Telegram Live Review - Hare and Hounds, Birmingham

This piece originally featured on Little Indie Blogs. Click here to go to the original post.

When asked to whizz along to catch the glam-rock stompin' outfit that is London's Telegram, I have to admit going into this not knowing what to expect. However, if I felt like that going in, I left in no doubt about what I had just seen.

Thursday night at the Hare & Hounds in Kings Heath, saw the rather snug venue begin to fill up quite nicely as the four-piece piled onto its tiny stage. A roar of a riff became present as the band took on their opening song ‘Rule Number One’ with an aura of sheer confidence and presence the like of which one would expect from the likes of Telegram who have been strutting their stuff on stages for almost three years.

The catchy tunes felt well rehearsed and the band sounded tight as they were confidently led by charismatic frontman Matt Saunders. Charging from one psych-rock blinder to the next,  including recent single 'Taffy Come Home', hardly coming up for air. Whilst they definitely produced a unique psychedelic sound with a 70s vibe, there was also a comforting feeling of familiarity about them, perhaps in part due to Saunders' resemblance to a Welsh Brian Ferry.

The thing that caught my attention the most, however, was the way the songs had such a different feel to them, with their sound almost being like a drone with nothing too complex about each one. There's nothing wrong with a bit of simplicity sometimes and this just seemed to add to the appeal.

As they finished their over-too-soon set with an electrifying performance of 'Folly' - which wouldn't have sounded out of place on a Led Zep album - I walked out of the venue gig feeling completely overwhelmed, excited - and with a need to check out more of their music.

With their debut album 'Operator' just released, and US dates - including a showcase slot at SXSW in Texas next month - upcoming, you can only feel that this is a band now gathering momentum. Check them out if you haven't, you may well be - pleasantly - surprised.

Written by Rosie Mulhern

VITAMIN free in-store performance at Cow Birmingham

Photo taken by me

New indie-pop band from Leeds, VITAMIN have been visiting UK Cow Vintage stores within the past week and have been putting on free, intimate in-store performances. Last Wednesday the band made an appearance in the Birmingham Cow store so I decided to come along.

If you're new to this band, their sound consists of summery, up-beat vibes with their songs involving simple yet catchy lines and chirpy, looped synth rhythms. Each track inherits clever tempo changes throughout, creating an optimistic buildup shortly followed by a contagious and harmonious chorus.

Following support slots from bands such as Ratboy and Sundara Karma, the band have evidently established a fan base across the country with the impressive turnouts from their in-store appearances. Their short but energy fueled four track setlist consisted of both new and older releases, each one appreciated by the audience who stood in admiration. However, the stripped back feel of the show didn't seem to hold the band back as they were still able to create an impressive presence and were just as good to watch as they were to listen to. The band's liveliness and enthusiasm could not have been faulted as they managed to make the shop appear more like a music venue and created a unique vibe throughout the store.

Photo credit to Itunes

Once the performance was over, fans swarmed over to the rack of free VITAMIN t-shirts and bags for the band to sign whilst having a chat with the members and have photos taken. The band welcomed their fans with their friendly attitudes and welcomed a few familiar faces from attending their previous gigs.

The band's newest single - This Isn't Love, released earlier this month, cleverly entails their prominent theme of the band's successful delivery of euphoric feelings and colourful sounding riffs with snappy hooks - despite the opposing meaning within the lyrics. You can buy This Isn't Love by clicking HERE on Itunes or you can have a listen HERE first on YouTube.

Written by Rosie Mulhern

An Interview With Get Inuit

Photo cred - www.bittersweetsymphonies.co,uk

Get Inuit, an exciting, new, slightly heavier take on guitar-pop emerging from Kent, UK. The fourpiece are currently on their UK headline tour, have released two EP's and four singles and are already becoming the masters of catchy hooks and unmistakable riffs that will be left bouncing off the walls in your head for ages after listening to them. It's difficult to 'label' these guys or categorise them too much as although they would seem to fall under the dirty-pop genre, nothing compares to the unique and intriguing vocals of front man Jamie; however, if you're into the likes of Vampire Weekend then you're sure to like this band. I stuck around after my interview with these guys to catch their performance at The Sunflower Lounge and I was thoroughly impressed with their set. As each song begun, a feeling of unpredictability became apparent as each song was as refreshing as the other and no two songs could have been mistaken for eachother; the only thing you're sure of when watching these guys is that it's gonna be powerful hit after hit. Although the band have only been together for two years, I was impressed with how refined and tight they sounded on stage. My favourite song played was without a doubt 'Barbiturates' as it entailed a sense of bravery with constant adrenaline fuelled build ups throughout which lead to a powerful note from Jamie and the occasional hearty scream now and then. I would certainly recommend seeing this band live and I'm placing my bets now that they'll be big this year. Read my interview with the band below:


