The Heartbreaks are on their way. To me, they are on the fast track to becoming the next great English indie guitar band. They are that good. They’ve got those fresh young faces that should drive the girls nuts. They write songs that make you smile and hug yourself while you sing out loud. Granted they’ve got a long way to go before they reach the heights of a certain fellow Mancunian foursome who defined indie in the 1980s but it must be said that The Heartbreaks not only stumbled onto the winning formula, they’re doing their best to try to improve upon it. Their familiar yet most welcome brand of indie pop is so innocent and so pure, one simply can’t help but fall in love. Not convinced? Not too long ago, I posted about the band’s new singleI Didn’t Think It Would Hurt To Think Of You and deemed it as another winner for the band. Now you can watch the promotional film for the song and maybe all it will take is just another listen to knock some sense into your noggin and come to the realisation that this band is indeed for real. Come on. You can do it.
I’ve posted about the wonderful Manchester trio Performance pretty steadily the last few months. I believe this lot are onto something and I firmly stand behind them in their quest to restore intelligently crafted pop to the top of the pops. This is exactly why I deem it necessary to post a banging reinterpretation of the new single Unconsoled reworked by house maestro Tom Staar who has previously done work for the likes of Basement Jaxx and Fenech-Soler, to name a couple. Turn out the lights, close your eyes and bounce to this.
It shouldn’t be too much longer now. The 30th of August brings about the release of Man Alive, the debut record from Manchester quartet Everything Everything. I can’t get enough of their everything-but-the-kitchen-sink sound as it’s beyond clever and offers something different than the other flavours of pop currently bandied about on the blogs or heard on the radio. Above is the video for new single My Kz, Ur BF (My Keys, Your Boyfriend, if you hadn’t yet figured it out). I’ve loved this track since I first heard it a few months back and properly introduced to this band’s wacky world. While I do love this video, I prefer the original version to this one. I don’t really see the need to have done a new version when the first was quite visually appealing and did the song justice in its own right. Judge for yourself.
Pretty snazzy sleeve for the record as well, wouldn’t you say?
When I first posted about Manchester’s The Heartbreaks, their single Liar, My Dear was just making its way through the blog circuit. The band’s familiar yet fresh sound was only beginning to melt the hearts of listeners here in the States in much the same way it already had begun in their native England. Fast forward just a few short months and the band has achieved a healthy bit of notoriety thanks to the strength of their live show and of course, the tunes. Their new single I Didn’t Think It Would Hurt To Think Of You is another winner with a chorus that sends your head spiralling and leaves you certain you were born in the wrong decade. Two singles in and it’s become pretty plain that the Heartbreaks certainly have found their own recipe for crafting lovely tunes that tug on your heartstrings. This gift shall serve them well as they forge a path for themselves through the jungles of the UK pop charts and beyond. Good one, lads!
Oh Manchester…so much to answer for. So many great bands creating such gorgeous and infinitely vital music that birthed a generation of dancing misfits, navel-gazing misanthropes and 24 hour party people. While the new breed of bands like Delphic, Everything Everything, Hurts, The Courteeners stake their own claim, it’s always nice to hear something new from the old guard. In this case, we have the return of the Charlatans. It’s hard to believe that it’s been twenty years since their debut record, 1990’s Some Friendly, came out. Who knew that as time passed and the dust settled this quintet would still be here releasing quality records and inspiring new bands to continue what they’ve started. The band’s forthcoming new record entitled Who We Touch drops on the 14th of September and will be preceded by a single called Love Is Ending. Let me tell you that it is an absolute must that you go out and see the band live as they truly are one of the finer bands you will see. They’ll be hitting the States in September so heed my advice and go!
Atlanta, GA The Loft (September 7)
Chapel Hill, NC Cat’s Cradle (8)
Washington, DC Black Cat (9)
Boston, MA Royale (10)
Hoboken, NJ Maxwell’s (11) New York, NY Bowery Ballroom (13)
Brooklyn, NY Music Hall Of Williamsburg (14)
Philadelphia, PA Johnny Brenda’s (15)
Montreal, QC Cabaret (16)
Toronto, ON Lee’s Palace (17)
Chicago, IL Double Door (18)
San Francisco, CA Bimbo’s (20)
Costa Mesa, CA Detroit Bar (21)
Los Angeles, CA El Rey (22)
It’s time for another set of questions! This time we have the incomparable Joe Stretch. Singer. Songwriter. Novelist. The straw that stirs the drink that is the band Performance!
B - Welcome to Suede-land! It’s Performance! How the heck are you, friends?
J -I’m sitting on a sofa in Devon. It’s a shame because the south always brings me down.
B – You have a cracking new single called The Living which I featured here not too long ago and a new record on the horizon. How does it feel to be back?
J - I always feel ashamed whether I’m back or not back. Shame is inside Performance like the treat inside an easter egg. There is no real pop without shame. The essence of pop is the camouflaging of shame.
B - You are now a trio following the amicable departure of keyboard player, Billie Marsden. Does that change affect the dynamic of the band and the music? J - There’s a little bit more room in every situation we’re in. The obligatory band orgies are more problematic. If feminism is a question of aesthetics, we’ve lost our paintbrush.
B - Is Manchester really Wonderland? A place where bands seemingly sprout from everywhere. Is it possible to not be conditioned and influenced by who has come before?
J – Manchester is bricks and glass. It’s probably better than where you live but probably only just. Unless you live in Rome, which I’ve always thought was beautiful.
B - Who would be your dream collaboration?
