59 – TINS ON TOAST Launch Party featuring ‘Tribes’ and ‘Dexters’
‘Tins on Toast’ is a brand new Club Night at the Purple Turtle (Camden) on Monday nights featuring the best up and coming bands from across the country and Resident DJs: Steve Harris & Liam Young (XFM), Ed Wilder (Club NME) and Bandangos.
Here are some images from the ‘Tins on Toast’ Launch Party featuring ‘Dexters’ and an exclusive one-off acoustic set by ‘Tribes’ (as a 3-piece), who have been enjoying the success of their new album ‘Baby’.
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Dexters:
“Groups of good time boys and girls, musicians and renegades, vampires and vagabonds throughout the country are rooted in the same, unenviable and rudimentary limbo, frantically scheming, delicately lock-picking and audaciously plotting for the next strike for gold. Dexters have the master keys to that lock.”
(Info obtained from Dexter’s facebook page here)
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Tribes:
Tribes’ new album ‘Baby’ can be purchased from itunes here
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40 – ‘Fjokra’, ‘Houdini Dax’ and ‘Brave Yesterday’
Fjokra:
“Earnest singer songwritery balladeering? NO!
Retro revivalists? NO!
‘Hip’, urban funkateers? NO!
‘Queen on crack’? Perhaps. Chuck in a liberal dose of Mike Patton/Mr Bungle, Todd Rundgren, Prince, Rachmaninoff interludes and metal riffs the size of skyscrapers and you’re halfway to describing the musical smorgasbord that makes up Fjokra’s music. Oh, and there’s some Latin grooves and some monstrous Dubstep chucked in as well. Five guys, two girls and a lot of facepaint.”
(Quote obtained from the band’s website)
Houdini Dax:
“Summer 2011. And the nippers are still making good honest rock ’n’ roll. Take Cardiff’s Houdini Dax, who have an average age of 19. What are they doing digesting records, writing songs and rehearsing when they could be playing Xbox or texting friends from the back of the bus? Weren’t “the kids” supposed to have tired of analogous music? Wasn’t the house music craze of the late ’80s supposed to have killed rock? Heck, thinking about it, weren’t the synth bands of over 20 years ago viewed as the only way forward?
No my dear music lovers, valves are not dead, rock ’n’ roll is blossoming and “the kids are alright” (as Pete Townshend so neatly put it 46 years ago). The Noughties has seen great success for young bands. The Libertines and then Arctic Monkeys paved the way post-Brit Pop and now still barely out of the shadows come Houdini Dax, your soon to be favourite new band.
Hearing ‘The Magicians’ for the first time it’s impossible not to think of Alex Turner and his band in their early stages. Jack Butler’s edgy vocals, sharp wordplay and the stop-start, spiky New Wave tendency of the playing certainly share similarities with early Arctic Monkeys, but it’s not what defines them. A video of a live acoustic performance for Huw Stephens’ Swn Festival ‘Swn is Sound’ video series of ‘Struggling In The Sand’ show Houdini Dax playing in a stripped back setting with acoustic guitar, bass, brushed drums and harmonies to the fore. It’s tight, honed and timeless. Yes, they have major talent. They can sing splendidly, they throw in some deft bridges and could very well sound like one of those great old acts. Yet they don’t! And when quizzed about their favourite bands, ’60s touchstones (The Beatles, The Kinks, The Sonics, The Stooges) meet latter day acts (Blur and Supergrass) and new bands (The Black Keys, The Raconteurs and White Denim). Yet You Belong To Dax Darling sounds nothing like any of them. It’s the sound of teenagers discovering what they can do.
“Recording the album was amazing,” Jack reveals. “Having Rich from The Method [another of the See Monkey Do Monkey coterie] as producer was special. We’re friends, so he won’t shy away with his opinions. And he always got the best out of us.” Mentioning how the production had elements of ’60s guitar heroics, post-punk rhythms and an element of My Bloody Valentine about it, Jack beamed back at me as if their mission statement had been achieved.”I’m glad you hear those things clashing,” he eagerly states “because we love that retro ’60s style, but it’s been done so much before. It’s important for us to mix older styles with newer ones… We were aiming for a really strong debut that doesn’t really let up in energy and excitement,” closes Jack. “We tried to capture this by recording in a really live way.”
And live and exciting is the order for the day for the teenage world view of Houdini Dax. Their second album may well feature strings, ballads and mellotrons but for now let the revolution begin as these youngsters play it their own way with what they have learnt from Hendrix, Syd, Gaz and co. They should be famous! ”
(Quote obtained from the band’s official website)
Brave Yesterday:
www.myspace.com/braveyesterdaymusic
“We are Brave Yesterday, a rock band from Jersey. Not the one immortalized in rock mythology by the Boss. The other Jersey, the one in the Channel. Knowing this, you could also be forgiven for thinking that we are nearly French. We’re not. We’re nearly Canadian-ish.
