The Uptights – Unsigned Bands

Intro

When I found this band, I was extremely excited because they’re MODs, and MODs are just the coolest, everything, the music, the style, the haircuts, just everything. I don’t have a lot of information on this band unfortunately, but I do know that they’re based in Southampton, which is bad for me because I can’t go and watch them in Southampton because I’m from crappy Birmingham. They take influences from, The Jam, The Libertines (So they’re already in my good books) and Joy division.

The Music

To my knowledge they’ve got 5 songs, and all of them are exactly how you would expect them to sound, loud , in your face, a commanding voice and blistering guitar riffs. The five songs are entitled ‘Liar’, ‘What comes around’, ‘Today’, ‘La’ and ‘The other side’. After listening to them all, I can honestly say there’s not one that is miles better than the other because they”re all they good. They’re all this good because they’re exactly what I want from this type of music. I’m going to put a few of the songs here, because I’d like you to go on their soundcloud and check them out yourself, and give them some feedback.

This one was released 3 days ago

If you wanna listen to the other two, get on their soundcloud! http://soundcloud.com/the-up-tight

If I really had to pick a favorite out of these three I think I would have to go with their latest ‘Liar’, mainly because of the attitude it has in it and I think the riff that’s in there is that loud and in your face, it has to be my favorite. Also the lyrics are just pure aggression, something that you can shout to the top of your lungs. Also from the first second it just goes, with that first drum beat it just pulls you in , and the rest of the song just makes you want more of the same.

In the second track that I’ve put on here ‘What comes around’, I think you can hear that Joy Division influence through the vocals. What I like about it is that even though they’ve took that Joy Division/Ian Curtis influence they’ve kept that uptempo beat with bass in the background, and that really loud drum beat as well, I think it works really well and I didn’t think it would.

‘Otherside’ is the final track that I’ve put on here, this is one of their oldest ones I think because it was brought out a month ago, but in a sense it’s still relatively new. I’ve pure put this on here because of the shouting part just after the chorus part, I think it’s class and have they have that shout in there, just so much attitude and aggression. When 2.12 comes, I think when this song has it’s brightest side because it’s got this cool little guitar piece slowing down the whole tempo of the song, the 3.06 hits and rock back into the middle of the song again, like your caught in a rut. I also like it because they’ve got the same affect as The Libertines ‘What a waster’ at the start haha.

Overall

Probably one the best bands I’ve listened to since I’ve started doing all the unsigned acts, because of everything in their songs, I could see these playing a gig with a crowd of people going mental, hopefully, it will happen one day. If I could sign em’, I would.

Follow on twitter

https://twitter.com/TheUptights

Check out the soundcloud

http://soundcloud.com/theuptights

Like the facebook

http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Uptights/324612107558977

The Jam – Sound Affects

Introduction

In a bit of Jam phase at the moment (as well as SmallVille), just listening to every album back to back and finding  some acoustic shows as well. After listening to all of them numerous times I’ve decided that ‘Sound Affects’ is my favorite album  The Jam brought out. However it was a very close with the likes of ‘All Mod Cons’, ‘In the city’ and ‘The Gift’ (not one of the most recognized albums but I’ve got a soft spot for it).

‘Sound Affects’ was released in late 1980 on the record label ‘Polydor’, and was produced Chris Parry who also help produce ‘All Mod cons’ and ‘In the city’. This is also Paul Weller’s favorite album of The Jam, I think this because it was different from anything The Jam had done up until then. Also Paul Weller said that it was a mixture of Michael Jackson’s ‘Off the Wall’ and ‘Revolver’ (I’m sure we can all see that from the riff in ‘Start’)

The Album features songs like ‘Start’, ‘That’s Entertainment’ and one of my personal favorites ‘Pretty Green’ (just love the bass on it)

The Album

The album starts off with that bass from ‘Pretty Green’, which I think is one of the catchiest of bass riffs I’ve heard along with ‘The Stone Roses – She Bangs the Drums’. I think what I like most about the song is the aggression, also It’s something really good to shout at the top of your voice.

Weller’s a brilliant songwriter all round, lyrics, rhythm, melody and he does all that and making it catchy, it doesn’t sound so heavy. If you look at all his solo albums, they all show signs of this look at ‘sunflower’ which featured on the album ‘Wild Wood’.

The first single off this album was ‘Start!’, and it very nearly wasn’t as Polydor wanted to release ‘Pretty Green’ first but the band got the record label to bring out ‘Start!’, and how very right they were to do this as this is easily my favorite on the album and easily one of my favorite Jam songs of all time. Yes, it rips of ‘The Beatles – Taxman’ slightly but, okay more than slightly but I don’t think that takes anything away from the song. You could rip off something from a really good song, and it might be terrible. Either way they still had the job of using it and changing it to suit their style, which they did with ease. Also the solo on ‘Start!’ is pretty good as well.

The final song that gained credibility over time was ‘That’s Entertainment’, a simple acoustic song, with simple chords however with a less simple strumming pattern. Apparently Paul wrote this when he came home pissed one night (pissed means drunk) and he wrote it in 15 minutes. Don’t know if this actually happened or not, but I’d like to think it happened this way, i’m a sucker for a story. I love how it was recorded because it’s not entirely clear feels like Paul is shouting and your struggling to hear him slightly. Lyrically I think this  is one of the best pieces he’s ever done.

 

Overall 8.5

Whether you think it’s the best album The Jam ever done or not, I think you have to agree that it is an incredible album. Let me know what you think of the album, and whether you think it deserves the top spot that I’ve given it.