The Immediate Release Mold Box Set (’92 – ’93)

Apr 24, 2023 — Leave a comment

FOR FANS OF: The Who / Husker Du / The Jam / Badfinger / XTC / 60ft Dolls / Teenage Fanclub / Ride

The Immediate are a mod-ish, guitar-fuelled, power pop three-piece from Mold in north Wales.

To celebrate 30 years since our first release as The Immediate, They have compiled a C90’s worth of our best moments. ‘Mold Box Set – Wide Misses and Purple Flashes’ features highlights from our earliest years as well as recordings from our more recent albums, 2017’s ‘Manbuoy’ and 2018’s ‘More Sheep Than Humans’.

The compilation is available as a limited edition cassette (in the tradition of the original ‘The Boy Who Tried To Change The World’ tape from 1993) on bandcamp, and as a digital download / stream from all of the usual platforms.

The songs have been played on 6Music, BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio Wales and on a number of other excellent radio stations and programmes around the world.

This is the back catalogue of a band who unintentionally evaded every zeitgeist like pre-topknot Gareth Bale evaded the Milan defence. By the time Britpop slid in, we’d already been ripping off Waterloo Sunset for half a decade.

The band were always more in thrall to The Real People than they were to Oasis. They supported Stereophonics the night they were signed to V2 Records, and did nothing to stop it. Played Mansun’s debut album launch party at the Stakis Casino on the Isle of Man, confusing the gathered crowd who asked why they hadn’t played ‘Wide Open Space’ as we shuffled off stage.

Never made it to Camden, but we were massive in Crewe. For one spring / summer in St Tropez they were almost proper pop stars: not bad for dole kids from Mold, north Wales.

Adam Walton says:
“There are reasons for our lack of success; so many near miss / one-that-got-away stories, but they’re stories for another time. This is a collection of our tunes, and – if we had anything right – it was our tunes. Unironic, heart-on-sleeve, power pop anthems wrought from our love of All Mod Cons, The Who Sell Out and Ride’s first two albums.

If you love The Who / Husker Du / The Jam / Badfinger / XTC / 60ft Dolls / Teenage Fanclub / Ride there will be music here you will like, and hopefully love.

The story stretches from our first UK release in 1993 to our most recent recordings, last year. The fact that it all sounds like the same band – whether it’s the pre-Suede nocturnal psychodrama of 1993’s ‘Praying For Sunshine’ or the fierce, tight, tuney thunder of this year’s ‘Divide’ – is a matter of some pride to us.

We never sold out, probably because no one was buying, but the fact remains.”

Emily Marsden – Editor
#MusicSceneWales
@MusicSceneWales
musicscenewalescymru@gmail.com

Junior Bill Releases New Single ‘Teeth’

Apr 20, 2023 — Leave a comment

Junior Bill, the ‘21st Century Joe Strummer’, spins a tale of post-Brexit isolation in dub-pop anthem ‘TEETH’

After the roaring success of Junior Bill’s first 2023 single ‘Boys From Jungle’ – praised, played and playlisted worldwide – then the mournfully and politically-loaded follow-up ‘Flag of St George’ comes the third Junior Bill single of the year. ‘Teeth’ is a melancholic reggae number about a lonely, isolated society where sugar passes for joy and life stays stagnant around a tiny cul-de-sac in post-Brexit Britain.

Junior Bill is the project of Cardiff songwriter Robert Nichols – acclaimed as ‘a 21st Century Joe Strummer’ by BBC 6Music’s Tom Robinson earlier this year. The group have found support both locally in their home country of Wales as well as internationally on radio and press in Australia, Spain, Brazil and Canada. Turning debut album ‘Youth Club!’ into a series of singles released over the course of the year, has shown a broad range of reggae, psych, indie and blues that has a core element of storytelling about pressing and urgent politicised life.

