The Surrenders | Maybe There'll Be Blood | Single Review

The Surrenders have just dropped their latest single 'Maybe There'll Be Blood'.

The Birmingham four piece have had a successful year playing a handful of shows and festivals. Following on from their last single 'Shouldn't Have To Dig' which had more of a The Rolling Stones feel to it, this new track shows a new and fresh side to The Surrenders. On a first listen Maybe There'll Be Blood is a repetitive yet extremely catchy song, but the more you listen to it the more you realise its brush of genius as it subtly flavours different genres.

Lyrically the song has some darker undertones with a subtle humorous twist that contrasts with the upbeat rhythm that pours from the instrumentation. "It's an expose on the uncertantity of modern times, but a fun one at that." Vocally frontman Connor Brooks shows a larger vocal range within this track; from melodic grace to to sing-shouting the chorus "maybe there'll be blood, maybe there wont",  accompanied by some punkish harmonies from the rest of the band.

There is a simple and effective repetitive bass line throughout the track that plays a huge part. Each instrument really shines through within this song and yet none outshine the other. A perfect balance that creates this funky rock and roller track. We've seen The Surrenders show a more progressive sound in previous tracks, but this song really sticks out as something new. The raw roomy drum sound mixed with a fuzzy low fi lead guitar gives it an almost punk edge with a mix of some really early rock and roll. The descending quick chords in the pre chorus hint at early 2000s The Libertines vibes. The guitar has it's golden moment towards the end of the song as Rich Jones shreds away. 

The Surrenders are among the few bands that appear to boldly take a strong influence from the past and weave it through their music with a modern twist. It's a modern day rock n roll band for the youth with old souls. 'Maybe there'll Be Blood' is a solid banger that deserves to be played as loud as ya speakers will crank it! This song is going to be one that gives the room an electric energy and gets the audience singing and dancing like it's their last night on earth.

For fans of Led Zeppelin, The Doors, Hendrix etc, The Surrenders are a band you've got to check out. The Surrenders are set to support Trampoline on the This Feeling: Alive Tour.

You can get your tickets for the alive tour here

Listen to Maybe There'll Be Blood here

Review & photography by Holly Beson-Tams.

NAKED SIX | No Compromise | EP Review

NAKED SIX recently blessed us with their debut EP 'No Compromise', a beautiful blend of grunge and rock that'll keep you gripped from start to finish.

The Manchester based three piece released their EP at the end of October, No Compromise displays only a fraction of the wild energy that is Naked Six. One of the best live bands around they put in 110% energy, wether they're playing to a handful of people in a vintage store or a sweaty gig space full of heads. They blow everyone away with each show and are garenteed to walk off stage having gained new fans. This November you can find them at a handful of dates supporting Vintage Caravan followed by a main support tour for The Amorettes. 

If you've seen them live a couple of times recently you may recognise some of the tracks off of the EP. The EP begins with the title track No Compromise. Naked Six have always stuck out as a band that seems to take influence from a wide variety of genre, within any of their songs I can hear something subtle that appears to be a  blend of the best parts of so many amazing genres. You can hear bluesy/fuzz rock elects within the guitar and bass (think BRMC, The Raconteurs etc), heavy grunge vocals and drums that could stem from the 90s Seattle scene, classic British rock and roll, subtle hints of prog, so much more. 

Tear Away picks up the pace to a new level, Seb Byford's vocals are practically spat out with punk attitude during the verses to keep up with the rhythm of the song, giving a whole new layer to the bands display of sound. This is one of the tracks that really allow drummer Tom Witts' talent to shine through.  Let It Out slows everything down after Tear Away, with a soft guitar riff leading us into the track. The song to be could be straight out of the 90s. Paired with the last track on the EP, Who Am I To You, the two songs display a further range to Byford's vocal ability. 

Unwind is probably my favourite song off of the EP, and to see live,  it's full of exciting vibrate energy from start to finish. Having spent the past year as a two piece, bringing Callum Chesterman-Witts' in on bass has done wonders to their live performance and added a necessity to the EP. Check out their EP and catch them at one of their shows!

Listen to the EP here

Review & photography by Holly Beson-Tams.

