DIY, May 2012 by DIY Magazine

E D I TOR â&#x20AC;&#x2122;S L E T TER Chances are a good number of you reading this hightailed it down to your local independent record shop recently for Record Store Day. With a whole bunch of exclusive releases and other fun stuff happening all around the country, it's easy to see why. Still, that doesn't mean we can all pat ourselves on the back. See, the awkward truth is that unless we start popping down to that music emporium more often than once a year, it's going to suffer. A lot of you will have picked up this very magazine in one, so nice work there. In this issue we've written a bit of a love letter to the indie record shop, and asked a few people about their favourites. Drink it in, then go treat yourself to some new wax. Elsewhere, DIY Class Of 2012 alumni DZ Deathrays score their first cover feature, we catch up with Beach House, chat to Gossip about their new record 'A Joyful Noise', find out about The Temper Trap's second full length and introduce you to Deaf Club. There's also the definitive verdict on new albums from Jack White, Best Coast, Mystery Jets and the much anticipated debut from Niki & The Dove. Enjoy!

CONTACT For DIY sales: email: nick@alive-advertising.com tel: +44 (0)1494 866337 For DIY online sales: email: lawrence@sonicdigital.co.uk tel: +44 (0)20 76130555 For DIY editorial: email: info@thisisfakediy.co.uk tel: +44 (0)20 76137249

staff list Editor: Stephen Ackroyd

TV Editor: Christa Ktorides

Senior Editor: Emma Swann

Editorial Assistant: Jamie Milton

Deputy / Online Editor: Victoria Sinden

Extra Editor: Amy Rich

Features Editor: Harriet Jennings

Editorial Intern: Luke Morgan Britton

Film Editor: Becky Reed

Head Of Marketing & Events: Jack Clothier

News Editor: Sarah Jamieson Games Editor: Michael J Fax

Art Director: Louise Mason

Contributors: Alex Lynham, Alex Mullane, Alex Yau, Andrew Backhouse, Bevis Man, Danny Wright, Dave Rowlinson, Derek Robertson, El Hunt, Greg Inglis, Jake May, Joe Skrebels, Lauren Down, Linda Aust, Martyn Young, Matthew Davies, Simone Scott Warren, Tom Baker, Wendy Davies Photographers: Benjamin Glean, Jake Green, Richard Isaac, Sinead Grainger, Simone Scott Warren

Cover photography: Emma Swann DIY is published by Sonic Network Limited. All material copyright (c). All rights reserved. This publication may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form, in whole or in part, without the express written permission of DIY. 25p where sold. Disclaimer: While every effort is made to ensure the information in this magazine is correct, changes can occur which affect the accuracy of copy, for which Sonic Network Limited holds no responsibility. The opinions of the contributors do not necessarily bear a relation to those of DIY or its staff and we disclaim liability for those impressions. Distributed nationally.

sharks

eddie argos

In support of the independent record store

D Z DEATHRA Y S

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news sharks

It’s undeniable that there is something special about Sharks. Having spent the first two years of their career as handpicked support to the likes of Gallows, Lostprophets and The Gaslight Anthem, there’s already clear evidence to prove that, but it’s what the Leamington Spa band did next that really marked them out from the rest of the pack. Leaving behind our more dreary climate, the foursome took on a wholly different challenge and headed east. Abandoning the regular rule and rhyme of traditional British touring schedules, they found themselves spending most of 2011 in the United States; at first, opening every night for Social Distortion, before playing slots on the gruelling Warped Tour, and finishing their year on the AP Tour. They even managed to squeeze in time for a Canadian headline run, several live appearances in Japan and, you know, the recording of their debut album. 6 thisisfakediy.co.uk

head out on uk tour However, save for a handful of shows scattered amongst these many tours, Sharks were still yet to embark on their very own UK headline tour. So, when that time came, DIY decided to go and join them at The Lexington in London to find out how things have been going. Sat in the dressing room in the Pentonville Road venue, the four members are stretched across several pieces of scruffy furniture, studying the expanses of graffiti covering the walls around them. “London’s always hectic. I was saying that earlier…” begins drummer Sam Lister, who quickly establishes himself as the most talkative of the fairly quiet group. He’s not lying either: the majority of their time since arriving in the venue is taken up with an extensive soundcheck, before a series of acoustic performances. Then comes the arrival of their managers

and various other industry connections, though they seem nothing but happy to catch up with everyone. But does playing in the capital ever faze them? “It really doesn’t affect us. You can either worry about it, or not, and we choose not to,” comments frontman James Mattock, who is tucked into the room’s farthest corner, sporting a shirt of the tour openers, Crowns. “It just makes your day more stressful; once you’re on stage though, it’s just the same,” adds Sam. Tonight’s show is number nine on their current run, so, having already been on the road for a week and a half following the release of their album ‘No Gods’, how have things been going? “We’ve been pleased so far,” states Sam. “We didn’t really know what to expect to be honest, but I think it’s all gone really well.” “It’s definitely exceeded our expectations. Bristol was amazing last night,” adds

However, it’s undeniable that the band’s live journey to this point has played a key part in the strong reactions to their current work. “I think we’ve become much better as a live band, much better as players,” says guitarist Andrew Bayliss.“We’re a tighter unit.” So, playing so many US shows definitely aided the group? “It’s literally made our band, I think,” states Sam. “It definitely brought us closer together, and as a live unit. It’s just incomparable to how it was a year or so ago. We had to play every day for eight months.” “And we did everything from Warped Tour, to tiny clubs, to big theatres with Social D...” adds Andrew. “It just puts you in good shape.” Their statement is completely validated by the performance they put on to the crowd

te l lison

S i n g l e I n M ay, P l ay DI Y g i g

piled into The Lexington that evening. Framed with an epitomising leather jacket and slicked back black hair, James leads his band through a tremendous set, his vocals – subject to criticism in earlier years – sounding strong and bold. There’s a confidence within their punk rock tendencies laced with a brightness that feels lacking from their peers. But most of all, there’s a youthful feel to the band that comes with songs from ‘No Gods’, whilst the atmosphere hangs dense with appreciation. To anyone watching, it feels fresh and exciting; reminding you once again, that punk rock is alive and well, and it won’t be hanging around in little rooms on Pentonville Road for much longer. Sharks’ debut album ‘No Gods’ is out now via Rise Records.

To Release

Tellison have unveiled plans to release their new single ‘Freud Links The Teeth And The Heart’ - the last from their second album, ‘The Wages Of Fear’ - on 28th May, not long after they call at London’s Garage for a DIY Presents show. Frontman Stephen Davidson gives us an insight into why ‘Freud…’ made the cut: “When we made the record, it wasn’t a song that I was expecting to be a single at all. To be totally honest, I never expected it to become a Tellison song. “I think the idea of it being a single came from a few different places. One was that we decided to make a Christmas single. I wrote it in the first weekend of December; a song called ‘Good Luck, It’s Christmas’ and it was of a similar vein: slightly off the cuff, slightly light-hearted but at the same time, a bit sad and quiet. We just recorded it ourselves, with our friend, there was no budget. There was nothing, but it did weirdly well. It was a big surprise to us all, but one that was very well received. “So, we thought, ‘Ooh, what would follow that up and make sense?’ Then, we thought about ‘Freud’: it just appealed to us because it was something slightly different to what we’d done before, which was tried to - I guess - play the game. Release an upbeat, catchy song with a big chorus and hope that people jump on the bandwagon. I guess I like the idea of doing something completely the opposite of that, and releasing a song that is really weird and sort of a joke, or a poem, set to music.” And speaking of playing live, the band are about to head out on their final tour of the UK in support of ‘The Wages Of Fear’, so how are they feeling about it? “I’m looking forward to it a lot! We love touring and it’s always a fun thing to do. It’s one of our biggest London shows ever, to finish it off, so I’m sure we’ll all be freaking out by that point. But, we get to go to a few towns we haven’t been to before and that’s always exciting! Yeah, we’re really looking forward to it, and we always have a good time, so I’m hoping this will be the best time yet.” Tellison will release their single ‘Freud Links The Teeth And The Heart’ on 28th May. They’ll play a DIY Presents gig at London’s Garage on 9th May, supported by Stagecoach, The Bots and The Front Bottoms.

photo: Sam Bond

James, before commenting on how the new material has gone down. “For the songs having only been out a week, it’s been pretty amazing to see people singing along already.” With the release of their debut fulllength came a slew of positive reviews from fans and press alike. “We’ve definitely had a handful of people at each show who are obviously really into it, and it really means a lot to them, which is awesome,” Sam tells us. “People say that you shouldn’t read reviews and stuff, but I personally find it hard not to do that because I’m intrigued as to what people think. We believed in it always and it’s a relief, more than anything, to get good reviews because obviously we feel really strongly about it and it’s hard to separate yourself from that.”

news

i n b r i e f Following

their

recent

DIY

favourite

signing

Frenchkiss Records, bloc party have announced a handful of UK live dates. Catch them at: JUNE 19 Glasgow Garage; 20 Manchester Ritz; 21 London KOKO.

mcguinness

Eugene

will celebrate the release of his forthcoming full-length 'The Invitation To The Voyage' with a launch party at London's Lexington on 26th June.

Yuck are back with a new track, their first of 2012; have a listen to 'Chew' now at thisisfakediy.co.uk. Independent Label Market will be making a return to

The

London on Saturday 19th May. Its third visit to the capital will take place at Old Spitalfields Market, London, and will see the likes of Angular, Bella Union, Domino, and Moshi Moshi returning to sell their wares.

Kotki dwa have teamed up with the National Trust for their debut album, due later this summer. They'll not only record parts of the release at Trust locations, but use them to inform the album’s artwork and music videos. Record Store Rough trade will open a branch Stateside this Autumn. The new shop, in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY, will be larger than their current superstore near east London's Brick Lane, and feature a live music venue, in partnership with The Bowery Presents.

morrissey

has unveiled plans to play a one-off show in Manchester as his only UK appearance of 2012. The Smiths' ex-frontman will be performing live at Manchester Arena on 28th July. For all the latest music news, visit thisisfakediy.co.uk/news.