The songs of Junior Bill reach into the lives of others in an unusually empathic way, whilst still remaining extremely “singable”. Gigwise said “it’s a political maturity set against a childlike honesty that makes Junior Bill so intriguing.” ‘Teeth’ tells the story of an elderly woman who can’t stop eating sweets, living a lonely life in a Truman Show-style world where people “live and work and die” all in one isolated neighbourhood. It’s all somewhat reminiscent of Britain’s increasingly claustrophobic societal atmosphere. This toy-town is recreated in the song’s video, a naive stop-motion animation made by Junior Bill and his friends. The track deals with themes of isolation, the loneliness of ageing, our increasing inability as a nation to care for the vulnerable, as well as the song’s main hook singing of the both immediate and deeper long-term need for the country’s national healthcare.

In the live music scene Junior Bill have made a lasting impression, opening for Supergrass during their reunion shows after a supporting tour with drummer Danny Goffey, then last year making their debut at Glastonbury Festival. The band returned to their hometown of Cardiff in January to a packed out show, and have a series of dates to come throughout the UK whilst releasing more singles and then the debut album ‘Youth Club!’ before the end of the year.

LIVE DATES:

29th April – All Roads Festival, The King Arthur, Glastonbury – solo

4th May – The Canteen, Bristol – band

5th May – Fork & Tune, Cwmcarn – band

26th May – How The Light Gets In Festival, Hay on Wye – solo

28th May – Devauden Festival – solo

3rd June – Golden Lion, Bristol – band

Emily Marsden – Editor
#MusicSceneWales
@MusicSceneWales
musicscenewalescymru@gmail.com

Alffa Release New Single ‘Unkind Mind’

Apr 17, 2023 — Leave a comment

Alffa consists of Dion Wyn Jones and Sion Eifion Land. The duo from North Wales Release their first single of 2023 ‘Unkind Mind’.

This gritty new single commands your full attention with it’s powerful sound. The song builds its way up into an explosive crescendo. Throughout the lyrics they speak of mental health and through repetition remind listeners to not be so hard on themselves.

The band say of the single:

“Taking visual cues from the music videos for ‘Slowly Separate – Crows’ and ‘Mother – IDLES’ my plan was to create a video that portrayed the beauty of the Welsh landscape while also having fun smashing some concrete up in my back garden.

Filmed along the serene dunes of Traeth Llanddwyn and deep within its skeletal forests along the Ynys Môn coast, shooting ‘Unkind Mind’ on a Saturday afternoon was an absolute pleasure. Even battling the unpredictable weather was a blessing in disguise that helped split the video into its two halves – the colour section and the black & white section.”

Emily Marsden – Editor
#MusicSceneWales
@MusicSceneWales
musicscenewalescymru@gmail.com

Tom Emlyn Releases New Single ‘Broken Mirror’ Accompanied By A New Music Video And Announces New Album Release

Apr 17, 2023 — Leave a comment

Swansea born Tom Emlyn is one of the most prolific and inventive songwriters to emerge from Wales. Tom crafts honest, swirling evocative songs; tall tales, and dark jokes that cut straight to the bone. His current solo work maps an alternative Southwalian landscape, a hallucinated community drawn from psychogeography and local history. Written on foot and by bus, his observational, poetic lyrics and simple 60s-folk-influenced melodies explore what it means to belong to a place. Tom has been comapred to Bob Dylan or Elliot Smith.

Emlyn says: “This was a song I wrote after I came back from traveling in about 2015. It was a bit of a prototype for some of my other songs like Empire or Under the Weather, which try to use the Welsh landscape as a metaphor for a breakup. It’s not really as biographical as it sounds, there’s a lot of fiction in there too. It also deals with the choices you make in life and realising that there are many ways to look at a situation. It’s quite conversational and imagistic.”

Tom also announces details of a new album to be released on the 5th of May, ‘Return Journey Revisited: Scaredycat Vol. 15’. This album is a treasure trove of captivating songs dating to between 2016 – 2018.

