EAT ME, Waco, Limiter, Pinky, Crime and Punishment 2011, Live at subside 29/3/17. Review

While the crowds were lining up at the academy and the institute I was on my way to a free show at Subside to see brummie 'grime-core' bruisers Crime and Punishment 2011 (7.2/10) (Who I interviewed after the show). Their last show (supporting the brilliant welsh pop punk group Junior) was significant as it was both the last show they played with the MC Glitch (who is now embarking on a solo career as J-Dead) and also the first set with their new drummer, Sam. This show at Subside was CPK's first full set with Sam as a small but appreciative crowd came over to see them play. While there were some issues with sound quality and Dan Carter now has to rap a mix of both his own bars and Jake's on the older songs, this seemed to almost work to their advantage, sounding more punk than ever before. Sam's drumming helped flesh out some of the older songs, while the newer tunes are dark grime flavoured bangers that bode well for the bands forthcoming début album.

Next up was the local duo P I N K Y (6.4) who like contemporaries such as Basement or other local groups like Bathtub seem to exist in a sort of odd middle ground between modern day pop punk and 90's grunge. Their lo-fi sound is stripped back to just vocals, drums and guitar. Although the guitar is soaked in noise from several effects pedals, and frontman Joel Price vocals flit between howling angst and cool nonchalance. Pinky are releasing a new EP soon which will definitely be worth checking out.

Bristol's Limiter (6.8) were the first of the two bands to appear on stage tonight who had travelled throughout the whole 'Bloody Norah Tour-ah' supporting Eat Me. When people talk about 'real emo'  I assume that they're talking about bands such as Limiter, who take cues from bands such as Brand new and mix heavy riffs, clean vocals and sweet guitar melodies together. Their set went down pretty well with the crowd loving their songs between the odd Gordon Ramsay baiting on-stage banter.

EAT ME's label buddies and tour mates Waco (8) were absolutely fantastic. Mixing unashamedly old school rock with a more modern punk rock style vibe. Their whole attitude is based on peace and love as well as loving in the moment. Rocking out in paisley patterns and Hawaiian shirts and throwing out all sort of rock star poses. Their singer looks as if he's walked straight out of 1973 and dropped plenty of casual hippie- style advice throughout the set. Telling people to live in the moment and inviting audience members to talk about conspiracy theories afterwards as well as and how the Birmingham crowd had 'kind faces and smiling eyes'. Waco have got loads of energy and plenty of musical chops, they are far too good to be written off as just another retro rock band. Put simply, Waco are a band who know how to party.

While most bands start to sound more polished over time 'the violent Hanson', EAT ME (8) defy convention by still being as raw and scrappy as they can on their third EP 'Melon Enema'. Eat me mix pop punk with math rock. So alongside the self depreciating lyrics and sing-along choruses are all sort of odd time signatures and guitar solos. They play pop punk with an almost jazz style abandoning of the rules. None of their songs seem to conform to any real structure. While their music might sound a bit of a mess at first listen in truth it takes a lot of skill for a band to sound as off the wall and impulsive as Eat Me do. Their set was loads of fun and afterwards I bought the vinyl copy of their new EP and they gave the CD's of the last two for free, thanks guys!

Links:
https://crimepunishment2011.bandcamp.com/
https://pinkyukband.bandcamp.com/releases
www.facebook.com/pg/limiteruk
http://www.wacoband.co.uk/
https://www.facebook.com/eatmetheband/
https://www.vennrecords.com

Junior, Live at The Sunflower Lounge 16/3/17. Review.

