THUMPER have confirmed their 2020 UK tour, taking the sextet from Glasgow to Brighton throughout February and March.
Full dates are as follows:
24th February – Hug and Pint, Glasgow
25th February – Think Tank Underground, Newcastle
26th February – Oporto, Leeds
27th February – Night People, Manchester
28th February – Network 2, Sheffield
29th February – Dead Wax, Birmingham
3rd March – The Anvil, Bournemouth
4th March – The Crofters Rights, Bristol
5th March – The Islington, London
6th March – The Boileroom, Guildford
7th March – Patterns, Brighton
Following the organic buzz around shows at SXSW and two early singles for Council Records (Scalping, Talk Show) in “Clearly A Crisis” and “Fear My Society”, NYC’s The Wants return with new track “The Motor”, along with news of their much-awaited debut album release and a headline UK tour. “Container” is due March 17th and promises gloomy, intelligent post-punk that captures the darker elements of American society.
As The Wants wrapped up 2019 with their first UK headline tour dates, they begin their new year tipped ahead of 2020 by the likes of NME, DIY, Dork and more.
Where previous single “Fear My Society”’s foreboding exploration of human flaws drew airplay on daytime and evening BBC 6 Music shows, “The Motor” arrives on a rush of revved-up electronics and notably uneasy guitar and bass riffs, as guitarist and vocalist Madison Velding-VanDam explains:
“The track was initially intended as an instrumental, that we adapted over time to include vocals. Whenever we play live, The Motor always seemed to be the track with the most immediacy, which inspired us to think further about how we could elevate the track to more than just a live instrumental.
I first had the epiphany for the spoken word vocals that feature in “The Motor” whilst re-watching the introduction to one of my favourite movies, David Lynch’s “Lost Highway”. In it, racing pavement reveals only level white dotted lines shrouded in darkness as David Bowie croons his sinister, 90s industrial art-rock masterpiece, “I’m Deranged”. Taking elements from this, alongside a general feeling of unstoppable locomotion, we arrived at something that captures a mood somewhere between Cybotron’s “Cosmic Cars”, Kraftwerk’s “Autobahn”, and Nine Inch Nails’ “Closer”.”
Pre-order the album Container from the Council Records website HERE or via Bandcamp HERE.
Tickets are now on sale for The Wants’ upcoming Feb / March UK tour dates. See the band live at the following venues from next month. Tickets are available HERE.
Feb 26 – Bristol, The Lanes
Feb 27 – London, The Lexington
Feb 28 – Manchester, YES (Basement)
Feb 29 – Glasgow, The Poetry Club
Mar 1 – Leeds, Brudenell Social Club
Mar 2 – Birmingham, The Sunflower Lounge
Mar 4 – Brighton, The Hope & Ruin
More about “Container”
Container was recorded and produced by Madison Velding-VanDam and Jason Gates at HANJIN, their shipping container converted to studio in a Chinese factory parking lot, as well as respective home studios. The Wants slowly drafted the record over three years, starting with their more post-punk ideas and slowly mutating to include their more adventurous interests in techno, experimental electronic, and ambient music. The process was one of constantly re-imagining a tracks’ potential, generally leaving the melody and lyrics — or the core song as it could be played on an acoustic guitar — in tact, weaving new ideas in and around the initial structures. Entire songs and versions would be scrapped after realising that they didn’t fit the overall palette and album vision, which became clearer and clearer. That the album’s polished sound was captured in the band member’s respective bedrooms and rehearsal space is a testament to their attention to detail: Velding-VanDam is a seasoned bedroom pop auteur, and Gates has a wealth of studio experience (Debbie Harry, Angelo Badalamenti, Lykke Li, My Morning Jacket). They recruited pop and hip-hop engineer Jeremy Cimino (J. Cole, Pharrel) for his ability to give their rock instrumentation a fuller sound that explicitly differentiates it from the ubiquity of more genre-abiding contemporary indie recordings.
The Wants are:
Madison Velding-VanDam – guitar, vocals
Jason Gates – drums, electronics
Heather Elle – bass
Vukovi, Glasgow’s finest architects of infectious pop-infused high-energy rock return today with another taste of their forthcoming second album ‘Fall Better’, due to be released this month on January 24th through VKVI Records.
