Happy People- Peace Review

The world, as we know it, is a massive heap of flaming shit full of inequality, poverty and fear. We can't turn on the news without hearing about some atrocity in a foreign land in a city you can't pronounce. What makes it even worse is that Britain is slowly turning into a dangerous hotbox of anger and apathy, and the smoke is getting thicker for people to see a way out. How can British teens live in 2015 without wanting to act out and be angry at the stupidity and banality of our culture? So when you see that Peace have an album out called Happy People you can't help but scoff.

But it really isn't a happy album, the lyrics can get morose, self-conscious and down right angry at points. If In Love was being in year eleven just after your GCSEs, then Happy People is arriving at college and your mates telling you that everyone hates you. Themes on this album span from feeling inadequate, ugly and down right miserable. The ironic title isn't the only talking point, Peace have lifted styles and genres to create an mismatched album that almost fits into place.

O You starts off the album and grabs you by the collar with a clunky hook and a Koisser crooning I'm just trying to change the world we live in, for you. A sweet sentiment if ever there was one. O You sounds like nothing Peace have ever done before, and that has become their trademark. Throughout the LP you have the candy flossed boy band anthem of Lost On Me, undoubtedly Oasis-esque acoustic Someday, and the grungy I'm A Girl. The genre stealing becomes the talking point of the album when discussing it with others. Swapping tales of where you think that riff comes from or where the inspiration was. Stealing is usually frowned upon, but not on this album.

The gem on this album is Perfect Skin. Sitting about halfway through an album full of regret and growing up, it defines the feelings of every teen in history. It's the tale of looking at someone and questioning how they can be so perfect and gorgeous. This is truly a highpoint for the band both lyrically and sonically.  Many people doubted whether the Brummy quartet could pull off something quite as sensational as In Love. In my opinion, they have crafted something completely different to not just their previous work- but British indie in general. The world may be a massive heap of flaming shit, but perhaps we all just need a bit of Peace.

Drenge, New

The two most violent brothers in indie have been at it again (no this isn't an Oasis reunion). Rory and Eoin Loveless have been busy recording their new album 'Undertow'. The dark and grungy band is expected to release the LP on the 6th of April as a follow up to their self-titled debut.

And if the promise of a new album isn't enough there will be a string of live dates across April (with a particularly exciting date at the Electric Ballroom. I'll be chucking fists there);



Nottingham, Rescue Rooms (April 10)

Birmingham, The Library (11)

Gateshead, The Sage (13)

Glasgow, Classic Grand (14)

Liverpool, Kazimier (15)

Sheffield, Leadmill (17)

Norwich, Waterfront (18)

Bristol, The Trinity Centre (20)

London, Electric Ballroom (21)


I imagine by now you are foaming at the mouth, but wait- there is a new single. Called 'We Can Do What We Want' is a full throttle assault including the band's new bassist Rob Graham.

Vinyl Staircase, Live

I sat freezing in The Boileroom's garden as someone whispers in my ear "it's at full capacity, people are queuing up outside". I wasn't surprised, a Vinyl Staircase gig isn't something to miss. Especially with support acts as strong as dazy chain, Seers and Annabel Allum.

Surrounded by friendly faces I watched Seers perform their freeform psych which at first felt a bit drab, I was loving it but the crowd didn't seem to 'get' them. And after about two songs in, an enormous circle pit erupted in the already cramped Boileroom. The violent and blood-filled mosh lasted throughout the rest of the local band's high energy and ferocious set. They certainly 'get' Seers now.


All quietened down as Annabel Allum sat crossed legged on the floor and begun her performance. Unsurprisingly everyone could not believe that an artist with such a powerhouse of a voice could be still in a venue of this size. With vocals reminiscent of Daughter she flitted through her set with a wide grin.

As Vinyl Staircase get on stage the crowd erupted. Their high energy plus an already strong fan base equalled an exceptional performance. From the first song onwards, dancing and moshing began. With smiles all around it was clear even to people who had never heard Vinyl Staircase before, they certainly were going to again. With a large repertoire of songs already under their belt, the band could have afforded to slow down their pace at points, purely to give people a breather. A bright future is ahead of these boys

Peace, I'm A Girl

In the past year, Peace have had it a tad bit tricky. After starting writing immediately after In Love (2012) it seemed that the Birmingham band famed for their sun kissed songs would be releasing their new album just 12 months after their debut. But due to the record labels pushing back and back, the highly anticipated Happy People will now be coming out on the 9th February. So for Peace fans up and down the country have been treated to various songs and singles from the vastly different LP.

