Fluid Lines, Calories, The River Phoenix
April 17, 2009
Fluid Lines
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Fluid Lines – I’ve known of these guys for years. Or at least I’ve known front man Calum Wood and some variation of other musicians under the collective name of Fluid Lines for years – I believe they’ve been through a fair few personnel changes in the good few years they’ve been busting out Pop /Punk anthems. Truth is Wood is the kind of guy you can’t help but admire: for his persistence, his entrepreneurial capacity, and his knowledge of all the cogs of the ugly machine that is the music industry. He and the current Fluid Lines line-up work hard at their image and their sound and the result is that as they’ve grown up (Wood himself is still only 20!) their music has matured too. Tracks like Sleepless and Right Place At The Night Time display ambient and melodic guitar licks, sing-along choruses with epic call-and-response chants and at times Tonight Is Goodbye-esque vocal antics. These are truly accessible Pop / Rock anthems. High Friends In Low Places meanwhile I think is a nod to their slightly less polished Punk roots, displaying a classic punk drum beat, heavily distorted guitars, and the very epitome of an epic Pop / Punk chorus.
Sure, there are comparisons to be made here with fellow British Power Pop outfits such as You Me At Six, Tonight Is Goodbye and Kids In Glass Houses, but Fluid Lines hold their own, and bring something slightly edgier with influences clearly including darker Punk outfits such as AFI.
The hard work is clearly finally paying off for these Hertfordshire boys: with a Myspace page boasting over 13,000 friends! And 2009 looks set to be a big year, with some really exciting shows coming up including a slot at the Jack Wills sponsored Varsity match in front of around 10,000 people! So if your guilty secrets include the likes of Tonight Is Goodbye and You Me At Six check out this awesome outfit.
Calories
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Calories – Exciting British three-piece, Calories, lend a slightly experimental and progressive twist to traditional Indie / Pop sounds, with apocalyptic drumming, intricate bass lines and ethereal guitars steeped in reverb. Despite only releasing debut album Adventuring early-mid March this year, tracks like A Bear A Bison and Forests Of Varg display an intelligence, versatility and experience beyond their short time as a band. Calories take all the catchy Pop accessibility of a lot of mainstream Indie Pop in our charts but make it.. well.. good! What’s more, despite an admirable amount of inside industry buzz about these boys, with comparatively only a handful of Myspace friends and limited still to smaller venues and support slots, there’s something oddly comforting and intimate in enjoying a relatively unknown band. Fans of White Lies, Bloc Party and everything between will love this energetic Indie / Rock outfit.
The River Phoenix
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The River Phoenix – I first came across this band in the Nettwerk office when I was given the album to check out. I was hooked immediately, and was delighted to hear they would be playing The Great Escape Festival. For me, this unashamedly Emo / Rock band, hailing from a tiny island between Denmark and Sweden called Bornholm, pick up where bands such as Placebo leave off. Guttural, riff-tastic and muscular guitar work; epic drumming; and the distinctive Brian Molko-esque yelp of singer Kristian Wichman are defining characteristics of The River Phoenix‘s debut album Ritual which was released in 2008 by Nettwerk Music Group.
Ritual opens with the broken amp-bass-fuzz of 5 Wheel Drive: a seriously anthemic Alt Rock track which flits effortlessly between a straight rock 2/4 verse rhythm, and a stadium worthy chorus with a 6/8 sway that will bury itself in your brain to resurface at regular intervals during your day: so warm up your karaoke voice. The album continues with the equally genius 28 83 7 which opens with all the guitar-fuelled pomp and grandeur of a heavier Coldplay track and displays an intelligent pop-sensibility in the undeniably catchy and accessible vocal harmonies. Meanwhile, softer tracks such as Kittens and A Seed Upon The Wind bring relief between dark and atmospheric songs: most notably To Be Willing To March, an ominous, crashing and dischordant track, full of Taking Back Sunday-esque guitar licks and Coheed And Cambria style vocal harmonies.
Fans of everything from U2 to Placebo: Coldplay to Brand New and Coheed And Cambria to Taking Back Sunday should definitely give these boys a listen and seeing as The River Phoenix have been good enough to post the first 6 tracks of their album in order in their Myspace player, you’ve got not excuse not to get stuck in!
The Dykeenies & Look See Proof
March 30, 2009
Early last week I caught Glasgow Indie / Rock 4-piece The Dykeenies rip up the Camden Underworld. The ensuing epic, stadium-worthy Pop-Rock anthem-fest cemented my belief that Glasgow is a seriously exciting place to be in terms of music right now.
Hertfordshire-based 5-piece Look See Proof provided fantastic support: their brand of disjointed, pop-infused Indie-Rock, expertly performed complete with intelligent guitar work; subtle but effective synths; tight-as-fuck drums; and The Futureheads-esque vocal antics from (at least?) 4 of the 5 members, whipped an already enthusiastic crowd into a riff-induced frenzy.
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Easy on the eyes too, it was obvious that a lot of the audience were hopeful females aged late teens / early twenties, but that didnt detract from the fact that Look See Proof put on one hell of a show. Fans of the likes of The Departure, We Are Scientists, Maximo Park and Johnny Foreigner will love this energetic Indie-Pop act.
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By the time The Dykeenies hit the stage The Underworld was completely packed and buzzing with excitement. I haven’t seen a small venue / gig generate this much energy and enthusiasm in what can often be a hostile market for a long time and it was refreshing to feel a part of such a positive atmosphere.
Tracks like Clean Up Your Eyes, laden with trademark pop-hook synths, drowned-in-delay guitar lines, driven rhythm and bass section and rich vocal melodies, were sung back by a die-hard crowd with such ferocity that if you closed your eyes you may as well have been at Wembley. The fact that these boys aren’t filling stadiums, while perversely bands like Scouting For Girls are still allowed to make music, is testament to the fact that the music industry is seriously fucked up.
Because the fact is that The Dykeenies take all the classic tricks from the masters of soft-rock: U2 and Coldplay, employing simple but intelligent reverb-soaked guitar licks, delicate synth lines, and epic, singalong, pop choruses: they tick all the right boxes. And yet somehow, by some quirk of fate; by some administration error by a careless label / booking agent / management intern, these boys missed the boat and nearly 4 years after The Dykeenies as a concept was conceived, this band is still (only) selling out The Underworld and the like.
Incidentally, when I mentioned to a few of the guys in the office that I would appreciate guest list to see The Dykeenies, I instantly became the subject of what can only be described as a music-industry-snob hate campaign. Turns out that there is something about these guys that makes them ‘not cool’ within the industry. One person went on to clarify that ‘they are everything wrong with music’ and that ‘they try too hard’. Upon telling a friend of this bullying I was reassured with the phrase ‘dont worry.. people just dont like people that like The Dykeenies‘. Throw off the shackles people.. The Dykeenies are an epic, stadium-rock band, that just haven’t quite made it to the stadiums yet.. who cares if they’re cool or not, they damn-sure deserve a listen.
