popwreckoning

English band the Horrors will be releasing their third album, Skying, on August 9th in the U.S. (July 11th in the UK) on XL Recordings. Ahead of the album release, the band has released the first promo video from the album, for the song “Still Life.” Watch it below.

The Horrors will be touring North America in September, starting on September 7 in Vancouver and ending in Washington DC on September 30. More information on these dates can be found on the band’s official website.

The Horrors: website | myspace

“Are you ready to rock?” asked a jovial Barry Hyde of the Futureheads Friday night. Cheering ensued. He flashed an evil grin. “You’re in the right place, because we are too!” The Sunderland, England punk rock quartet played a blazing set of favorites old and new to a crowd raring to go at the Black Cat in Washington. Their latest album The Chaos was released in America this past Tuesday on Dovecote Records.

The first of two support acts, the Static Jacks, seemed perfectly matched to the punk sensibility of the headlining Sunderland rockers. This five-member New Jersey band is a band primed for success that you’ve probably never even heard of by name before. According to Wikipedia, tunes by this self-described garage-soul band have graced “The Hills” and “The City” and have been featured on stateside satellite radio. Despite sporting a haircut reminiscent of Lyle Lovett, singer Ian Devaney has the swagger and aura of coolness of Joey Ramone and the magnetism of the Horrors‘ Faris Badwan. I was standing in front of bassist Spencer Kimmins and guitarist Henry Kaye and nearly got hit in the head by wayward guitar necks; this didn’t put me off at the slightest, because this is what you should expect during a high energy punk set. You don’t expect the bass player to hit a suitcase with a stick like it was a drum either, but you go with it if the music is good. Despite their young age (all of them under 21, according to the Xs on their hands), they have a polished but aggressive sound. If they keep this up, expect big things from this band soon.

The Like, an all-girl group from Los Angeles, have previously toured with some heavy hitters – Muse, the Arctic Monkeys, and Razorlight, just to name a few. Given their sometimes punk, sometimes sunny pop sound, the comparison to the Go-Go’s is inevitable. There are also whiffs of the Beatles (check out the video for “He’s Not a Boy” below, which reminds me of the nightclub dance scenes in “A Hard Day’s Night”) and the Beach Boys with their harmonies. Oddly, their set sandwiched in between the Static Jacks and the Futureheads almost felt like a rest period because they couldn’t match the liveliness of the other two acts. I would have preferred if they stuck to punk (and showcase their technical chops) than with retro pop. Their next album produced by Mark Ronson, Release Me, will be released on June 15 on Downtown Records.

He’s Not A Boy from The Like on Vimeo.

Sunderland, nestled in the far reaches of Northeast England, has been criminally neglected by music pundits in the past, but mark my words, it won’t be for much longer. One of these days someday soon, America will come to its collective senses and realize the wealth of music there, from the likes of Field Music, Frankie and the Heartstrings, and Friday’s headliners the Futureheads. I should have known I was in for an amazing nights simply from a message lead singer/guitarist Barry Hyde sent me hours before the show, “we’re going to rock your socks off!”

The moment Hyde and his band stepped on the Black Cat stage, you could sense the electricity in the air. The driving count-in of “5-4-3-2-1!” of “The Chaos” was a superb way to begin a set that never let up in sheer intensity and fun. “Heartbeat Song” was prefaced by Hyde with, “imagine it’s the ’80s. You’re in a John Hughes film, and you’ve just fallen in love.” Wow. It’s the obvious earworm single of The Chaos, and was simply breathtaking live as a pop-punk masterpiece. I previously linked to the excellent promo video for the song on a tour announcement 2 months ago, but check out this “making of” video that shows you just how fun these guys are.

Their roadie had painstakingly taped down all the guitar cords onstage, and this was because guitarist Ross Millard, bassist Jaff Craig, and most often Hyde himself could be found roaming the stage while frenetically going at their instruments with gusto. By the second song in, all of them were covered in sweat. Having never seen this band before live, I was not expecting the very funny stage patter from Hyde and the interaction between him, Millard, and Craig. It made an already stellar gig even better, and I’d argue they rank up there with We Are Scientists for pure during-gig hilarity. Early on in the show, Hyde chided a drunk couple who had been chatting throughout the set, one of whom had thrown a empty glass at his feet. “You do know this is a gig, right?” The crowd cheered in response.