First we had the pop fused anti-capitalist banger of Money:

And then the brutally upbeat Lost On Me:

The West End Girls influenced World Pleasure:

Now as the album looms just weeks away, the band have released yet another song. It's called I'm A Girl and it's safe to say that it is pretty impressive. It sees the band go in a direction musically that we have never heard from the usually upbeat songs of In Love. It is brutal and violent in it's production and delivery, borderline Blink 182 with rageful guitar solos. But what is the real talking point of this song is it's lyrics.

The very first line strikes real imagination The creators of man were calm, kind and nice. But nature demands that we fuck, eat and fight. This violent juxtaposition really embodies the vibe of the song. Harrison Koisser croons and then screams. The unhinged attack on gender roles and society's obsession with masculinity isn't just meaningful, it also sounds brilliant.

The personal aspect of this song does root in the nature of what Peace do as a band. From the get go they set themselves out as entirely alternative to the masculine stereotypes of indie, dressing in furs and singing about being in desperately in love. It was a breath of fresh air. I'm A Girl is a massive up yours to masculinity, If we live in a man's world. I'm A girl.

Personally, this song really incorporates everything I love about music. It's fun, violent and thought provoking. I do completely empathise with the entire ethos of the song swell. Too many times I've felt emasculated  by the fact that I don't see spend my nights trying to get laid or enjoy playing xbox every night. So a song, and band that actually say that they're glad to not be a 'bloke' speaks massively to me.

Plus the video is the bees knees...

The Petals

In the midst of January and upcoming mock blues I have almost given up. But then my friend linked me a new band that has lifted my mood to get out of bed. The Petals are a band that certainly make me feel good. Their song Big Love, the story of a really crappy relationship really brings it home with the shout-able chorus 'She is feeling PISSED OFF'. The Petals are messy and emotional, just the thing you might need to cure those January blues.

2014

This year has been a bit of a disaster when it comes to geo-political news. 2014 has seen ISIS going nasty, North Korea sticking to their ways and Vladimir Putin being a pain in general. And that's not even looking at the madness in Ferguson. And to top it all off, Ebola is having a comeback and it is nasty. The only thing this year that hasn't really gone to pot is music. To try and make an end of year list is a massive nightmare, I've been having sleepless nights. But here we go...

Best Newcomer- Kate Tempest

2014 has been the year of the debut, not only were we inundated with a new artist every week dominating the charts but the Mercury nominations we splitting at the seams of new talent. One of the most invigorating and newsworthy artists was a white female rapper with a big mouth and strong accent, no not Iggy Azalea. Kate Tempest's album Everybody Down showed that  a spoken word poet can write the best rap album of the year. Kate's believable tales in her lyrics give her a razor-sharp edge and a fresh look at the music scene. A hard choice but well deserved.

Best Comeback- Jamie T

An unsupring but deserving win for the Wimbledon artist. After five years of radio silence, Jamie T raised himself from the dead. After lead single 'Don't You Find' Jamie sold out dates across the country, played the prestigious secret set at Reading and Leeds and released a stunning third album Carry On The Grudge. The record has moments of rage such as 'Peter' and beauty in 'Mary Lee' and of course the shouty lad chorus of 'Zombie'. It wasn't exactly a Kate Bush sized comeback, but it was brilliant all the same.

Best Song- NEW YORK.NEW DORP

The SBTRKT and Ezra Koenig pairing created undoubtedly the best song of the year. A fantastic piece of production tallied with even better lyrics, a club track without the cheese or repetitiveness. A 10/10 win for SBTRKT.

Worst Year- Robin Thicke

Not necessarily the worst year in music (cough Bono, cough Liam Gallagher) but pretty dire in comparison to 2013. Last year Thicke performed at the VMAs, worked with Pharrel and sold millions of  copies of 'Blurred Lines'. The backlash at the misogyny of 'Blurred Lines' hit home when Thicke's wife left him and no-one gave him a shoulder to cry on. Forlorn Robin then made an album dedicated to his missus, selling a whopping 530 copies in it's first week. You can all still buy the album Paula,I know you want it. 

Worst Album-Royal Blood

In fairness, Royal Blood never set themselves the task of changing rock n roll. A genre which has arguably been waning since it's very conception. So when a pair of leather wearing dudes from Brighton started making a tonne of noise from a rhythm section, people began to throw themselves at them. Their album, 10 or so songs of boring and loud rock music. Does it push boundaries? Is it meaningful? No. It is just souless and mindnumbing. Pants.

Best Album-Salad Days

This is the hardest decision I have had to make this year. Personally, I have loved the crop of albums to choose from this year. FKAS Twigs, Kate Tempest, Superfood, SBTRKT, Ben Howard, Jungle, Young Fathers, Temples, the list goes on. But I had to go for the album that means the most to me. Mac DeMarco is a personal favourite of mine, and finally this year my friends caught on to his genius. Salad Days is a mismatch of emotions and sounds, all encompassing in a bit of a mess. However the Canadian ultimately made a cracking piece of art through the anarchy, and that is why it is my album of 2014. His iconic red vans are currently being auctioned off at 20 grand, which is the cherry on his bizarre but brilliant life


I don't really know what is going to happen in 2015. But I just want to thank anyone who has ever read my blog, it means a lot. Big love, get wrecked this NYE and catch you on the flip side.

