Eaves Wilder has been wronged and she’s taking ruthless, bloody minded revenge. Ok, so she’s starting small, taunting her ex that she’s pinched their jumper (we’re sure it’s a jumper they really, really loved) but as Eaves’ pissed off-ness unravels we get the point she’s been fucked over and the piss-taker in question is in for a world of sugar-sweet but scathing pain.
With a sound like Grimes, minus the electronics plus lots of grungy guitar, that could easily chill alongside Beabadoobee, London bedroom-pop creator Eavie Eaves Wilder’s first single in a year and a half and first release on Secretly Canadian records – ‘I Stole Your Jumper’ is a fast-paced, cutesily-ferocious indie rock dispatch to anyone who’s ever sought restrained but incredibly cathartic revenge on top of a clear warning for Eavie’s shitty ex’s to guard their most prized clothing.
‘I Stole Your Jumper’ was released on Secretly Canadian records, 25th October 2022. It’s got a really awesome video based on ‘Thelma & Louise’ and you can have a look below:
Cardiff riot-grrrl inspired five-piece Panic Shack are big fans of Boots/Superdrug/town centre lunchtime convenience food, confessing that latest single ‘Meal Deal’ was originally a straightforward punky tribute to the ham sandwich, salt & vinegar crisp and bottle of lemonade combo, but recent political events saw the group rewrite the record to recognise it’s brilliant simplicity whilst also reflecting on the outrage that, with the rise in the cost of living, many struggle to even afford the requisite couple of quid for this modest midday munch.
To address this crucial subject matter Panic Shack harness punk-pop power like 1990’s Bis, although where the Glaswegian scamps were able to shine in an era of which the most important thing in their world was resurrecting sweetshops, attending school discos and keeping an eye out for secret vampires, it’s a shameful sign of the times that Panic Shack’s sprightly ode to convenience food has to be edged with the admission that loads of hard working people can only just about muster up three quid for dinner.
Panic Shack are out on tour currently in the UK and further afield. If you want to catch them live the dates are below:
2nd-5th November – Castellon, Spain – Pro Weekend Festival 25th November – Manchester – O2 Ritz – with Yard Act – SOLD OUT 26th November- Bristol – Marble Factory – with Yard Act – SOLD OUT 27th November – Cardiff – Tramshed – with Yard Act – SOLD OUT
‘Meal Deal’ was recorded at Rat Trap studios in Cardiff with Tom Rees of Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard. The single was released on 13th October 2022 and is available to stream EVERYWHERE. Check out the video for ‘Meal Deal’ below:
‘Step Too Soon’ sees South London 6 piece Maze team up with Dean Mumford of The Rifles to create an enraptured, brit-rock gem of a track. With a slight nod to Stone Roses, the song takes the Madchester rhythm and blisses it out some way further than many groups are prepared to go, Mumford adding dreamy strings and additional instrumentation to get things properly celestial.
Setting themselves on the same level as DMA’s, the song professes the importance of not pushing people away, being open instead of bottling up emotion, which is appropriate as ‘Step Too Soon’ feels like a complete and utter fountainhead of overflowing, ecstatic feeling. No sentiment is being held back around here!
Maze are playing the following live dates before the end of the year: October 28th – The Basement, Chelmsford November 11th – Shiiine On Festival, Butlins, Minehead December 23rd – The Concorde, Brighton
‘Step Too Soon’ was released on 21st October 2022 and you can hear it through the Spotify link below right now:
Cardiff trio Feverjaw have tonnes of melody and tonnes of ire – a glorious recipe for some intoxicating sound. Having spent the summer performing live to promote April release, the ‘Casual Abrasive’ EP, latest single ‘Jurassic’ is not just a surprise single release as the band themselves touted, but a now essential part of the South Wales group’s remarkable archive.
Feverjaw
Blasting straight into what can fairly be described as a blistering roar of guitars, the song goes in heavy as fuck and stays heavy as fuck throughout, choosing to compliment the weighty sound with a strong melody, a trick that Foo Fighters often manage, and Feverjaw pull it off just as well, vocalist Dale Hawkins putting down a vocal that Dave Grohl himself would envy.
The simmering anger throughout the track is palbable, “It’s hard to take when you’re told it’s not worth it, head straight down, fighting on”, but the staunch message the lads seem hellbent on conveying with ‘Jurassic’ is one of unfailing, unflinching determination with just the one route to ultimate victory.
‘Jurassic’ was released on Friday 14th October 2022 and is available to listen to on all streaming sites. You can also buy the single and all of Feverjaw’s releases to date through their bandcamp.
Swansea wonders Trampolene have made it back for a fourth album, and to launch it Jack Jones and his saturnalian squad have put out into the world the brand new single ‘Thinking Again’, an oblique bluesy salutation to the everyday arduous quandary of making a decision, then remaking that decision, then remaking that decision, and the anxiety that comes with the indecision of it all.