Exploding into 2020, and a new decade, with ‘Violent Minds’, the albums incendiary opening track, frontwomen Janine Shilstone states: “First track on the album, favourite track on the album for me. It’s also one of the darkest songs we’ve ever written lyrically. It’s has a deliberate schizophrenic vocal production over a rock Rumba beat and stupidly heavy guitars which sounds fucking terrible, but it really works so beautifully. This one for me is the daddy track (whatever that means)”
“The anime voice/hook you can hear is from a super limited-edition guitar pedal called Miku Stomp,” continues guitarist Hamish Reilly. “You can programme it to say phrases in Japanese through the guitar (wizardry shit, right?)”
Having spent the tail-end of 2019 touring through Europe with Londoners Counterfeit, Vukovi are primed and ready to detonate across the UK and have announced a special series of record shop in-store acoustic performances and full band headline shows, commencing in their home city of Glasgow on January 24th, to celebrate the release of ‘Fall Better’ that day.
Produced by Bruce Rintoul – in whose spare bedroom Janine recorded some of her vocals – ‘Fall Better’ provides a master class in powerful, melodic songwriting penned to a rock beat from which every trace of fat has been removed, set to pulsing rhythms that extend an invitation to the dance floor to all.
Janine Shilstone has a simple mission statement for her band’s music. “I want our songs to let people know that they’re not alone in feeling crazy,” she says. “I want to give people who feel that way a little bit of comfort. I want them to feel less alone. I want to let people know that it’s okay to be weird, and for them not to feel isolated because of it. Our fan base is a beautiful army of weirdos, and I want that to grow. I want them all to feel like they belong here.
“And I want to be a rock star,” she says, laughing.
Catch Vukovi live at the following special acoustic in-store performances and full-band headline dates in January 2020:
24/01 IN-STORE HMV in Glasgow *
24/01 LIVE Nice N Sleazy in Glasgow “
25/01 IN-STORE 2pm Assai in Dundee *
25/01 IN-STORE 2pm Assai in Edinburgh *
26/01 IN-STORE Beyond Vinyl in Newcastle *
27/01 LIVE Hyde Park Book Club in Leeds “
28/01 IN-STORE Rough Trade in Nottingham *
29/01 IN-STORE Badlands in Cheltenham *
29/01 LIVE The Frog & Fiddle in Cheltenham “
30/01 LIVE The Fighting Cocks in Kingston “
31/01 LIVE Asylum 2 in Birmingham “
1. 17359
2. Violet Minds
3. Aura
4. C.L.A.U.D.I.A
5. Behave
6. Play With Me Cos I Can Take Me
7. Verify Your Worth
8. All That Candy
9. I’m Sorry
10. Where Are You
11. White Lies
12. Run/Hide
Mush have shared their new single ‘Revising My Fee’ and details of their upcoming UK and European tour. Mush’s debut album ‘3D Routine’ is released 14 February 2020 via Memphis Industries.
Full of sinewy guitar lines and gang vocals, ‘Revising My Fee’ critiques and addresses the rise of the precariat, as lead-singer Dan Hyndman explains:
“This song a gripe about work/life balance and the generational divide. Income to rent ratios. And essentially just how financially poor the younger generation tend to be currently. Lots of debt, very little home ownership prospects. Lots of patronising chatter in the media about pre-made sandwiches and ready meals bankrupting a generation out of home ownership, ignoring the backdrop of a decade of austerity: ‘meal-deal critique, aspirational creed.’ The younger generations are now told they are not go getters the way the baby boomers, largely responsible for how shit things are now, supposedly were.”
Upcoming tour dates:
18 Feb – UK Nottingham, Rough Trade
19 Feb – UK Bristol, Rough Trade
20 Feb – UK London, Rough Trade East
07 Apr – FR Paris, Supersonic
08 Apr – FR Lyon, Le Sonic
10 Apr – FR Lille, Pzzle Festival @ Le Grand Mix
12 Apr – UK Ramsgate, Ramsgate Music Hall
13 Apr – UK Brighton, The Prince Albert
14 Apr – UK London, Sebright Arms
15 Apr – UK Bristol, The Lanes
16 Apr – UK Manchester, YES
17 Apr – UK Sheffield, Picture House Social
18 Apr – UK Newcastle, The Cumberland Arms
Mush ‘3D Routine’
1. Revising My Fee
2. Eat The Etiquette
3. Existential Dread
4. Coronation Chicken
5. Island Mentality
6. Fruits Of The Happening
7. Hey Gammon Head
8. 3D Routine
9. Gig Economy
10. Poverty Pornography
11. No Signal In The Paddock
12. Alternative Facts
The festival’s two co-headliners span musical generations; Dr. Feelgood and The Kris Barras Band, plus a rising star from across the channel and three other acts that are determined to leave their own mark on the UK music scene.
