt bundle that opened for pre-orders today. Bundles cost £15 and will be sent on Saturday 23rd July in time for the single’s release on July 25th. T-shirts are blue and black. Pre-order a bundle here, or the CD on its own here.

Sunny Side of the Street was the highlight of SB6’s set when we saw them play with Random Hand and the King Blues back in April. See Jamie’s review here for the full story. We’ve been hankering for this release since then.

Posted in Band Updates, Records, Sonic Boom Six || No Comments »

Big D: new “punk” record?

Posted by jamie on Jul 6, 2011

Just a rumour so far, but a juicy one about a new Big D record (and no, not Monday’s one, either)..

I have it on good authority that Dave and the lads will be taking the more punky and thrashy songs from their old split CD with Brain Failure, Beijing to Boston, as well as their unreleased thrashy songs they cut from their last album, For the Damned, the Dumb and the Delirious, and putting them together to create a new all-punk all-thrash CD.

I’m afraid I can’t take all the credit. This juice is from a well-connected, credible source who wanted to be anonymous. I feel like Perez Hilton or something writing this.

Get Big D’s latest record here:

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Random Hand: Camden Underworld

Posted by jamie on Jul 6, 2011

Random Hand / the Have Nots / Dirty Revolution

Camden

Underworld2^nd July 2011

Jamie

There’s been a surreal atmosphere to most of today, and it didn’t end with this, a joyously boisterous romp of a skacore show on an otherwise quiet weekend, slap in the middle of a capital city that’s been smacked by a giant heatwave.Our crew rocked up having first been down to see acoustic reggae urchins

Gecko record the video for stunning new single Safest Bet. Halfway down a bustling Brick Lane, we met Will Sanderson-Thwaite in a tiger suit and his film make-up, and it just got weirder from there. Melting, we rushed back to the Underworld and in through the side door. That’s the one that usually gets used when no-one’s turned up, but inside Dirty Revolution had a sizeable crowd and kept them nicely entertained. Dirty Rev are always impressive, and seem to get better every time I’ve watched them, but tonight was a landmark performance for them in the way that they went out and performed: it really felt like everyone had come to have fun, and that extra energy was infections, certainly shared by everyone on the dancefloor.

The Have Nots, up next, are equally impressive: they play an edgy yet melodic take on original, 70s style, street punk: it’s not as snotty as Rancid or the Distillers, and is more faithful to conventional pop songwriting than some of the classic punk and post-punk bands. With the hooks just where you’d expect them, duelling guitars and soaring harmonies and choruses, they’re a pretty instant hit. The Have Nots are a new band on me, but instantly accessible and entertaining to watch live. They’ve been on all of Random Hand’s tour and clearly feel thoroughly at home. They’re confident, almost nonchalant, and it shows.And so to

Random Hand. There isn’t much that hasn’t been said about them, and yes, we do almost know what we’re going to get. This, though, is the first time I’ve seen them tour the monstrous Seething is Believing, though, and they’re bigger and better than ever. Like the Have Nots before them, Random Hand are in dominant, confident mood and swagger on so brimming with belief that it’s like they’re arriving in to their own front room in their trackies and slippers.It’s an intriguing transformation, actually: I’ve always sensed that part of that blistering rage was fuelled by a sense of some sort of frustration or inadequacy, the sort of angst so prevalent in first-wave punk. Here, though, they bowl casually on to the Underworld stage looking for all the world like they know exactly how gigantic their performance is about to be.

“Come on, don’t be shy, we’re all friends here” Robin grins, his toes curling over the very front of the stage. “Come forward”. Over the course of the set he spends a lot of time there, leaning right out over the top of the front few rows. Later on he steps on someone’s fingers, but apologises afterwards.From the very off, Random Hand fairly race through a set consisting mainly of the newer material, of which 3 from 6 and Bones are particular highlights. With their stature and tunes so enormous, and coming to the end of a long tour, a little over confidence is surely totally forgivable. To test this out, Robin embarks on a couple of epic rants: one which started out about Sean‘s technical issues with his drums and ended up being about his (fictional) menstruation problems – in fairness, he immediately apologised for this one – and an ingenious effort about strikes and then how many unemployed people they’d had at shows on their tour and eventually how “it’s our [punks on the dole] fault that the country’s in the state it’s in – single mothers are starving, and you’re having a dance?” and finally creasing us all up with the hilarious and outrageously inappropriate “we need another Thatcher!”.