During their cover of Kate Bush‘s “Hounds of Love,” Hyde involved the audience in a shouting contest, as Millard was unable to do his harmonies due to a sore throat, Hyde admitting he was scared to sing part of a song that he’d never done live before. Aww. (If you were wondering, my side singing along with Craig won the contest due to our enthusiasm in participating.) For the encore, Hyde indulged a devoted fan as the band played “Man Ray” from their 2004 self-titled debut album, saying to her, “after every single song we’ve played you shouted for this.” Just goes to show that persistence, in the presence of a obliging band, pays off. After such an energetic set, it was obvious that these chaps from Sunderland could have played on for hours and hours and the crowd would have eaten it all up. I can’t wait to see these guys again soon.

The Futureheads Set List
The Chaos
Meantime
Heartbeat Song
Decent Days and Nights
The Baron
Area
Struck Dumb
Sun Goes Down
Skip to the End
The Connector
I Can Do That
The Beginning of the Twist
Hounds of Love (Kate Bush cover)
Jupiter
//
This is the Life
Man Ray
Work is Never Done

Tour Dates
Jun 07 – Paradise / Boston
Jun 08 – Bowery Ballroom / New York City
Jun 10 – Mod Club / Toronto
Jun 11 – Magic Stick / Detroit
Jun 12 – Lincoln Hall / Chicago

The Futureheads: website | myspace | The Futureheads Ready for June North American Tour
The Static Jacks: website | myspace
The Like: website | myspace

The Fat Cat Records label is a Brighton, England institution; they have signed highly divergent, up and coming acts from across the globe, from Sigur Rós to Vetiver, from Frightened Rabbit to Vashti Bunyan. So I took much delight in hearing that the label was sending several of their signings over to North America for a tour. For the Washington date, the three acts being featured at the Black Cat were the Scottish bands We Were Promised Jetpacks and the Twilight Sad, and the English band Brakesbrakesbrakes.

Glaswegians We Were Promised Jetpacks were first up. The band recently put out their debut album, These Four Walls, and they’ve been garnering a lot of attention stateside. I loved their song “Roll Up Your Sleeves” the first time I caught their video online. Singer/guitarist Adam Thompson looks like a Boy Scout, but boy, he sure doesn’t sing like one. They’re rock, they’re punk, they’re everything in between. They’re also very young guys, which probably explains band members joking with each other between songs and Thompson’s telling us about the stench in their tour bus when its generator broke down, leaving them without electricity or running water. In response to this, someone in the audience quipped, “Just like Scotland!” to which Thompson replied with a sideways laugh to bassist Sean Smith, “They think we run around in kilts back home, don’t they?” There was a collective laugh throughout the club and then the band launched into “Quiet Little Voices” with Thompson’s searing vocals: “In any which direction, call me / I will run for you! / I’ll come for you! / I’ll die for you! / I’ll come for you!”

With Thompson and Smith, Michael Palmer (guitar) and Darren Lackie (drums) are an explosive unit live. Sometimes you aren’t sure how the first act of the night is going to be received; I’ve been to some gigs where you could hear people’s conversations clearly in between the songs because there are so few people present and most of them are not really paying attention, just taking up space and waiting for the headliner who comes on later. This was not the case with the Jetpacks’s set at all. Despite the band order, it appeared that many of people present were there specifically for their set and alighted as soon as they were done. A lot of people sang along, and Thompson was so happy with the reception and so many people showing up for their set, he lit up the room with his smile and said by far this was his favorite night in America so far on this tour. Mission accomplished, Washington.

