Robyn Writes

Stuart Newman – various tracks

Stuart Newman’s online discography is somewhat extensive and all free to download. Describing himself as “mellow-rock”, Newman is based in Brighton and currently working on his second album. I dive into the back catalogue to see what I can find.

With a lot of material on offer, I decided to start with latest single, Living In Another Dimension. Instantly, it begins with a beautifully layered vocal effect on top of some simple acoustic guitar. The lyrics are wonderfully haunting and lamenting, but the track really hammers home with the chorus and a swift switch to a heavier electric style. Continuing into the outro, the result is a key injection of energy which takes the track to another level. It reminds me of early Feeder, but more confident and secure. A strong, slightly tongue in cheek, commentary on our current era, Living In Another Dimension presented a good sign of what was to come.

The demo collection, if nothing else, is excellently produced. It’s really debateable as to how ‘mellow’ Newman’s music is, but this is in no way a bad thing – each track has so much life and is so excellently crafted. Through the demos collection, Newman moves from relentless guitar tracks, like Temperature Rising to slow burning, melancholic offerings with ease. Head Hurts, in particular, demonstrates a certain macabre touch as he analyses the everyday with ethereal tones. The Decade, with its country influence, has a swagger like no other track in the collection is my favourite of the whole collection; a truly heartfelt dedication to the 60s.

The first album, Single But Defective, was therefore a little bit strange to go back to. Far more acoustically driven than the rest of the tracks, it still features a lot of the experimentation that the later tracks have and it’s clear to see the trajectory that Newman has taken when it comes to songwriting. The heavier elements included in the later tracks work really well and add a completely new dimension to Newman’s sound, but the predominately acoustic tracks of the first record are no less effective. For a start, these aren’t stripped down, simple songs. Tracks like Cry Wolf have a lot of humour, aided by the sarcastic spoken samples but in Oil, the samples give a chilling tale of American exploitation over a dark, low key loop. However, some of the more minimalist tracks are the most impressive. Summer Messin’ is a little reminiscent of Elliott Smith in its pretty but down beat chord structure but with much more tongue in cheek lyrics and If You Say captures doubt and frustration over some sublime picking. There are far more downbeat tracks in this early material and admittedly, several tracks start to overlap into each other, but there’s still a lot to fall in love with in this early collection.

I was quietly impressed with Stuart Newman. A truly skilled songwriter with a certain sense of humanity, his guitar driven anthems were a refreshing injection into my Sunday afternoon. Check out the whole discography at www.stuartnewmanmusic.com.

Why you should see New Found Glory before you die

I did begin to sit down and write a review of the Kerrang! Tour from a week or so ago. Every band that night was spectacular in one way or another – While She Sleeps are new, brash and have a confidence well beyond their field of experience; letlive. released my favourite album of last year, performed a Black Flag cover I didn’t hate (I have a serious issue with people doing Black Flag covers, it’s like trying to rewrite The Lord’s Prayer or something) and are one of the most exciting bands I’ve seen live in a long, long time; The Blackout had us in the palm of their hand once again and strutted through a great set, making the venue explode with the squeals of teenage girls and the shouts of boys who are no longer ashamed to like them. And then there were New Found Glory.

This is where I got stuck. I just can’t review a New Found Glory show. It feels far too obvious to me. It begins to get way too personal. So I decided I couldn’t review them and scrapped what I’d written previously. However, I will tell you why you should go see New Found Glory before you die. It just might be a bit more unconventional than I had planned.

The main reason that I can’t review an NFG show is because I can’t help but break into the personal anecdote. I have seen New Found Glory every year of my life since I was 13 except in 2005. From 2004 onwards, I have missed one tour, but I’ve seen them at almost every festival appearance they’ve made in the UK since that date. Seeing New Found Glory every year has near become ritual for me. I don’t need to sit down and learn all the words any more, even for the new albums, because the songs are so goddamn catchy – in a couple of listens, I’m set. That 2004 date was my second gig when I was just 13. In December 2006, they played on my birthday. But even when it wasn’t necessarily a “special” event, every NFG gig has always seemed momentous; they always come at certain important points of my life. Even the K! tour the other week struck gold, in the final year of my undergraduate life and in the last term where I’m allowed any fun. NFG have been there as I’ve grown up. Like so many others, they’ve led me through my awkward teenage years and shaped me into the person I’ve become.

A New Found Glory set is almost like therapy for me. I know (mostly) what’s coming up, and it’s one of the very few occasions that I will just completely lose my shit and go for it. The other week, I was surrounded by fifteen year old kids who barely recognised the older songs to hardened NFG veterans bellowing every word. Nobody stood still. Every time I see them, it is exactly the same as any other time – they come on, they play an incredible set, we all get worn out and sweaty, we lose our voices, we laugh and smile as we see the years of friendship that have tied this band together and we look at our friends and we realise that we would rather be nowhere else. I ended up separated from my friends the other night, but every now and again, I’d see a flash of them in the crowd or hear Mike yelling out the words (because he is the loudest person I know) and know they were having just as good a time as I was. Nobody had to get pulled out – even though there were crowd surfers – and nobody looked like they were having a bad time. It’s impossible to not smile at all during a New Found Glory set, it really is. Even if you’re not a pop-punk fan, the atmosphere is infectious.