Our frontman Nutter’s authentic North American Rawk voice gives us our mid-Atlantic twang. Mention us in the same breath as Rival Schools, Jimmy Eat World and 30 Seconds To Mars. We’re cool with that.”
(Quote obtained from the band’s facebook page)
29 – ‘The Touch’, ‘Vetoes’, ‘The Recusants’ and ‘Pharaohs From The Grave’
The Touch:
“The Touch initially made a name for themselves with their party inducing Dance-Punk sets around Adelaide in 2008. Since then the band has expanded their sound adding ethereal vocal hooks, multi-layerd washes of synth and intricate guitar interplay whilst loosing none of their energetic delivery. The band has played numerous high profile Australian festivals (Big Day Out, Parklife and One Movement) and supported bands like Phoenix, Ladyhawke, Miami Horror, The Swiss and many more. ”
(Quote obtained from the band’s facebook page)
Check out The Touch‘s music video for ‘SHOT’:
Vetoes:
(No biography info available on the artists’ website)
The Recusants:
(No biography info available on the artists’ website)
Pharaohs From The Grave:
www.myspace.com/pharaohsfromthegrave
“An alternative punk rock band of London musicians Emily Wolf O, Katharine Kibela, UJ and Par Mahn. Formed in 2009. Set to release their EP ‘Machines’ in June 2011.”
28 – ‘Mishima’, ‘Les Aus’, ‘Junkyard Choir’ and ‘Allies’
Mishima:
(No biography info available on the artist’s website)
Les Aus:
(No biography info available on the artist’s website)
Junkyard Choir:
“Junkyard Choir are a London-based alternative rock band formed in 2006, whose original lineup had previously played together under the name “Dirt”. Currently comprising of guitarist and lead singer Mark Woods, bassist Kevin Hiscox and drummer Tom Herbert, the band are known for their unique blend of rock, blues, punk and waltz, having been described as “swampy rock’n’roll” [1], “gypsy punk” [2] and “mariachi-esque polka-rock”.[3] Frontman Mark Woods was, for three years (2003-2006), one of the main vocalists in Do Me Bad Things.”
(Quote obtained from the band’s facebook page)
Allies:
“Formed by Brothers Andrew and Steve Murphy, and joined by Drummer Alex Ribchester and Bassist Simon Walsh, Allies are a modern Alternative Rock Band combining Big Riffs, intense melodies and classic song writing, to produce powerful and at times “haunting rock” . ”
(Quote obtained from the band’s facebook page)
16 – ‘The Dallas Guild’, ‘The Jons’, ‘Lennox’ and ‘Raven Beats Crow’
The Dallas Guild:
www.myspace.com/thedallasguild
“The Dallas Guild was one of the few unsigned bands to soundtrack a major TV ad campaign with their self-released single Men in White Coats…
Bridging an unlikely prog/pop highway of Pink Floyd’s 70s soundscape psychedelia and ELO’s punchy synth drenched pop songs, The Dallas Guild have just put the finishing
touches to their debut album ”Hello Darkness” and recently returned from supporting MGMT and LCD Soundsystem in Israel.”
(biography info obtained from The Dallas Guild’s facebook page).
The Dallas Guild performing in Israel whilst supporting MGMT and LCD Soundsystem:
The Jons:
“The Jons exploded onto the scene in 2009 and have steadily been gaining fans and throwing parties ever since.
Their first single ‘Walk Towards The People’ was released by Pirates Press Records in time for their storming performance at the final of the 2010 Live and Unsigned Competition, where they were crowned the runners up, beating over 10,000 other musicians to the honour. Competition judge Noddy Holder described the boys as ‘a band you’d want at your party’.”
(Biography Info obtained from The Jon’s Official facebook page).
Lennox:
“Female fronted rock with balls of steel and hearts of gold, Lennox formed only in June 2010 from the remains of 2 local bands – but quickly turned the new line-up into something very special…
Lennox went to Surrey in October to record their 4 track EP with Matt O’Grady, producer for You Me At Six, The Blackout and Deaf Havana to name a few and have come back to their hometown fighting to get noticed and spread the word that Lennox have arrived, and they won’t be going anywhere!”
(Biography Info obtained from Lennox’s Official facebook page).
Raven Beats Crow:
www.myspace.com/ravenbeatscrow
London Unsigned Music 