YAK + Sunshine Frisbee Laserbeam. Live at The Castle And Falcon (30/3/19) Review

The local opener for this Yak show was Sunshine Frisbee Laserbeam (6.4/10). A band who are currently at the forefront of the Birmingham scene, having released their last album 'Blackout Cowboy' to acclaim, after releasing a wealth of Bandcamp material over the years before it. Despite having been a part of the Birmingham scene for some time, this show supporting Yak was surprisingly enough my first time seeing them. Unsurprisingly Sunshine Frisbee Laserbeam are a pretty solid band live. Their psych- rock sounding tight and focused. Blacking out the lights in time with the song 'Blackout Cowboy' was also a nice touch.

Since bursting onto the scene a few years back with their debut LP 'Alas Salvation' YAK have established themselves as one of the UK's best live bands and a strong part of the psych rock revival. Following a few years where Yak travelled across the world and Singer-guitarist Oli Burslem briefly ended up living in the back of a van they're back with the new album 'Pursuit of Momentary Happiness'. On the Friday night I saw them, the tiny Castle and Falcon venue was packed full of punters, watching an empty stage as abstract electronic noise filled the room. Once a white clad Oli and the rest of Yak hit the stage the young lads at the front started moshing and didn't stop till the end of the show, not long after that Oli decided to join them, not bothered at all by the fact that he was still playing his guitar. For a brief moment he fell right down in front of me, but was up before I could help him. 

Musically Yak are a bit hard to put into a simple box. Their newer material takes cues from Spiritualised, yet their stage show is more reminiscent of the feral energy you'd find at a King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard show. Oli plays guitar much like his label boss and guitar hero Jack White, stripping back all pretension, and distorting blues rock riffs into something far more heavy. In terms of songwriting Yak can be incredibly simplistic. Like when Oli spent a whole track deadpan singing 'He's got the whole world in his hands' down a loudspeaker. All this comes backed by the krautrock style rhythms of drummer and bassist Elliot Rawson and Andy Jones. Yak also took some time to slow things down a little bit and air some newer songs and also rant monologues about modern life down the loudspeaker, but the next burst of noise was never too far away. 

Almost as if to play a little prank on the audience after the supposed last song Yak simply walked off stage and let the lights and music back on, before walking back on stage a minute later to play more tunes without a word. A strange way to do an encore, but Yak are never ones to do things the normal way. 

(8.8)

Links:

www.yakband.co.uk/

https://www.facebook.com/sunshinefrisbeelaserbeam

https://www.facebook.com/CastleandFalcon/

Broken Lungs - Cultural Decay EP review.

Cultural Decay is the second EP from Brummie 'Loud Fast noise band' Broken Lungs. A band who emerged from the ashes of various brummie acts such as Crime And Punishment 2011 and Someone Said Fire. This is the second EP from the band formerly known as Ghostwriter and the opening track 'Sick to death' kicks off with a bang. Singer Joe Jones' vocals kick in a screamed '1,2.3,4,... GO!" with a huge guitar riff and pounding bass and drums. Its reminiscent of bands such as Gallows, or Every Time I Die, who in the 2000's blurred the lines between punk and metal. Guitarist Nik fills the track with enough quick fire riffs to keep the song interesting, adding a breakdown into the last minute with some nice snares from drummer Dan. What sets Broken Lungs apart from several other bands who can do this sort of thing however is Joe Jones lyrics. Broken Lungs do not appear to be a political band but their songs will be instantly relatable to anyone who's actually paid attention to current events in the past 5 years. Broken Lungs attack the stereotyped idea of the narcissistic millennial with glee, literally screaming 'if I had a penny for every slur I hear about millennial's I could rent a better world'
'Armed the teeth' keeps in a similar vein, with a similar mix of riffs and breakdowns, although the lyrics take a more poetic turn, opening with the line 'feeble hands meet stronger minds, lapping at the fangs the tides they rise'. Whatever any of this means is a bit hard to decipher than the straightforward anger of 'Sick to death'. Closing track 'Baloons in Catacombs' has a few old school heavy metal elements and ditches the obscure lyrics for nihilistic sloganeering, 'I've got all my eggs in the same casket, the whole of humanity is on my blacklist'. Broken Lungs rehearsed and wrote together as a side project a long time before they emerged with EP's such as this and it shows. The end result shows a band who have perfected their sound. It's the anger of punk meeting the aggression of heavy metal. My only real criticism is that these three songs all follow a similar formula. This is fine for an EP but I'm not sure how it would translate into an album. Broken Lungs have skipped the rough, experimental stage that most bands put out on their second EP's and have already arrived at the finished product. I feel that they have missed an opportunity to experiment with new ideas and sounds. Yet if it's loud, fast hardcore noise you're after then This EP comes highly recommended.

https://brokenlungsuk.bandcamp.com/album/cultural-decay

The Best Albums of February 2019

Better Oblivion Community Centre is the debut collaborative album from Pheobe Bridgers and Connor Oberst. The latter a long standing indie rock veteran and former singer of Bright Eyes. The former, is a rising star. Pheobe Bridgers' debut LP 'Stranger in the alps is a masterpiece of melancholy, confessional Alt-Folk. This collaborative album may have been slightly overshadowed by Pheobe Bridgers' allegations against her former boyfriend Ryan Adams. The nature of the relationship was detailed in uncomfortably honest songs such as 'Motion Sickness' on her debut. BOCC finds Pheobe moving on from her past and finding the perfect musical partner with Connor Obserst. The two span several genres and styles throughout this album, from synthpop to grungey indie rock and stripped back folk. Despite Connor's status Pheobe emerges as the real star, weaving beautifully nostalgic stories to match their experimentation.
Check out - Forest Lawn 