What made you want to start writing music?
Jamie: I wasn't really good at anything else. I didn't want to go to college or uni and this was the only thing I was bothered about. And so, what feels like an eternity later, here we are now.

So I've just seen on twitter today that you've been announced as a support act for Vant, how do you guys feel about that?
Jamie: Brilliant! We've been gunning for some more support tours. The last one we did was with Broken Hands which was such a fun time. We just really want to get our name out there. We really love Vant at the moment and there's a big hype with them and we're all buzzing; like today - we were singing their songs in the van. It's fun to play with bands like them that are on the rise but it's even better to play with bands that you actually really enjoy and we've listened to Vant a lot, way before any talk of touring together came about so it's really cool. We've also been listening to Tigercub, we're playing one show with them but I really like them, too.

Is there anyone who you'd like to support or have as a support for your own shows?
Jamie: The only people who we really wanted to support us are Fish Tank so we asked them and now they're supporting us on this tour. There's also a band called Skies  who are also from Kent, we kind of keep it quite local as it's mainly Kent bands. However, I've seen that Pixies have been announced to play Brixton so I'm gunning for that, I bet every other guitar band in England is probably going to wanna do the same but yeah.

The name - Get Inuit. That's quite an unusual one, where did that come from?
Jamie: Yeah it is quite strange. Oliver came up with it randomly and it made us laugh and I guess that's it really. We knew from the start that it was a bit of a stupid name, no offence Oliver, but if you type it into Google it's the first thing that comes up so that's good.

Photo cred - www.bbc.co.uk

Your newest release - 'My Oh My' follows your up-beat, fast paced style that you're known for. What was the process behind that?
Jamie: That's quite an odd one because it's actually the first ever Get Inuit song. Me and Ollie worked on that about two and a half years ago but we never did anything with it. We just didn't feel like it suited our sound but then we thought - well why don't we make it fit our sound? So we re-recorded it, added a theremin and it fits perfectly now with us.
James: The idea of that song is that we were doing a 60's Beach Boys/ The Beatles thing so we wanted to try and explore that a bit. I mean, we try but me and Rob don't quite have the voice like Jamie does.
Jamie: I have the most feminine, high pitched voice so to try and harmonise with these two is pretty tough. They can do low ones but when I tell Rob that he has to go higher than me you can just hear him sigh. It's quite a good one to play live, too as it gets the people going.

Do you have a favourite song to play live?
Jamie: We have a song called Barbiturates which I wouldn't say was my favourite but it's always the one that seems to be the most well recieved, it always causes a reaction, weather it's good or bad. It's one that I get excited about because when we get to the end of it we know weather we've had a good show or not judging by the audience's reaction because it's either really good or a bit, scared? because it's quite a strange song but it'll most likely be on our album.

Obviously your setlist is changing all the time due to new releases but is there anything that makes a song stand out in particular for you to want to include it on there?
Jamie: I think it'll often jump out at us in the rehearsal room because obviously we rehearse the songs a lot before playing them live and it becomes pretty clear. But sometimes it's hard to say 'that's gonna be brilliant' or 'we need to work on that a lot' like I don't think there's ever a right or wrong answer with that one because a lot of the time, the ones we really struggle with are worth it at the end but some of them you instantly know I think. Don't you think it's weird as well how bands are always the most excited about playing new songs? I mean so am I but the crowds never really seem to. It's almost like a weird juxtaposition by playing a brand new song because you know you'll enjoy it but they won't so it's like - are you doing it for yourself or are you doing it for them?

