It might be Bank Holiday Monday but we’ve still clocked in at God Is In The TV Towers to bring you Tracks of the Week this morning. These need to be bigguns to get us out of bed as it’s been a heavy couple of days. Bring on the tunes and the Alka-Seltzer.
Los Blancos – Kareem Abdul Jabbar / Chwaraewr Gorau (Yr Ail Dim) (Libertino)
Why we love it: There’s something just so damn likeable about Los Blancos and their songs, managing to sound so effortless and casual but driven and heartfelt at precisely the same time. They’re back with a double A-side, and sport – watching it, anyway – seems to have been on their minds. ‘Kareem Abdul Jabbar’ is an affaectionate nod to the basketball legend and good guy; listening to it we dream of finding ourselves driving around in a convertible with the top down on a sunny day. It’s so – feelgood.
“I had been listening a lot to Jefferson Airplane, Hendrix and Neil Young, and had just re-watched ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’ and was trying to create a kind of 1970’s California vibe (I’m not sure if that comes through, but i liked the result nonetheless).‘ – Dewi Jones (vocals, bass).
‘Chwaraewr Gorau (Yr Ail Dim)’ brings us back to base, this tribute of sorts to the triers of the world giving former Swansea City player Nick Cusack a solid mention there. Loving the handclaps and classic Los Blancos guitars on this one.
‘(It) was written before lockdown and takes influence from artists such as Stephen Malkmus and Twin Peaks. Both have been a favourite for the band since we began. It started out as a rough Demo and it was built on during recording sessions over lockdown. The song is a portrayal of someone who’s a slacker/nearly man, who can’t quite catch a break.’ – Gwyn Rosser (vocals, guitar).
The band are currently working on a second album, a follow up to 2019’s ‘Sbwriel Gwyn’. (Cath Holland)
Lowertown – Bucktooth
Why We Love It: because Olivia and Avsha make brilliantly lo-fi wonky pop that burrows irresistibly into your psyche and hooks in with buckets full of charm that will remove your socks. This slice, the first from their debut LP due out on 21st October, carries on where the likes of ‘Seaface’ and ‘Debris’ left off on The Gaping Mouth EP out last year, but with a bigger production value that doesn’t detract from the chaos the bubble away underneath all Lowertown songs, threatening to come to the surface and reek havoc but is kept at bay by some benevolent force, or perhaps Olivia and Avsha’s design. That’s probably more likely.
Olivia says about the track “I was really into Johnny Cash’s At Folsom Prison album and wanted to write a cheeky, narrative song similar to ‘Cocaine Blues’. A bucktooth cowboy with his crew of troublemaker bandits kept popping into my head. The song started as a silly story but ended up being thematically tied with some of the far-right extremism that was happening in America.” (Jim Auton)
Bugeye – Summer In The City
Why We Love It: because Bugeye are the epitome of positive summer vibes. The sun may be shining a bit too much threatening to set the world on fire and we’re in the middle of a two person battle to allow only two hundred thousand people to elect our new Prime Minister, and there’s still a war in Europe and cost of living is about to cripple the country, but still Angela and the gang can find something to be happy about and write a pop banger.
Sprightly keys and big bass greet you, guitars taking a bit of a back seat, this is quite electronic pop but they still rumble underneath almost giving this track a sinister undertone, and of course the lyrics bare this out, appearing to reference a meeting with someone they wish they hadn’t because they were a bit messed up and vulnerable. “Really nice to meet you/mines a Gin ‘n’ Toxic/You’ve got a lot of baggage…..I need a distraction.” (Jim Auton)
Jake Whiskin Ft Lizzie Reid – Drive You Home
Why We Love It: because it’s a really clever, beautiful and brittle song built around only a few notes, with two delicate voices providing all the flourishes and doing all the work. Lizzie Reid has been mentioned in these pages quite often because she has one of the most incredible voices in the scene at the moment, but Jake Whiskin is a new name, but his voice is reminiscent of Conor Oberst and this has the feel of Bright Eyes I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning.
