Robyn Writes

Help Get Cause of Accident Into the Top 40!

It might not be big, and it might not be clever, but the new single from Cause of Accident is very, very funny, and definitely strikes a chord. A loud and fast anti-Tory rant for the Facebook generation, ‘Sick of This Shit’ by Cause of Accident nails it on the head – we are bloody sick of these rich, self-serving twats and it’s about time we got someone else in charge of this rock.

Buy the single from Amazon or iTunes now and help get it into the top 40 in time for the General Election on 7 May. Even if it doesn’t get there, all of the profits go to The Trussell Trust, the UK’s biggest organisation of food banks, which is sadly growing and growing thanks to the current austerity measures. So yeah – we love the track, you should too, go and do some good!

Also, go and vote next week. But not for the Tories, or for UKIP, or the BNP. Ta.

Live: Creeper, The Marr’s Bar, 19/4/15

Worcester’s scene has never been dead, but it’s certainly been slowing down in recent years. Except for the excellent but sporadic Surprise Attacks series, a couple of stalwarts booking the odd shows at the Firefly and the annual Worcester Music Festival (or WuMu, for shits and giggles), there wasn’t really a hell of a lot to get excited about.

However, Fights and Fires sticksman Lee Jackson decided that wasn’t good enough so along with some other likeminded punx, he set up Faithful City Shows in a bid to bring bands properly back to the Wu. Ashamedly, it took me until show number four to actually pitch up in The Marr’s Bar, but the goth-punk lure of Creeper was more than enough to set the wheels in motion.

First to hit the stage were Worcester youngsters Chase The Deer (2.5/5). They’re the new kids on the block, formed just under a year ago, and it shows. They’re nervous on stage, unpracticed with crowds, and half of their set is poorly performed covers. However, there’s also some real potential shining through. Latest single ‘Bad Date’ is a great slice of pure pop with a chorus that’s pure gold, and debut single ‘Think’ is a hell of a lot of fun. If they can perform their own songs with the same confidence and conviction that they do the covers, they might be onto a winner.

It’s obvious how much we love Lanterns (4.5/5). The debut record This Is Not My Home is magnificent, and the live show equally so. Despite a few teething problems with new equipment, the band themselves were positively charming, and the songs just sounded fantastic. ‘Safe With Me’ has so much power since being reinvented as an electric anthem, and the band teased a new track that is certain to be an absolute banger. Definitely one to watch.

Vault of Eagles (4/5) are not typically the sort of band that I’d rush out to listen to. Truth be told, I was secretly hoping for a bit of riot grrl when they stepped on the stage, but rather than being disappointed, I was enthralled by their stoner grunge fusion. You can tell that all the songs have been developed with a live show in mind – everything from the bass tone to the guitar set-up was bang on perfect. Their psychedelic grooves were a welcome addition to the evening, and definitely a new addition to my iPod.

However, if there was one thing to take away from the show that night, it was that Creeper (5/5) will never play in a venue this small again. Recently hailed by Kerrang! as ‘new grave’ heroes, their goth-punk anthems sound even better live than on their outstanding self-titled EP. Their set was full of energy, incredibly tight without feeling too practiced and polished, and truly unmissable. The band have got an absolute gem of a frontman in Will Gould – equal parts Davey Havok and Gerard Way, his performance is captivating and filled with a flair for the dramatic. He’s learned well from his predecessors, not just in how to run the stage (or hold a microphone just like Davey), but in that he’s humble – genuinely thankful for the opportunity to play and the support of the scene – and it’s truly heartwarming to see.

The second thing to take away from the show was that Creeper are now the only band allowed to cover AFI, because their cover of ‘Sacrifice Theory’ was spot on, and probably the closest I’ll ever get to see AFI play anything off The Art of Drowning that isn’t ‘Days of the Phoenix’. However, even if a highlight for a Despair Faction loser like myself, their own songs stood just as tall as that classic and have the potential to become just as timeless. So pick up the EP, learn all the words and get yourself to a Creeper show before they start selling out club tours, because it’s only a matter of time before they explode.

The next Faithful City Shows coming up are:
FCS #5 – Sweet Empire/HOLY/Irish Handcuffs/Horror on the High Seas
Wednesday 20 May, Drummonds, 7.30pm
Buy tickets here

FCS #6 – Lock and Key/Boxkite/Carving a Giant/Fractures
Sunday 31 May, The Marr’s Bar, 7.30pm
Buy tickets here

FCS #7 – Funeral for a Friend + Support
Sunday 7 June, The Marr’s Bar, 7.30pm
Sold out!