Formed on Canvey Island in Essex in the early 1970s, Dr. Feelgood remain one of the most popular and exciting live rhythm and blues acts in the world. The raw and uncompromising style of their performance resulted in the album Stupidity that immediately went to the number one position in the U.K. charts. They have enjoyed global success with a string of hit singles and continue to tour extensively around the World.
UK Guitarist Kris Barras has a genre-defying sound: a high-energy hybrid of no-nonsense Rock, Blues and Country. Winners of ‘Best New Band’ in the 2018 Planet Rock awards, the Kris Barras Band have become one of the UK’s fastest rising acts. Recently voted one of the ‘Top Blues Guitarists in the World’ (Music Radar) and winning the ‘Best Album’ accolade in the European Blues Awards, perhaps best demonstrates the band’s fluidity and appeal to fans of different genres.
The full line
Dr. Feelgood – one of Britain’s best loved R&B band, who continue to enthral audiences with the kind of “no-nonsense” live energy that first endeared Dr. Feelgood to a generation of music fans over forty years ago!
The Kris Barras Band – Kris has spent more than twenty years thrilling audiences around the globe playing live in a variety of acts and The Kris Barras Band have enjoyed a rapid rise to success since forming in 2015!
Félix Rabin – the French 23 year old singer-songwriter and guitarist was inspired by musicians like Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Pink Floyd; his style embodies these influences and is a must see with his band!
Zoë Schwarz Blue Commotion – the band creates a luxurious and irresistible sound, displaying artistic finesse with Zoë Schwarz’ dynamic and commanding vocal delivery is both eclectic and suave at the same time!
The Ryk Mead Band – blues has always had a deep influence on whatever type of material Ryk has played, although by playing many different styles of music, this is one Power Blues, Jazz, Rock Trio not to miss!
Jimmy Regal And The Royals – a howlin’ blues three piece harmonica, guitar, drums modelled after acts on the Fat Possum label such as RL Burnside, T Model Ford and in the tradition of Hound Dog Taylor and the like!
The Brudenell Social Club is a lively and fun loving venue that embraces music and art under a wide and diverse umbrella that has no boundaries. It is a community ‘non profitmaking’ venue, that holds charitable status, based in Leeds 6 and is owned by its members, run by its members, for its members. It is most famous for hosting secret gigs for bands like Franz Ferdinand and the Kaiser Chiefs. However, it has been a centrepiece of the Leeds music scene for a number of years, and hosts gigs most nights of the week, which are put on by a variety of local promoters
No need to worry about searching for food and drinks on the day either, there will be a range of alcoholic/non-alcoholic beverages, real ales available and a varied menu that should meet everyone’s taste!
Blackpool’s STRANGE BONES have released their video for new single NAPALM ÜBER ALLES today.
“Napalm is about our reliance on algorithmic happiness and the negative effects of building ourselves cyber space utopias in the palm of our hands, a contradictory escape from bleak realities. Take it as you want. Paradise napalm über alles. Back into your dream world with Alice” – Bobby Bentham, vocals
The track features on forthcoming EP BLITZ PART 2, due 28th February 2020. It succeeds Blitz Part 1, released earlier this year. This collection of tracks is a sonic hybrid of enormous punk and crushing electronica that takes the STRANGE BONES blueprint to new heights, and is nothing short of innovative madness.
Consisting of brothers Bobby (vocals, guitar), Jack (guitars) and Will Bentham (bass), and lifelong friend Stuart Newburn (drums). Strange Bones collectively grew up on an awe-inspiring diet of punk rock, with their parents being one of the first to film punk gigs to VHS tapes under the name Jettisoundz/Visionary (distributed by Rough Trade, and eventually bought out by Cherry Red records). Hypnotised by performances from the likes of Black Flag and UK Subs, the sense of community combined with blistering energy is something
Strange Bones endeavour to recreate at their notoriously ferocious live shows. Highlights include support to Frank Carter and the Rattlesnakes, Yonaka and Cabbage, alongside Reading and Leeds, Isle Of Wight, Download, TRNSMT and 2000 Trees.