Aldershot Alldayer, Review

Sausau

Starting off the evening with a gruellingly stripped back acoustic session, Sausau sung some original material and a selection off brilliant covers. The singer used his haunting vocals to completely change the Ozzie Tame Impala track ‘Feels Like We Only Go Backwards’ into a simplistic bare bones ballad. The crowd was 50% his mates, heckling him and asking for covers of ‘Jolene’ by Dolly Parton.

Char Goodfellow

The second acoustic act came from Char Goodfellow. With strong playing skills and a fantastic voice her set sounded exceptional. After a few strong originals singing about the woes of being a teenager Char moved onto some brilliant up to date covers. Firstly, The Wytches ‘Crying Clown’. She took the creepy and ethereal nature of the debut album Annabel Dream Weaver and turned it up to 100, lines like ‘graveyard girl swinging her bag like a pendulum’ stuck even when understated. Next up was Peace’s anthem ‘Wraith’, usually incomprehensible sung by Harry Koisser Char made the lyrics the most important part of the song. And the crowd loved it.

Manatee!

A band hailing from my own college were up next. They were also the first ones on the packed sweatbox that was called the main stage, perfect for the events to come. The three piece specialised in tongue and cheek lyrics with a pop edge. Lead singer Joe Alexander came on stage donned in a garden centre fleece and ripped through a set sending the crowd into feel good vibes. The slight American twang was different and the beg for a glockenspiel/violinist/synth player was entertaining to say the least. A highlight was an embarrassed cover of ‘Call Me Maybe’ which sounded bizarrely fantastic in the hands of Manatee!.

Annabel Allum

The second stage was intimate as it was, but as the Guildford based singer got on stage the whole room shrunk to the size of an airing cupboard when we heard her voice. With musical talent rivalling fellow redhead King Krule and a voice I cannot describe how strong, Annabel Allum is onto a winner. With tunes reminiscent of Everything But The Girl the audience were stunned into a silence as me and my friend shed a single tear. A favourite song was certainly ‘Foxes’, described as ‘well the media just portray foxes to just kill babies and shit, but we don’t know anything about they just do their thing’.

WIKER

The first band to bring the heat to the Alldayer was WIKER, another local band with a razor sharp edge and tunes to match. The set started with the frontman complaining that the hairdresser ‘fucked up his top knot’ and completed their set at breakneck speed. Although from Fleet the songs had the vibes reminiscent of the bands like Cage The Elephant. Although there were no Mark Hoppus stage dives the energy was still there as the band captured our imagination.

Dazy Chain

While watching Dazy Chain my mind was telling me ‘this shouldn’t work’ but the low-fi sound works with enough trippy imagination. Starting off with a bold Stone Roses cover, they changed up the entire masterpiece to make it rock. Through the set we were treated to a selection of refreshing experimentalism that got me moving. The unarguable highlight was a cover of ‘Boys Don’t Cry’, which oozed cool. A band to look out for.

Seers

As the night began to draw in, we were treated to a performance by Seers.  Not only were the three experts in crazed free flowing indie, they had the coolest hair in Aldershot. Guitarist and singer: strong beard game and simple short cut, Drummer: full afro and mutton chops calling back the 70s and the bassist had no face- just hair. In all seriousness, Seers rocked the main stage like no one else. With killer riffs and a sound like they are stuck in space with the sex drive of Alex Turner you couldn’t help but want to move. What was even greater was that they didn’t stop, the band just went on and on for a full 30 minutes. It was like watching The Wytches take tonnes of MDMA and let them loose on some instruments. Wild stuff.

Vinyl Staircases

After the best haircuts in music we had the best dressed. Vinyl Staircases had obviously raided the 1960s for both style and sound as lary shirts and psych donned the young band. The two brothers taking honours of vocals sounded fantastic, and the laid back tunes relaxed the tiring crowd and truly did get select bunches of people properly dancing to the Surrey band.  They were my standout band of the night, the Tame Impala-esque’s new material sounding stunning.

Native People

The pre-cursor to headline act Best Friends who I missed due to my eardrums being completely knackered (don't go to three gigs in three days). The unapologetically pop orientated band who sound not to dissimilar to The 1975 (in a non wanky Matt Healey way). Their music is instantly feel good and fun. Lead singer Reuben Todd was more than keen to get the crowd going, engaging in good banter with the crowd (in a non football hooligan way). Native People are a fantastic band who have huge things in front of them, the Kent boys could be on the way to fame quite soon.