Built on top of a tenacious bassline, the disquiet is made ever greater with building guitar strums, intensive drum beats, wistful backing vocals and cyclical, unsettling lyrical imagery: “red mud, black flood, warming us up in cold blood”. Another solid anthem for the Trampolene canon, ready-made to be chanted back to the band by rooms full of eager devotees at a venue near you shortly.
‘Thinking Again’ is the first single from Trampolene’s upcoming fourth album ‘Rules Of Love & War’, due to be released on Strap Originals records on 17th March 2023. You can pre-order the LP now in all it’s wonderful formats. The album’s tracklist will look something like the below:
1. And Still Blood Has No Nationality 2. Thinking Again 3. Alexandra Palace 4. Sort Me Out 5. I’m Not Your Man… Maybe 6. Lena Lullaby 7. Rules Of Love & War 8. Silhouette In Blue 9. Litany Of Council House Mistakes 10. Money 11. Die & Live 12. My Love Elusive Yet
‘Thinking Again’ also has an utterly brilliantly bonkers video about an old fella who won’t do the dishes and who has lost his charizard shiny. You can watch it below:
Cobain Jonessingle was originally written and recorded in 1986, a close contender for NME’s original C86 cassette but eventually rejected for showing the rest of the tracks up. Ok, we’re lying here, but if you’re trying to find a reference point for the 20 year old Manchester singer-songwriter’s latest, ‘Realistic Dreams’, you would be right to look toward the 1980s indie scene comprised of early Primal Scream, The Pastels and McCarthy.
The record takes aim at the filtered social media reality TV world of omnistream mass culture. Produced by James Dean Bradfield, the track bears traits that could sound at home on a late 90s Manics record, too – prodigious guitar riffs, expressive vocals, daring lyrics (“Takes anarchy to set us free/ Paint over the cracks inbetween/ Pretty as a picture, idyllic scenery”) but, taking a listen to Cobain’s earlier singles, it’s blatantly apparent these are intrinsic features of Jones’s own songwriting that drew the Preachers’ frontman in as opposed to Bradfield’s own input.
‘Realistic Dreams’ is the first taster from Cobain Jones’ forthcoming EP of the same name and is available to hear on all streaming platforms now. You can see the Youtube lyric video below:
Only a smattering of onlookers stand waiting early doors at Clwb Ifor Bach this evening, so we’re guessing that word ofSterling Press hasn’t yet reached Wales’ capital but we assume this won’t be the case for long. With three punchy single releases to their name and a few UK tours, the Liverpool-based four piece are in the process of gathering a buzz about themselves and their live set is proof positive that said buzz is undeniably deserved.
The lads bound onto the stage in Reebok, Adidas and Fred Perry attire, Burberry scarf draped over singer/bassist Marlon Reynier’s keyboard stand, and after brief preparation they kick into life. Opening with a youthful power-pop salutation to being 21 and still figuring out what’s going on, a track laced with laughter and conversation samples, their britpop-loving stall is laid out straight away. B-side ‘Daisy’ manages to gee up an initially apprehensive venue as more shyly curious punters make their way through the doors and up to the front of the stage.
Several times the group announce they’re playing a new song they recently wrote, but it’s safe to say that every one of the energetic, ska-flecked punky numbers, save their three singles, are new to this crowd, your reviewer included, with subjects from being in love to a lyric sounding unenthusiastic about getting an email from a job in retail, begging instead “why don’t you wake me up when I’m famous?”. Upcoming single ‘What Would You Do?’ is more jagged and gleefully fierce, producing some Damon Albarn style on-the-spot, knees-up running from the curtain-haired singer, yet unlike many of their Britpop indebted genre-mates, there’s no hint of nod and wink irony in their influences, only sheer appreciation of the artists who did it before.
‘Joyride’ has a darker, ominous, tone, the scary downside of the party, but their upbeat banger of a debut single ‘Very Fun Times’ assures festivities are kick-started as the band invite the audience to have a dance if they know it. Celebrations come to a rowdy head with most recent single ‘Plastic Bag’ and the number of people walking about the Welsh club’s lower floor in newly procured Sterling Press t-shirts after the set ends are evidence that this room of Spyres fans have been successfully pulled onboard.
Glasgow’s Spyres are on tour to mark the release of their latest ‘Dear Diary’ EP, a record that clearly seems to have already connected with the fans who have turned out to give it their all, encouraged to do just that with rocking 2020 single and live staple ‘Fake ID’, both singer/guitarists Keira McGuire and Emily Downie giving it their all into their respective mics. From fast-paced punk-pop to a slighter darker emo-pop with an early Paramore edge on recent release ‘See Through You’, the group are well varied in their influences, a fact displayed by Emily Downie’s Jesus and Mary Chain tee and the two covers waiting later in the set.