“I grew up on everything from Black Flag to The Meteors – my parents saw to that. It was when I was leaving high school I began playing about with electronic music, mainly jungle and dubstep. I moved to Leeds a few years after that and started producing and DJing electronic music, and eventually started toying with the idea of mixing the punk with the electronic. It’s taken years to get here, but here we fucking go! I hate the phrase ‘guitar music. It’s not dead, its not breathing, its just fucking music. Everything that once was,
will be again, in one shape or form. Ever since I started writing music, I’ve always loved the idea of exploring every single back alley I could. A korg prodigy or a matchbox guitar… If I can get a mad sound out of it, I’m going to use it. Jungle to blues, acid to punk, its just fucking music” - Bobby Bentham, vocals
BLOODSPORTSLIVE DATES
23 Jan – The Waterfront, Norwich
24 Jan – The Venue, Derby
25 Jan – Belgrave Music Hall, Leeds
26 Jan – Phase One, Liverpool
28 Jan – The Moon, Cardiff
29 Jan – Cafe Totem, Sheffield
30 Jan – Think Tank, Newcastle
31 Jan – Beat Generator, Dundee
1 Feb – Base Camp, Middlesborough
2 Feb – Cafe Independent, Scunthorpe
4 Feb – The Cavern, Exeter
6 Feb – The Horn, St Albans
7 Feb – Sunbird Records, Darwen
8 Feb – The Sugarmill, Stoke-On-Trent
9 Feb – The Fulford Arms, York
Following a run of six singles in 2019, a series of riff-fuelled anarchy that perfectly encapsulated their year of mystique, ferocity and melancholic undertones, and the recent announcement of their annually curated RIFFFEST #2 one day festival, BROODERS have announced a winter tour for 2020.
JANUARY
Sat 25 LEEDS RIFFFEST #2 Belgrave Music Hall •
Wed 29 YORK Victoria Vaults ••
Thu 30 MANCHESTER Aatma ••
Fri 31 NOTTINGHAM Bodega
FEBRUARY
Sat 01 HULL Polar Bear ••
Fri 07 LONDON 229
• with Crows | Strange Bones | Calva Louise | Dead Naked Hippies | Dense | 99% Cobra
•• with Bloodhound | Faux Pas
With the roaring crowds of their ‘Shedcember’ UK tour still ringing in their ears, SHED SEVEN are delighted to announce plans for a huge summer show in Yorkshire in 2020.
On Saturday 15th August this year, York’s premier Britpop poster boys will be headlining a very special show at Doncaster Racecourse.
This unique show will invite audiences to enjoy an entire day of racing at one of the UK’s most prestigious arenas, with the added bonus of a full Shed Seven set late into the evening.
Rising to fame as one of the leading lights of the Britpop scene, some 30 years since their formation in York in 1990, Shed Seven have established themselves as one of the nation’s favourite alternative rock bands. Turning heads with the release of their classic debut album ‘Change Giver’ in 1994, the Rick Witter five-piece unfurled a flurry of smash hits that would come to define the period and amassed an impressive fifteen Top 40 singles and four Top 20 albums over the next 5 years.
After an extended hiatus in 2003, the Sheds surprised and delighted fans and critics alike as they returned with their first new studio album for 16 years: ‘Instant Pleasures’. Demonstrative of a band back at the top of their game and rippling with ideas once more, ‘Instant Pleasures’ delivered exactly what it said on the tin. Rightfully rewarded with a Top 10 UK chart position, rave reviews and national radio playlistings, the band are more in-demand than ever.
A hectic 2019 schedule saw them release their ‘Going For Gold’ greatest hits on gold-coloured vinyl for the first time, plus thrill audiences nationwide on their packed-out ‘Shedcember’ tour (an extensive tour of capacious venues that also included their first ever headline arena show at the Leeds First Direct Arena). Showing no signs of slowing the pace any time soon, the Sheds now look on to their huge Doncaster Racecourse performance in Summer 2020
With anthemic hits spanning three decades and energy in spades, few bands could be better suited to long summer evening show to a Yorkshire county crowd than Shed Seven. Currently celebrating the 25th anniversary of their first album release, expect a mix of Sheds classics including ‘She Left Me On Friday’, ‘Dolphin’, ‘Disco Down’, ‘High Hopes’, ‘Where Have You Been Tonight?’ and more, plus choice cuts from recent album ‘Instant Pleasures’, including fan favourites ‘Room In My House’ and ‘Better Days’.
Shed Seven – ‘Live After Racing’ @ Doncaster Racecourse, Yorkshire
Saturday 15th August 2020
Whether you’re a music fan, a racing fan or both, it’s horses for courses – ‘Live After Racing’ promises a unique day-out with something for everyone.
Following the release of their acclaimed UK top 10 album, Restless Minds, and being awarded the prestigious Global Artist Award at the CMA Awards earlier in 2019, country-pop duo Ward Thomas have announced an intimate acoustic tour for spring 2020, including shows in Bath, Leeds, Barrow, Lincoln, Leamington, Southend and Norwich.