FCS #8 – Off With Their Heads/Brassick + Support
Thursday 6 August, The Marr’s Bar, 7.30pm
Buy tickets here

FCS #9 – Random Hand/Fights and Fires + Support
Friday 21 August, The Marr’s Bar, 7.30pm
Buy tickets here

Review: Resuscitators – Make It Through Another Night [EP]

In the age of the emo revival, it’s getting more and more difficult to just find straight-up punk rock. You know what I mean – just plain ol’ rowdy guitars, frantic vocals and wicked basslines, with more lyrics about getting drunk and going to a show rather than just crywanking in your bedroom. So in some ways, Resuscitators are a breath of fresh air. In others, they’re little more than a whisper of nostalgia, refusing to accept the fact that times have indeed moved on.

Make It Through Another Night is messy. It’s difficult to tell whether this is a good or a bad thing at times, but on the whole, I’ve considered it to be more on the good side. After all, punk was not created to fit into a box, but to tear the box apart and spit on it when you’re done. I imagine most of the songs on the record would sound fantastic live, but on record, there’s a certain lack of cohesion that occasionally frustrates. Take ‘Stronger Drinks’, for example – there’s a hell of a lot of energy, but hardly any of the parts are in time with each other. In a time where you can effectively make an album on your iPad, it seems bizarre. The backing vocals often overshadow the lead – towards the end of ‘Jaws of Life’, it all becomes a bit shambolic and while that may be part of the charm in a live show, it seems very out of place on a record.

However, there are plenty of great moments peppered throughout. The bass is fantastic – it’s got that classic punk tone and absolutely storms through every track with Matt Freeman-esque bravado. ‘Little Victories’ starts with some triumphant gang vocals and shows the most potential out of all – it’s exactly the kind of track you’d imagine on a Tony Hawk game, with loads of Bouncing Souls-inspired licks. Final track ‘WWPD’ sounds incredible – it’s the only acoustic track on the record, and the vocals are amazing. However, it’s let down by an invasive electric solo that sounds totally out of place, ruining what could potentially be a really poignant end to the EP. It’s too typical a cliché – sometimes, this results in some pretty fun moments, like the “one two, fuck you” in ‘The Ataris Ruined My Sex Live’, but at other times, it’s damaging and too irritating to let go.

Make It Through Another Night has the potential to make for a really fun experience, but putting it all down on record makes it seem like something’s been lost somewhere. On the plus side, the songs all have a solid foundation, but a lack of control stops them from reaching their full potential. However, there’s no doubt that Resuscitators would be an absolute joy to see perform, and hopefully on the next record, they’ll have worked out a few of the kinks.

3 out of 5 high fives!

Review: Personal Best – Arnos Vale

The sun’s coming out, everyone’s feeling less gloomy and summer seems like it’s just around the corner. Sounds like the perfect time for a new Personal Best record to come out, yeah? Well, you’re in luck – Arnos Vale is out this week and it’s absolutely cracking.

Of course, that’s to be expected with the melody-wrangling superteam that is Katie, Tom and (at the time of recording) Lou, who have an impressive back catalogue of hits from their time in Bedford Falls, Attack Vipers and Caves respectively. It starts out strong with ‘If You Meet Someone In Love’, which instantly hits you with a wall of full-on riffage and perfect singalong opportunities. Katie’s vocals strike the perfect tone, and it’s impossible not to join in. Perhaps that’s the most impressive thing about Arnos Vale – at every step of the way, you kind of feel like you’re part of the gang, and that’s what music should be all about. It’s impossible not to relate to tracks like ‘Human Nature’ or ‘This Time Next Year’, and it makes you want to pick up a guitar or a drumstick yourself. After all, if being in a band can be as fun as Arnos Vale makes it seem, why aren’t we all doing it?

For all the brilliant chorus-and-riff bangers, Personal Best are not afraid to get a little weird in places either. The verses in ‘Poor Old You’ are backed with this brilliant, spidery riff and ‘This Is What We Look Like’ has a real grungy chorus with some fantastic distortion. Arnos Vale gives everyone a chance to try out something a bit different to their usual projects, and although the record has some super 90s vibes, it still sounds totally fresh and completely unique.