Jake said about the song “’Drive You Home’ is a song about a relationship that’s on its last legs and plays out over a firework display whilst you internalise how much you’ve grown apart over the years. I pretty much wrote the whole song around the lyric “I will drive you out your mind and then I’ll drive you home“. It always felt like a duet to me so we got Lizzie Reid on board who is obviously amazing and she just took it to a whole new place.” (Jim Auton)
Tenci – Two Cups
Why We Love It: Tenci are bandleader Jess Shoman, saxophonist Curtis Oren, Izzy Reidy (aka Izzy True) on bass guitar, and drummer Joseph Farago (aka Joey Nebulous). Following their highly acclaimed 2020 debut album, My Heart is an Open Field, the Chicago-based band will release its much anticipated follow-up A Swollen River, A Well Overflowing on the 4th of November this year via Keeled Scales. In advance of the new album, Tenci have shared the record’s lead single ‘Two Cups’ accompanied by a video directed by John TerEick.
‘Two Cups’ emerges slowly out of the ether before gathering a delightfully galloping momentum over which the elasticity of Jess Shoman’s voice just stretches, occasionally punctuated by the glorious shrill of her guitar. It all makes for a remarkably refreshing sound and promises much for the forthcoming album. (Simon Godley)
Jaws the Shark – Destroy the World
Why We Love It – Jaws The Shark is the solo project of London-based musician Olly Bailey. He has released his new single ‘Destroy the World’ (featuring. Dinosaur Pile-Up) via So Recordings (Deaf Havana, Enter Shikari, Placebo). This is an angry track, full of frustration and disgust at the state of the nation. The alt-rocker has produced a track heavy with reverbing guitar and vocals which spit out the vitriol at our world today and the power-brokers. Jaws the Shark is now signed to So Recordings and has a second EP in the works.
Speaking ahead of the track release, Olly said:“‘Destroy The World’ is a song about how there has been a significant shift in the mood of the planet in recent times, in the age of the billionaire. The saying used to be ‘Save the world, get the girl’, but now in the current climate, it seems that the more of an arsehole you are, the more you seem to get rewarded for it. The world is run by only a handful of powerful people, and the decisions that they make largely only benefit themselves or those in similar positions of power.”
Of their collaboration on this track Matt Bigland from Dinosaur Pile-up says:“Olly first played me the demo of ‘Destroy the World’ sat around my kitchen table. It reminded me of a kind of punk Weezer vibe, which I obviously loved. Then when I heard the finished recorded version a couple of weeks later I was blown away. It sounded awesome. Olly said why don’t I drop a verse on it and I immediately said hell yeah why not. And that’s basically it. It’s cool when your best buds start a band and it rips!” (Julia Mason)
Shady Baby – Lonely Town
Why We Love It: Brighton band Shady Baby can be heard letting rip on their second single ‘Lonely Town‘. Not holding back this gallops along at some pace. With added cowbells as well as frantic guitars and pounding drums it’s a thunderous track full of energy. The howling vocals as the track progresses reminds of a pack of wild wolves howling at the moon. The 4-piece are on Nice Swan Records, home to the likes of Sprints, Sports Team and English Teacher. Shady Baby work with Brighton-based producer Theo Verney (English Teacher, FEET, FUR, Egyptian Blue, TRAAMS etc) and looking at the genre of the bands he has worked with, you just know this is not going to be a track full of melancholy but quite the opposite.
Expanding on the tracks themes frontman Sam Leaver said the following: “Lonely Town is about the creeping sense that you’re becoming detached from yourself and the people around you, whilst trying to keep a lid on it and act normal.“
Shady Baby have released ‘Lonely Town’ as a double AA 7″vinyl with their debut single ‘Come To Life’ available to buy now through Nice Swan Records. (Julia Mason)
