Bang Bang Bang!

Originally posted on the 12th of May 2007

http://www.myspace.com/bangbangbangtheband

Up and coming? Maybe. Good? Definitely. Bang Bang Bang! are a Brighton based girl fronted punk band. Now, I don’t mean Avril Lavigne pop punk cry about how life’s so complicated, I mean real angry antiestablishment punk. Front(wo)man Natalie has more balls than half the pretentious self absorbed musicians that are knocking about at the moment, and she’s not afraid to show it.

So What Is It?

I think I’ve made it pretty clear that its punk, but incase you missed it the first few times… its really punk. I’ve seen Bang Bang Bang! play live a few times now, both with acoustic guitars, and fully fledged wailing distorted ones. They have yet to leave me unsatisfied after a set. Its not difficult to see that they’re heavily influenced by Nirvana, in fact, Natalie has been coined to be a female Kurt Cobain by a number of people, this is most note-able when the band play a Nirvana cover midway through their set which fits in perfectly with their style. Natalie owns the stage, and the red bits of her hair shimmer under the dim stage lighting. Looking at her before the band start playing, you really wouldn’t expect what’s to come.

‘Start A Fight’ is the song I would listen to as a good introduction to this band. Produced by Marc Waterman (Elastica, Inch, Ash) the song is angry and raw and generally a very well oiled piece of audible machinery. You can tell exactly what you’re listening to from the first riff, theres no gentle intro, theres no change in tempo, and there doesn’t need to be. You’re thrown straight in at the deep end of the very distorted, fast, powerchord-filled verse and drawn very quickly into the chorus with hails of “do you want to start a fight”. The songs boasts pure simplicity at its finest, it doesn’t need complex structures or harmonies, it is what it is, and it works.

Room for improvement?

Naturally there’s always room for improvement but with Bang Bang Bang! I’m very hesitant to suggest any specific things to change. They have a niche, a very good approach to the music business, and great style. Obviously its questionable as to how commercially viable the songs are, but with this genre of music – who really cares? The only improvement that they could make is that although they have stage presence, I have yet to witness nearly enough stage energy. It would be great to see all three of them really get into the music and move around on stage.

This band are certainly one to go and see if you live anywhere near Brighton, or even if you don’t, they’re worth the trip. Their’ Myspace stats could be better with only 8,000 hits so far, but their’ forthcoming release on the 2007 BIMM Album is likely to boost that figure by a significant amount. With plenty of upcoming gigs and a Brighton Juice FM appearance, Bang Bang Bang! We salute you.

This City

Originally posted on the 8th of May 2007

http://www.myspace.com/thiscitymusic

This City were a very interesting discovery for me, it happened one evening a few months ago at the Brighton Engine Room. I was there to see a band called RazorFace, and This City happened to be headlining. At first I didn’t take much notice. More boys in tight jeans with tattoos and lip piercings… big deal! As soon as they started playing though, my attention was drawn away from the conversation at hand and towards the stage. It’s hard to put your finger on exactly what it is, but this band have something that makes you really want to watch them.

So What Is It?

Its essentially Emo alternative indie rock, although This City prefer to refer to themselves as “Hardcore Pop” which isn’t actually a bad description. Take a disco beat, throw in a strat, some yelping, and you’re nearly there. Now, that doesn’t sound impressive, until you add the catchy choruses and frequency filling harmonies… THEN. It becomes a thing of beauty.

The Mates-Rates Song-For-Sale for me is definitely ‘Romantic’, which starts off with what could be any old intro for any old band, a high electric guitar riff and a lot of tomtoms, the song doesn’t really kick in till that first riff ends, and the song moves into the verse. This segment chops straight in with a disco beat that is so unbelievably good that I sometimes listen to the track just to hear the drum beat. How many songs can you say that about? The guitar riff that flows over the top is choppy, feels perfectly in tune with the beat, and is a real foot tapper. When Chris starts singing though, you realise that This City aren’t “just another Emo band” because, he doesn’t suffer from what I call “eyeliner syndrome”. Which translates roughly into any vocalist that feels the need to sing all his/her vocals in long drawn out notes with some sort of emotional attachment that tries to induce tears. Instead, he is aggressive, and energetic, he almost spits out his lyrics and commands attention. ‘Romantic’ then shifts smoothly into the chorus, where harmonies rain in, and guitar riffs get much more distorted. It’s exactly my cup of tea.