Is there anything you'd like people to be able to take away with them after listening to your music?
Jamie: Hopefully, guitar music is still alive and we're not playing a retro genre. I think it's coming back though with bands like Vant and Spring King, definitely. But I think for people to realise that you don't have to be loving music from the 90's to love this kind of music. Obviously there's influences there but that we're not old relics I guess - even though we might look like it, but not the lead singer cos he moisturises of course.
(enter random discussion about moisturisers these days and weather or not they protect the bunny rabbits)

So, I heard you briefly mention the album earlier, what can you tell me about that?
Jamie: It's still very early days for us but we were very fortunate enough to recieve a grant from the PRS Foundation which funded us so we could record our album this year. We're taking things very slowly because we don't want to rush into things; which obviously is an important thing cos there's no point in releasing an album if no one's gonna hear it. after this tour we're going to have a couple of days practice to start getting some ideas together and then go into recording. It's very exciting but I'm terrified. I've never done anything like this before in my life. I had to quit my job at Christmas so I could do this so it's like I'm constantly questioning weather or not the songs are good enough - if I'm not talking then that's what I'm doing.

Other than the album, what do you have planned after this?
James: We're going to Texas
Jamie: Oh yeah! We're going to SXSW which we only found out about last week, which is...
James: Pretty exciting
Jamie: ... Terrifying!
James: There's a lot of great new bands doing it so it's gonna be fun cos we've never really been abroad before as a band.
Jamie: I've never been to America before, I've barely been outside of the UK so I'm a bit nervous but James is gonna show me the ropes.
James: Always look the other way when crossing the road

Finally, where would be your dream place to play?
James: I'd love to do a tour of America, that'd be amazing
Jamie: I'd like to tour Japan because that seems huge. It's such a long way away though but I've always wanted to go.

You can purchase Get Inuit's newest single - My Oh My by clicking HERE
Or have a listen to them on Soundcloud by clicking HERE

Written by Rosie Mulhern.

An Interview With Palm Honey

Last night I went to see Reading new-comers Palm Honey at The Sunflower Lounge in Birmingham. I first heard of this band after coming across their extremely catchy track 'Bewitched' on Soundcloud and liking what I heard. The band themselves were really accommodating and just generally a nice group of guys. Their live performance was truly refreshing and I would recommend going to see these guys live if you get the chance with all aspects of their show pulling together feelings of euphoria and tranquility leaving you in a hallucinogenic state of dreariness yet still feeling as though you want to dance. I managed to sit down with the band about their show to talk all things music from Bowie, pushing boundaries, ambitions and a load more. Have a read below on what the band had to say.


So, to introduce people to the band, how did you guys get together?

Joe: I knew Ayden from school and Seb and Harry knew each other from school too. We were all on the same music course at college and we all got on and so we just decided to jam and it came together. We've been together for almost two years now but have only taken it seriously for a year. For the first year we were finding our feet and rehearsing and writing a lot - just basically doing as many gigs as we could to get more practice and we definitely feel more comfortable now.

Obviously there's been the sad news about David Bowie, did that have any effect on the band at all?

Joe: I was pretty fucking upset, it's a real shame. We were listening to the album Heroes on the way here and it's just a fucking brilliant album. The most interesting thing is just the scope of the people that are mourning him; I mean you're getting everyone from working class men in their fifties to trans-women and just so many people. He had such a massive influence on most people, so of course to an extent it had a bit of an effect.
Seb: He was pretty quirky wasn't he? I think he made a lot of people more comfortable with themselves
Joe: I was reading an article with Bradford Cox, one of my musical heroes from a band called Deerhunters, that he wrote for Pitchfork and he has a physical syndrome that effects him quite a lot and he was saying that if it wasn't for David Bowie then he would have never started in music in the first place and that he would have never of felt comfortable enough, because of the way he was, to put his music out there if it wasn't for him. I was also listening to an interview that Bowie did for MTV at the times when racism was a big issue and asked why they weren't playing any black music and it really stumped the interviewer. I think overall it's a massive loss.

Would you say he had an influence on your music?

Seb: I think indirectly he did
Ayden: Artistically I think so. Not so much that you could listen to one of our songs and be like "Oh yeah I can definitely hear Bowie in this" but I think more so where we are as artists. Also, when you think about breaking boundaries and you think "I can't do that" or "I should't do that because it wont please people" with him it was just a case of him doing whatever the fuck he wanted.
Joe: And I'm sure he's influenced so many artists that we deem as more direct influences to us.