In a recent interview with Loud and Quiet magazine Savages' Jenny Beth made the point that 'Somehow it's okay to go to a show, see a band, drink a beer and walk home and that's it - I don't understand that.' While Jenny might be talking more about the idea of challenging an audience,  which she has done with her band, it's also a band's duty to entertain. Especially on a Thursday night in Birmingham. So thank fuck for bands like Junior (8/10).  While most bands would be rightfully pissed off at travelling all the way across the valleys just to play a show with a broken amp. Junior took to the challenge beautifully with their singer-bassist and drummer playing requests at random from whatever people shouted at them using one bass note. The best of which was the sing-along to Smash Mouth's hit 'All star' (requested by me).
Another highlight was the limbo championships. While the band played, audience members were invited to try their skills under the rope. Crime and Punishment 2011's Jake was the winner while Smart Casual's drummer Talbot fell straight on his arse. 'Limbo championship winner' t shirts can be bought from their merch table alongside more funky tie-dye shirts. Audience interaction seems to be a common theme at Junior shows, with band members playing in the middle of the crowd and kids crowd-surfing through the tiny venue.
All joke's aside though, when their kit works Junior are a fantastic live band, their take on pop-punk is infectiously joyful and packed full of heavy riffs and guitar solo's as well as the occasional bit of PSB style sampling. Junior are a tight live band and have clearly honed their musical skills on the road. While the rest of the world has moved on to depressed lean sipping rappers, Junior and fellow South Wales based punks 'Who Saves The Hero?', are keeping the spirit of 2003 and a completely non-ironic love of pop-punk alive.

Links:
https://musicofjunior.bandcamp.com/
www.facebook.com/pg/musicofjunior

Supports: http://burminum.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/crime-and-punishment-2011-bathtub.html

Crime and punishment 2011, Bathtub, Straight for the Sun. Live review 16/3/17

While I may have missed Proud Ember's set I did manage to get to The Sunflower lounge to see Straight for the sun (6/10). Who faced with every bands worst nightmare, a show with their keyboard player and drummer missing, played a set of their songs stripped back to just two electric guitars and vocals. Yet they took to the challenge brilliantly, filling the set with lots of light hearted banter and editing their songs to suit their jangly take on indie and emo. The ballad 'Broken heart surgery' was a highlight as it proved that even without the extra instrumentation the band's vocals and guitar melodies are impressive enough.
After having seen Bathtub (6) about 3 times before it's a bit strange that it's only this time around that I've started to like them. Probably because this set At the Sunflower Lounge was one of their best. A powerful mix of pop punk and grunge, delivered with passion and a great little anti-Trump rant, "fuck sexism, fuck racism, fuck homophobia, fuck transphobia.."
While I have seen Brummie 'Grime-core' lads Crime and Punishment 2011 (7.6) many times tonight's set was something special as it marked Jake aka Glitch's last ever show with the band, as he departs to pursue a solo career as J-Dead. The first half of the set saw the band running through all their usual set-list, and playing favourites such as 'Bodybags' which had it's very last play, the furious call to arms' 'Rucksack' and the trap flavoured 'paralysed'. CPK have become so confident on stage that rather than just Joey Sniper screaming while Glitch and Dan Carter share bars, that they're all pretty much shouting on top of each other, creating a cacophony of noise over Jason's wall of beats and guitar samples. Joey Sniper got on stage and screamed from on top of the bar and staircase. While Dan jumped about spitting bars. After performing the moody 'There's a reason storms are named after people', Glitch left the stage and CPK's new drummer Sam, (who also played drums for Bathtub earlier on) joined them for two brand new songs. Both dark, grime flavoured bangers. Jake joined the band for the only time they'll have 5 members to perform a completely revised version of the bands' last single 'Nefarious'. The new mix of laptop beats and live drums work surprisingly well. CPK have found a way to step up their game without replacing Jake and while the old songs sound good, the new material sounds fantastic. With respect to Jake the new material is some of the most exciting yet, and Jake's last show with CPK was their best yet.