The tour sees the twins – Catherine Ward Thomas and Lizzy Ward Thomas – take in an array of beautiful venues across the UK in a stripped back light, allowing them to showcase their incredible harmonies in an up close and personal setting. Across the dates the duo will play fan favourites from their debut album From Where We Stand, their chart-topping second album Cartwheels and 2019’s Restless Minds, alongside some brand-new tracks.
Dates as below. Tickets available from: seetickets.com
APRIL
Wed 29 BATH Forum
Thu 30 LEEDS City Varieties
MAY
Fri 01 BARROW Forum Theatre
Sat 02 LINCOLN Engine Shed
Wed 06 LEAMINGTON Assembly
Sun 10 SOUTHEND Palace Theatre
Mon 11 NORWICH Epic Studios
2019 has been a massive year for Ward Thomas, one which saw them touring Europe with Jack Savoretti, before joining him to sing a duet of The Killers’ Human at his sold-out Wembley Arena show. They also played a triumphant set at Isle of Wight Festival, supported David Gray across his Australian run and joined Brad Paisley on stage at London’s O2 Arena for Whiskey Lullaby, as well as, of course, releasing their third album Restless Minds.
The third release from Manchester Gutter Punks The Battery Farm – ‘Crude Oil Water’ – is mainly a bleak piece of a kind of post-punk sounding thing. I say mainly because it drops out from pounding drums and what I can only describe as squelching sounds to these beautiful soaring melodic sections that have kind of a ‘Low’ period Bowie feel. The pounding drums sections have something of, say, a Bauhaus feel although that elastic squelching sound isn’t, that’s more weird electronica post-punk. All I can say is that it reminds me of all sorts of post-punk/Gothic/DIY-ish music from my youth. And this is no bad thing. Musically it oozes dehumanisation and alienation, no that’s wrong, it just is that.
This song is truly fucking disturbing. Given that the band say that the song is ‘about dehumanization and the ease with which Human Beings objectify each other for entertainment and gratification, framed through the prism of someone watching strangers drown in a crude oil pit’ this was to be expected but what I didn’t expect was something this disturbing. It vies with music from Vukovar, a band whose music I find incredibly scary and disturbing.
It’s at this point I need to take a short time out from reviewing the single, and talk about the fact that being disturbed or scared by music isn’t a bad thing. These are emotions, emotions that are available to artists to provoke in us, in the same way as a song might make us happy or sad. Art, which music is, can do that. What makes this valid is when by doing this the artist is trying to make a point, which in the case of this song I think you’ll agree the band are doing.
This release makes me think ‘why in the hell have I never heard of this band before’, it’s brilliant. It’s disturbingly beautiful. It’s the sound of a band doing their own thing, and doing it incredibly well, doing it with a passion that comes through in the music.
Their previous two releases are more punky in sound than this, they do that sound in their own way too, so do check those out as well.
The info
The Battery Farm are a Gutter Punk four-piece from Manchester playing punishing, pulverising rock music brimming with pain and passion. The Battery Farm was formed in March 2019 by brothers Ben and Dominic Corry. It was formed as a cry of despair; a terrified and furious response to a world that rapidly seems to be going wrong. This is reflected in the sound of the band which is frantic, visceral and violent but also laced with beauty and melody. Their sound has been compared to bands like IDLES, PIL, Fugazi and Pere Ubu while maintaining something thrillingly real, original and human. They write about their selves and the world they see around them with guttural honesty and searing compassion.
They released their debut single ‘97/91’ in July 2019 to extremely positive reviews. The second single ‘I Am a Man’ followed to further acclaim with music blog Dreamin’ is Free calling it ‘a fitting anthem for our times’.
The band say ‘We are presenting something borne from personal experience that chimes with the difficulties and anxieties that a lot of people face today, and people are responding to it. Life’s a battery farm. It’s a sick, sick world’.
The Battery Farm are:
Ben Corry: Vocals/Guitar, Dominic Corry: Guitar, Paul Worrall: Bass, Sam Parkinson: Drums
Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are all @thebatteryfarm
21st November 2019 – Werkhaus, London w/ The Strawberries
7th December 2019 – Eagle Inn, Salford
28th December 2019 – Sound, Liverpool
1st February 2020 – Fuel, Manchester
22nd February 2020 – The Peer Hat, Manchester for Deco Records
29th Ferbuary 2020 – The Globe, Glossop
21st March 2020 – Night People, Manchester w/ The Empire Police
18th April 2020 – Ulltra Festival, Hull
JANUARY
The info