A couple of as-yet-unreleased songs ‘Wanna Go Home’ and ‘Kids’ bookend the first of the tracks to be aired tonight from ‘Dear Diary’ – ‘Honestly’, a laid back vibing affair, next to the faster pace stampede of ‘Kids’. Not for the first time this evening, the enraptured audience are advised to have a dance when the aloofly dismissive and sweetly vigorous ‘I Don’t Care’ starts up, a dance that turns into a rabid thrash for the next ‘Dear Diary’ track and highlight of the show, ‘Test’. After ‘Lost Without You’ the band bring out the first of their covers, ‘Give Me Back My Man’ by the B-52s, speeding through with both singers shouting along.
‘Dear Diary’s final track, the saccharine, angsy-filled and soaring ‘Hated You First’ bleeds into Spyres’ epic debut single ‘Otherside’, an expansive, echoey and anthemic closer declaring “I don’t wanna be like the other ones, it’s alright but it’s not right for me, take me where I wanna be” with heroically heavy guitars.
The band leave the stage momentarily at the de-facto end of performance but the second highlight of their show is yet to come, when the four-piece return for an encore and treat their devoted congregation to a fierce version of Le Tigre stone cold classic ‘Deceptacon’, a satisfyingly vibrant and affirmatory rendition only realizable by actual, veritable scholars of turn of the century riot grrrl electro.
The Spyres tour is now over but the ‘Dear Diary’ EP is up to listen to on Spotify. A new EP from Sterling Press is due out next year. Have a listen to Spyres’ ‘Dear Diary’ EP and Sterling Press’s ‘Plastic Bag’ single below:
Andrew Cushin’sfirst solo headline tour has already seen the Newcastle songwriter play a string of sold out dates across the UK and tonight he’s bringing his feast of perceptive rock’n’roll energy to the Westcountry’s first city.
Harriet Rose
The spirit of Cushin’s music is summed up by the support acts on offer tonight, the first being Sheffield solo artist Harriet Rosewho pours out a set of heart-tuggingly personal ballads and powerful indie americana songs, causing a tender hush during ‘Imagine Paradise’ which Harriet poignantly dedicates to her mum who died when the singer was a child.
The Shakes
Moving promptly on with little time for recovery, London via Liverpool’sThe Shakesstorm the stage to the tones of Johnny Kidd & The Pirates’ 1960 hit ‘Shakin’ All Over’ and proceed to strike the audience with a bag of Sex Pistols meets Rolling Stones tricks, Iggy Pop dance moves and a guitarist who has menacingly perfected the art of the machine-gun guitar move, a distillation of punk force and baggy rhythm, ignoring the fact that Oasis ever existed.
So by the time the main act takes the stage the venue already knows what’s going on as the performer compiles a list of tracks that veer from the emotional to dirty rock, much in the vein of two of his heroes and collaborators – Noel Gallagher and Paul Weller. Cushin’s released output is still scant so this is the first time many of these tunes have entered this writer’s ears but the singer/guitarist’s backing band are so solid their steam-rolling power would have you, firstly, believing this is a full rock’n’roll group rather than a solo artist and, secondly, that these songs have been part of your life for years. The opening riot rolls through the initial two songs and on to ‘Yeah Yeah Yeah’ and ‘Catch Me If You Can’ which manages to ring out the heaviest bass rumble with Cushin belting out every word as if his life depended on it.
The football banter is strong tonight, as a Newcastle United badge is propped up over an amp and one fan has even had ‘Cushin’ emblazoned on the back of his magpies shirt, with the singer playfully relishing the opportunity to taunt Bristol City about their absence from the higher leagues, but the mood still manages to shift for a stark rendition of ‘It’s Gonna Get Better’ – the songwriter’s debut single, launching the song with a request for a sing-song from the audience and receiving an abundance of just that in return. For a brief acoustic intermission the rest of the band vacate the stage and unexpectedly for many, including Cushin himself by the shocked and somewhat concerned look on his face, ‘Memories’ and new track ‘Four And A Half Percent’ – a song introduced as being the most personal track the singer has composed, strike such a deeply emotive chord that some fans by the front of the stage break down into uncontrollable sobs, the singer reaching forward once the song ends to offer a cautious but comforting hand in solidarity.
