Liverpool band Spinn are having a stellar Year, with the release of their debut EP and playing a number of sold out shows, the band are proving they have so much talent to offer.
A week or so ago, the band released their new track ‘Shallow’ and once again they seemed to outdo themselves. Well they’ve went ahead and released a video for the track, and it should make everyone smile.
See Below:
The video sees the band running down the street collecting flowers off strangers, a simple idea, but it has some really cool camera work. I’m surprised at how long the band all lasted running down this street, if it was me it would have been a much shorter video.
‘Shallow’ is easily one of my favourite tracks so far this year, and Spinn are becoming one of my favourite bands I’ve discovered in 2018. The band always seem to be active playing shows, releasing exclusives, constantly on social media and delivering good music consistently. All of these things are integral to a band – you have to be persistent and be constantly active, especially in the early years. This is why Spinn are doing so well, which is great because we’re getting excellent music out of it!
Liverpool Band Cents debut with Garage Song ‘Parking Spaces’
Recently there’s been alot of bands debuting new material, which is a welcome sign especially when it’s of good quality!
Liverpool band Cents have promisingly released their debut track ‘Parking Spaces’ which has all the qualities of a Parquet Courts song. The punchy guitars which are backed by rough shouting vocals, it gives off an odour of good dirty garage rock. The melody of the track is very straight forward and easy to latch on to, showing that Cents know exactly what they from their music.
In a World where it seems everyone is turning to drum machines and synthesizers, it’s cool to see that there’s still good garage rock emerging! LISTEN BELOW
Liverpool Band SPINN provide another gem with ‘It’s Not Getting Better‘
It has been quite the year for SPINN wth them hitting a few Spotify milestones (‘Notice Me’ hitting over a million), as well as releasing one of the best EP’s so far this year. However they haven’t let this momentum slip with a tour scheduled for September this year, and also releasing this gem of a song.
‘It’s Not Getting Better’ is still very much in touch with the sounds SPINN showcased on their EP, with those atmospheric dreamy guitars and a riff to die for. The pace is slower than their fan favourites ‘I See Through You’ and ‘After Dark’ but the track is still of that same breed. The production on the track is also something that should be noted, as it’s levelled perfectly and the outro seems like it’s been lifted directly from the heavens.
That’s it for this weeks Single of the Week. If you think you have a hot single on your hands then get in touch!
Midlands band The Novus get Single of the Week with ‘Greyscale’
This week marked another great week for music with a lot of bands releasing some new stuff. However it’s The Novus who gets single of the week for their triumphant new song ‘Greyscale’.
The song has a very click your fingers sound to it, with the incessant drum beat and attitudinal vocals. The simple but catchy riff is satisfying to listen to, but to get the full feel it needs be played loud and you’ll be singing “There’s a weight upon my shoulders” in no time.
The guys are playing alongside Ivory Wave on 27th April at the Birmingham O2 Academy 3, make sure you get tickets for this one!
It’s Sunday which can only mean one thing here at WFM, it’s Single of the Week. Today we have The Half Light taking the honours with their new track ‘8th May’.
The song has a very funky rhythm embedded into it, which starts right from the intro with a salsa-vibe beat. The song is very clean cut with the vocals being clear and poignant, as frontman James Rogers asks you to pretend it’s the “8th of May”. The way the vocals are delivered slightly give off this Morrissey vibe as they step up in tone towards the end of the word.
Musically the song is very consistent as they provide a perfect bed for the vocals to be enhanced, giving it a very classy feel. The song clocks in under two and a half minutes, which leaves you wanting that bit more from them, giving you all the more reason to check out their next release.
Hope you enjoyed this week’s single, check back next week to see what we have to offer!
Words by Alex Wise @AJWise
If you think you have a Single of the Week on your hands please get in touch!
With their UK tour starting in April, No Hot Ashes have got to be planning for. I got to catch up with the Stockport quartet ahead of these shows to see how the lads are getting on!
First of all you guys have been going for quite some time now after forming in back in 2012. After being in a band for that long I guess it can become quite tiresome. But you guys still sound so fresh and motivated to play shows. Do you guys still feel that you have the hunger for it? And what things have you learnt after being together for so long?
We’ve been a group for a long time now, although up until 2014 we weren’t really taking things seriously so we kind of disregard those years before. When you are doing something you love you don’t really get tired of it to be honest. The thing we hate most is probably rehearsals (unless we are writing new material). We still very much have the hunger for making this band work and we still feel like it’s the tip of the iceberg at the moment, we haven’t even got started yet.
You played a lot of shows last year, and looking through the photos it looks like they were all mental! Are there any shows that stick out to you as special, and why?