Andy Burrows & Matt Haig - Reasons to Stay Alive 
Matt Haig's book 'Reasons To Stay Alive' is one of my all time favourite books. It has helped me through many a difficult period and i feel is an essential resource for anyone who has or wants to understand mental health and the stigma that surrounds it. Part memoir, self help book and surprisingly funny and light hearted throughout. It is essential reading. This album is a collaboration with Andy Burrows. Who for better or worse is the perfect person to bring Matt's memoirs to life. The sentimentality of Matt's writing works better in novels than in music. Andy Burrows, musical accompaniment is generally lacking in any real edge or definable style. Yet as a reminder to find joy in the smaller things in life,  'Reason's to Stay Alive' is still worth a listen,
Check out - Hero

I also Enjoyed
Julia Jacklin - Crushing
Drenge - Strange Creatures.
Sleaford Mods - Eton Alive

Interview with Broken Lungs.

Broken Lungs are a new Birmingham based hardcore band. Mixing metal vocals into riff heavy melodic rock songs and taking inspiration from bands such as Cancer Bats, Every Time I die, Converge and While She Sleeps. After being impressed with their first ever show I decided to have a chat with them in the Subside smoking area. First I got to know all the band members names (Nikolas - Guitar, Dan - Drums, Alex - Bass, Joe - Vocals) as well as the fact that their lockup is called Janice.

Nick: We like to give our lock-up a girls name

BT: It’s a bit like In the great escape where the tunnels are named Tom, Dick and Harry

Joe: she isn’t clean though, she is a bit filthy at the moment

BT: If you could write a song for anyone who would it be?

Dan: I’d quite to write a song for Frank Carter And the rattlesnakes, that’d be cool or someone like Every Time I Die

Alex: If they were still around it would be Ghost of a Thousand.  If we could write a song for them,  that would be fantastic, Rest in peace

Nick: Massively underrated that band. we all tend to like bands that are quite niche. Who never really got there but stayed at a certain level. Underground bands, that’s what we’re all into really. me and Dan were playing in quite metal bands, quite ‘techy bands’ and this is the exact opposite of that. We just want to write good riffs and jump around. We wanted to write something that we could get into ourselves.

Dan: … something Joe can roll around on the floor too.  I’d like to have a go (at writing) I’ve got bits and pieces written on my phone. I’d like to do a collaboration. I’d like to write lyrics, but  It would have to be something everyone agreed on.

Nick: we just try to write as a team don’t we? Someone will have an idea or someone might pick up on something while jamming in between songs and band practises

Alex: what I will say is that our music is relatively simple but it does take a while to write it. We like to take our time to piece it all together.

Dan: it’s all about the context and how it all works together rather than the complexity of a single riff.

Alex: We try to write songs that are following some kind of structure but go on a tangent every now and then.  I don’t think you can pick out any of our songs and it’s just verse-chorus-verse chorus- breakdown. That’s just kind of how it’s kind of evolved.

At this point Vultures’ soundcheck becomes to noisy to talk over so the interview ends and we go check out more punk rock noise. 

  
www.facebook.com/brokenlungsuk

It's high time for Sam Fender. The Hypersonic rise of a new millennial hero.

Who the heck is this Sam Fender kid? is what I asked myself a few months back when I saw the name doing rounds. Initially I was a bit sceptical seeing this kid who i had no previous knowledge of getting the chance to play on Later.. sell out his UK tours and have his EP constantly promoted to me on my Twitter timeline. Yet after seeing some positive murmurs on the AF Gang group page* I decided to give him a go. I was pleasantly surprised to find that his debut 'Dead Boys' EP is a rather brilliant collection of rock songs. Not another bearded guy hiding behind a keyboard or a sad girl playing a piano. The fact that he recently won a Brit Award only seems stranger. The critics that chose the likes of James Bay, Emelie Sande and Sam Smith as the next big things actually chose a guy making rock music to join those lofty ranks. Listening back to the 'Dead Boys' EP It's obvious that he's living up to the hype, with a small set of sharp indie rock songs, that comment on the suicide epidemic (Dead Boys), celebrity culture (Poundshop Kardashians) and small town life. Not only is he writing great songs but he also has a fair bit to say. So when Annie Mac announced that his track 'Hypsersonic Missiles' was her Hottest track in the world'. I was expecting to be disappointing. Will this be the slump that follows the initial promise? thankfully I couldn't be more wrong. 'Hypersonic Missiles' is evidence that Sam is Tyneside's answer to Bruce Springsteen. An anthemic wide screen rock n roll song which perfectly captures what it feels like to be a millennial. In his interview with Annie Mac, Sam stated that the song was written from the point of view of an imagined character and inspired by news reports. Yet it's hard to not instantly relate to lines such as  "We're probably due another war with all this ire, I'm not smart enough to change a thing, I've no answers, only questions, don't you ask a thing". Even the chorus rings true with dark despair as Sam sings "Oh, silver tongue suits and cartoons, they rule my world... it's a high time for hypersonic missiles... And when the bombs drop, darling, can you say that you've lived your life?" and then the sax solo kicks in. It's got the whooaooahh.. sing along parts, even that twinkly background noise that is present in many Springsteen songs. Put simply, Sam Fender is living up to the hype. 

Much like The 1975's recent masterpiece 'Love it if we made it', 'Hypersonic Missiles' revives the sound of 80's pop but also the paranoid mood of that era. We live in strange and difficult times and with 'Hypersonic Missles' Sam Fender has delivered a song that will help define the decade. A cry for help that demands to be heard again and again and again....

*Online community of IDLES fans