8 thisisfakediy.co.uk 8 thisisfakediy.co.uk

S ta r t

12" due

Johnny Foreigner are set to release their latest album 'Johnny Foreigner vs Everything' on double gatefold 12" vinyl this summer. The band, who originally released the full-length back in November 2011, will put out the seventeen-track record on 25th June through Alcopop Records. We caught up with frontman Alexei, who gave us an insight into the release: “To us, 'Johnny Foreigner vs Everything' is the greatest record we've ever made; in musical terms of sounding like we do in our heads, in punk terms of getting s**t done ourselves, and in real cold practical terms as a venture that brought our bank balance into the black for the first time since 2007 when [drummer] Junior found a £20 note on the floor in a train station. "I've spoken about the challenges and the struggle to make this record enough times before, so let's just use this as an analogy: there were seemingly insurmountable odds but we won in the end. It's grandiose, sprawling, half too noisy and half too quiet, it's essentially us painted as songs. "'Is it coming out on vinyl?' is a question

Work On Second Record

we're kinda used to sighing at. We're all three of us record sniffers, but our first label saw vinyl as a dead and pointless market. We kicked against that and fan funded the 'Every Cloakroom Ever' EP. The success of which left us with the smug satisfaction of being right all along, but made us realise that our finances were way too shaky to be a record label as well as a band. Releasing music through Alcopop is awesome because they understand the impractical desire, from both artist and consumer, to have actual physical products for songs. Sometimes they're fun promo things like frisbees and stickers, and sometimes it's actual records. "So, it was at the back of our heads all the last year, that what we were doing would make it to vinyl. We also knew that we were making a huge sprawling album, and when it came to the point we had over 45 minutes worth of music, we merely shrugged, murmured '2x12"' to each other, and carried on until it was finished. Luckily the adults around us agreed, and you're going to be able to hold it in your own hands this June.” Johnny Foreigner's new album 'Johnny Foreigner vs Everything' will be released on 12” on 25th June via Alcopop Records.

“It’s all about planning, you know?” he continued. “I had a lot that had to happen last year for us to get to this point. I worked really, really, really hard to get here. But I think now, because of that hard work, starting towards the end of this year and next year, we [AVA] are set up and scheduled in a way that we will finally be able to do what it is that we’ve always wanted to do since seven years ago.” “Nothing will be in the way, starting at that point.”

- returned in 2009 for a number of tour dates, and an album, ‘Neighborhoods’, released last year.

The frontman also added that becoming self-sufficient, with the help of their own label To The Stars Records, was a defining factor in the band’s current position: “We had to get to a certain situation, you know? One of them was becoming completely independent and that took a long time to do.”

DIY recently spoke to the AVA frontman, as well as their bassist Matt Wachter as they got ready to headline London’s R e u n i o n Shepherd’s Bush Empire earlier this Could this be the end of Blink 182 again, C o m i n g T o A n E n d ? month. It was during our interview with or simply just the right time for the trio to take a break and return to their the pair, when asked how time constraints previous projects? Only time will tell. In due to the band’s other projects came Angels & Airwaves’ Tom DeLonge has the meantime though, you can check out to affect the schedule for Angels & hinted that Blink 182’s reunion may be Airwaves, DeLonge replied: “After this drawing to a close as soon as this year. The pindrop-diy-half-horizontal-apr-2012_Layout 1 16/04/2012 21:33 Page 1 Blink 182 as they return to the UK for a huge stretch of UK and European shows year, my schedule is going to be a lot band - which went on indefinite hiatus in this summer. easier.” 2005 owing to tensions between members

new releases from the pindrop pr roster

www.facebook.com/pindropmusic // www.twitter.com/pindropmusic // www.pindroppublicity.com // info@pindroppublicity.com

hot head show: ‘the lemon’ lp (out now on tentacle entertainments)

super best friends club: ‘super best friends club’ lp (out summer 2012 on tentacle entertainments)

capitol k: ‘andean dub’ lp (out june 2012 on faith & industry)

shoeb ahmad: ‘watch/illuminate’ lp (out summer 2012 on mystery plays)

the yarns: ‘chase me to the hills’ ep (out summer 2012 on beard museum)

leverton fox: ‘the human arm’ lp (out june 2012 on not applicable)

“MADDENINGLY ENGAGING... OF ALL THE ALBUMS THAT WILL ANNOY THE PEOPLE WITH WHOM YOU LIVE, THIS ONE WILL ANNOY THEM THE MOST” – KERRANG

“THE KIND OF RECORD THAT EXISTS AT THE INDETERMINABLE PERIODS BETWEEN NIGHT AND DAY, WHEN YOU’RE NOT QUITE SURE WHETHER IT’S A BRIGHT NIGHT OR A MURKY DAY” – CYCLIC DEFROST

“UTTERLY EXTRAORDINARY” – TOM ROBINSON, BBC 6MUSIC

“A JOY TO BEHOLD... PRECISE AND CONTROLLED, VELVETY IN TEXTURE, LIKE A GOOD PINT OF GUINNESS” – THE 405

“SUCH PRECISION AND INNOVATION LEAVES EVEN THE SEASONED LISTENER SLACK-JAWED AND STRUGGLING FOR COMPARISONS. THESE SONGS DESERVE TO BE HEARD” – 8.4, PITCHFORK

“EXTREMELY TACTILE AVANT-ELECTRONICA... RANGING FROM SQUAT, STUNTED MACHINE-FUNK BEATS TO BUBBLING, AQUATIC AMBIENT ENVIRONMENTS” – JAZZWISE 9

news eddie argos

I love Terry Wogan as much as the next person. He is, after all, a bona ﬁde national treasure. And like most other Brits, I imagine, I've tuned into the Eurovision Song Contest just as much to enjoy his dry, witty remarks as to hear the musical entries from the participating countries. Our nation's love of Terry's ﬂippancy has tricked us into believing that the rest of Europe feels the same way we do about Eurovision, and that we should enter kitsch or mawkish novelty songs in an attempt to win. We don't take it seriously. Why else would we enter s**t like Scooch's 'Flying The Flag For You' or Blue's 'I Can'? When we enter these terrible songs, we mistakenly believe that we are being clever and knowing. "Oh, that's exactly the sort of rubbish that wins Eurovision," we think to ourselves. Of course, it never is.

Why I Should Write And Perform The Eurovision Entry The British public tend to justify the UK's terrible track record in the Eurovision Song Contest with a commonly-held misconception: the event has become too political and all of the other countries involved in the competition hate us, and that is why we always lose so badly. I'm not saying that the UK isn't an unpopular country amongst other Europeans, however the belief that once a year, all of the other members of the EU release their pent-up antiBritish frustrations by giving our shoddy boy bands and singing bin-men NIL POINTS in a singing competition is simply ridiculous. Germany and Russia are arguably just as unpopular within the EU (for much more glaring reasons, historically speaking), and they have done just ﬁne in the last few years. 10 thisisfakediy.co.uk

In actuality, the main reason why we get such an incredibly bad response at Eurovision year after year is because we enter horriﬁcally terrible songs. Even worse than that, we are doing it on purpose. In the UK, Eurovision is commonly thought of as a bit of a joke, something that is beneath us. This is due in no small part to the live commentary that Terry Wogan provided on the BBC's broadcast of the competition from 1980 until 2008. For us, the tone of the competition has always been coloured by comments such as, "Who knows what hellish future lies ahead? Actually, I do. I've seen the rehearsals," which was Terry's opening gambit in covering the 2007 competition from Finland. While it's a funny way to kick off the show, I don't think any of our European brethren's hosts began their commentaries in such a cavalier way.

This year, our entry comes from a man with a comical, but fun to type, name: Engelbert Humperdinck. He is undeniably kitsch. His fans call him 'the King of Romance' and he is most famous for having his hit 'Please Release Me' keep the Beatles' 'Strawberry Fields Forever' from topping the charts in 1967. He was an anachronism even then. It is hard to believe that he wasn't 'ironically' hand-picked by a secret cabal of snobs sneering down their noses at the ostensibly low-brow competition that the continent so sincerely and wholeheartedly embraces. When Azerbaijan, last year's winner, were choosing their entry, they weren't mucking about with irony, or trying to guess what might become a novelty hit, or attempting to be charmingly kitsch. They just chose the best song that they had. The same goes for all of the previous winners. Nobody has ever won Eurovision by trying to be clever. This is why I should write and perform next year's entry. I promise that if I am given the chance, I will take my responsibility very seriously. I will write the absolute best song that I can. I will not try and be clever or self-knowing. There will be no boy-band dance moves, and I won't dress up like the cabin crew of a f**king budget airline. I will simply do my best to make my country proud and put in a good performance. You can't say fairer than that. And if I don't win, it won't be my fault. It will be because the rest of Europe hates us.

Looks Like We Made It To The End

Stephen Ackroyd looks at would confirm Blur as a

here are some things you only get to write when it looks like a band’s active life is drawing to a close. Before that point, there’s an expectation to stay at least slightly objective. Sure, sweeping statements are fun, but who knows what they’ll do next to demolish their legacy. Damon Albarn’s recent quotes, in a wide ranging and painfully honest interview with The Guardian, sound both final and, crucially, the first believable words on the subject of Blur we’ve heard in a long time. “I find it very easy to record with Graham,” Albarn reveals. “He’s a daily musician. With the other two, it’s harder for them to reconnect. It’s fine when we play live, but actually recording new stuff, and swapping musical influences... it’s quite difficult.”

why stopping great British

now band

While ‘Kid A’ got the plaudits for pushing the boundaries, ‘13’, released more than 18 months before, showed an even more radical reinvention of the musical wheel. The back half of that record didn’t belong on a Number One album in 1999. What it did was show Damon Albarn as far, far smarter than anyone previously gave him credit for. In many ways it’s this that makes sense of their decision to return without much in the way of new material to promote. While we’ve had ‘Fool’s Day’, and now ‘Under The Westway’, the greatest achievement of the reformed Blur was to remind the world just what they were capable of. There’s a curious desire over time to reduce all bands to a single hit; Blur were all set to be ‘Country House’, and that simply wasn’t on.

Over the past decade a lot has changed; Dave Rowntree turning to weightier callings in politics and law, Alex James arriving with a fixed grin at the opening of an envelope with a quote, photo opportunity and a complete lack of self awareness (wait, we did say changed, right? - Ed).