There’s no time at all until a full-band ‘You Don’t Belong’ beefs the atmosphere back up followed by a light-hearted but seething newbie that takes us through to the gigantic, exhilarating set-closing soon-to-be-anthem ‘The End’, with Cushin quipping they couldn’t exactly have played it at any other point in the show. Leaving minimal time for the venue to quieten down, the musicians bound back on to the stage to perform Noel Gallagher produced single ‘Where’s My Family Gone?’ and then they’re off to take the show to another fervent crowd in another unsuspecting city. Rock’n’roll is rarely this relatable and stirring while remaining pogo-worthily exciting, so on the unlikely occasion an artist like Andrew Cushin appears we have to savour them.
There are still 7 dates left on the tour if you like what you’re reading, but dates are selling out all over the place so we recommend getting a ticket quickly. You can see the show for yourself at the following venues:
Thursday 13th October 2022 – The Castle and Falcon, Birmingham Friday 14th October 2022 – Leadmill, Sheffield – SOLD OUT Saturday 15th October 2022 – Arts Club Loft, Liverpool – SOLD OUT Monday 17th October 2022 – Sound House, Dublin Tuesday 18th October 2022 – Voodoo, Belfast Thursday 20th October 2022 – King Tuts, Glasgow – SOLD OUT Friday 21st October 2022 – NX, Newcastle – of course it’s SOLD OUT
The ‘You Don’t Belong’ EP has finally received a vinyl pressing too – You Don’t Belong, Yeah Yeah Yeah, Catch Me If You Can and Runaway along with acoustic demos of all tracks, available at all tour dates and soon to be available online. Keep your eyes and ears open.
If you had to whittle down one particular, outstanding, defining skill that Circa Waves have when it comes to making records that sets them apart from the rest of the indie pack, it would have to be their ability to craft a new angularly euphonious guitar hook for every one of their alt-dancefloor bangers. Latest single ‘Do You Wanna Talk?’ sees them pulling another one out of their infinite bag to complete this shimmering delight of a jive-worthy bop.
Having attempted a slight foray into the world of sonic experimentation on 2020’s ‘Sad Happy’ LP, the Liverpudlian gang have reigned themselves back in for a song about getting inadvertently and absolutely twatted, ending up too incapacitated to enter into conversation when approached by an appealing gal and the principle character’s subsequent pang of regret, realising they have no choice but to drunkenly stumble away into the night.
The record’s track list is as thus: 1. Never Going Under 2. Do You Wanna Talk? 3. Hell On Earth 4. Your Ghost 5. Carry You Home 6. Northern Town 7. Electricity City 8. Want It All Today 9. Golden Days 10. Hold On 11. Living In The Grey
‘Do You Wanna Talk?’ was released on 22nd September 2022 and you can watch the official video below:
Some records are intrinsically linked to a corner of the world, a country, a city – if you’ve ever sat on a bus lurching across Manchester with The Smiths playing through your headphones or sped through London on the tube listening to Blur you’ll know what I mean. Well, Tom Emlyn’s second album drips with the spirit of Swansea. The cover art depicting Tom’s great-grandfather working on the docks railway in the 1920s sets the scene with the songwriter carrying the troubadour torch through to the present day with a collection of lo-fi folk songs spinning tales of the city’s turbulent life, history and cast of intriguing characters.
Remarkably, ‘I’ve Seen You In Town’ is both the second album of Emlyn’s career to date, as well as the second album he’s put out this year. Even more remarkable is the major difference between both works, May’s ‘News From Nowhere’ crammed full of upbeat and jaunty psychedelia where ‘I’ve Seen You In Town’ is brimming with hushed pretty, witty tunes paying tribute to the ghosts of Abertawe.
Some of the stories could be told about anywhere, fleeting love, the passing of time, but when they’re told amongst ‘We Know Who You Are’, where the “Factory lizards kept the score”, ‘Strange Days’ telling “The shops were all shut and boarded up, the trees stood around in the wind”, walking in Uplands on an autumn day in ‘Under The Weather’, it makes complete sense that those heartfelt stories take place in Swansea. Emlyn’s songwriting shines out as his expressive lyrics careen into the realms of poetry, equal parts sentiment and humour, over little more than acoustic guitar with the occasional fragment of piano and organ.
The album’s lynchpin, ‘The Ballad Of Tea Cosy Pete’, is an ardent, fingerpicked hymn to a local vagabond, standing in Castle Square, now forever immortalised in song, released as a single to raise money for Llamau homelessness charity, which is then followed up by a gorgeous and nostalgic instrumental named after ‘Waunarlwydd’ village that falls within the city’s boundaries. If you’ve never been to Swansea before, thanks to Tom Emlyn, now you’ll at least have a warm-hearted insight into how the city feels.
‘I’ve Seen You In Town’ is also available to buy on bandcamp, with a few copies of the strictly limited edition cassette tape remaining to purchase. The LP is also streamable on streaming platforms now.
You can see the video of the lead single ‘Leaving Tomorrow’ below:
Edge of Arcady 