East London boys, Dexters, dubbed “the bastard child of The Clash, The Jam and The La’s” have a seriously infectious energy and big toe tapping tunes to match.
This week they swung by to check out our latest SS13 collection and swap some stories on their plans for world domination.
“Brash guitar anthemia of the very highest order” NME. These guys are ones to watch this year.
New kids on the block James Wignall, Dean Reid, Marc Raue, Nathan Hewitt aka ‘Cheatahs’ are a London based band with a quintessentially American sound. Ears pricked?
They appear to be doing really rather well already, playing at Apollos and Academies around the country on their most recent tour.
And listening to their music it’s easy to understand why. Their tracks feature riffs but there is a weightlessness to them, and easy listening quality, which is lifted even further by soaring melodies.
There’s something My Bloody Valentine esk, in there, “and they make making a racket seem like the first thing they do when they get out of bed in the morning (or early afternoon)” which is fine by us.
We’re really looking forward to seeing them down in Brighton at The Great Escape this year. Roll on the end of May!
One of the biggest and hottest festivals of the summer The Great Escape (Brighton 16th – 18th May) have announced a mammoth list of acts which has officially got us counting down the days till summer.
And we’re pretty sure after you hear this you will be too….Sit back and try this on for size: The 1975, Allah-las, Alunageorge, Awaken I Am, Bastille, Bear’s Den, Blackeye, Blaudzun, Brodka, Caitlin Park, Charlie Straight, Childhood, Christine And The Queen, Chvrches, Cloud Boat, Cousins, Cub Scouts, Dan Croll, Dark Star, David Rodigan, Del Barber, Dingus Khan, Dinosaur Pile-up, Drenge, Eagulls, Echo And The Empress, Eddi Front, Eliza And The Bear, Fist City, Foam Lake, Gallops, How To Dress Well, Humans, Hungry Kids Of Hungary, Indians, King Krule, Lab Coast, Lawrence Arabia, Lewis Watson, Luke Sital-Singh, Mac Demarco, Made In Japan, Marika Hackman, Marmozets, Mo, Neighbourhood Youth, Nick Mulvey, Phosphorescent, Portasound, Rainy Milo, Royal Canoe, Ryan Keen, San Zhi, Scrufizzer, Skaters, Skip&Die, Sleepmakeswaves, Snakadaktal, Spectres, Stonefield, Superfood, Sweet Baboo, Swim Deep, Teleman, The Naturals, The Neighbourhood, The Upskirts, Title Fight, To Kill A King, Tom Odell, Tomorrow’s World, Towns, Tres.B, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Velcro Hooks, Velociraptor, Wall, Wolf Alice and Young Rival.
Excited yet? Pick up your tickets now to avoid disappointment right here: TGE TICKETS
See you on the pebbles with a large one boys and girls.
When it comes to new talent these guys have got it in bucket loads and have been gaining some serious attention of late. Over the past 12 months they’ve released 2 new singles, appeared on some seriously influential music blogs and kidnapped Pat Sharp and thats all on top of playing gigs up and down the country. How do they find the time?
This week they played right on our doorstep in London’s East end and not ones to miss a party, we headed over there to find out what all the fuss was about, hook the guys up with the finest of Fly53 threads and give them a good old fashioned grilling…oh boy were we in for a treat.
1. So, How are you guys – tell us what you’ve all been up to recently?
Ric: Good yeah, just munching on a reduced haddock sandwich.
Adam: This and that, that and this. Just gearing up to the release of our 2nd single “Ennui/Eighteen” on Dirty Bingo Records that’s out on the 22nd of October. Plugging to the max.
Jarve: Becoming a white van man, for realz …
Joe: Sleeping in the back of said white van for hours at a time.
2. Tell us your most outrageous tour story – Or is riding like a fugitive in the back of a transit (How we found Adam en route to London) as rough as it gets?
Ric: We may or may not have slept in a multi story car park.