Now, if Blur are anything, they’re ‘Tender’. They’re the emotional landslide of near ten minutes of unspeakable brilliance at Glastonbury. They’re the tears in everyone’s eyes, the goosebumps on their skin, the realisation that - for every great performance on that Pyramid Stage - this one might just top the lot. They’re ‘This Is A Low’, ‘Chemical World’, ‘Badhead’ and ‘The Universal’. Though, in retrospect, that last one may be down to British Gas.

With that done, finally we can be honest; we can all admit that it was never Blur vs Oasis - that wasn’t a fair fight. Blur’s only true competition amongst their peers came from Radiohead, and when you weigh it up, there’s only ever one winner.

In the lexicon of Great British Bands, Blur have to rank high. Across their lifetime they can be humbled by few, and if there really is no new material to come, their legacy stands sure. After all, there’s no way Albarn will go back on his word, right? 11

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YANN TIERSEN • KING CREOSOTE & JON HOPKINS • SCRITTI POLITTI • TIME & SPACE MACHINE • JUNIOR BOYS • DAMIEN JURADO • BOWERBIRDS • FIELD MUSIC • FRIENDS • CASS MCCOMBS • C.W. STONEKING • SLOW CLUB • GHOSTPOET • WILLY MASON • BETH JEANS HOUGHTON & THE HOOVES OF DESTINY • DARK DARK DARK • DAUGHTER • PEAKING LIGHTS • THREE TRAPPED TIGERS • MEGAFAUN • ISLET • JOE PUG • LUCY ROSE • TREMBLING BELLS • CASHIER NO. 9 • TOY • THE WAVE PICTURES • PICTISH TRAIL • TEETH OF THE SEA • LAURA J MARTIN • SWEET BABOO • And Many More Comedy BUG WITH ADAM BUXTON • THE RUBBER BANDITS • ZOE LYONS • ROBIN INCE • HOLLY WALSH • MIKE WOZNIAK • HENRY PAKER • MARK OLVER • Plus Many More TBA Plus 9 STAGES • 24HR BARS • EINSTEIN’S GARDEN • DUSK TILL DAWN BONFIRE • LOCAL BEER & CIDER • GOURMET FOOD • LITERATURE • LOADS TO DO FOR KIDS & TEENS • MASSAGE & THERAPY • MOUNTAINS • WISHING TREE • And Lots More...

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festivals 2012

festivals

As you'll find out in a few pages' time when you reach First On, some of DIY's favourite new bands are playing this year's Dot To Dot. The UK's only tri-city travelling festival, the three-day event will take place in Bristol (2nd June), Nottingham (3rd June) and Manchester (4th June). Tickets are priced at just ÂŁ20 per day, and for that you'll not only get to see headline sets from The Drums and Pulled Apart By Horses, but the likes of Wavves, Neon Indian, and Summer Camp. As well as the more established names, you'll also find sets from the likes of Shinies, Deaf Club, Peace, Dog Is Dead, Lucy Rose, Clock Opera, Patterns, and a whole heap more. Dot To Dot will take place at various venues in Bristol, Nottingham and Manchester from 2nd - 4th June.

Dot to Dot Such is the festival's success, 2012 is the last year Manchester's Parklife Weekender will take place in its current location of Platt Fields Park. The line up looks pretty good from where we're standing headed up by The Flaming Lips and Dizzee Rascal - but it's upwards and onwards for organisers who plan for ever more impressive production and next-level line ups. "A new location is not yet confirmed but plans are in the pipeline," reveals co-promoter Sam Kandel. "In the meantime we're really looking forward to bidding farewell to Platt Fields in style." Our picks from the weekend include former DIY cover act Noah & The Whale, old favourites Tom Vek and The Rapture, and newcomers Azealia Banks, Jessie Ware, Friends and Django Django.

parklife

Parklife Weekender will take place at Platt Fields Park in Manchester from 9th - 10th June. 14 thisisfakediy.co.uk

Field Day have booked one of the headliners we're most excited to see return this festival season - Franz Ferdinand. We'd attend just for them, being honest. But of course they're not the only act we're looking forward to, with the all-dayer having recently announced a handful of line up additions that includes Austra, Citizens, and Sunless '97. They'll be joining the likes of Com Truise, Errors, Jeffrey Lewis, Liars, Friends, Theme Park, Zulu Winter, Metronomy, and Blood Orange. You may have noticed the festival will be taking place a little earlier this year, so there's less time to wait. We can thank the Olympics for that one. Field Day will take place at Victoria Park in London on 2nd June.

FIELD DAY

ROCkNESS

The latest bunch of acts announced as playing this year's RockNess is headed up by Friendly Fires, who've nabbed the spot right beneath Biffy Clyro on the final day. Also added across the weekend event are The Drums, The Rapture, Kassidy, Mystery Jets, Little Comets, Lucy Rose,

Bastille and To Kill A King, amongst others. It's not all about the music however, the first comedy announcement has also been made: Tim Minchin. He recently co-wrote the musical version of Matilda, dontchaknow.

Also confirmed are Mumford & Sons, deadmau5, Justice, Noah & The Whale, Death In Vegas, Metronomy, The View, and many more. RockNess will take place at Loch Ness in Scotland from 8th - 10th June. 15

download Download Festival is going all-out this year to celebrate its tenth anniversary with its biggest ever line up. Dozens of acts will play the event, from headliners The Prodigy, Metallica and Black Sabbath, to Biffy Clyro, Soundgarden, Machine Head, You Me At Six and Slash. With several acts still to be announced, promotor Andy Copping comments: "This yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Download is going from strength to strength and the line up is shaping up nicely." Download's first ever event was held over two days in 2003, headlined by Iron Maiden and - following Limp Bizkit pulling out - Audioslave. Download will take place at Donington Park in Leicestershire from 8th - 10th June.

Confession time: we're not massively "up" on Downton Abbey. Shocking, isn't it? So we were a bit surprised when one of its stars confirmed for Isle Of Wight festival. Elizabeth McGovern, who - apparently - plays Cora, Countess Of Grantham in the show, is also a singersongwriter and will be joining Scottish rockers Big Country for their main stage set. The band's Tony Butler says: "We had a tradition of working with great female vocalists such as Kate Bush and Eddi Reader in the past, so having the opportunity to have Elizabeth perform with us at the IOW is going to be really cool." Also playing the event are: Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Pearl Jam, Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, Lana Del Rey, Magnetic Man, Elbow, Biffy Clyro and Noel Gallagher, amongst others. Isle Of Wight Festival will take place at Seaclose Park in Newport from 22nd - 24th June.

16 thisisfakediy.co.uk

isle of wighT

A p p l e Cart The easiest way to think about Apple Cart is as a sibling to Field Day. It shares organisers, location, and a weekend with the event, with the latter taking place one day prior. Whilst Field Day can't quite claim to be all about the music (the tombola and macaroni cheese stall are our favourites), for Apple Cart it's even less so: much of the bill is taken up by a rather wonderful mix of comedy, art, cabaret, and magic. So whilst you do have the likes of Adam Ant, Billy Bragg and Gaz Coombes appearing, you also have Rich Hall, Shappi Khorsandi, Seann Walsh and Josie Long stopping by. Elsewhere on the line up you'll find Noah & The Whale, Lianne La Havas, Josh T Pearson, Jeffrey Lewis, Marques Toliver, Jamie N Commons, Beth Jeans Houghton and Marcus Foster. Apple Cart will take place at Victoria Park in London on 3rd June.

evolution lovebox

Grace Jones has been confirmed as headlining the Sunday of Lovebox, where she'll be joined by Hot Chip (Friday) and Friendly Fires (Saturday). To mark the festival's 10th birthday celebrations, organisers have booked three of their most talked-about previous performers. They'll be supported across the three days by the likes of Crystal Castles, Magnetic Man, Emeli Sande, Kelis, Azealia Banks, Little Dragon, Lana Del Rey, Mika and Sam Sparro. Commenting on her performance, Jones says to "Brace yourself !" whilst Mika - who will be playing on Jodie Harsh's This Is Circus stage, was a little more forthcoming: "I've spent many amazing, lost nights at Circus and I couldn't think of a better way of taking part in Jodie's night than doing this performance." Lovebox will take place at Victoria Park in London from 15th - 17th June.

There's no shortage of things to do over the Diamond Jubilee Bank Holiday Weekend, and if you're up in the North East you could swap those slightly rubbish street parties for Evolution Festival. This year the line up is topped by Dizzee Rascal (Sunday) and deadmau5 (Monday), quickly followed by the likes of Maximo Park, Miles Kane, Band Of Skulls and Noah & The Whale. On the new band front, there will be showings from Theme Park, Lulu James, Dog Is Dead, Spector and Jessie Ware. All for just ÂŁ25 for a day ticket, or ÂŁ35 for the weekend. Promoter Jim Mawdsley comments: "We are very proud to bring such a strain and progressive line up to NewcastleGateshead for this year's Evolution Festival. We look forward to partying with you all in June." Evolution will take place at Newcastle Gateshead Quayside from 3rd - 4th June.

leefest There are a few festivals that have started in back gardens. Glastonbury, for example. Though the garden in question was in effect a whole farm. LeeFest kicked off in slightly more modest accommodation, at teenager Lee Denny's parents' house in Beckenham, Kent, when they went on holiday. Now in its seventh year, the event has expanded somewhat and now takes place at Highams Hill Farm in Surrey. Previous headliners include the likes of The Futureheads, Fenech-Soler and Young Knives, and this year they've booked Mystery Jets. Also on the bill - although there's much still to be announced - are Summer Camp, To Kill A King, Big Kids, Tom Williams & The Boat, Broken hands, Lion and Raf Daddy. Onwards and upwards. LeeFest will take place at Highams Hill Farm in Warlington, Surrey from 29th - 30th June.