Of the album Tom says:
“Abandoned work is a normal part of the music-making process, but I felt these songs deserved a second chance. I also wanted to release it as a (small) protest against certain smoke-and-mirrors aspects of the music industry. People will tell you to wait and wait, hold back all of your material for the “right time”. I can’t do that anymore; for me, a song is only new when it’s just been written, although it can be remade in live performance. I find it quite agonising to sit on this material for so many years. I’ll be thirty in 2023. That’s why I want to get this sizeable backlog of unheard material out there, so I can move on to new things, and that’s why this is the third album I’ve released in a year.”

“There were many people involved in these tracks – different engineers, studios, producers, and musicians in Swansea and Cardiff. I think the album has a unified feel despite being a bunch of stuff that was recorded in various studios and spaces, before being rescued from the cutting-room floor. It’s a bit of a lighter, ironic affair, full of magic realism and surreal images of the natural world, half-acoustic and half-electric, with an eclectic, eccentric, sprawling feel. Scraped from the bottom of a very deep barrel – but somehow holding together.”

Emily Marsden – Editor
#MusicSceneWales
@MusicSceneWales
musicscenewalescymru@gmail.com

FeverJaw Release New Single ‘Sweetener’

Apr 17, 2023 — Leave a comment

The South-Wales based rock trio Feverjaw return with their second release of 2023, ‘Sweetener’. This new single is as intense as it is melodic, capturing the listener immediately and demonstrating why Feverjaw are one of South Wales’s most promising rock bands. As fans have grown to expect, the chorus is anthemic and real arms in the air stuff.

Taken from Feverjaw’s forthcoming new EP ‘Intention Of Malice’, ‘Sweetener’ serves as a stand out track from the EP with its hard hitting drums and melodic lead guitar.

Earlier this year Feverjaw released the acclaimed single ‘When You Know’ which touched on new ground for the trio. They have steadily been building their audience and their reputation as a band to watch.

Feverjaw are Dale Hawkins (vocals, guitar), James Carey (bass) and Lewis Bligh (drums). The trio are an incredible live act with a sound that delivers driving guitars, anthemic choruses and undeniable hooks.

Emily Marsden – Editor
#MusicSceneWales
@MusicSceneWales
musicscenewalescymru@gmail.com

Focus Wales Film Festival Revealed

Apr 17, 2023 — Leave a comment

Emily Marsden – Editor
#MusicSceneWales
@MusicSceneWales
musicscenewalescymru@gmail.com

Alias Presents Detroit Techno Militia In Holyhead, Anglesey

Apr 5, 2023 — Leave a comment

Flying in all the way from Detroit, Michigan U.S.A, The Detroit Techno Militia 2×4 2023 World Tour starts in Holyhead, Anglesey this Friday at the Con Club at 7pm. A historic event supported by Neil Thomson, Dan Radestock and Zac Kiernan.

Detroit Techno Militia is a grass roots collective of DJ’s and producers located in Detroit, MI on a mission to promote Detroit Techno around the world and preserve the legacy of the underground, Detroit electronic music.

This is a historic event not to be missed! Get your tickets through the link below

https://www.skiddle.com/whats-on/Llandudno/The-Con-Club%2C-Holyhead/ALIAS-presents–Detroit-Techno-Militia/36305913/

Emily Marsden – Editor
#MusicSceneWales
@MusicSceneWales
musicscenewalescymru@gmail.com

French Alps Tiger Release Debut EP ‘Switch Off All The Time’

Apr 5, 2023 — Leave a comment

‘Switch Off All The Time’ is the debut EP from Swansea’s French Alps Tiger. It is the band’s first vinyl release and includes all singles to date plus a couple more for good measure. These songs represent the birth of the band and we wanted to collate them in a congruent release to mark this point in the band’s journey. The songs capture every part of French Alps Tiger; from their fast paced, frenetic surf punk; to their slower, shoegaze-y jams.