Arnos Vale is an absolute gem of a record. Unflinchingly honest and often beautiful, Personal Best have put together 24 minutes of solid joy. It’s super posi-indie-pop and it makes no apologies for it. Although Lou will be moving on to different things, there’s no doubt that the next Personal Best record will be just as fun. However, for now, know that Arnos Vale exists and the planet is far better for it.

4.5 out of 5 high fives!

Interview: Isaac

Burner, the debut album from Nottingham’s Isaac, is bloody great. Into big punk rock tunes? You’ll find plenty here. But there’s also a hell of a lot of thought too. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not massively intellectual and inaccessible record, but it’s smarter than the average punk record, both in its structure and its lyrics. Burner is full of heart (and heartbreak), and grabs you right from the off. It’s been stuck in my car stereo for weeks, and I just can’t get enough. So, I threw a bunch of questions at Daniel, Andrew (Shanks) and Dave to find out just how you put together a record as good as Burner.

So… Ted Leo, huh? A train-ride home after a show can’t be the whole story so tell me, what’s the origin of Isaac?

Daniel: Well, we were all friends before that Ted Leo show. Dave and I have played in bands together for years and I know Andrew cause we both work at the same place, but we hadn’t really hung out that much as the three of us. Shanks and I had talked about wanting to play in a band that tried to do similar things to Titus Andronicus, Fucked Up, Bob Mould, Superchunk kind of stuff but the three of us going to that show really cemented it. It was the first time the three of us had really hung out for an extended period of time together. We pretty much just drank and talked about bands we liked for 48 hours straight with a stunner of a Ted Leo show in the middle of it all. How can you not start a band after seeing Ted Leo? Seriously.

Shanks: If you asked the 3 of us at any point what the unifying factors of Isaac are we’d say it’ll be that pitchfork brand of punk, name checking Ted Leo and Fucked Up, burritos and giving each other the right amount of constructive feedback that makes us grit our teeth and get on with being in a band. We’re not going to say anything cliché like “we’re a band of brothers and we’ll never be separated,” but we’re definitely a band of cousins who all live close to each other so hang out more than cousins should.

Dave: Don’t forget bourbon …

You’ve been a band for a while now, but this is your first full-length album, as opposed to an EP. What inspired you to push forward and go for a full-length record this time?

Daniel: Simple answer – YOLO. I’m kinda ‘go big or go home’ in my attitude to putting music out. If you are going to do it, just go for it!

It was a gamble in terms of having enough material to justify a full length but we feel like it’s paid off. We actually split the recording of the album over two sessions, which ended up having a six-month gap between them, so that meant the second session of recording had this added pressure of living up to the first set. I think if the second set of tracks hadn’t been as good we’d have ended up just putting an EP’s worth of tracks out but luckily it went well!

What’s your typical songwriting process?

Shanks: There’s no set way we do it, but I normally come in with an idea, we play it and see how it goes. I think we’ve heard enough music to know if a song is working or not. I’ve been writing songs for about nine years, but it’s only now that I’ve realised how to do it logically. When you grow up just hearing stories about how songs were written, the myth of a song y’know, you think “oh we need to write a new song. I’ll just take these sleeping pills, mix them with red wine and coke and then in about 15 minutes I’ve rewritten No Woman No Cry,” but unfortunately it’s a craft you have to learn and practice.

Dan: Could you attempt to write No Woman No Cry using that recipe?

Dave: It usually starts with us getting food. That sets us up. We usually add bits on at the last minute to tracks, but the main structure always is pretty solid. We may change it up a bit for the next record.

You’ve got equal parts huge punk rock bangers and slow burners (haha see what we did there?) on this record – which is your favourite to write, and which is your favourite to play live?

Daniel: It definitely feels like more of a challenge as a band to play slower things well, so I always like getting them to a point where we are as confident in them as the fast bangers. I appreciate playing them live ‘cause it gives me a break from the fast stuff! Our set is pretty relentless at the moment though, it’s all fun! DIPLOMACY!

Dave: I won’t sit on the fence! I think when you know a track works and sounds great you can’t wait to play it live. For me it’s ‘Ghosts’, which is probably the first song that was naturally a collaborative effort.