Links:
www.facebook.com/proudember
www.facebook.com/pg/straightforthesunmusic
http://bathtub.bigcartel.com/
http://crimepunishment2011.bandcamp.com/

Interview with Luke Rainsford

Over the past few years Luke Rainsford has carved out a niche for himself in the Birmingham and midlands scene, as the singer for pop-punks Layover or the bassist in the of the Midlands Pop-punk group Fullshore. However, it is as a solo performer that Luke has found his ‘main focus’. I had met Luke a few times before getting to talk to him for this interview, yet still wanted to get to know Luke a bit better. You don’t have to meet Luke to get to know him however. As both of his albums are intently personal invitations into Luke’s world. Whether that be simple love songs such as ‘Streetlights’ or the alarmingly honest confession of suicidal thoughts named ‘I’m the coward I never thought I’d be’. Without asking for specific details of the girls he has sung about and his family. There isn’t much you could learn about Luke which you couldn’t from simply hearing his songs.

Our interview takes place on the bridge that leads punters into The Flapper. Luke is dressed casually in a simple shirt and jeans and despite the biting cold claims that after touring for so long he doesn’t notice it anymore. In person Luke is endearingly awkward. My admission that I’m not that great an interviewer is met by Luke saying ‘don’t stress’ and my comparison to my last interview with Crime & Punishment 2011’s Dan Carter, which involved him shouting and freestyling down my phone, Luke replies ‘I’m not as confident as that I’m a bit more introverted’.

Our 15 minutes talking outside the pub are regularly broken by awkward laughter, pauses and interruptions from Luke’s many friends. After a small chat about mobile phones I start by asking about influences.

*

Luke: ‘I used to be into a lot of pop-punk bands like The Wonder years and New found Glory now I’m, listening to stuff like The Front Bottoms’

Me: I’ve heard you cover them before but I’ve never listened to them

L: I recommend them! it’s like acoustic poppy -indie folk

It’s the name that puts me off

L: at first I was like what the hell! but they’re very quirky and indie.  They’re very tongue in cheek so the name does suit them

Some of my favourite bands have very crap names. I’m a big fan of King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard

L: -Laughs- Sometimes great bands have terrible names. I know you’re into Crywank, at first it sounds like a terrible name, but it’s a pun on the phrase tearjerk isn’t it?

*

What happened to Layover then?

L: it just had its time really, we done what we wanted to do which is some dudes writing songs together, it was never meant to be anything that serious. We just wanted to have some fun with it. We were still having fun with it but we just wanted to do other things, like my solo stuff.

Who’s in your band then?

L: Darren from Fulllshore, and Zach from Coast To coast…

 So it’s like a pop punk supergroup?

L: Sort of, It’s just good friends of mine, they just wanted to help me out

Were any of these guys on the album then?

L: No I recorded everything myself, except for some piano parts.

That’s surprising because I heard a lot of interesting little guitar parts, that I didn’t notice on the first album

L: It was all me, the producer helped with some of them but I played it all.

I did notice a bit of a difference in the production. Like how Home Safe would just change half way through into something totally different.

L: I was interested in that; I didn’t want all the songs to sound the same because the first album was just all acoustic and I didn’t want to do it all the same again I wanted to mix it up.

Was the first album all recorded in your bedroom then?

L: It was done in a studio. it’s just that it was so simple there wasn’t much more to do with it. It started out as literally just some spare songs I had. It wasn’t meant to be anything too serious. As it wasn’t my main focus at the time.  For this new album, I wanted to put a lot more into out as this is my main focus now. I’m really happy with how it turned out. Especially with what you said about the songs changing halfway through. Home safe is a good example of that as it starts out really poppy and upbeat and suddenly drops.

I feel like only you could write a song with the chorus ‘You made me not want to die this week’.

L: I had the chorus for ages but I could never get it into a song. I’m happy about how it turned out. I wanted to do a really dark line over a really happy song.  I really like that vibe. It’s still kind of tongue in cheek.