The EP was recorded at friend Jordan Huxtable’s garage studio in Swansea. Mixed and mastered by Chris Dimas in Canada (Surf Dads, Bleeker) with the exception of Tell A Lie which was mixed by Steffan Pringle (Estrons, Adwaith, Himalayas) and mastered by Charlie Francis (R.E.M., Sweet Baboo, Future of The Left). The vinyl master was done by Matthew Evans of the band KEYS.

The last two singles Lost Boys and Life have been added to the Amazing Radio UK and USA playlists, with Life going straight to the A-list in the UK. Lost Boys was included on Apple Music’s New in Alternative and New in Rock playlists.

Some words from Russ, French Alps Tiger:

‘Switch Off All The Time’ embodies the birth of French Alps Tiger. All our little babies that we’ve nurtured, grown up and going off into the world. Exciting fucking times!

As we’re pretty sure the title could maybe suggest; we’ve poured the whole can of our worthless souls into this zhoozhed-up, punk-philosophy soundtrack, until we passed out on the sofa, pissed on, and fully bushed.

Tapping into guileless, primal feels that we didn’t know were there, we’ve cut the shit and smashed out the sounds and words that best plunge us into that childlike wonder, fitting for an inceptive release, to catch you up on what a fuckup we’ve made of our lives so far.

In summary, the songs are top-drawer. Thank you for listening to my powerpoint presentation.‘

UPCOMING SHOWS

April 21st – The Bunkhouse, Swansea

April 22nd – Carnival Brewery, Liverpool

April 24th – Retros, Manchester

April 25th – The Cavern, Exeter

April 26th – Zed Alley, Bristol

April 27th – Students Union, Aberystwyth

April 28th – Clwb Ifor Bach, Cardiff

Emily Marsden – Editor
#MusicSceneWales
@MusicSceneWales
musicscenewalescymru@gmail.com

The Vanities Release New Single ‘Private Army’

Apr 3, 2023 — Leave a comment

The Vanities return in 2023 with brand new single, “Private Army”. A notable departure from their signature 80’s sound, “Private Army” is an epic orchestral affair, a haunting lament on the folly of humankind in the new era of war in Europe.

The Vanities are an electro-rock duo from Cardiff made up of Rhys Bradley (vocals/guitar) and Adam Hill (bass guitar). Following a riotous period of early success in the noughties, the band retreated into a self-imposed, decade-long exile before returning in 2021 with their critically acclaimed album, “2001”.

Lead single “London” was singled out for particular praise and enjoyed heavy rotation on BBC Radio Wales, leading to the band supporting New Romantic legend Tony Hadley on his 40th anniversary tour in 2022.

The band will be playing a small number of select “unplugged” shows in support of the release.

01/04/23 – The Second 45
15/04/23 – TIWNFEST
29/04/23 – HMV Cardiff
16/05/23 – Acapela Studio w. Peter Cox (SOLD OUT)
17/05/23 – Acapela Studio w. Peter Cox

Emily Marsden – Editor
#MusicSceneWales
@MusicSceneWales
musicscenewalescymru@gmail.com

Joseph Harvey Releases New Single ‘Flirting With Disaster’

Mar 31, 2023 — Leave a comment

Joseph Harvey ‘Flirts With Disaster’ on brand new single.

Murdered Out Records is proud to announce the release of Joseph Harvey’s brand new single Flirting With Disaster.

The third single from Harvey is an upbeat, swinging, sizzling-hot number that is sure to cure your winter blues.

“Flirting With Disaster is sung from the perspective of a hopeless romantic, yearning for the perfect trip abroad with the object of his or her desires. Something we can all relate to from time to time”.

The song will be released exclusively as a digital only single and is available to download and stream now.

So if the cold weather isn’t your thing, pour yourself a cocktail, press play and close your eyes as you’re transported to somewhere “Far away from the wind and the rain” on Joseph Harvey’s brand new single Flirting With Disaster.

Emily Marsden – Editor
#MusicSceneWales
@MusicSceneWales
musicscenewalescymru@gmail.com