Shanks: Last summer, we were gigging a lot and looking at the bands playing at the same time. Everyone wanted to get ‘rad’ and jump around and be that ‘live’ band, but when we first played ‘Weeder’ as a band we realised we didn’t need to be anything like those bands. I remember reading about Black Flag and how they used to have these really long practices where they’d play the set half time and just chug through the songs, and I remember vividly, Dave said to me ‘should we play any slow songs?’ and I was like ‘nah no way, we’re not a slow band’. Then 12 months later, we’ve got two slow songs on the album and they’re some of the best songs we’ve written. I think writing ‘Weeder ‘and ‘Chirpse’ pushed us along a bit, but still, even though we have the slow there’s no replacement for a one minute and 50 second bike riding, coffee-drinking punk song like ‘Turtleshell Sunglasses’ or ‘Slab Square’.

You don’t really do backing vocals, which is a bit unexpected with this type of music, EXCEPT on track 10 where there’s this glorious ‘woah’. How come you went for that, and what inspired this style?

Daniel: I personally want to try and commit as hard as possible to the parts we’re playing, full sweatband, Neil Pert workout stuff, so I can’t let trying to sing as well get in the way of that!

Dave: I can’t sing at all, I leave it to the professionals. Unless it’s Gold by Spandau Ballet at karaoke, I’m out.

Shanks: Who doesn’t love a glorious ‘woah’? It’s the kind of sound that’s indicative of the music we play.

Lyrically, it’s all about real life, real moments and real emotions. How important is it for you to focus on personal experience when you’re coming up with lyrics?

Shanks: If by chance you listened to the album in a certain order you’d hear a true story of a year in the life of somebody dealing with a break up and all the insecurities and anxiety that go along with it. When we formed, we were all in a similar space emotionally so all the lyrics, as harsh as some of them sound now, felt totally justified at the time. Anybody who says songwriting isn’t therapeutic is a liar – we’re a long way off writing our rock opera, but that doesn’t mean we haven’t talked about it.

Burner is coming out firstly on your own label, Golden Triangle Records, but is being released on vinyl by Don’t Ask Records in a couple of months. Why did you decide to split the release like that?

Dave: Err, because why not, mate? Not sure there is an exciting answer to this! The truth is though we’re totally blown away that Don’t Ask were even interested in putting out anything we’re doing. Feels everyone involved in the label and all the bands on the roster are all coming from similar places ideologically and musically, so it’s great to be a part of that.

Burner’s release is just before your own Clear Your Throat Fest, which is now in its second year. How do you pull your lineup together, and which band are you most looking forward to seeing there this year?

Shanks: We pick the lineup the same way you’d make a mixtape – we start with one band we want to see then think “who’d be cool to see them with?” We get a lot of people asking to play, which is incredibly flattering considering we’re still at our humble beginnings. We’ve started talking about CYT 3, and that’s going to be something special – we’re going to cast the net a bit wider and really push to make it bigger and better. I’m probably most excited about seeing Bluebird, Happy Accidents and Woahnows, but every band on the bill is worth watching.

Daniel: I’m very excited about seeing Doe. One of the good things about the lineup is that it’s made up mostly of bands we have played with in the past and we’re friends with. So Doe are probably the only band on the line up I’ve not seen before so NO PRESSURE DOE.

Dave: It’s always a great day, all of the bands who play are different in application but definitely have the same ethos and that’s what it boils down too. I’m pumped about seeing Austeros again, I’ve had their last EP Lessons Learnt on repeat for the past six months.

Any other tours coming up? Where’s the best kind of venue to see you guys in?

Shanks: We’ve always got things in the pipeline so the plan is to try and do as much as we can before the year is out. We haven’t really played anywhere too unusual to be honest, but we’ve talked about trying to play on a boat. The logistics are going to be ridiculous if we want to pull that one off.

Dan: We could play next to a boat, that’d be easier. We may have even already done that and not known about it. Plenty of boats about.

Dave: I like playing the more quirky shows, like at The Rathaus (Legendary house show venue) in Southampton or on top of a sewage pump station in Cornwall (that did happen years ago). We always like going out on the road, Shanks gets his bum bag out, which has a permanent bottle of Rose sticking out of it. I usually put dinks in our hire car and seem to get away with it, so it’s a laugh a minute. Expect more of that in 2015!

Isaac are Daniel England (drums), Andrew Shankland (bass/vocals) and Dave Deighton (guitar). Their debut record Burner is digitally out now on Golden Triangle Records, and will be released on vinyl by Don’t Ask Records in May. You can pick it up now on Bandcamp. They should totally play Thekla in Bristol because that is a boat.