So what is it lacking?

For the type of music it is, it lacks very little. This City have very tight package now after having suffered from AWOL drummer syndrome for a good few months. (Their’ previous drummer is now the lead singer for hardcore band the Architects.) What they do lack, is commercial appeal – the interesting thing is that they’re not very far off the perfect mix. The proof of that is in the number of hits they’ve had on Myspace in a mere year of existence, in their recent radio 1 airtime, and reviews in both NME and Rocksound. If they could just tighten their songs a little for performance purposes, and start writing in a slightly more traditional structure, keeping their fiery passion firmly in place, they would have mass potential.

I’m not going to lie at this point; I think that this band are brilliant. It’s not just that they play good music, its that they’re fun to watch and to listen to. It’s a type of music that is hated by a lot of “traditional music fans” at the moment, and I think its time those people realised that U2 are dead and Elton John is shit. You have two choices: stay stuck in the 90’s, or listen to This City. I know which one I’m doing.

Andrew Balkwill

Originally posted on the 4th of May 2007

http://www.myspace.com/andrewbalkwill

I discovered Andy one night while I was at the SkyBar in Brighton having a drink with a few friends. I hadn’t planned on going specifically to see anyone play, and I certainly hadn’t expected to see what I did. It was a usual acoustic night in a posh bar, pretentious guitarists, and girls who thought they could sing. Then Andy came on with a big keyboard and nothing else.

Andrew Balkwill is one of the UK’s finest examples of how there is some absolutely amazing music out there, and no one knows about it. He seems, at the moment, to be gliding from bar to pub to the occasional venue, slowly accumilating a loyal following who are beginning to spread the word. A bit like the Pied Piper on steroids. The intriguing thing is that I dont think he actually realises just how good he is.
Which is refreshing to say the least.

So, what is it?

Its Alternative Piano Pop, now dont get me wrong, I hate labels more than anyone else. When I say ‘pop’ I dont mean McFly, I mean popular music that is user-friendly enough to have mass appeal. Think Keane, mix in a little Maroon 5, inject an 8th of The Beatles, and you’re pretty much there. Beautiful melodies played on the piano, accompanied with excellent vocals, and a rhythm that gives you a headache from the inability to NOT nod along to each song.

The recommend a friend song is definitely ‘Let Go’ which can be heard on the link to Andy’s myspace at the top of this entry.
It instantly begins with a choppy section of light piano chords and a sliding bassline, something that makes you want to tap your foot and simultaeously sway slightly. The vocals dont jump out at you at first, but the lyrics are clearly audible, and as the first chorus comes you realise that he really does have an amazing voice. Andy has a definite talent for arranging his songs as the slow smooth rhythms fade into and are contrasted beautifully by fast chopped up sections before dropping into an almost deathly quiet mid section.

But what’s it lacking? There is a definite empty space there.

Vocal harmonies. All of Andy’s songs would benefit fantastically from some contrasting vocal melodies to fill in some of the frequency gaps, and to contrast certain vocal sections from others. That said, his latest song ‘The Other Side’ does make use of some harmonies, but they are far too quiet, and sound like they were added to the song rather tentatively.

Andy has some serious potential to go a long way in the music world, but at the moment it seems like he hasn’t quite figured out the best way to promote himself. His ‘myspace stats’ could be better, and he could certainly do with booking a few higher profile gigs given that he’s every bit as good live as he is on record. If he can find a way to get himself out there a bit more I have no doubt that we will be hearing a lot more of Andrew Balkwill in the future.