*

At this point our interview turns to more of a general talk about the music we love. I talked a lot about Simon and Garfunkel, who I feel were masters of the happy song/sad lyrics idea. As well as other acts like Car Seat Headrest and Courtney Barnett. At this point I gave Luke a copy of Nick Drake’s 1969 début Five Leaves left, which he gratefully receives and seems interested in hearing. Our interview is short on scoops but he does seem surprised that profits from the gig are going towards the mental health charity Mind and hints at future fund-raising for the charity.

Luke also talks about his part time job as a drum teacher and the appeal of vinyl and cassettes over CD’s and downloads. The new album is being released on vinyl as a last-minute decision due to popular demand. The only subject we cross that Luke is reluctant to talk about is politics. Unsurprisingly for such an introspective artist, he isn’t the next Billy Bragg.

And with that our conversation ends, as the show is about to start. It’s a fantastic gig, with Luke and an audience singing songs of love, depression and despair. Luke hasn’t got fans, he has friends, and I’m happy to say that I’m one of them.

Luke Rainsford. Album release show review (24/2/17)

Luke Rainsford was in good company for this show at The Flapper. Proud Ember, Ben Bestwick and Crafterface are all in a similar vein to his own material. All three of them playing emotional acoustic numbers. Ben Bestwick has some beautiful love songs, all complimented by his soft voice and acoustic style Craterface provided a bit of a contrast, being much more punk rock in style, and having a fantastic roar of a voice.

J-Dead was a break from the acoustic sounds but still very much in the same heartfelt emotional style as many of the other singer-songwriters that night.  Backed by his soon to be Ex-Band mates (from Brummie Grime-core bruisers Crime and Punishment 2011), Jason Tyler on production and Dan Carter for some of the other songs. Most of the set came from Jake’s début ‘Headspace’ EP yet he already played some newer songs from his next EP. The set was short and sweet with Jake telling tales including those of domestic abuse and his troubled relationship with his father. He mixes both rap and spoken word, over sparse beats and production as well as also using songs by The XX and Twenty One Pilots as the backdrop for his own stories. 

Less than a year on from the release show at the flapper for Luke’s debut album ‘I’m nothing like my dad turned out to be’ (where he played the album in full) came the album release show for Luke Rainsford’s second album, the newly released ‘I feel at home with you’. This show was also special because it was the first show Luke had ever played with his backing band. A sort of pop-punk supergroup of Luke’s friends including those from bands such as coast to coast and Luke’s other band Wallflower.  Despite the sadness that lingers in many of Luke’s songs tonight felt like a celebration, with Luke being surrounded by his friends. After the first few songs from his new album were played with the new band, a selection of older favourites from the debut were played with a stripped back set up of Luke his guitar, and his drummer tapping on a wooden box.  Despite the band leaving this was far from being a lull in the show, many of the songs from this section are fan favourites. Crafterface joined Luke onstage for his guest vocals on ‘Never Could’ and Luke’s old friend Maddy Cheny joined him for the bittersweet love song ‘Lucid Dreams’.

While Luke may be far from the mainstream acclaim he deserves, he remarked that the crowd had doubled since his last album release show. Despite being only a year old, songs like ‘a note to my teenage self’ ‘a song about alcohol’ and ‘streetlights’ inspired singalongs from the crowd who knew every word by heart. Unfortunately, ‘streetlights’ was aired for the last time as Luke’s understandably a bit tired of playing it every other night. Not that this matters too much as newer singles such as ‘tie’s and ‘home safe’ with its chorus of ‘you made me not want to die this week, as weak as that might make me seem’creating an unlikely sing along. Despite being barely a week old many of the songs from ‘I feel at home with you are likely to be as adored as the songs from Luke’s début.

8/10

links:

www.facebook.com/proudember

https://benbestwick.bandcamp.com/album/but-first-we-live

www.facebook.com/JxDead

www.facebook.com/Craterfacemusic

www.facebook.com/LukeRainsfordMusic

https://lukerainsford.bandcamp.com/