Adam: Haha that was pretty grim, but it’s been worse. We’ve slept in car parks, locked ourselves out of cars, had fallouts over fried chicken. we’re pretty ghetto. Jarvis (our drummer) once didn’t have his hands on ten to two on the wheel. He’s mental.
Jarve: I reversed into a wall once … true story
3. Sum up your sound in 5 words for us?
Ric: Ice cream in a hoover.
Jarve: Shit sandwich (in your mouth?)
4. Who’s mum’s the fittest? – Has anyone gone there?
Ric: Almost definitely Joe’s but I’ve only ever gone there in my dreams.
Joe: Well I look a fair bit like my mum, so I’m gonna have to agree with Ric – I am one sexy mofo – Thanks mum.
Adam: I hope our mum’s don’t read this. If I say my opinion I won’t be allowed to go round Ric’s parents house for tea anymore.
5. If you had to choose between a night with Ellis Cooper (our girl crush) and a sold out gig in London which would you choose?
Adam: Ellis Cooper probably. We’re pretty fickle. Can we not sell out a London show and then spend the night with her?
Ric: Yeah we could just get her to come along.
Adam: Haha yeah then Ric can work his sleazy magic.
6. What would it take for you guys to perform on X Factor?
Adam: Every year I tell Ric to go on it. If I could sing well I’d be there in a flash, murdering all the classics like there’s no tomorrow.
Ric: Cheryl Cole…covered in mayonnaise.
Adam: She’s already on it isn’t she? Why aren’t you there singing Hallelujah?
Jarve: Death?
Joe: I’d audition for x factor if the que’s weren’t so long.
7. Top three songs you can’t get enough of right now?
Adam: Tame Impala – Elephant, Kindness – Anyone Can Fall in Love , Purity Ring – Fineshrine.
Ric: Peace – California Daze.
Jarve: Jeff Buckley – I Woke Up In A Strange Place, Deerhoof – L’amour Stories, Man Or Astroman? Psychology of A.I (Numbers Follow Answers), not exactly current, but I’ve been stuck in the past for a fair while now…
8. What gets you up in the morning the music, the money or the bitches?
Ric: An erection.
Adam: Disgusting. Crunchy Nut, then the bitches.
Jarve: The most insanely aggressive alarm in the world, Ric can testify, its seriously offensive.
Joe: Fire…. bar that nothing.
9. If you could have anyone in the world as a fifth member for the day who would it be any why?
Adam: Ellis Cooper for obvious reasons.
Ric: Any member of the Sugababes past or present to sing me lullabies and dish the dirt about the other members.
Jarve: Jeff Buckley, for obvious reasons.
Joe: Richard Branson so he’d take me up to space in return.
10. You’re invisible for a day – tell us what goes down?
Adam: Lots of girl’s pants. Honestly we’re not sex pests.
Jarve: I’m already invisible if you view me from the side…
Joe: I’d find out what KFC’s secret recipe and then spend the rest of my life ripping them off.
11. Best piece of advice anyone ever gave you?
Adam: As you can tell we could do with some interview advice if anyone’s offering…
Ric: Don’t mention Jimmy Saville
Adam: We were actually advised not to do that in an interview we gave with the BBC last week.
12. Any Thanks to anyone?
Adam: Big love to Jai for making us look like sleaze balls.
An absolute pleasure to work with one thing is for sure a night out with this lot is not for the faint of heart. Tongue firmly in cheek, check out what they’re all about with the video to their new double A side Ennui/ Eighteen out today- 22nd of October.
The Milk, formed in 2008 and made up of Essex Lads Rick, Mitch, Dan and Luke are top of our musical distraction list this week. If ever in need of a few good hand claps, horns and a dam good rhythm to banish your mid week blues these are your guys. Their soul inspired sound and love of dance and hip hop all comes across in both Ricky’s gritty vocals as well as their clever video production.
The guys have just released their debut album ‘Tales From The Thames Delta’ produced by one other than The Nextmen and will be touring throughout November this year at an impressive list of venues across the UK. So head out and check them out, you wont be disappointed.