BULL | Perfect Teeth | Single Review

Sunday morning chill. That’s what I think about whenever I listen to the start of Bull’s new single, Perfect Teeth. With tranquil undertones that resemble The Velvet Underground, York based band, Bull, artistically pull off an air of nonchalant mellowness – they don’t try to be complicated for the sake of being complicated and the result is an unequivocally effortless masterpiece of musical ingenuity.

Starting out as a Ceilidh band, Bull, whilst developing their sound into the indie-rock band as heard in ‘Perfect Teeth’, have not lost their ceilidh background. Perhaps this is the clearest when frontman Tom Beer sports vocals representative of the folk scene when he sings, “and it’s taking me way too long.” It’s this very trait that sets Bull apart from other up and coming bands on the scene: their ability to skilfully put a twist on their ceilidh roots and blossom their sound into an indie-folk fusion is a move that many would be both unqualified and unsuccessful in doing.

With their subtly use of the maracas to compliment drummer, Tom Gabbatiss’, soft rhythmic beats, Bull evidently also have an eye for detail – they know how to create layers and tones that create a sound so authentic to themselves that engaging with the song is as easy as it comes. In fact, ‘Perfect Teeth’ is a song so well-crafted, in which every note, every dynamic and every guitar line is in faultless position, that Bull are able to truly invite their listeners to participate in the story of their song.

Yet Bull are playing a brilliantly deceptive card: ‘Perfect Teeth is a single that initially whispers gentle acoustics, before suddenly switching its serenity for a ramped-up electric guitar solo and drum beats that will wake you up from that Sunday slumber. It’s fair to say that the band lull us into a sense of false security and at its peak, drop us into a whirlwind of unexpected X. However, I dare say that without this X interlude, ‘Perfect Teeth’ may become a slightly repetitive song. Yet we needn’t worry about that being an issue as it’s another example of where the band have stricken the perfect balance between knowing where to be X and knowing exactly when to step things up a notch.

Written by Kate Sinclair 

Boston Manor | Interview

Boston Manor jumped into a whole new genre with their latest album Welcome To The Neighbourhood, taking a more chilled out step back from their pop punk roots to write just as catch songs, but with a lot more depth. I managed to chat to Henry Cox (singer) and Mike Cunniff (guitar) at their first gig of their September UK tour at the Thekla, Bristol.

What helped inspire you when writing Welcome To The Neighbourhood musically and lyrically?

Henry: Musically we are into a lot of 90’s alternative band like Deftones, Korn and Nine Inch Nails, so we borrowed a lot of influence sonically from that. Lyrically, it's hard to pin it down. It was a lot of what we were thinking and feeling. There's lyricists like Keith Buckley who I look up to as we’s wicked, I love the way he’s very visual in the way he rights. However, it’s not like we can borrow a sound that we can borrow sonically, we just have to sit down with pen and paper and work on it honestly.

How did you guys write the songs from this album?

Henry: All 5 of us write together but every song was different. Some of them we started with a vocal hook or a chorus and we built out from there. Some songs started off with a riff or a really basic structure and we just built it up from there.

Mike: We demoed the songs and then we took them to the studio with our friend Marcus Pone and we did pre-production for about 2 weeks in New Jersey. Then we just kept building and building on the songs and rearranging them until we were happy with them and then went back there and recorded it. So I guess from right at the start to when we were demoing to right at the end product it was just a constant evolving process.

What's your favourite songs of Welcome To The Neighbourhood in general and to play?

Henry: It's hard to pick one song. I definitely like the second track, Flowers In Your Dustbin and also England Dreaming’s.

Mike: I think it changes every day for me, I really like the title track because it is a stark difference to the stuff we’ve put out before and it definitely sets the tone for the whole record. It’ll probable change again when we start playing the songs as some songs translate better live

There's been a definite change between your first two albums and Welcome To The Neighbourhood, have you been influenced by what you are currently listening to compared to what you used to listened to? Or has it not changed?