Pop-punk is not dead. New Found Glory have proven that. They even named a tour after it. It is getting watered down though. In the early 2000s, don’t forget that we were previously swarmed by pop-punk bands . You couldn’t walk around the corner without being assaulted by a four-chord structure, the bass turned up and that drumline. Maybe I’m not being fair to the new kids on the block, but back then, it all seemed far catchier and while it wasn’t innovative, it didn’t all quite swim together. You could tell the difference between Mest, Good Charlotte and Millencolin. Fall Out Boy walked tall and proud in front of the whole lot. You can’t quite do the same today. Therefore, it’s worth going to see the masters. Forget your All Time Lows, who themselves take their name from New Found Glory, your You Me At Sixes and your We Are The In Crowds. See New Found Glory and you’ll see why pop-punk isn’t dead. You’ll see what pop-punk should be and what it can be – every NFG album has a different sound and a different feel to it. They’re much better live than Fall Out Boy ever were. They’ve still got the punk sensibilities they started with, even if they’ve grown up a bit. And rest assured, they will always, always play ‘My Friends Over You’. That’s worth it alone.

Finish Him! interview TwoBeatsOff…

Those rascally devils from Finish Him! decided to interview me. Far less illuminating than their video but with more cheesy grins.

Interview with Finish Him! [9/2/11]

Finish Him! are top lads. We’ve got even more footage with them coming up tomorrow.

From First To Last: I miss those guys.

Over the past two or three days, I’ve been clamouring for the halcyon days of mid 2000s post-hardcore. It’s tricky to understand its allure – more style than substance, it probably shouldn’t have even been referred to as post-hardcore because most of it didn’t even include the hardcore movement’s most important facets. Instead, it was kind of the hangover from the 90s emo movement, only with added skinny jeans, poppier riffs and eyeliner. Probably my favourite lot from this rowdy bunch was From First To Last. The most pretentious of them all, their first album was a satire on the scene they became so ingrained in and owed so much to. At the same time, they had so much talent – to this day, I maintain that Derek Bloom is one of the best drummers in the business (a point I’m sure will be disputed by Kitteh). Matt Good knew how to craft a decent riff and continues to do so in D.R.U.G.S. Travis Richter was pretty good at black metal and looking sexy. Sonny Moore has one of the most distinctive voices in the business, one which he doesn’t utilise under his new nom de plume, Skrillex.

Sonny Moore effectively had, and still in another form has, the voice of a generation. One lyric that has always stuck with me, despite its satirical purpose, is at the end of The One Armed Boxer vs The Flying Guillotine. “How do I address, a letter to my generation? Sonny she said, save yourself the postage. How do I address, a letter to my generation? Sonny she said, sing it in person.” Sonny Moore was every 15 year old “alt kid” in 2003. Anxious, confused, angry and with ridiculous hair. He was also friends with all of them on Myspace – I certainly remember S O N N Y, and later Skrillex, popping up on my friends list (as well as Panic! At The Disco before they got signed to Decaydance). But alas, the world no longer craves a skinny little man with an insane vocal range – they want pounding electronic beats.

Dear Diary, My Teen Angst Has A Body Count might have been satire and Kerrang! might not have gotten it when it first came out thus only awarding it two Ks, but we all knew what it was about. It was about awesome breakdowns, hilarious lyrics, hidden tracks with rap guys on them and songs about slaughtering the cute girl in your class to wear her skin as a suit. However, Heroine was really where it was at. The opening alone! Even on the bus now, I have to resist the urge to scream out MOTHERSOUND in my best Sonny voice. It was darker, heavier and had a tone that was only aided by Wes Borland’s presence on bass (remember that guy in Limp Bizkit that used to wear the body paint? Yeaaaah!). Everyone liked this one. There weren’t any lyrics about killing people and listening to Morrissey in a car, but there were ones about anorexia, insecurity and desperation. FFTL grew up and got rid of the straighteners. I wouldn’t be lying if I said that Heroine was one of my favourite albums of all time. Definitely in the top twenty.

And then Sonny left. Sonny left and everyone thought it would be a good idea for Matt to take over main vocals. The result wasn’t horrific, but it wasn’t great. It wasn’t From First To Last any more. If anything, it was a bit boring. But from it, new projects were born which have been pretty fantastic. Even if everyone and their mother is now suddenly into Skrillex. Amid the sarcastic cries of “he was ours first!” from me and my housemates, it is kind of cool to realise that the front guy from one of those bands hardly anyone really knew about outside of the scene is now globally recognised.

These days, post-hardcore’s shifted a bit. It’s all about letlive. and their ilk. That’s probably a far more accurate depiction of post-hardcore than those kids that used to scream a bit in their songs. It’s an exciting and vibrant scene, but we’ll always have From First To Last. And I know that because I haven’t seen the scene haircut die yet.

Recommended listening – Kiss Me I’m Contagious, Ride The Wings Of Pestilence, The Crows Are Coming For Us, Mothersound