We did! The hometown shows in Manchester are deffo up there as some of our proudest moments. YNOT Festival is also up there. We headlined the Jack Rocks/This Feeling Tent on the Thursday night and packed out the tent. It was an incredible feeling. Then everyone got flooded out. Great festival though, we love it every year.
You guys released ‘Skint Kids Disco’ back in January. Loved the track so much it made our WFM 2018 Playlist! Also I think the video is great. Are you happy with the release? It seems like a slightly different direction for you guys, yet it still has that chaos I associate with your music.
Thank you! We did, and it has been very well received. Perhaps sonically it feels like the direction has changed, mainly we think this because we had much more time in the studio with Gavin & Joe (Magic Garden Studio) this time to record the EP and this gave us a lot more room for experimentation with new instruments and sounds. Writing wise we haven’t really changed the way we do things at all. Our main aim is to write music to make people dance and so far the songs from the EP have made people do just that. With each release we like to keep things fresh and we have always tried to not write the same songs as we have done before.
Your music has a very unique edge to it, for instance I could pick your songs out of a line up, they’re very distinctive. What sort of influences went into your sound, are there any albums that particularly inspired you over these past few years?
There’s an eclectic range of influence throughout the band. Sounds cliché but it’s just the truth. We have never tried to sound like anyone else but if we had to explain the style it’s kind of a melting pot of Indie, Disco, Funk, Hip-hop Rock. Sugar coated into pop songs. We find ourselves constantly going back to very old albums for influence as opposed to new albums. There is so much music that we just haven’t listened to yet. Albums in more recent years that have influenced us include the likes of Loyle Carner, Wu-Tang Clan, King Krule and Tom Misch.
You also have your debut EP coming out this year, which I cannot wait for. How long have you guys spent creating the EP?, and will all the songs share a similar vibe to the title track?
We are incredibly excited by the whole EP release campaign. It had been a long time since we had released any new music so it was amazing to see the fans reaction once we began releasing new music last December. We began writing the songs from the EP probably around Jan/Feb 2017 and finished them up around September 2017. Each songs on the EP is unique, they all have their own identity. We wanted to write a proper mix of songs and not have any duplicates.
With it being your debut EP it’s a really important release. Are you happy with the overall result of the EP, and what was the recording process like?
Deffo, everything has gone down well so far and there is still more new music to come with the full release on 30th March 2018. As mentioned, the recording process spanned over the whole of 2017 and we got to spend a lot more time in the studio crafting the songs and really concentrating on the small details. We had a lot of fun and were all incredibly pleased with the results.
So the UK tour is coming up in April and it starts in London at Nambucca on 14th April! It’s such a great venue for bands, have you played there before and if so do you enjoy playing there and why?
It does and we are really excited to be getting busy on the live show side of things, March & April are going to be really busy months for us. We played the Nambucca last December and loved it. Great stage and venue we had a really lively gig.
You also have four other dates spreading across Liverpool, Birmingham, Nottingham and Leicester. Where are you looking forward to playing the most and why?
We are excited for them all! We get a huge buzz from playing new cities and meeting new people so being able to spread our wings further round the UK is an exciting prospect.
Also you guys will be playing Kendal Calling and Liverpool Sound City this year, which is a big deal as The Libertines, Peace and Catfish and the Bottlemen will be there. Are you looking forward to playing those? And who are you looking forward to see the most?
We cannot wait to play both, the last time we played Kendal Calling was in 2015. It was our first major UK festival and we had a really fun weekend. Liverpool Sound City we have never played before but they always smash the line-up. We are big fans of Peace so will be good to see them as they have been fairly quiet the past year or so.
Finally with us being 2 months into the year now, what would make this a successful year for you guys? What things do you want to accomplish before the year is out?
The start of 2018 has been a weird one. Although we have been pretty quiet on the live shows it has been mad busy behind the scenes with releases and organising/selling out our biggest show to date at Manchester Academy 2 (950 Capacity). Hopefully before the end of 2018 we’ll of released even more music and also played a number of major UK festivals. We recently signed up to work with International Booking Agents “13 Artists” so we are very privileged to be working with and we hope it will be a very exciting relationship.
Thanks for taking the time out to answer guys, all the best!
Make sure you get tickets if they’re coming a town near you, it will be an eventful night of live music!
It’s Sunday which can only mean one thing, it’s Single of the Week time! This week we have a an awesome brand new track from Yorkshire four piece Courtyards.
‘Hear You Call‘ is the first track that Courtyards have released this year, and what a track to start the year off with. It’s big feel sound has real indie anthemic tendencies to it, which makes the song undeniably catchy.