On the topic of musical influences, who would you say are your main ones?

Joe: Mutually, the more modern, psychedelia sort of artists like Tame Impala, Pond, MGMT. We all listen to different stuff along the alternative music spectrum. Seb's more into the whole 90's and shoegazing thing and Ayden likes 2Pac. But at the minute I've been listening to a lot of Brian Eno and Northern soul stuff that our manager brought to my attention that I'd never even thought of listening to before so they're constantly evolving really. All four of us just appreciate music as a whole and we're so interested in everything in every aspect.
Ayden: Joe you're like one of those people who you ask what they listen to and they say "everything" you know, like "yeah man I just love sound"

As you're from Reading, is there anything locally that's inspired you? such as Reading fest itself or even local bands that have come out of there.

Joe: There's a band called Tripwires and they're fucking sick. They were around when I was about 16 and they made me really want to be a band. They're how I started to get into different music like shoegazing as apposed to metal which is what I used to listen to. Also a band called Peers which are now named The Amazons they made me want to be in a band too.
Joe: All Reading bands are doing their own thing. In the press at the minute they've got the whole idea of a 'Reading Scene' but if you actually endevour to listen to the artist as an individual first, you'd see that everyone is different. I think it's important for people to not start defining you as one big scene because you don't want to be overshadowed by someone else as everyone has their own talented stuff.

As you're doing a bit of a mini tour/run of shows right now, how's that been? is there anywhere you'd like to tour?

Joe: Yeah, it's not really a tour cos that would imply that we're being all cool going all over the place in a tour bus with like PlayStations built into the back of the seats but it's been really cool as we love playing live and Southampton was sick. It's so cool that people are asking us to play in different places like I've never even been to Birmingham before. I'd like to go play Pitchfork Festival actually and just Paris in general and Japan. I wanna play everywhere actually and just get our music out to everyone.
Ayden: My mum even upped my rent 'cos she saw all this cool stuff that we had on tour and it's like we're not playing Wembley or anything we're still just a bunch of normal guys trying to fit all our stuff into the back of a van. I love playing live but it's the bit after as well when you get to meet really cool people. But it would be sick to be able to play in Amsterdam.
Harry: I wanna go back to Festival Number 6 in Wales; the place in Wales where it is doesn't look real, it looks a bit like a fairy-tale - it's a really cool place.

I think that it's good that you guys seem like a band that aren't afraid to say they wanna play everywhere and be as big as they can be.

Joe: Yeah, I think it's so important for bands these days to not play happy families with the media. That's not what art is about. If you think of some of the biggest bands, they didn't give a shit and non of them kept quiet about being ambitious. It's important to care about where you're going and just use the platforms that are available to you.

Exactly! just like Bowie pushing boundaries. 

So, what was the process behind your seven minute song Bewitched? 

Harry: It was a bit of a project I started when I was bored in rehearsals messing with the keyboard and then everyone else just stood up and started trying to make the other instruments fit into it.
Joe: Harry came up with the main riff and then Seb just came up with this really fucking good bass riff. It was the first song we made with synths in it. I really love the fact that that was the song we put out cos for someone to take an interest in us after listening to the entire 7 minutes of that song just goes to show the type of people that really wanna get involved with your music and support you. It's nice to see that people were interested enough to listen to the whole thing and be into it. We added the long instrumental bit at the end a while after and we're always adding new bits into the songs we have on our set in our live shows and learning from it.
Harry: That end part where it goes slow, I listen to it now and think "Oh man, I've got ideas that would work so well in there" but I think the best songs do keep developing like that.

Where would you say your sound is going in terms of your album? I know how broadly the term 'psychedelic' is used these days but would you say it's similar to the stuff you've given out so far?

Joe: It's important not to be defined by one specific thing. I don't think that it's a conscious thought when we start a song for us to sound psychedelic. We all put our own individual take on the music we make and it just ends up that way. We want to broaden out a bit more musically but I think that just seems to be our natural sound so far when we all play together. but the term Psychedelic to me is something that describes really strong emotions and it's a lot bigger than how it's sometimes spoken about and used.
Ayden: I don't think we'll be sounding this way forever. It's never permanent and we want our sound to grow as we grow as artists. Fuck knows where we're going but I don't think we'll just be tied down to one sound.