involvement, with the local Rotary club serving burgers, and a strong connection to Oxford’s thriving music scene. The festival had some financial trouble last year, how have you bounced back from it? We have brought a fresh team to the event and will apply the techniques which have worked well for [the team's other festival] Y-Not, simplifying things and keeping a close eye on details. Unfortunately the company which ran the event last year went into liquidation; our goal is to provide a sustainable future for the event. What have you done differently this time around? As I mentioned, we’ve brought back the barn. Fortunately it has a new roof hosting a giant array of solar panels, and we’ll be able to use that power for the event. After some site expansion last year, we’re using a layout closer to that of a couple of years back. The organisation is a smaller hands-on team. What did you look to keep from previous Truck festivals? The Truck Stage, the improved family camping and facilities, the reputation for discovering and supporting new artists, and the community spirit. The festival has reverted back to two days rather than three this year. Are there plans to expand it back to three days further down the line? Y-Not is a three day festival and it fits, but Truck worked well as a two-day event for its first 10 years; we shall have to see how it goes. Given the recent cancellation of Sonisphere, what is the mood amongst UK Festival organisers at the moment? It’s cautiously optimistic; the important thing is to provide something distinctive at a fair price, which we certainly think Truck offers. What advice would you give to someone who is coming to Truck for the first time this year? Come with an open mind, you’re bound to discover some great new music and make many new friends. Make sure you’re there for the first band and you don’t go to bed too early!

truck DIY’s favourite Oxfordshire festival, Truck will this year be celebrating its fifteenth anniversary: and we’ll be joining them. The much-loved event returns to Hill Farm in Steventon on 20th - 21st July, with acts such as Temper Trap, Mystery Jets and British Sea Power performing; a high quality line-up at a very reasonable price. Andy Vale catches up with the organisers to ask them about their recent new additions, how the festival coped with almost going out of business and just what makes Truck so special. Who are the latest additions to the lineup, then? The Temper Trap, British Sea Power, The Low Anthem, Guillemots and Little Comets have recently joined Mystery Jets, Villagers, Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly and 65daysofstatic on the bill, amongst many more quality artists. Tim Minchin and Frightened Rabbit are the latest acts to be added. Are there any further announcements to be made? Yes. Some exciting and surprising names! What artists on your line-up can you see making the biggest impact during the festival season? It’s a big summer for The Temper Trap, returning with their second album, and there’s a lot of excitement about their Truck appearance. This year marks your 15th anniversary, have you got anything exciting lined up for it? As it’s our first year organising the event, we’ve looked through the history and picked out artists who have made legendary appearances in the past at Truck - such as Mystery Jets, 65daysofstatic, Get Cape and British Sea Power - and added some fresh names who are new to the event; we’ve also brought back the famous barn stage. It’s a back-to-basics year. What marks Truck out as a special festival? It’s a pioneer in the independent festival scene, one of the first on the scene [in 1998], and inspired many to follow in its wheeltracks. It also has a lot of community

Truck Festival will take place at Hill Farm in Steventon from 20th - 21st July.

f e s t i va l DIY has a stage at The camden Crawl; join us at

The Wheelbarrow on Sunday 6th May for sets from Evans The Death, The Victorian English Gentlemens Club, Tall Ships and Johnny Foreigner.

We'll also be stopping off at The Great Escape in Brighton,

with DIY playing host to Seasfire, Mmoths, Chew Lips and Com Truise at Audio on Friday 11th May. Further afield, Benicassim have confirmed a headline set from Bob Dylan. He'll be playing the Spanish festival after The Stone Roses, New Order, At The Drive-In and more.

Green Man 2012 will kick off proceedings with Adam Buxton's bimonthly BFI Southbank show, BUG. The comedian will be performing a special Thursday night set. Label Bella Union will be celebrating their fifteenth anniversary at this year's

End Of The Road,

with sets from the likes of The Acorn, Concrete Knives, and Marques Toliver. The T In The Park bill has expanded once again, with new additions including Django Django, Shed Seven, The Jezabels, and We Are Augustines. The Saturday of Beacons will be headlined by Wild Beasts. Other acts playing the Skipton festival include Patrick Wolf, Ghostpoet and Mazes.

letters

deardiy... Dear DIY, The shape of Rock to come? I see what you did there... (REFUSED FOR THE WIN!) Alexander James Sievers, The Internets

For the record, as well as in the form of great bands, we also like our rocks to be composed of an allotrope of carbon, and diamond cut. Please send to the usual address.

Dear DIY, You're totally right about DZ Deathrays - what a band! Their show at the Old Blue Last was insaaaane! Thanks for putting on such a great show. You know it's a good one when they end up swinging off the rafters, right? Sarah Wright, London We'd also like them to be swinging off chandeliers, but the budget doesn't stretch that far. Next time...

Dear DIY, We need to talk about Marina. Not only is she not content with completely ripping off Madonna's style but in the last issue, it appears she's taken to drawing love hearts under her eyes. Please have a word and stop this madness before it's too late. Grace, Ipswich

Harsh, Grace, harsh. But one sniff of a cone shaped bra, and we promise we'll 'have a word'.

Dear DIY, Really liked reading the feature you did with Santigold in the last issue. I think it's really cool that despite all the upheaval, she's managed to keep it all together and put out a new album. I proper love 'Big Mouth' and I'm dead excited to hear the rest of the tracks. Nick Zinner is a ledge! Holly, Wakefield Nick Zinner is a rather good guitarist, accomplished musician, well-respected artist and member of one of the most exhilarating bands of the 2000s. He is not to be confused with a piece of wood surrounding a window, thank you very much.

To send DIY your letters, either email us at: letters@thisisfakediy.co.uk or post them to: DIY Letters, 1st Floor, 9 Chapel Place, London, EC2A 3DQ You can also find us on Facebook: facebook.com/thisisfakediy & Twitter: twitter.com/thisisfakediy

Things People On Twitter Said

...i n r e p ly t o questions we asked This summer, The Futureheads will support Red Hot Chili Peppers and The Darkness will support Lady Gaga. What's the oddest support/ headliner combo you've witnessed? Linkin Park supporting Metallica @ Roundabout, Dublin 2003... Fans were a tiny bit aggressive. - @anyesway Reverend & The Makers supported by two belly dancers in Manchester. - @datzr

Chase & Status supporting Kasabian on NYE at O2. That's odd. Good tho that's odder. - @Tommyophoto

Approx 9 years ago I saw an awful new act called the Scissor Sisters support Zoot Woman in a 150-cap venue. - @holyellen Hot Chip, Art Brut, LCD Soundsystem. At least we found it confusing. - @Art_Brut_

I saw M83 supporting Kings Of Leonâ&#x20AC;Ś - @willjrichards

Super Furries being supported by Goldie Lookin Chain at Hammersmith Apollo was a bit unusual... - @johnmcg Kasabian supporting the Von Bondies. Did not predict Kasabian's success. - @captainpolaroid The Pixies supporting the Stereophonics. People were literally sprinting out of the arena as soon as The Pixies finishedâ&#x20AC;Ś @RickSkilbeck NOTHING beats when Test Icicles supported Alkaline Trio. Solid gold mismatch. - @MikeTreat James supported by Radiohead for a whole UK tour seems quite odd with hindsight (but didn't so much at the time). - @chrissalmon

Follow DIY on Twitter at twit ter.co.uk /thisisfakediy 20 thisisfakediy.co.uk

first on deaf club

We're very excited to this year be teaming up with Dot To Dot festival; as such, over the next few pages you can find tidbits from some of the best new bands appearing at the event. If you'd like to pop along yourself, it will take place in Bristol (2nd June), Nottingham (3rd June) and Manchester (4th June). Find more details at dottodotfestival.co.uk and - of course - thisisfakediy.co.uk.

22 thisisfakediy.co.uk

Deaf Club’s Polly Mackey talks sold-out tapes, darkness, and PJ Harvey. “I used to hate listening to any music that I made,” admits Polly Mackey, in conversation with DIY on one of the most beautiful mornings of the year so far. “You suddenly become very vulnerable.” This vulnerability has gradually eroded, ever since Deaf Club put their EP up for free online in June last year. ‘Hana’, the opening track, is the standout and as a result it’s gaining affection from radio DJs and music bloggers alike. “I’d never written a song before that I’d been 100% happy with, one that I enjoy listening to myself; that was the first song that I’d gotten an immense sense of pride out of.” Polly and the other members of Deaf Club had meddled in previous projects

for many years. As close friends, there was always an awareness that the band could form on a whim, with the potential of being a success: “We always kind of knew that we could all, at some stage, play together in the exact way we’d want to.” When the moment came, “it all happened really naturally,” says Mackey. After a gradual process of going into the studio together once every two weeks, they emerged with one final product. Because it was made on a budget of zero pence, the band saw no need to charge and therefore put it on Bandcamp for free. The events that followed were anything but anticipated. “It was kind of bad timing because I’d

just moved to London and all the others were just about to move and scatter across the country with university,” Mackey tells us. “So we didn’t push it and do loads of gigs, we just put it up for free. It was crazy - it was getting around 50 downloads a day. We didn’t understand how or why.” Perhaps the group are closer to finding out, considering a recent cassette release on the Transgressive label’s imprint Kissability sold out in no time at all. It must be rewarding to see the initial demand received from the EP sustaining itself. “Exactly, when you come to release something, it’s like when you do a show; you’re always scared that people won’t turn up. For it to then sell out, it completely blows you away, especially because people are used to us giving stuff away for free!” The band have little reason to be nervous when backing up their wonderful EP with such a stunning debut single, but it’s easy to empathise with such tensions. It’s just as easy to gather where the appeal stems from. Deaf Club harbour an intense, pitch-black darkness within

at the Royal Albert Hall last Halloween. their songs. Guitars are drenched in “It was one of the most mindblowing gigs layer upon layer of sinking reverb effects ever. It really helped me make sense of (Mackey is keen to heap praise on the the album.” band’s guitarist, Jac: “I play guitar but I still watch him in wonder. I find the way Perhaps if she’s spent every year of he plays fascinating”), while Polly’s voice songwriting comparing her works to the stays relatively bare, like a determined, likes of PJ Harvey, it’s understandable solitary figure who refuses to get swept when Polly states a vulnerability when away in the heady instrumentation. The listening to her own darkness is “something music. But ‘Hana’, that we can’t really suddenly its respective EP and avoid,” says Polly. “You “Since I was fifteen, become very the following ‘Sunday’ / ‘Mirror’ single, all I’ve written songs of a once seem like formidable dark style. It’s not emo vulnerable or depressive, it just you’re listening to first steps for an emerging act to make. resonates with a minor your own music.” Maybe in a few year’s chord.” time Mackey’s record collection will solely Polly has stated her consist of her own band’s recordings, as adoration for PJ Harvey in several fresh young talents state how intimidated interviews, citing debut ‘Dry’ as her they are by Deaf Club’s achievements. favourite album (“There’s just something The band’s current trajectory hints at such about it, it’s so raw”). We go on to a possibility. discuss ‘White Chalk’ and ‘Let England Shake’, the latter of which is an album Deaf Club’s new single ‘Sunday’ / ‘Mirrors’ that Mackey went to see performed in its is out now via White On White. entirety, in typically dark circumstances, 23

first on profiles

first on

17 and 18 years old respectively, Bondax (Adam Kaye and George Townsend) call themselves “DJs and producers” but really they’re behind some of the more forward-thinking, dance-laced pop efforts of the past 12 months. Right up there with their contemporaries think Jamie xx and Disclosure - they transgress dub, R&B and conventional electronic music, skewing vocal samples, turning them inside out, eventually emerging with a set of songs exclusively aimed for the final hours of a Saturday club night. If you think about the age of this Lancaster duo, you only find yourself seething with jealousy. There’s soul and emotion rooted in their tracks, and it takes mere seconds for the listener to be exposed to the wealth of ideas both Kaye and Townsend have. ( JM) 24 thisisfakediy.co.uk