The slow build up to each chorus is perfect as you sit waiting for the line “Hear You Call” so the guitars can be completely let loose. Once the you’ve heard the chorus once, it becomes very infectious to sing along especially with the “woahoh” (I think that’s how it would be spelt).
At the end we’re treated to an energy driven guitar solo drenched with reverb complete with a whole bunch of mayhem. Also the video that comes with it is a fine piece of work which gives some great visuals for the track.
That’s it for this week folks, hope you enjoyed the track this week!
If you think you have a Single of the Week on your hands, please, get in touch!
London Five-Piece Splashh are back with a brand new song ahead of their second album entitled Waiting a Lifetime. The new song is the title track of the album, and it expresses much of what we’ve come to expect of Splashh, which is loud guitars, dizzying vocals and a hook that could have you humming for days.
After the break up between 2014 and 2016 it was becoming increasingly worrying if the band were going to come back, but it looks like they’re back in full swing and a ready to once again make a move. The track is increasingly energetic and loud, especially with the catchy whistles in the background. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come with the new album as it would surge them some momentum to build off!
After featuring their new song ‘Don’t Get It’ yesterday on New Music Now, I got to catch up with frontman of the band Kev so he could take on the WFM 10 Questions!!
First things first how did the band start?
I started the band in 2011 after my band at the time broke up. I was pretty bummed out, it was my first ‘serious’ band. We toured a lot and I didnt know what to do when we split so obviously I did the only thing I could and started another band! My old band was pretty heavy and I always wanted to do something melodic with pop hooks.
What genre of music would you say you play?
I really don’t care for genre’s too much although I realise it’s kind of something we’re stuck with for a quick way of labelling bands. We’re in the Punk Rock world but I know more than a few punx that would call us an indie rock band. So somewhere in the middle I guess.
Which bands/artists do you take influences from?
We have a massive range of influences. I guess the most direct influences on our sound are bands like Against Me!, The Clash, The Replacements, Pixies, Jawbreaker, Hot Water Music, Japandroids, Weezer. We also love country, hip-hop, electro, thrash metal. There’s not really a genre of music that hasn’t influenced us in some ways.
Best venue you’ve ever played and why?
Loosey’s in Gainseville, Florida! The first time we played there was part of FEST and it was our first US show ever. Our jaws hit the floor when the venue was at capacity and there were a bunch of people singing our songs. Being a DIY so far from home, that’s a really special thing, we’ll never forget that!
Best gig you’ve ever attended?
I’ve been to so many it’s hard to narrow it down! I snuck into an Against Me! show in Belfast on 2004 when i was 16. It blew my mind and I’ve been in love with the band ever since. I also seen Neil Young for the first time a few years ago and that was some pretty life affirming shit.
A band you would most like to support and why?
It would blow my mind to open for someone like The Replacements or holy shit a Jawbreaker reunion! As much as I sometimes think reunions are lame that would be such a buzz.
A band that you would like to work with?
I’d love to write music with someone really prolific like Springsteen. That’s a whole other level of song crafting and besides the obvious amazingness of that situation I think as a song writer you’d learn so much from it.
Top five albums you’ve ever heard?
IMPOSSIBLE QUESTION haha!
My favourite album of all time is London Calling by The Clash. I’ll give you my favourite 5 albums of the last few months:
The Menzingers- After The Party
Childish Gambino- Awaken My Love
Pup- The dream is over
Danny Brown – Atrocity Exhibition
Culture Abuse- Peach
Biggest accomplishment as a band/solo artist?
Touring America is a big one but honestly just getting to write music and play shows in other countries with the best people I know is an accomplishment second to none.
What’s next in the pipeline?
Our new EP ‘Don’t Get It’ is out 10th March on Hidden Pony Records. We tour the UK 8th-19th March then we’ll be touring UK/Europe again in May/June and we have some other stuff coming up that we can’t talk about yet! It’s going to be a busy year!
Thanks for taking the time to answer the questions Kev, all the best with the tour!
Today New Music Now falls into the the dreamy work of five-piece Moonlands with their new track “Shake, I Shook”, which sounds as promising as ever. The song boasts this larger than life feel, with the guitar work really centering in on this swooning atmosphere and creating a mini-Universe for the song to exist. It’s minimalist sound works perfectly as they measured each musical element well, nothing sounds like it’s drowned out or lost in the background.
The pace of the song is relatively slow yet it still maintains to have this edge, as the lead guitarist has this repeatable hook going, refusing to let you go. The final piece of the of the puzzle is vocals and they’re delivered with complete conviction and certainty. The soft voice just laying on this bed of dreaminess is a common dynamic, however Moonlands have put their own stamp on it by actually gripping you.
Words For Music - New Music Reviews 