Is there a message that you try to put across within your music?

Joe: I think everything we put out comes from a period of transitioning and going from like childhood to adulthood and dealing with the sorts of things that are thrown at you along the way. It's always going to be very reflective of where we are as people at the time. I think it's never one thing.
Ayden: I see that with a lot of bands they think it just has to be one thing about what everything is about but fuck that I want to be about everything.
Joe: I'd love to have someone grow up with our stuff. Going back to Bowie, I read an article where they said that there was a different Bowie album for every stage he went through and I'd love that.

How would you define 'making it as a band?'

Ayden: I think as I said, being a part of someones life and growing up with them through your music and just having an impact on someone. I would love for someone to look back at a period in their life and immediately think back to our music because I do that with times that I've been through with certain artists music. When you live in a world with people around you constantly building relationships it's so fucking easy to feel lonely and isolated but the thing with fanbases is that you're never really alone with music and that's how I want people to feel about us.
Seb: I feel like for me as well it's being happy with what we put out and we can listen to it is also why I like making music
Joe: It goes much bigger than just playing big shows.

Last question, what is the one song you wish you would've written?

Joe: All Day And All Of The Night by The Kinks. I would have fucking loved to have written that. That was an absolute game changer. Can you imagine writing that riff? I think there's just too many though. Whenever I listen to music I always just imagine myself playing it.
Ayden: If I really enjoy a song and it finishes I'll be like ah, I'm actually really upset now cos I didn't do that.
Harry: The Sound Of Someone You Love Who's Going Away And It Doesn't Matter - Penguin Cafe Orchestra and Air - La Femme D'argent.


Written by Rosie Mulhern

New music for 2016

Through every month, I am always stumbling upon new artists and talent and I feel like December's finds have become some of my favourites yet; as waves of exciting new sounds seemed to have been springing up left, right and centre last month almost as if wanting to subtly get themselves fresh in people's minds and become dark horses for 2016's new indie-rock music scene. So, I present to you five new finds to kick off your 2016 in the right way.

photo credit to www.pitchfork.com

Sunflower Bean - Wall Watcher 
(click HERE to listen)

This addictive, fast paced track drags you in immediately with it's ominous sounding punchy eruption of guitar solos accompanied by intriguing falsetto-like vocals from lead vocalist Julia Cumming. Brooklyn based new comers Sunflower Bean have been on the rise due to leaving their stamp on 2015 to say the least after supporting the likes of Tame Impala, Fat White Family and Diiv to name a few.
The band have a tour coming up soon in February so head over to their Facebook page here for more info if you're interested.

Vinyl Staircase - Halcyon
(click HERE to listen)

The 17 year old four piece from Surrey consisting of two brothers and two best friends have delivered a feel-good, spaced out, indie-rock tune that does in fact live up to its name with a rather undisturbed feel to it. The band already have the support of other similar bands on the rise such as Swim Deep and Wolf Alice.
They have a few shows lined up with The Vryll Society this month, head over to their face book page here for details.

Palm Honey - Bewitched
(click HERE to listen)

New Reading four piece Palm Honey's Bewitched is a hypnotic take to psychedelic music, keeping you enticed throughout the six minute long track as if letting you trip your way through a spiritual vortex whilst being met with warping sounds mixed with occasional bursts of groovy guitar solos breaking you out of your trance.
The band are due to begin a tour this weekend kicking off in Southampton. Check out the band's Facebook page here for details.

photo credit to credit to Haize on Soundcloud

Haize - Solar
(click HERE to listen)

Promising Reading newbies Haize came to my attention after I discovered them when they supported Sundara Karma on their tour (whom are also from Reading.) Solar is a mellow, feel good track that's enough to make you want to sit back with your eyes closed and dance at the same time with streaks of a euphoric feeling running though it.
I'm looking forward to hearing more material from these guys this year as Solar has set them off on a hopeful start to say the least.

photo credit to White Room on Facebook

White Room - You'll See 
(click HERE to listen)

There's a laid back and nonchalantly cool yet intense feel to this post Arctic Monkey's meets The Black Keys tune. This is the kind of song that appears unpredictable, entailing all aspects of rock music from psychedelia to punk rock to indie rock, adding a whole new edge to the new music of 2016 scene.
This four piece from Brighton have already played shows with Paul Weller of The Jam and have the likes of Miles Kane behind them, it would seem it can only get better for the band in 2016.