It’s easy to be dismissive about the idea of Manchester as indie music’s UK hub. Being told by perpetually-drunk elders that the Stone Roses “changed the way they looked at things,” probably not only in regards to music, our generation can often feel lethargic about Manc’s muso legacy. But with the recent flourish of great bands coming from the city, we’re able to experience first-hand all that the place is currently breeding from our very own computer desks. With their weird and wonderful take on guitar-led electronica, Patterns are like Metronomy for those too socially anxious to go to indie discos. Regardless, releasing their debut EP free online, they’re already catching the attention of many eager eyes in bedrooms up and down the country. (LMB)

You may have heard of Lucy Rose before, or at least you’re likely to have heard her even if you have been unaware of the fact. Those well acquainted with Bombay Bicycle Club are certain to have, what with Rose’s velvet-lined tones providing a backdrop for much of the band’s latest album ‘A Different Kind Of Fix’. Their fans also probably caught her performing when supporting the group on tour recently. The rest of us, however, will have to wait for her first solo release due later this year. While it seems pretty preposterous to call anybody ‘The Next Laura Marling’ quite yet, Rose’s considered take on folk and pop reminds us of why everyone fell head-over-heels for the former in the first place. (LMB)

You have to admire their youthful zeal in such a po-faced musical climate, sounding much like The Go! Team’s take on early Los Campesinos! So much so that they should probably add some unnecessary punctuation to their name for this very emphasis. Wonder Villains are ultimately a band many will be won over by this coming festival season, but something all sundodging cynics should thoroughly avoid lest you want to experience deeply nostalgic pangs of summers yore. (LMB)

You might usually associate ear-ringing, scruff-neck guitarled rockabilly with the heart of a U.S Southern state. The Cold War Kids’ soul, The Raconteurs’ edge, placed neatly into one package; the eventual result actually emerged from these very shores: Kent, to be precise. Broken Hands are a wild and ragged bunch, with splinters embedded in their thumbs and sharp guitar lines lodged in their heads. A love of blues evidently lines the seams of their tracks; an adoration for the heady legacy of The White Stripes and their contemporaries. Regardless of their location, Broken Hands belong in the Deep South and within seconds of listening to them, you feel yourself right there with them, wiping the desert sand off your shoulders. ( JM)

dottodotfestival.co.uk

I n A s s o c i at i o n Wit h

Some press shots really do show the complete picture of a band, whether it be the bleary-lensed polaroid of a bedroom DJ or the monochrome portrait of a Cohen-inspired singer, and those of Wonder Villains are no different. They really do look, and sound, like they’re having the most fun in their lives.

Lulu James essentially absorbs all the late-night, Londonbased energy of James Blake, Jamie Woon and Jessie Ware’s darkest moments, and redirects them to a place she likes to call “Newcastle pon de Tyne.” The title track of her recent ‘Rope Mirage’ EP is brilliantly haunting: “Depending on a spider’s web / I’m wrapped in cotton wall” she declares, above the kind of absorbing backdrop Jamie xx would beg to use for one of his remixes. It is the quintessential sound of the UK’s empty streets, at 4am on a chilly Saturday evening. But it’s not just that; Lulu adds a delicacy to her tracks - largely through her chilling lyrics - which bolster each and every one of them into more interesting territory. ( JM)

find out more about singer songwriter and producer Smith, aka Bastille.

How is it that Gotye managed to reach the #1 spot in nineteen countries, having seemingly come out of nowhere? A lot of the reason lies in a cover of ‘Somebody That I Used To Know’ by guitar wizard group Walk Off The Earth. One internet sensation later and 75 million people have heard the song. Nowadays major labels will search high and low for a similar viral spread. In truth, such a response can only come naturally. Bastille’s very first video, uploaded to the internet last year, managed to provoke a similar reaction, albeit on a smaller scale. It must be a humbling feeling? was like nothing I’d ever “It’s always “It expected,” says Dan Smith, nice to meld who until recently used as a moniker for his together your Bastille solo work. Today he still loves of film writes all of the songs but recording he recruits and music, when the help of bandmates. Smith but it doesn’t is completely modest when about his spell of always work.” talking success - he’s anything but over his head with the Radio 1 plays and the YouTube covers: “I feel like I’ve been really lucky. People seem to have stumbled upon us; it’s slowly and surely grown quite naturally." But what was it in ‘Flaws’ that allowed Bastille to receive such a following in so short a space of time? The video comprises of footage from Terrence Malick’s 1973 flick ‘Badlands’. Smith 26 thisisfakediy.co.uk

himself has an undying love for film. In between gushing praise of David Lynch, we discuss favourite scenes and characters from Twin Peaks before coming to a sensible conclusion: “If I had my way, everyone in the world would be forced to watch it.” The fact that Smith’s first work is a direct homage to one of the most disturbingly surreal shows ever to reach our television sets, suggests there’s more to the guy’s work than uplifting choruses and catchy mantras. When asking Dan if he feels his music has a certain darkness lurking beneath, he immediately replies; “it’s wicked that you detect it.” He continues; “sonically or melodically they might be more upbeat but if you listen to what they’re about they’re not necessarily happy songs.” Bastille’s brand of striking, multi-faceted pop is often

dottodotfestival.co.uk

We / Dan

I n A s s o c i at i o n Wit h

first on bastille

more than meets the ear. Will he ever accompany his songs with a dark feature length film? “It’s always nice to meld together your loves of film and music but it doesn’t always work.” This is the first time in our entire interview where Dan appears reserved. This is largely because much of our chat reflects on his whirlwind past year, of which he is entirely grateful for. But when it comes to future plans, Smith is well-grounded, sensibly considering his next steps, determined ensure that his recent fortune is not a flash in the pan success story. A debut album, due in September, will no doubt reveal what’s in that head of his, besides stellar cinema and sweet pop songs. Bastille’s new single ‘Overjoyed’ will be released on 30th April via Virgin Records.

first on The Cast Of Cheers will release their first proper album ‘Family’ - produced by Clor’s Luke Smith - on 18th June. Single ‘Animals’ will precede the release. San Fernando Valley trio Haim have announced their first UK shows, in support of their debut EP ‘Forever’. Catch them at: MAY 09 Electrowerkz, London; 10 Queen of Hoxton, London; 11 Psychosocial, Brighton; 12 Audio, Brighton; 13 Birthdays, Dalston London; 14 Shacklewell Arms, London.

Shinies

Ja m i e M i lt o n f i n d s o u t m o r e a b o u t lo-fi Manchester trio Shinies. into action a buzz that now surrounds the band. “It caught us all a bit off guard, but in a good way!” The song has since been re-recorded by go-to producer, Rory Attwell. “Rory gave it a slightly more professional sound,” we’re told. “Before we recorded ‘Spent Youth’ with only one mic in our basement, [so] a recording studio seemed the next logical step.” The band already mentioned how surprised they were by ‘Spent Youth’’s overnight success - how aware were they of the influence music blogs could have? “What do you take us for?!” the band quip “We really didn’t have a clue about blogs. during our interview, quickly easing our We’re sort of philistines when it comes initial fears. “It was a working title that to things like that.” Though today they went too far... Shola can be a girl's name, remind both DIY and themselves that too.” Shinies are indeed more about girls “it’s still early days,” the band are set to than goals. The artwork for their debut play Dot To Dot, and track, ‘Spent Youth’, consists of a Playboy- “People keep have an EP in the pipeline. The group affiliated playing card; a topless girl outside in mentioning sexual admit they “missed the blazing sun. “The frustration when the boat” with a lot of this year's festivals, so song is sexy so why not about 2012 looks likely to have a topless blonde talking girl to go with it?”, they our tracks…” be a year of taking every opportunity that ask us. “Saying that, comes for Shinies, a we have noticed loads band who, despite an of people mentioning obvious affection for sexual frustration Newcastle forward when talking about our Shola Ameobi, won’t be writing songs tracks, so take that as you will...” about second-rate footballers anytime soon. The song is sexy, in its own unconventional way. It fuses harsh, lurching guitar lines with just the right level of “lo-fi” aesthetic. Shinies new single ‘Shola’ is out now via Dirty Bingo. It sprung onto the scene like a bolt of lightning back in December 2011, putting When a band names one of their tracks after a professional footballer, there’s always the fear that they might be one step away from Soccer AM appearances and a full-blown “lad rock” reputation. Not Shinies though. The Manchester group make intelligent, lust-ridden rock music, with fuzzy production and screeching guitars circuiting every track’s bloodstream. It’s far more intelligent than mere lad rock. Besides, Shola Ameobi isn’t even the subject of the group’s latest song.

have revealed the accompanying video to their track ‘Shola’; watch it on thisisfakediy.co.uk.

