Streetlight: Groezrock
Posted by jamie on Mar 2, 2011
From the Streetlight Manifesto twitter profile. How exciting does this look..?
Streetlight / Toh Kay tour dates
Posted by jamie on Jan 20, 2011
Streetlight Manifesto are off on tour everywhere except the UK. There’s so much in their update, though, that it had to be posted.
These dates stretch all the way through to festival season. Toh Kay is going to play some solo dates in between as well, so there’s plenty going on.
All dates are up here. The guys also run a clothing company and have a half-price sale on. See that here.
Streetlight Manifesto: new video/dates/album/merch sale
Posted by jamie on Oct 28, 2010
Streetlight Manifesto have released a new music video for their cover of “Just”, originally by Radiohead, from the covers record “99 Songs Of Revolution: Vol I”. Seek it out here.
Streetlight will spend the next couple of months “in and out of the studio” recording what is apparently the last album they’ll ever make on a major label. We’ve also been promised some new and surprising tour dates. Watch this space.
All Streetlight Manifesto merch is currently reduced by15% if bought via their online store.
Streetlight Manifesto: 99 Songs of Revolution
Posted by chips on Mar 14, 2010
Streetlight Manifesto have a new record, 99 Songs of Revolution: it’s 11 covers of songs by some of the artists that have influenced Streetlight over the years.
You can get a free mp3 from the record, go here. It’s Hell, by the way, by the Squirrell Nut Zippers. The full record is released on 16th March.
Streetlight Manifesto, JB Conspiracy, Crazy Arm & Advantage
Posted by jamie on Apr 6, 2009
4th April, 2009, ULU, London Bloomsbury.
Streetlight Manifesto, JB Conspiracy, Crazy Arm, Advantage.
To put this show in perspective: it could easily have been one of the best nights out in years, or, just as easily, one of the worst. When a new summer first shows up, long days of sunshine-drinking (that’s drinking in sunshine, not actually drinking sunshine) usually ensue. You know how it is, it’s either a perfect day, or you or someone near you in the pit, the gents or the tube, has one too many, gets a bit too hot and something goes wrong. Thankfully, this one turned out good: so good that I’m two days late reviewing it and still redoing the ULU stamp on my hand in biro. Yes, not just good but with that extra bit that puts it above your run-of-the-mill great show and makes it a deep-sigh-in-the-chest-remember-fondly-forever show.
We went for buffet next to Camden Town tube (all you can eat Thai for £5.50 and EVERYTHING vegetarian) and decided to add apple and raspberry juice to some bargain own-brand champagne. That was a great idea, because £6 champagne is even worse than you’d think, but with juice it’s actually quite nice, and great for drinking out.
ADVANTAGE are the band that used to be Grown At Home before Nick left. There are more changes to the line-up than that, though, and they are actually a very different band. Bananatown isn’t one of those snooty “ska is immature/cheesy” sites, but the evolution that’s happened here is really, really impressive. The melodies, in particular, are striking and different to what we used to see with GAH: more akin to the angstier end of American style pop-punk bands like Never Heard of It or New Found Glory, or even Failsafe. Their harmonies have more parts, too. I go “My Girl” slushy for a good harmony, and Advantage’s set is loaded with them, each underpinned by crunchy, dirty riffs. They haven’t stopped being a ska-punk band, but have in fact become refreshingly broad and inventive, with a new and really exciting sound, yet still ska, and still punk, the sort of band that emos and metallers will try and claim because the only ska band they know is Reel Big Fish. Rant over. Sorry. You MUST see this band. I wouldn’t have traded Grown At Home, given the choice, but now wouldn’t trade Advantage to get them back. These guys are danceable, skankable, moshable, and impressively tight for what is only actually their third show with this line-up and material. A must for the future. I only knew “Never Say Never”, because it’s on their myspace, so apologies for the lack of songs. Probably not too many people know them anyway.
CRAZY ARM take the crowd a little by surprise, and not just because they weren’t on the poster and we’re expecting the JB Conspiracy. I haven’t seen these guys since they supported the Sonic Boom Six in 2006, but they haven’t changed too much. Dirty, angry rock n’ roll with the feel of a classic metal or hardcore band. They call themselves “roots punk”, but there’s more than just country added to their raw, dirty punk rock sound. Another very short set, and a room of slightly nonplussed ska fans, still surprised, doubtless, to have seen an all out rock assault, let alone one at this speed, are left knocked back a little but impressed nonetheless. These guys aren’t totally my bag, but they’re good, really good, at what they do.
THE JB CONSPIRACY, up next, play one of the best sets I’ve ever seen them play to a now packed room. It’s been gradually filling up since doors, which is odd, given the size of the queues outside earlier on. But we’re in. This, now the room is packed, the walls are dripping with sweat, and the sun’s gone down, is where any of the aggro that usually comes with the year’s first hot days would start. It doesn’t, but the JB Conspiracy manage to channel the rising anticipation and tension in the room to whip it up in to a frenzy. Admittedly there’s a big posse in from Guildford (the band’s hometown), but the instant reaction these guys get is really impressive, and it’s full on. A pit opens up during the first song, Pipe Down, and quickly spreads a long way back. Two or three new songs are a welcome addition to the JB set, as we haven’t had a follow-up to This Machine, but Be Aware and This Machine, for example, still sound fresh. Tonight everything is played faster, harder and with more intensity. Since the early days as Duff Muffin, these guys have steadily grown in stature and tonight look like a serious, intimidating punk/ska beast, a constant blur of movement on stage and a beefed up horn-section to back up Lank’s voice, tonight throaty, almost a growl at times, they chop between peppy, third-wave upstrokes and rock guitar riffs throughout and leave the place gleefully sweaty and exhausted. For the first time all the plastic cups on the floor are flattened and we’re starting to look breathless. In truth, the JB Conspiracy should really be packing out their own headline tours, and, especially now that Fandangle have split up, could and should go on to be one of the biggest punk/ska acts in the UK. They surely deserve it on this evidence.
STREETLIGHT MANIFESTO. What can you say? It’d be hard for a lot of bands to follow the set we’ve just seen from JB, but Streetlight are something else. Think of this as a “greatest hits” set, heavy on their most recent, but not really new, record Somewhere in the Between and you’re pretty much there. From start to finish exhausted, baked bodies are flying around, and, in the aisles we’re skanking, dancing in circles and pogoing. There’s a lot of girls lifted up on guys’ shoulders taking pictures on phones. Actually, one flaw in the ULU, apart from the classic university venue problems (shiny floor, too hot, slippy, becomes a sweatbox) is that it’s just too long and thin. By choice I’d be hanging out at the side (pit injuries, [spunge] tour) but there just aren’t any. In truth, this doesn’t really matter. A few drunks are angry by now, but on the whole the atmosphere in here, halfway back, is great. It’s basically a love-in between a big, fervent hardcore Streetlight following. They’ve clearly got a lot of very devoted fans. And, in fairness, they serve them, and us all, very well tonight. These guys are tight. They rarely speak, except to announce that they’ll be back in August, but move through the usual set with practised ease. A really tight band, playing great songs well is a great experience anywhere, but this is a great show for the sheer quality of the musicianship and songs as well as for the amount of love in the room. Streetlight only had to turn up for the plaudits here, by the looks of things, but a race through their impressive back-catalogue leaves the air a sea of pumping fists and has a packed room shouting along giddily. An encore of the title-track from “Somewhere in the Between” leaves us emotionally exhausted and physically drained. Every last bit of energy sweated out and bruised. But deliciously happy.