After brief shifting of equipment and gear, the stage was set for the arrival of Brakesbrakesbrakes. In my head I’ll always think of them as Brakes because that’s what they’re known as everywhere in the world except America (courtesy of a Philadelphia band who had already called dibs on the Brakes moniker here in the States), so they will be referred to as Brakes for the rest of this review. Of the three bands, I’m most familiar with Brakes’s back catalogue, and they’ve never played Washington before, so I was excited to say the least. Their third and latest album, Touchdown, was released back in April.

They’re an extremely versatile band, with songs running the gamut from folky, country rock (“On Your Side”) to punk (“Porcupine or Pineapple”) to more straight forward rock ‘n’ roll (“Don’t Take Me to Space [Man]“). Singer/guitarist Eamon Hamilton led Brakes (with Thomas White on guitar, Marc Beatty on bass, and Alex White on drums) on a rousing set of 16 songs across their three albums. “Hey Hey,” a raucous, guitar-heavy tune from Touchdown, was a joy to hear live finally, along with “Don’t Take Me to Space (Man),” my favorite off the new album. One enthusiastic fan exclaimed that being that we were in D.C., the band had to play “Cheney,” a song from the band’s first album Give Blood; it’s a five-second tirade against our former not-so-beloved vice president. Hamilton rewarded the fan by asking him to “count in” the song for them. It went over so well that another fan was chosen to do the same, to even louder audience cheers.

Brakesbrakesbrakes set list:
The Most Fun
Shut Us Down (Camper Van Beethoven cover)
Hey Hey
Ring a Ding Ding
On Your Side
All Night Disco Party
Porcupine or Pineapple
Hold Me in the River
Worry About It Later
Why Tell the Truth (When It’s Easier to Lie)
What’s in It for Me?
Isabel
Don’t Take Me to Space (Man)
Cheney (2x, counted in by two different audience members)
No Return
Jackson (Jerry Leiber/Billy Edd Wheeler cover)

Two hours after we started, it was now time for the Twilight Sad. We Were Promised Jetpacks cite the Twilight Sad as one of their influences, so it’s quite appropriate to have them on the same tour. The band just released their sophomore album-length effort, Forget the Night Ahead, here in the U.S. last month. Singer James Graham decided to begin their set with a decidedly-toned down mood compared to the acts that came before: he clutched his mike as if his life depended on it, and knelt down on the floor as “Reflection of the Television” chugged to life thanks to his fellow bandmates Andy MacFarlane (guitar), Craig Orzel (bass), Mark Devine (drums), and touring keyboardist Martin Docherty. They remind me a bit of the Horrors, with their swirly guitars and keyboards set off by moody, pensive lyrics; “The Room” and “I Became a Prostitute” are good examples of this. I didn’t felt the same kind of energy from them that I did from the previous bands. Maybe it was because it was a Monday night, it was late, and it was Washington, but they just didn’t set me alight.

Stay tuned for an interview with Marc Beatty and Eamon Hamilton of Brakesbrakesbrakes coming soon!

We Were Promised Jetpacks: myspace
Brakesbrakesbrakes: website | myspace
The Twilight Sad: website | myspace

The nominations for the 2009 Barclaycard Mercury Prize – for the best album from the United Kingdom and Ireland – were announced today, July 21, at a special ceremony in London by BBC 6music radio host Lauren Laverne. Receiving a Mercury Prize nomination (and/or winning it) generally leads to increased album sales and increased celebrity profile for a band. Manchester band Elbow received the honor in 2008.

Here are the 12 nominees for this year’s Mercury Prize:

Florence and the Machine – Lungs

Kasabian – West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum

Bat for Lashes – Two Suns

La Roux – La Roux

Glasvegas – Glasvegas

Speech Debelle – Speech Therapy

Friendly Fires – Friendly Fires

The Horrors – Primary Colours

Lisa Hannigan – Sea Sew

The Invisible – The Invisible

Led Bib – Sensible Shoes

Sweet Billy Pilgrim – Twice Born Men

The 2009 Barclaycard Mercury Prize will be awarded on September 8.

Tad Moore, keyboardist for quickly rising rock group Low vs. Diamond took some time out of their busy schedule to talk a little about their group and new self-titled, debut album.