Written by Rosie Mulhern

Slaves at O2 Institute Birmingham - gig review

Last Wednesday, I spontaneously went to go and see Slaves at the O2 Institute in Birmingham after randomly bumping into Laurie from the band in town and being added to the guest list earlier that day due to the kindness of Laurie himself.

It's been a manic year filled with gigs and music highlights, however, Wednesday night with these guys left 2015 on a memorable note to say the least.

The garage punk Kent duo's music seems to personally target their fans with an anger fuelled projection of intense noise demanding to be heard accompanying upfront lyrics, as if lead vocalist Isaac is hollering orders that any listener would struggle to disagree with. Due to their rather confrontational vibe and urgent sound, the duo have been known to split opinions but that's a sure sign of a good band.

It truly was a chaotic night, with balcony ticket holders watching in awe from above as the mosh pit below them erupted around the entirety of the room; the floor shaking as if struggling to cater for the typical temperament of Slaves' fans.

Each song had the kind of energy that was almost hard to keep up with, if you blinked then you'd miss it; with Isaac's comic yet straight forward explanations behind some of their songs in between acting as pit stops and giving the crowd mere moments to recuperate before bracing themselves for the next hit. I personally enjoyed hearing about how 'Where's Your Car Debbie?" came about in particular, with the explanation consisting of the pair of them walking a girl back to her car and being scared of being attacked by a rumoured big foot lurking around in the night. Well known single 'The Hunter' entailed the kind of reaction that's rare to see these days with upcoming bands, with the almost natural response casting an animal like hunger within the crowd - a refreshing moment to be a part of. Determination and energy levels rose with Isaac regularly enforcing that 'Birmingham is always one of the best if not the best crowds to play', the rowdy nature of the audience only magnifying with Laurie making it his mission to successfully crowd surf from the front of the room all the way to the sound guy and back again.

The whole night was truly something special to be a part of and I'll be sure to catch Slaves again as soon as I can next year.

The Magic Gang in Birmingham - gig review

Photo credit to Consequence Of Sound

Last night wasn't your typical, boring Monday evening with The Magic Gang in town. With their chilled out, indie, LA surf vibes I was surprised to hear that this quartet came from Brighton. With almost 200,000 listens collectively on Soundcloud across their other equally as infectious tunes, comparisons have been made to other bands such as Peace and Swim Deep, due to touring with them not so long ago and capturing a similar group of fans. 

Photo credit to me

Mayhem, in the most fashionable way possible, was inevitable for this band due to the box like boiler room of The Sunflower Lounge; movement was unavoidable due to the size of the place, even for the guys who like to stand at the back with a beer nodding for the entirety of a show. There was no playing safe at this gig; anywhere you stood you'd soon find yourself being hurtled around in a sea of excitable fans reciting every word of their snappy, memorable lyrics as if naturally rolling off the tongue without thought. (and possibly due to the sheer noise of the band making the room feel slightly unstable.)

The band were fully going for it, with the exception of having to make little announcements after songs telling the audience to 'be careful' after floods of crowd surfers were ungracefully thrown across the room, practically hitting their heads of the ceiling and kicking all of the stage lights on their way around; and the occasional wave of fans spilling face first onto the stage with the band lifting them up and bidding them farewell again into the mosh pit mid song. 

Photo credit to me

Sweat soaked members of the audience called for a predictable stage invasion to the Wheatus infused sounds of unmistakably contagious tracks - 'No Fun' and 'Alright', setting the scene for something in between wanting to effortlessly sway and plod along to their laid back riffs to the kind of hyped up, crazed energy that their gigs are known for. Their new song - 'She Doesn't See' gave us a possible teaser for their long awaited debut album that I hope will be coming out soon, encouraging just as much energy and uncontrollable singalongs as some of their older material. The set finished with a deafening orchestra of the crowd screaming the lyrics to 'Shallow' louder than the band themselves.
You can listen to their new, two day old song - 'She Doesn't See' on Soundcloud HERE

Written by Rosie Mulhern.