Mike: I wouldn't say its change. We’ve be listening to the same stuff constantly. I think we’ve just been trying to figure out how to create our own sound. I was watching an interview with Chino from Deftones and they initially got lumped in with a lot of other Nu Metal bands when they were trying to make their own sounds and we’re trying to do the same thing. I think when we recorded Welcome To The Neighbourhood we felt like we were most comfortable in our skin and it just took us a little bit to get there. Not to disregard our old tracks, but it's been a process and a journey to get to where we are now and it will carry on going. We may not stay doing this sound as we always want to challenge ourselves

You do have a lot of synthesizers on the new album, is this something you want to develop and possibly work with other artists with in the future?

Henry: We are definitely going to go down the rabbit hole with synths, we were learning quite a lot about it while making the record. For Pone, the producer, it’s his world. He has analogue synths and samplers so we got to fart around with that we taught us how to work with them. I think moving forward we’re definitely doing more synth stuff, but what that entails we don't know. As far as other artists, we haven't really collabed with anyone but there's kind of no rule to this point so maybe, yeah!

The artwork was done by Joshua Halling, what’s the story behind the scene?

Henry: Ah you can’t tell! There’s loads of little things in it that you may not notice for the first or second times you look at it. It was inspired by the work of Gregory Crewdson

Mike: It’s open to interpretation to be honest. We kinda want people to just look at it and spot something new every time or just wonder what is happening in it.

Is the artwork linked to the Bad Machine video at all?

Henry: Kind of, I initially came up with the idea for the album cover and then we all sat down and started pitching in ideas to develop it collectively. I also directed the bad machine video so they’re both black and white and operate in the same creative world. They’re not directly linked but it all goes down to the vibe of what the five of us wanted to do aesthetically for the album. That photoshoot for the cover was all five of us, at 4am in Reading, same with the Bad Machine video, we all worked together on it. It was just really fun, I’ve never enjoyed shooting a video that much ever I think. It was a bit stressful at times.

Henry, you’ve said when touring, new places are new starts, where do you want to start next?

Henry: We got to go to Japan and Australia this year, we’ve never been there before, but there’s a bunch of places around South-East Asia and South America. But to be honest, anywhere anyone will have us. There’s nowhere we haven't toured because we didn’t want to, it’s just being able to make it work. So if you're reading this and from a county we’ve never been to, tell us.

Interview & Photography by Murry Deaves

ALLEYWAYS | The Basement, York | Gig Review

When I arrived at The Basement, the location of Leeds-based band Alleyways headline gig, there was already a queue of eager young people forming. By the time the doors were opened the staircase leading down to the underground venue was full and excitement and anticipation was ripe in the air.

Once inside the venue and with a classic gig stamp upon my hand I headed to find somewhere to sit and set up. A rep for Chalkpit Records, who Alleyways have recently started working with, was handing out promotional stickers and another was there to film the evening’s events.

The first band on the brilliant local line-up was Silvertones who, despite having to deal with being one member down due to work commitments, got the evening off to an impressive start. Frontman and bassist Chester Wilkinson appeared to be in his element, performing with raw passion whilst still having a good time. It was clear to all that newest member Olly Chilton has fitted in seamlessly and the band shared multiple smiles, evidently enjoying their time on stage. Drummer Matt Craven also gave a great performance whilst superbly singing backing vocals and together the band put on a faultlessly solid show.

Second up was Follow The Giant who gave a gloriously energetic and sweaty performance. It felt as though they belonged in the dark underground venue with their indisputable sound and expressive playing. Frontman Jamie Collins did a terrific job of holding the audience’s attention with his vivid head banging and general bash-style playing of his bass.

Last, but by no means least, was the fabulous Alleyways. By this point in the night the audience had loosened up and were ready to dance along to some fantastic indie pop songs and the headliners certainly did not disappoint. Their laid back yet purposeful vibe definitely pleased the crowd and it was evident that they have put in the effort required to build a fanbase, with most people in the audience singing along and cheering eagerly at the announcement of songs. 

Frontman Dougie Turner was brilliant to watch; providing more than just the vocals with his marvelous dance moves and guitar and synth playing. Overall, the band put on a impeccably unified performance that, with the skillful playing required of their ace anthems and personal moments such as Dougie’s beer-swigging in-between singing, led to a tremendous end to a great night of awesome local music; something you can never quite beat.

For the full photo album click here

Review and photography by Molly Thompson