Bethany, Popwreckoning: Can I get you to state your name and instrument in the band?
Low vs. Diamond, Tad Moore: My name is Tad Moore and I play piano and guitar.
PW: So you met Lucas and Howie while you guys were at the University of Colorado. Is that right?
TM: Yeah, we did and we started jamming out there.
PW: So you started as a jam band. How did you develop from that into your current indie rock style?
TM: I think we were jamming, but we weren’t necessarily bro-ing and beer and all that, so I think that got us a lot more into song structure, which led to where we didn’t need those kinds of songs anymore.

Photo by Autumn De Wilde

PW: What were you guys doing before you started playing as a band?
TM: We were students. I mean, we all played instruments before, our respective instruments. But yeah, we were all students at the university. I think Luke was in Journalism, Howie was in Business and I was in Humanities.
PW: Then you guys moved to LA and you met up with Anthony and Jonny?
TM: Yep. We met them through our producer of some time. Howie, Lucas and I played in two other bands in LA before we knew Anthony and Jon through our producer and then that was Low vs. Diamond.
PW: How did you guys come up with the name Low vs. Diamond?
TM: Well, our second band, another friend of ours from Colorado came down with us, he had a girlfriend named Leila — I shouldn’t use her name — that sounded like Low and she would always fight with Howie Diamond and she was sort of like a Yoko persona. So she sort of took him out of the band and he was doing his own thing with her. So yeah, we just sort of said Low vs. Diamond. We wanted a name that sounded like there was a war on and show what our band came out of.
PW: What were some of the other names you guys were toying with? You went through a few others, didn’t you?
TM: In our previous bands? One was called Shadows, that’s the hardest band, but we were playing as 1984. We used to be the band written out as 1984 and I was never fond of that one.
PW: Not really a fan of George Orwell?
TM: No, I’m not really an avid reader. I’ve only read Animal Farm and 1984 in the third grade, but not much more. Our former guitar player came up with the name. It wasn’t really Orwellian. He just thought that it sounded cool.
PW: I’ve read that you guys are really into the “big moment” of a song. How do you guys keep those diverse enough so that the moments stay big and they don’t get repetitive?
TM: I think it’s mainly strong structure. Laying back and not just blowing up. Not just climaxing all the time and giving some in between time so it is a “big moment” and not just heavy rock the whole time, I guess.
PW: So kind of like what you did on “Actions Are Actions?” You kind of started off with piano, then it built up and then you cooled down so it was just piano and vocals.
TM: Yeah, exactly like that with the piano and vocals.
PW: Dominic Hardesty of the UK imprint Marrakesh originally signed you all?
TM: Yep, he was the first to talk to us. We met through a lawyer who also did stuff for the Killers and mentioned us to him. Dom showed up in England and we did a showcase for him and he was like, “You guys got a deal.”
PW: Now, you guys have actually been compared to the Killers. How do you feel about that comparison? Do you feel like there’s any pressure to prove you’re different because the guy who signed the Killers also signed you?
TM: I understand why people would compare the Killers with us. I think they’re a great band. I wouldn’t necessarily say we were influenced by them, but if people say we are, it doesn’t really bother me that much. We don’t need to shy away and show that our style is different from them really. I mean it’s music, people can decide that for themselves.
PW: Who would win between like a battle of the synthesizers? You or Brandon Flowers?
TM: Who would win? I’m just going to be nice and say Brandon would. He’s more experienced than me.
PW: Maybe in a few years you can take him on?
TM: He’s older than me. He’s got a year on me, I think. Or he’s a few years older. I don’t know.
PW: Are there any other bands that you would have preferred to be compared to than the Killers?
TM: I don’t really know. It’s hard for me to do that. I used to better at it. Lucas writes the songs and he looks at a lot of Serge Gainsbourg and stuff like that. There’s not a lot of bands that we necessarily sound like, but there’s definitely a lot of bands that use keyboard and guitar. Off the top of my head, I can’t really think of any. There’s a lot of new bands I like.