Enter Shikari

Originally posted on 30 April 2007,

Having anything to do with music means you have to spend a lot of time on MySpace. Which is difficult if you’re like me and you can’t stand browsing through millions and millions of teenagers’ personal profiles. If you can filter through the filth though, there is a world of discovery to be found.

Enter Shikari are a slightly ironic band to be the first on the page because they’re not THAT new anymore. Nevertheless. Humour me.

For a start, you can tell you’ band is getting somewhere when your myspace profile tells you that your songs have been played 29,151 times today.. and that’s just on the one web page. Even in the grand scheme of things thats an impressive figure when you think that its double the capacity of Wembley Arena.

So what is it?

In essence, it’s a mix of trance melodies, electronic samples, and hardcore rock. Whic, you have to hear to be able to understand really. It’s not something that you can easily put together in your’ head without some idea of what to expect. Formed in 2003, the band was originally a collaboration of genres to appeal to all, though it had a somewhat opposite effect for the first 3 years or so. Then in 2006, things started turning around as their’ fan base grew and their’ music progressed. By the end of the year, they were on several large festivals and had placed a couple of big national tours on their repertoire of accomplishments.

‘Sorry You’re Not A Winner’ is the song you will have most likely listened to if you’ve ever heard of this band before, being their main myspace profile song and having just made and released a video for it.

Starting with a slightly deranged trance keyboard synthesiser riff before bringing in a catchy little bass-line, the intro is quickly followed by a metal guitar riff, before again diving into the unknown with a complete stop for several hand claps. Then the song actually gets going. The band make good use of time changes throughout the verse, and carefully placed screams make for interesting but not painful listening. The melodies are nothing if not catchy, and the band really show their true colours in the breakdown midway through the song where nothing but a synthesiser and vocals lead straight into a full-on metal screaming middle-eight and discordant outro.

Sure, Enter Shikari definitely suffer from the ‘Emo’ label thrust upon so many bands these days, but it’s hard to find any Indie bands at the moment that DON’T get called Emo. The key point will be if they can break free from the stereotype by progressing their style rather than their music, because, as far as sound goes, this band definitely have something good to offer. I’d like to see them step out of their’ pigeonhole.

What are they lacking? Mass appeal. The sound is fresh, interesting, and generally something that could definitely fill a gap in the current music market, but the lyrics leave much to be desired. The structure of the vocals means that often there is a scream at the beginning of a line, meaning the second half of the line makes no sense. A scream at the end of a line however, is usually intelligible, and one can figure out the word based on what came before it.
Half of a band’s success relates to whether or not the audience can connect with the emotion conveyed in the subject of the song. If the subject of the song isn’t clearly dictated in the lyrics then the eventuality is that fans will be singing along, but not really knowing what they’re singing.

With an average of about 4,000 plays every single day since they registered on myspace alone, they’re clearly set to go somewhere, the only question that remains in my mind is, when they do get somewhere, how long will they be able to stay there for?

What Is ‘New’ Music?

From Plan B to Britney Spears, nowadays music isn’t just ‘Rock’ or ‘Rap’. Every genre has a sub-genre and sub-sub-genre, so where is one to start on the ladder of prosidy?

Sadly for some, and very gladly for others, the days of top of the pops are over. The times when the charts defined good music are actually passing and a whole new scope of artists are breaking through in ways that don’t conform with the old standards. I’m not saying its the dawn of a new millennium for the music world, its more like the end of the previous one.

But where does that leave us? What IS this ‘new’ music that’s finally coming out into the open, and what makes it so different from what’s around already?

Previously artists were defined by the amount of financial backing they had from their’ respective record labels. If you got signed to a big enough label, and they paid for enough promotion, you were pretty much guaranteed to be in the charts, and there for, sell lots and lots of records.

Now however, the industry has matured with the help of the internet into a new shape where the consumer has access to virtually limitless artists whether or not they have any sort of record deal. Shops aren’t the only place to go for music anymore, and as new people are discovered who DON’T have a big wallet behind them, more new and different music is coming through to the general public, and increasingly artist websites are being used to new levels.

So what is the point of this blog?

To find out who they are.