Violet

- aka Pixie Geldof - has unveiled her debut single, a double A-side featuring ‘Y.O.U.’ and ‘I Come Undone’. The release will be available via Luv Luv Luv Records from 7th May.

Surrey six-piece Wildeflower, as led by the rather grandly-named Max Kinghorn-Mills, will release their debut single ‘Good Girl’ / ‘Amazing Discovery’ on 14th May.

Bright Light Bright Light’s new album ‘Make Me Believe

In Hope’ will come out this spring via The Blue Team / Aztec Records Ltd. Due on 4th June, the release follows on from singles ‘Love Part II’ and ‘Disco Moment’.

Alt-J have announced plans to embark

upon a full UK tour this May, in support of their debut album ‘An Awesome Wave’; visit thisisfakediy.co.uk for the full dates.

Pop experimentalists Purity Ring have signed with 4AD and Last Gang for the release of their debut album. It’s expected to land in July.

echo lake will release their debut album this coming summer; entitled 'Wild Peace', the full-length is due on 25th June via No Pain In Pop. Headlining in London for the first time,

Willy Moon

JoJo's on 17th May.

will play Madame

first on mixtape

I n A s s o c i at i o n Wit h

dottodotfestival.co.uk

Not content with giving you a free magazine, we've put together a free mixtape full of our favourite new bands; download from thisisfakediy.co.uk/mixtape

2/Lucy Rose

Middle Of The Bed

1/Shinies Spent Youth

When Shinies told DIY that ‘Spent Youth’ was a sexy song, we were tempted to laugh it off. But by God, have a look at those lyrics: “Bathroom floor and carpet burn / Bite my lip, curl your tongue.” Who’d have thought that such lust-ridden desire could find itself in a rabid, Manchester-bred guitar song? This Rory Attwell produced track is the perfect introduction to Shinies’ sexy side...

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Lucy Rose has been brewing for some time, ready to unveil herself to the world. Back in the heady days of MySpace pages, she was getting considerable attention. Guest appearances on the Bombay Bicycle Club album and a few notable appearances elsewhere, and ‘Middle Of The Bed’ is the statement-making first step towards bigger things. Like much of her early stuff but ripened with an additional maturity, it is a softly-told, acoustic-led comfort astoundingly beautiful, too.

3/Deaf Club Hana

In this month’s interview with Deaf Club, Polly Mackey was honest enough to tell DIY that ‘Hana’ was the first of her band’s songs that she’d ever been able to comfortably listen to. The lead track from last year’s self-titled, breakthrough EP, Mackey and co are at their best, as reverb-soaked guitars leap bounds across angstridden vocals.

frst on

6/Lulu James

Rope Mirage

4/Peace Follow Baby

To hear a rock star cry out the words “we’re gonna live forever, baby” might appear off-hand as nauseatingly familiar. Fortunately, Peace are far detached from guitar music royalty, although ‘Follow Baby’’s opening section veers mighty close to a full-blown Horrors analogy. In the end you drop the comparisons and bask in the sound of one of Birmingham - nay, the UK’s - most promising guitar bands in yonks.

5/Patterns Throwing Stones (Jewellers Remix)

One of Manchester’s most promising acts gets the remix treatment from just about the best thing to ever emerge out of Newport. Jewellers add glistening synthetic tones to Patterns’ otherwise sharp guitars. Vocals are skewed into oblivion, resembling an incessant beat rather than a conscious set of lyrics. This is one for Dot To Dot’s early hours.

Atop a delicate mesh of sleight beats, Lulu James recalls the sensation of being “down and out, struggling to find my place.” At this point, you’re enmeshed in the song’s tranquillised state, like a bug caught in what James declares a “spider’s web.” The late night energy of ‘Rope Mirage’ is wholly absorbing; Lulu’s effect-stripped vocals the only element keeping you relatively conscious. Utterly chilling.

8/Eyes On Film Itch

7/Broken Hands Wept

Revellers in a certain Texas based festival might still be getting over the experience of seeing Jack White appear out of nowhere to play a mindblowing solo set, but visitors to Dot to Dot can expect a similar rendition from Broken Hands. Blues-led organ chords go head to head with harsh guitar lines; each rooted somewhere in the searing Aussie outback.

Fingers crossed Eyes On Film don’t play one of Dot To Dot’s tents. Chances are the pegs would fly off - along with those of the entire festival site - such is the sheer power of ‘Itch’. Bellowing chants of “it burns beneath the surface” accompany the punchiest bass and percussion combination you’re ever likely to encounter. Headacheinducing but glorious all the same, it’s a succinct, fitting introduction to a band with few limits.

9/Random Impulse Put It On My Card

The recession doesn’t bite if you “put it on your card” and “think about it in the morning.” Jovel Walker takes this novel approach when hitting the town, blending tales of clubbing with honest rap-infused lyrics such as “my overdraft’s a swimming pool that I don’t wanna dip in.” His financial woes are earnestly portrayed in this head-rush of a song. It’s a much more fitting hard-up student anthem than Jessie J’s ‘Price Tag’, that’s for sure.

feature independent record stores

Indepen de nt RecorD Stor e

uring the course of the last decade, the number of independent record stores in the UK has dwindled by around a third. There are whole towns, like the one in which I live, where the only physical record shop is a certain chain store that requires you to squeeze past the racks of DVDs and computer games before eventually finding the chart CDs hidden away at the back. Don’t ask for vinyl, they’ll look at you like you’ve been teleported in from the Olden 30 thisisfakediy.co.uk

Days. And don’t expect either an opinion or advice when it comes to your purchase, because that’s not the role of that guy behind the counter; he’s not there to point you in the direction of some new aural delights, he’s there to swipe your card and stick your purchases in a bag that’ll cost you an extra five pence.

rowing up, my local record stores (yes, plural, imagine), were veritable treasure troves. The nearest stocked the white labels and promo records that the local radio station had given away, clueless about what they’d had in their hands, disinterested in anything that wasn’t currently in the upper echelons of the top 20. The other shop was a bit more clean cut and shiny, but it did a good job

of ordering in quickly that which you’d heard on John Peel the night before, and had the kind of people behind the counter who always knew your tastes. You trusted their opinion and you knew that when you played the Broken Social Scene record that they’d persuaded you to buy, it’d be right up your alley. Whilst they probably do exist, in all my record buying years I’ve never found myself faced with the mythological snotty staff stereotype, as created by Nick Hornby’s ‘High Fidelity’. But then I’ve also never gone in and asked for Chris De Burgh.

f course, neither of those stores exist anymore. Where once they stood, you’ll now find an estate agent and a wine bar.

Record Store Johnny Foreigner Little 5 Points in Atlanta, GA, is a genuinely dangerous few

blocks. There are tensions and gunshots and everyone you meet lives hand to mouth and has murder stories. There’s also laughter, street art, music booming from every doorway, insanely cheap booze and such a sense of lives being fully lived. Right in the middle of this is Criminal Records, a big, breezy, open-plan store with a stage at one end and a comics section at the other. We’d trekked down the eastern seaboard and back up through the centre of the US, and every city we arrived at, I’d find the nearest comic place and ask if they had the latest, and last, issue of The Red Star. Out of a dozen or so stores, I got two head shakes and ten blank looks. Criminal Records had two copies, and when I took one, the desk the guy said, 'that’s not selling, you can have it for a dollar.' We all bought something, records, books, toys... I told him, our band is playing the theatre tonight, we don’t know anyone, you guys are welcome to guest list if you want a night out. He looked up, looked around the store at the rest of the staff, and smiled. 'Naaaaaah, I don’t think so.' I read a few weeks back that they’re suffering from the same £$ problems that every other record store is facing, and might have to close. I really hope they don’t, 'cause becoming famous enough to be recognised by those guys is now my Actual Life Goal.

Billy Bragg The best job I ever had, apart from my current one, was working

in a record shop in East Ham, London, called Low Price Records. We sold records that no one wanted in the early 1980s. Last year’s singles, old easy listening, Bollywood soundtracks from EMI India, spoken word records of Anthony Burgess reading from his novel, A Clockwork Orange, recordings of steam trains, white label remixes of recordings of steam trains. I loved it. Every week, big boxes would arrive from bankrupt record shops and labels – that’s where we got much of our stock from – and we’d search through them for things that might fetch a fair price. My job, as the only person under 25, was to grade the stuff that had come out since punk. I also spent a lot of time on the till, letting customers play their purchases in the shop before buying. That way, I heard a lot of amazing music I’d never have picked up on myself. Record Store Day is important because, for all the great music that has been created and disseminated since the digitisation of music, there is a need for points of focus, where people can physically come together to offer great music, find great music and to be inspired – that’s what record stores can do. 31

This isn’t just my personal experience, for most of us who’ve

grown up with an avid interest in music, and in record collecting, the chances of the stores from our youth still existing were always remote, and in a sense that’s just progress; you wouldn’t expect the same little clothes stores you frequented as a youth to still be in business now, right? The difference though, is that for the most part other business models have replenished themselves, where one shoe emporium closes, another opens. But for the independent record shop, that void on our high streets is instead filled with virtual businesses, the online retailers, the streaming services, or by throwing a cd in with the cornflakes during the weekly shop. What we gain in convenience, we lose in personality, for try as they might to recommend something based on your previous purchase history, the online retailer can never quite understand that the Cliff Richard album was a present for your mum, it will forever misunderstand you thereafter. Ben at Plastic Records would never have made that mistake.

One day a year, the third Saturday in April, record shops across

the country get to witness something extraordinary; queues outside their door. And it’s not just because of one release that’s got us completely over excited, no, it’s over three hundred, different, limited edition, pieces of shiny black plastic by some of the most exciting bands on the scene today, unavailable even online. Record Store Day, originally an American idea, was bought to the UK five years ago by Rough Trade’s Spencer Hickman, as a way to entice us back into those little stores that we might sometimes ignore, in favour of online retailers.