Heres a little something to get you in the mood.
Talk about musical distraction: French electronic music duo Justice have had us playing their new video on repeat down at Fly53 headquarters.
The epic production of the “New Lands” video features the pairs version of the current Olympics and finds pumped up burly blokes competing in everything from football and baseball to roller hockey and motorcycle racing.
With a nod the themes of their previous video “New Lands” also features an astronaut as a judge and certainly serves as another brain melting tour around planet justice.
Turn it up loud. Sit back. Enjoy.
Festival season finally kicked-off for us here at Artrocker with a stage at the Camden Crawl. There’s only so many hours in a day at the Camden Crawl to submit your ears to the onslaught of musical noise and exploration, so travelling at speed to maximize hearing potential is key. My advice is to run or just get a bike, that’d help too.
The perfect start to this year’s Crawl was catching Toy on the Artrocker stage at the Purple Turtle, whose psychedelic fuzz-pop served to heal any remnants of the pre-event hangover.
Toy. Photo by Kane Howie
Next up was Fiction’s minimalist tropical post-punk, which was so engaging that I lost track of time and missed the Blacklisters set at the Earl Of Camden…
Fiction. Photo by Kane Howie
But the pre-apocalyptic doom-sludge of Black Moth was there to remind us all of why the Artroker stage had the best NEW talent of the whole festival. When ‘Chicken Shit’ went down the place exploded under the behomothic brew of hammering drums, thrash guitar and the charisma of lead-vocalist Harriet Hyde.
It was a ball-crushing end to a manic weekend of modern psychedelica, post-punk, through to electro-pop and proto-punk influenced Rock ‘N’ Roll. Now I know why it’s called the Camden Crawl… although crawling around the Artrocker stage was all you needed.
Pinkunoizu, from the Japanese word for ‘pink noise’, are an enjoyably eclectic four-piece Danish band who now call Berlin home. Making a noise in Germany’s largest city, with a population of 3.5 million, is hard work but they have managed to garner a large homecoming following.
We caught up with the band at The Old Blue Last, known as ‘East Londons most notorious venue’ – NME. We were blown away by their epic harmonies, syncopated lyrics and film style progression. They sounded like Muse and Sigur Ros’s abandoned love child, brought up and cared for by a pack of wild wolves. In our opinion, Jaleh Negari, the female drummer stole the show with surgical timing and musical licks that would impress satin himself.
Photo by Justin Thomas
The band were armed to the teeth with top of the range instruments. I must have seen more Fenders on stage than Larry Thomas even knew existed. These titans of the guitar world however weren’t fighting for attention but fit seamlessly into the mix. All in all this psychodelic pop rock circus band stunned and thrilled the crowd with precission.
Meet the band. Jeppe Brix (guitarist); Jaleh Negari (drummer); Jakob Falgren (guitarist, keyboardist, bassist) and Andreas Pallisgaard (guitarist, vocalist)
Eagles of Death Metal, the highly acclaimed American rock band from Palm Desert, California have been in collaboration with Fly53 since the wolf man found his first facial hair. That’s a long bloody time and their still one of our favourite rock bands on the books.
Catch EoDM on the festival scene this year. They are confirmed to play at Kulturfabrik Kofmehl festival in Switzerland on the 21st of June, Pukkelpop Festival in Belgium on 16 – 18 August and Reading and Leeds Festival on the 24 – 26 August. So don’t miss out ..
Jesse “The Devil” Hughes, who formed EoDM in 1998, has just released a spanking new solo album aptly named ‘Honkey Kong’, produced by Tony Hoffer, responsible for some of the most successful indie-rock albums of recent years including The Fratellis & The Kooks. ‘Honkey Kong’ is described as “a mix of glam-pop, keyboard-heavy dance grooves, and Hughes’ signature brand of rock’n’roll grit that drips with swagger”. Tracks set for inclusion are ’Trippy Blob’, ’No Fun’ and ‘Swallowed By The Night’.
Check out ‘Trippy Blob’ by Jessie Hughs below..