J -We’d like to collaborate with N-Dubz. We see ourselves as the indie N-Dubz. It’s a match made in Whitehaven.
6. Joe Stretch, being that you’ve had two of your books published, how does writing books differ from songwriting in your mind?
Writing a book takes about two years, whereas songs take, realistically, about an hour.
B - Who are some of your favourite acts going at the moment?
J - Joe Cross works with some good acts – Sound of Arrows, Hurts, Heartbreaks. I wouldn’t know an act, new or otherwise, if it played a private gig for me. Are Mumford and Sons new? They’re fucking shit.
B - What’s more important as far as getting the word out about the band? BBC Radio One or Number One on The Hype Machine Charts?
J – Not got a clue. I make music to please my parents.
B - If you weren’t involved in Performance, you would be doing…? J- I think I’d like in Rome and watch a bit more television.
B - What is it about English pop that just seems…better? J -That’s a good question. I think about this a lot. I thought maybe it could be because we have a more intimate relationship with the english language. We’re more aware of its nuances and little histories and pop is about trying to make new popular meanings. Sometimes foreigners fluke it a bit, but not often. Also pop is closely connected to humour, even depressing pop like ours or The Smiths. And England is the only country who can make other countries laugh.
B - Why should we be afraid of David Cameron?
J - Because his face catches the sun like the lid of a pencil tin.
“i fly through the walls
all pieces colliding and i
see raymond apart
he’s a frowning now, wagging a
finger at me
“boy!” his knees bend the other way and
“boy! boy!” are you guys together honey?
“b..b..boy!” oh but now i can’t find his torso, mmhmmhmm i
guess you’re seperated ooh,
Monica i just wanna know…ooh”
I think I’m really near the point where I am simply going to have to have a special weekly feature on Manchester bands. I don’t know what it is but it’s plain to see that Manchester is back in a big way. The amount of quality new bands coming out of that town is reminiscent of the late 70s – early 80s where it seemed every group of kids within a ten mile radius were picking up guitars and drums and forming bands to avoid having to actually find work.
I’d hazard a guess that by this point, you know the names I’ve been giddy over in the last year and change so there’s no need in my repeating them here. Allow me to throw another band into the mix. Here comes Everything Everything! Their debut recordis due for release on the 14th of June via Geffen and it’s definitely a must-have in my book thanks to fantastic songs like My Keys, Your Boyfriend featured above. While tracks like Suffragette Suffragette or Photoshop Handsome remind me a bit of The Futureheads, this song here is much more polished and to me represents the band’s calling card and heralds their true potential. I’ve a feeling that we will continue to hear more from these guys as the year soldiers on.
What did you do over summer vacation? You remember those days in grade school? Your first writing assignment was to tell the class what you did over your annual sabbatical away from academia. It may have been a trip to your aunt’s house a couple of states away. A trip to Disney World, perhaps? Well, for Manchester trio Performance, their three year break from the limelight included a couple of well-received novels written by singer Joe Stretch, a side-project for multi-instrumental Joe Cross and guitarist Laura Marsden called Kiss In Cities and a bit of additional side work for Cross including co-writing a couple of songs for Hurts and helping out The Sound Of Arrows. As you can see, these three have been busy!
Lucky for us, Performance have reconvened and the new single entitled The Living is ready to be showcased to the masses. A delectable new wave track with a fist-pumping chorus, The Living is the perfect pick-me-up to start the day. A three and a half minute pop manifesto whose call to the dance floor you simply cannot and will not ignore. The single is out on the 26th of April via Too Much Information with the full length out later this year. Recommended.
That’s it. I give up. I think that at this point, one could come to one of two conclusions reading this blog since the very beginning. A. I’m a hopeless, devoted Anglophile (which would be true) or B. there ought to be laws against the city of Manchester because it’s simply criminal the amount of talent one city manages to produce every week, it seems. It puts the rest of the world to shame! I’m a New York guy through and through but man…what is the secret ingredient and how can the rest of us get a few scoops?
Today we’re talking about The Heartbreaks and their lovely debut single called Liar, My Dear. A thrilling slice of old meets new resulting in a delectable pop concoction surely to turn a few heads in a couple of months with any luck and some help from fellow bloggers who actually know their stuff. What is always fun about songs such as these is that while a great hook is enough to blow your hair back, it’s also the echo of familiarity that when applied right serves to enhance the appreciation. In this case while the music appears to be rooted in the early 90s Britpop sound, one can also hear faint traces of Elvis Costello in the vocal delivery and a Roland Orzabal from Tears For Fears in the timbre. A song so earnest in its accessibility and a band that doesn’t give too much away in terms of their musical upbringing rarely does wrong. Being from Manchester is always an unfair advantage, i might add.
If I haven’t said it once, I must have said it a thousand times to the point of exhaustion that the amount of talent that has come bursting out of Manchester,England in comparison to just about anywhere else is simply unfair. Further evidence of this comes from yet another new band brimming with promise called Ten Bears who arrive with their debut single called Braces.
My predilection towards anything Manchester aside, I have to say I’m really liking this track. I’m reading that the band could be compared favourably to MGMT. I get where that is coming from but I would never impugn the talent of any band by associating them with that lot. Braces is a quick study in fluff and fuzz augmented by an indie-poptacular chorus that is sure to wrap its melodic arms around your heart. Word on the street is that the band did pretty well for themselves at this year’s SXSW festival. What do you think, Suede-heads? Do we give Ten Bears a go or what?
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