Whilst it might be easier to just define it as evolution and

leave the humble record shop to become as extinct as the dodo, the truth is that would be a huge loss to the music buying community. As Hickman himself says, “There’s nothing to beat the enthusiasm and atmosphere of a great record shop. The reason great indie stores succeed is that they love music as much as their customers do.” And it’s not as though we’re not actually buying records at all anymore, sure the sales of downloads might have gone through the roof over the last decade, but they’re not the only format on the rise, as Kim Bailey from the Entertainment Retailers Association, who partner Hickman in organising the event, tells us; “We’re still in a ‘physical age’, if you look at album sales in the UK, 80% are still on a physical product. It might be that people are buying those records from online retailers like Amazon, but they’re still buying the shiny disc. Last year, in terms of vinyl sales, they went up by over 40%, off a very small base admittedly, but there’s definitely a renewed interest in the art side of music.”

"We're still in a 'physical age'."

The introduction of download codes as part of the package when buying a vinyl record may go some way to explaining that leap, now we have an easy way of transferring our plastic purchase direct to our mp3 players, that particular annoyance has been stripped away. If, like me, you view a vinyl record as a work of art, partly because of that romantic memory of pouring over the gatefold of ‘Daydream Nation’ as a disenfranchised youth, but beyond that, there’s the notion of design, the thought

32 thisisfakediy.co.uk

phoTos: Simone Scott Warren

Allo Darlin’ We have become so accustomed to record stores closing, that

when one opens you feel overwhelmed with hope and feelings of goodwill. This happened to me one afternoon last year, when walking down Stoke Newington Rd, we stumbled upon Kristina Records. It’s a treasure trove of second hand vinyl in tip-top condition, particularly for lovers of indie pop, Sarah Records and the like. Although I have to say it was the Buckingham Nicks LP on the wall that really caught my eye! It feels like a mate’s awesome collection, and you can really tell everything is lovingly selected. It’s a small shop and everything is reasonably priced. I really hope it keeps going well for them.

Mull Historical Society Growing up on an island (Mull), we didn’t have a record shop -

well we had a shop that sold a few records, but then it also sold soap and hammers and things too. So the nearest record shop was Douglas’ in Oban, on the mainland - it was a great little store with the Sex Pistols wallpapered on to their ceiling (Punk hit the Highlands in the 90s when I first started taking the ferry over to the store). But as a child, I remember seeing my uncles’ amazing 7” vinyl collection and being hooked ever since. Having a release out on Record Store Day, and for it to be a 7” vinyl 3-track EP, is just great. For our record I have been able to finally release a ‘lost’ Mull Historical Society song called ‘It Seems’. I recorded it for my first Mull album ‘Loss’ but I, erm, well, I lost the master. It has resurfaced, just in time for Record Store Day!

Frank Turner Record Store Day is genuinely a great thing, and I’m happy to

be getting more involved in it this year than ever before. When I was growing up, record stores were an integral part of being a music fan. The internet has changed a lot of things, but they can still play a vital role. My favourite independent store is definitely Banquet Records in Kingston. As well as being a great store, they have also created a brilliant underground scene in their local area. I’m releasing a limited edition 7” for this year’s Record Store Day - a double A side of 'I Still Believe' and 'Somebody To Love'. It’s going to be clear vinyl, and a thing of beauty. Pick one up!

Dinowalrus (ex-Titus Andronicus) Our favourite independent stores are Other Music in the East

Village and Academy Annex in Williamsburg. From an artist perspective, both these stores gave us the opportunity to sell our early 7” releases; it was nice that they were encouraging and enthusiastic in their buying policies and provided a forum to get our goods on the shelf, next to the greats and in front of the record-buying public. To be able to press your own 7” and then get it into a few cool stores is the DIY ideal at its best! Independent record stores are great because they really allow you to explore the fringes of the music scene, finding products that are not available elsewhere, whether it’s noise cassettes or smallrun obscure garage rock 7”s from around the country.

that the band have put into it to create this whole package for their music, that goes beyond anything that an mp3 could ever provide. And Kim concurs, “If you speak to a lot of people, they’re buying the vinyl because it looks nice, and it’s nice for their collection, they’re not necessarily even playing the record, they’re using the download code and keeping the vinyl as a piece of art. It’s having something exciting and exclusive that only you and 300 other people have.”

eyond even the art aspect, there’s a certain longevity to owning an actual record. Sure, you can scratch it, find bits of melted candles left over from your student days, but beyond physically smashing it (which I’m pretty sure is illegal, right?), the only real way to get rid of a vinyl record is to sell it. As Jonathan Wilson, the American psychedelic folk artist and producer who released his own Record Store Day 12”, puts it, “Hard drives will fail, formats will change, content will be lost, but this pristine vinyl copy of Dr. John’s second record will still sound great.”

t’s understandable that, with the list of releases longer than your arm and the chance to catch your favourite band behind the metal section, Record Store Day has found a firm audience, with shops around the country having to organise a ‘one in, one out’ policy that particular Saturday. And whilst it’s great that the lure of that limited edition Arctic Monkeys 7” gets you through their front door, if we only cross the threshold on that one day a year, it’s very probable that you’ll leave with a somewhat distorted view of how busy those little shops are on the average day of the week.

ersonally, my experiences of online record shopping have often ended in disappointment, record sleeves crumpled in the mail, the accidental purchase of a record by the other Hefner, duplicated orders by way of my own stupidity. Clearly, the two biggest arguments for purchasing your records online are the convenience of not having to bother leaving the house, and of course, price. But with last month’s closure of the loophole that allowed shipments from the Channel Islands under a certain value to escape VAT charges, it remains to be seen whether online retailers can maintain those low low prices.

he way I see it, by choosing to make my purchases from a record shop rather than my sofa, I know instantly if it’s the wrong band, and what condition it’s in, I can see for myself that it’s not battered and bruised from an ill advised attempt by the postman to fold the mailer in half and stuff it through my letterbox. Plus there’s always a chance that, as once happened on a trip to Bleecker St Records in New York, the guy behind the counter will remember me from a previous visit (over a year previously), and shove an extra single into that silver carrier bag, purely on the basis that he thinks I’ll like it.

o perhaps the one lesson we should take from that third Saturday in April is that a record is for life and not just for Record Store Day. If we want to keep the unique character, and more importantly, expertise, of our local record shops, then perhaps it’s time we paid attention to that sage advice that Eddie Argos dished out to us way back in 2004; “Honeypie, I don’t know when it started, but stop buying records from the supermarket.” --

34 thisisfakediy.co.uk

"There’s nothing to beat the enthusiasm and atmosphere of a great record shop."

Lanterns On The Lake Being in a band has meant we’ve been able to come in contact

with a number of independent record shops and have got to know staff in a few stores around the UK, through approaching them about stocking our early EPs. I like that we have that direct relationship with some of these places. We’ve become involved with a few of them and done special things like exclusive EPs or in-stores with them – like Jumbo Records in Leeds and Rough Trade in London. I love that Rough Trade does more than just selling music over the counter. Things like their Album Club and the exclusive releases they get; going out to festivals and arranging signing sessions so music fans can meet and talk to artists. Before we were signed, Nigel, who runs Rough Trade, was really supportive of us and gave a lot of advice. I think it’s these kind of things which show what an important role independent shops play - not just in helping people discover new music but also in helping new artists get their music out there. It’s great that with Record Store Day they can get some exposure and remind people that there are still other places you can buy music than just from Amazon or Tesco.

Future Of The Left Without a shadow of a doubt, one of my favourite independent

record stores is Sister Ray on Berwick Street in London. Over the 7 years I spent living in London, we would pop in to Sister Ray as much as possible, namely for two reasons: a) a good friend worked in there, which let’s face it, is a great incentive for obtaining discounted fun stuff; and b) they had everything. I'm not sure if you would find the back catalogue of say, Michael Bolton or other 'artists' of that ilk in there, but hey, you never know. Currently I’m based in Cardiff, and you can’t really talk Record Store Day without mentioning Spillers, whose one of many credits of course includes the fact that they are the world’s oldest record shop. Run by lovely staff, who are passionate about music and truly know their stuff, Spillers is easily one of Cardiff ’s best features. What you want, and get from these independent record stores is a genuine enthusiasm for music, knowledge, integrity and above all, time to actually pass all this on to those who desire it. I really value that, when someone can be bothered to take time out to tell you what is worth listening to. Whether their opinion or taste works for you or not, I appreciate the consideration.

Neon Indian Probably the most novel and annoying quality about CDs is they

end up living in your car, and the jewel cases get warped and the discs start to resemble a deli meat grinder. Every time I consider buying a CD, I visualise it in the CD graveyard under the seats of my brother’s car. Vinyl warrants endurance and presentation. You care about it, it perches itself proudly on your shelf and will always be willing to recant you with its contents at the end of an insane day. The day we decide to let a music recording cease to exist in the physical realm is the day it just becomes some digital ghost, floating from blog to blog and multiplying on to people’s hard drives. Tangibility speaks volumes. Long after the earth floods over and the aliens prod around our artefacts, they should probably give 'Purple Rain' a good whirl. They certainly wont be able to fish it out of some wet computer. Generally when you put out a record, you’re sort of at the whim of what’s feasible and what the label thinks. A lot of your more grandiose ideas for how it should feel in your hands and what it should look like get simplified and for lack of a better term, shelved. Record Store Day lets you say "f**k you" to practicality, and put just as much love into the object containing the music as the music itself.

cover DZ DEAthrays

36 thisisfakediy.co.uk

phoTos: Emma Swann

proud

and

ready

Loud,

blow

your

mind,

Deathrays

are

the band to shake your summer in to life. Sarah Jamieson goes head to head with Australia’s best export since Harold Bishop It’s fairly early on a bright Thursday morning when we are greeted by DZ Deathrays. Wandering into the studio, the duo are all long hair and leather jackets, with frontman Shane Parsons even sporting an Iron Maiden shirt. Having played at our DIY-curated gig the evening before – the second of a three-night Old Blue Last residency – the slow burn of ‘the morning after’ lingers. We have no one to blame but ourselves. DZ Deathrays are about to become your new favourite band. The pair are Simon Ridley and Shane Parsons, two Aussies hailing from Brisbane, who infamously began their musical career by playing loudly at parties, and continuously knocking back shots of Jagermeister in their debut video. “We just wanted to make a rock record,” they nonchalantly shrug, when we ask about their forthcoming debut album ‘Bloodstreams’. Granted, it’s a simple sentiment, but from what we’ve heard so far, one that rings true. “In Australia, there aren’t any rock bands,” begins Shane, who holds up vocal and guitar duties, in his luxurious Australian drawl. “For some reason, people seem to think that rock music is a bit cheesy. That’s probably because so many rock bands are cheesy. Over all of the years that we’ve been listening to music, that has always been the style that we’ve gone back to and really enjoyed. It’s great for everything: it’s great to drive to, it’s great to party to, it’s great to just listen to in your headphones. We were adamant that we had to do a solid rock record. We didn’t really try to make it anything other than that.” "The studio that we were recording in But what DZ Deathrays seem too humble to admit is the ferocity of said rock record. Brimming with was a guy's house out in the forest." an explosive energy, the album melds together all facets of the genre – punk, metal, grunge – and spits

"In

it out in one noisy, bassy, insatiable onslaught. Following the release of two EPs – ‘Brutal Tapes’ and ‘Ruined My Life’ – their debut is made up of songs written over the last few years: “There’s songs in there that we’ve had for about two and a half years, and there’s songs in there that we’d had for a day,” explains Shane. “We wanted it to all fit in together.”