Most poignantly, though, the lads pause briefly to pay their respects to the late Oli Smith, and his and their friends in Anti-Vigilante. There’s a quick show of hands as to who was at Thursday’s show*, a memorial to Oli and a benefit for

the Willen Hospice, where he was cared for. The magnificent Not a Number is dedicated to Oli and to Mouthwash, who, in case you’d somehow missed it, have announced that they’ve split. It’s all very emotional.From here on, it’s a bruising end to a powerhouse of a headline performance: a hilarious tale of how they’d never actually played the last song at all, throughout the whole tour, having not been called back for their encore -“we’d sort of over-egged our own popularity a bit. They’ve all just shrugged and gone home” – introduces first Anger Management and then that elusive encore, Scum Triumphant. And Random Hand fully deserved that encore: their new material in particular, is so incredibly powerful: every element of it, notably the three-part vocals, is enormous. Together, it’s positively anthemic. And they clearly had fun too: I’ve never seen them so blasé about it all. It’s like they were toying with us.

We weren’t at Thursday’s benefit for the Willen Hospice. However, Alex from Punktastic has covered it nicely in his review here.

Apologies to Tyrannosaurus Alan and Broken Nose. We got caught out by the early stage times, but we’ll come and watch you soon.

Posted in Dirty Revolution, Live reviews, Random Hand, Reviews || No Comments »

TrueBeat: splitting up

Posted by jamie on Jul 6, 2011

Sort of out of the blue, London ska-punkers TrueBeat are splitting up.

Here’s their statement in full:

Dear All!

It’s with great regret that I write this but all of us here at TrueBeat HQ have decided to call it a day! We’ve had a great couple of years traveling the country and playing to you all and we’d just like to say thanks to everyone who was part of the ride, even if you only saw us once and added us on facebook on a whim, you were still a part of this band! That said, a few people deserve a mention, Toby, Steph and Ben, our previous drummers, Tim G who recorded the album, Rich from Sawyers, Jeff and Rob from The Redhouse, Loz from Basingstoke and Tony from Newcastle… I know there’s loads I’ve forgotten, you know who you are and it’s been nothing short of a pleasure working with you.

Anyway, it’s not over yet we have a few gigs left, notably one final return to Old Nick’s in Horncastle and a set at Boomtown Fair but we have one last request of you all; come down and party with us at our last ever gig! We’re taking over our local in Twickenham, The George on the 10th of September and it would be amazing to see all your familiar faces. It’s only £3 on the door and we’ll be giving away TrueBeat goodies all night! For more info, here’s the facebook event page.

Hope to see you all there and once again, thanks for EVERYTHING!

Love,

TrueBeat

And here’s Jamie writing up their first (and now only) full studio album, Back to Square One.

True Beat: Back to Square One

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Gecko: Secret Garden Party

Posted by jamie on Jul 5, 2011

Lovably cheeky acoustic-ska ragammuffins Gecko are going to grace the Secret Garden Party this year. They’ll be playing the wonderfully named “Where the Wild Things Are” stage on the Saturday.

That announcement in full:

We are THRILLED to announce GECKO will be playing the SECRET GARDEN PARTY 2011 on the ‘Where the wild things are’ stage on SATURDAY the 23rd of JULY. We are so excited to join the bill of this phenomenal festival alongside BLONDIE, LEFTFIELD, MYSTERY JETS and ANDY C to name only a select few! Hope to see you at the garden!

Yeah, you heard, Blondie.

a cute pic of Gecko