I don’t think there’s necessarily any that we’d want to say we’re one in the same. I’d like to say Radiohead, but I don’t think we’re anything like them.
PW: Yeah, Radiohead’s kind of in their own category.
TM: Exactly. There’s only one Radiohead.
PW: Even though you guys are from the US, you signed in the UK first. Why did you decide to go after the UK first? How was the UK’s reception?
TM: The UK went after us first. At the time we loved the Strokes and we knew that the UK was a good place to start off as a band, at least it was in the early 2000s. So, yeah, it happened. Dom presented a great deal for us, so it was exciting. We signed and Dom’s a great guy. We trusted him. We just went for it and a few months later we were signed just like that.
PW: Has the UK’s reception of you all been different than the US’s?
TM: We went over there about a year and a half ago. They kind of have more of a teen-oriented thing. Bands like the Horrors and stuff like that. So, our reception was kind of lukewarm.
I mean, fans that actually did hear about us, it was great. We had trouble with the “NME” and getting in the “NME” and stuff like. It was more of a tastemaker. We didn’t have our album done yet and we just had an EP, a limited release EP. So, we still have some work to do over there, but we’ll be back there at the end of the year.
PW: How has being labeled by iTunes and a couple other things as the “Next Big Thing” affected your outlook on the band and your whole process of touring and writing?
TM: I’m really excited for it. The “Next Big Thing” on iTunes is a program that I think is really great and exciting.
PW: This was your debut album and it just came out like a week and a half ago.
TM: Yeah, on the 22nd (of July) it came out.
PW: What songs are you most proud of and really excited to have people hear finally?
TM: I wrote some of the lyrics to “Cinema Tonight” and a few others here and there, but my favorite song on the album is “Don’t Forget Sister.” Brandon Murphy was a friend of ours and he wrote the lyrics. I think it has some of the best imagery and is just really good.
We’re excited to get “Sister” out on the radio. I think it’s just a great rock song. I mean, it’s also one of the ones I’m most excited to play.
PW: Yeah, “Sister.” I really liked that song on the album. I really enjoyed what happened lyrically. So that was written by somebody not in the band?
TM: It’s Lucas’ best friend and they wrote it together. They’ll help each other out on the lyrics.
PW: A lot of the songs tell a little story. Were they inspired by any real-life things? Is “Annie” a real person?
TM: Annie is Lucas’ fiancé. There’s about a month before the wedding. Annie had this really tough year and that was written two years ago. It was just him sort of wanting to be there for Annie with the support of 26 year old band.
PW: On “I’ll Be,” I’ve listened to that a couple of times and I get a different feel each time I listen to it for the emotion being expressed. What were you guys going for on that song?
TM: That’s a good point, I think. Lucas wrote that one. It’s just about being really inspired by some one. I think that and there’s big bursts in it and we just wanted to go cosmic. “I’ll Be,” Luke wrote it so I think he can probably explain it better. I think he was really excited to get it in and it was one of the first songs he wrote as Low vs. Diamond. So yeah, he was very emotionally inspired by a lot of things going on at the time and I think “I’ll Be” just sort of came out of that.
PW: Can you name one song that your band didn’t write, but you wish you could say you had?
TM: There’s a million. Off the top of my head, “Crimson and Clover” by Tommy James.
PW: I don’t know if I’ve heard that one. I’ll have to look it up.
TM: Or “Tops” by the Rolling Stones. That’s one I wish we had written.
PW: Just for fun, what’s the song that you’re most embarrassed to admit is on your mp3 player?
TM: The song I’m most embarrassed to own? Oh, there’s a lot of those, too. There’s a lot stuff by U2 that I shouldn’t really love. The old U2, the hipper U2, I’m into a lot of that stuff, but the newer U2 songs I actually love as well. I just don’t admit it so much. Let’s say “Walk On.”
PW: That’s alright. There’s a lot of U2 fans out there. That’s not that embarrassing.
TM: Yeah, it gets worse.
PW: Well that’s all I have. Thanks for talking with me.

Band Info: website | myspace | Low vs. Diamond review