That I was

Australia,

t r y

there

Surely though, after living with certain songs day in day out, it’s a difficult task to create a work of art from such different pieces of a puzzle? “We did change one or two songs that we’d been playing live a certain way, just to and create more dynamics,” offers Simon, before Shane suggests a specific example. “One of the first songs we had written, we rewrote for the album in a different way that was a lot more sludgy, but then I couldn’t write lyrics to it. Every time I wrote, it just sounded like a really frustrating mess. So, we ended up recording it in the studio and taking out the guitars, before I re-recorded a whole new guitar thing over the top. It ended up being a totally different song. Completely different. That was an interesting way to do it.” with any self respecting rock band, the duo have spent the majority of their time on the road, whether within Australia itself, or overseas, so when it came to actually writing and recording, how did they manage to find the time? “Most of it was between tours, we’d have rehearsals and stuff. was why it took us ages to write all of those songs. One of the songs, wrote the riff while we were on tour, maybe at SXSW last year? I working on the riff, but you don’t really have time on tour: it’s always pretty full on. In November, we went out to the studio, we had two weeks there. It was out in the rainforest so it was real nice. We pretty much did a song every day. Fourteen days, fourteen songs. Pushed through and it was good.

aren't

"We were adamant that we had to do a solid rock record"

any o

bands."

just

rock

“ We was w e it ’s vibe.

38 thisisfakediy.co.uk

had done some studio stuff before, with the EPs, but most of that done in mates’ bedrooms in a couple of afternoons. The studio that were recording in was a guy’s house [producer Neil Coombes’], but this amazing property out in the forest. It had this really relaxed To sleep, we’d just pull mattresses into the lounge room and crash under the trees. You could hear the bell birds in the morning. It was really, really nice.” Not what you expect to hear about the recording process of such a raucous record, then, but escaping reality only seemed to aid the pair. “It’s good to get away from everything,” Simon states simply, before Shane reinforces the importance of being cut off. “That way, the only thing you’ve really got to focus is work.”

The recording process wasn’t entirely plain sailing, with Shane entering the studio in less than tip-top condition: “I came back from tour over here and I was really sick with a whooping cough. It was terrible! So, I was really sick for the first week of doing the record and I was like, ‘s**t, with the vocals, can I handle it?!’” Luckily he was able to perform, showcasing a set of vocals that pulsate with rawness. “I kind of have a little bit of a scream going on but it’s more just me yelling. Not even that! It’s just me screaming quietly. I don’t do anything powerful.” It’s no surprise then to learn that the way the songs sounded took more importance than the message the band wanted to provide: “We were writing demos, and we’d just record our live sessions. We’d jam in our jam room with our recorder on, and then I’d go through, take out a take, put it on the stereo and sit there singing, trying to find something that was catchy. I’d mumble something until a line came out. I’ve written some songs about stuff, but most of the time I just want something that sounds good. And I don’t really have anything in particular to say; it’s all just personal experiences, songs about friends. I don’t ever want to be pinned down to something.” And with that sentiment comes the greatness of this band. Loud, brash and in your face, their songs are raw and powerful, yet undeniably catchy. There are no clichés or gimmicks, yet at their core they embody the essence of rock. It’s

within the story of the album title – ‘Bloodstreams’ – that everything comes together. Taken from a lyric in the track ‘Teenage Kickstarts’, the name was inspired by the youthful, party-fuelled lifestyles of Mötley Crüe. Shane explains: “When I was writing the lyrics, I had just finished reading ‘The Dirt’, the Mötley Crüe autobiography. It was f**king awesome! I don’t know how they’re not dead. So, I put together some lyrics that were sort of similar. I guess ‘Teenage Kickstarts’ is [connected] to ‘Kickstart My Heart’. It’s about being eighteen and playing to 3,000 people every night. It’s that kind of pressure. Being in a band like that is pretty mental. It became about kickstarts in your bloodstreams. I liked that word, it fits the sort of thing that we’re doing.”

just

want

something

And with Mötley Crüe-inspired titles and Iron Maiden shirts, what do we expect them to be listening to? “When we’re on tour, that sounds good. I don't we just listen to Mötley Crüe the entire time,” laughs Simon. “We listen to so much different stuff,” offers Shane, “Over the last year really have anything we’ve listened to a fair bit of rock and punk. We’ve been getting into Trash Talk, and we’re really into Pulled Apart By Horses. in particular to say" We love all those sorts of bands. Then Justice and stuff like that. Even like, Kurt Vile. In Australia, it’s inundated with folk bands, but we really like Kurt Vile.” But obviously, it wouldn’t be a DZ Deathrays interview if Death From Above 1979 didn’t crop up somewhere. “DFA are a pinnacle band for a lot of people,” he continues. “I reckon there are bands out there that sound a lot more like them than we do, but in no way do we ever feel like it’s an insult. We’re like, ‘s**t yeah!’ We told people the first two years of touring that we were like Death From Above and people were like, ‘Nah, you’re like The White Stripes or The Black Keys!’ And we were like, whatever. Now everyone’s like, ‘You’re like Death From Above!’” Whilst it’s always incredible to receive those kinds of parallels, there is so much more to DZ Deathrays. In fact, listening to this record, people will soon start forgetting about the comparisons. Here is a band that’s exciting, complete with an album that you can feel pulsating through your veins. Rock, punk, dance, we’re not yet sure, but what’s indisputable is that there’s a shot of adrenaline about this duo. Our advice? Stand up and embrace those kickstarts in your bloodstreams. DZ Deathrays’ new album ‘Bloodstreams’ will be released on 7th May via Hassle.

40 thisisfakediy.co.uk

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interview beach house

i n b l o o m

Few bands can make a splash as big as Beach House did upon unveiling their new track

42 thisisfakediy.co.uk

‘Bloom’ online. But as the band tell Jamie Milton, what the internet gives, it can take away.

“I don’t quite understand what people are talking about... No, I think I sort of understand but when it gets into particulars, I don’t totally understand...” I’ve just asked Alex Scally for his thoughts on Beach House’s career to date and whether he deems ‘Bloom’ to be the band’s “breakthrough record,” considering 2010’s ‘Teen Dream’ album was also lumped under a similar tag. I’m in for a shock. “We’ve been thinking a lot about how people see us, just because we’ve had to... it makes you think about yourselves in a way that I think is pretty unnatural for a musician. The more and more I talk to people about this thing, like this question you’re asking, the more I feel I don’t understand at all why people like us or what people see in us...” Cue me ripping up just about every question and topic I had prepared for Scally and attempting to move the conversation into more fruitful territory. I’m speaking to Alex in the midst of a promo schedule, ahead of the release of his and Victoria Legrand’s fourth album together. It feels as if I’ve either caught Alex at a very bad time or, on the contrary, at the best time possible. We move on to various topics: the band’s beginnings; the recently unveiled artwork, right up to the concept behind the new record. This might all sound entirely routine when asking a band about a forthcoming release. But more crucially, Alex has plenty to say about what has been a particularly nasty experience: the leaking of ‘Bloom’. are so many people “I don’t “There who listen to two minutes of a song and then go to the next u n d e r s ta n d one. It’s frantic, it’s ADHD. It’s also greedy. It’s like a greedy child opening their at all why presents before Christmas. There’s a real bad quality to We’ve been talking about people like us.” it.” the de-valuing nature of the internet for the past couple of minutes, without so much as a gentle verbal shove, Alex speaks frankly about the grim mixture of emotions surrounding the recent leak. “Musically speaking, we wanted to present this record to the world in a really specific way and I think that’s our right as artists. And the greedy internet took it away from us. All of our big fans have now heard the record in a bad form. The songs have been

sped up and shortened. It was low quality, with no artwork, no lyrics. You know, so all the things we wanted to give people - these people who are really great to us, they’re our biggest fans and we wanted them to hear the record in a certain way - they’re hearing it in this s**tty other way.” Since internet piracy’s very beginnings, people have been exposed to all manner of viewpoints; just about every perspective. But few put it as succinctly or as finitely as Alex manages to: “I think outside is where the great things lie. I just hear very few sceptics in the world when talking about the internet. I hear very few people saying ‘let’s put on the brakes, here.’” It’s true. Rarely will we walk out to a record store, purchase an LP, with no anticipation of what’s in store for us. The magic is lost. “I used to love that. When I was a kid, I loved that so much; looking forward to the date; going and getting it - only having heard one song from it - getting it home. It’s true. It’s been totally lost.” When considering what is fundamentally a piece of art, we no longer receive the whole, perfectly-formed package on a specific given day. With all of Beach House’s albums, you’re being exposed to meticulously planned works of art. These aren’t just

“We’ve

been

taught to do what we want. So long as we do that, people will

it.”

freely available collections of downloadable mp3s. Speaking to Alex, you quickly pick up that ‘Bloom’ is no exception to the rule. “We’re very passionate people. We worked on this record very hard. We’ve done that for all of the records.” I ask about the meaning behind the album’s title; “in some European countries where English isn’t a first language, it’s both a verb and it’s a noun. It’s a big word and it has a lot of ideas in it. It’s also a word that implies a cycle. It’s a very open word and it says a lot... I think that’s the whole thing about a title: it’s not definitive, it’s a reflection. When you look at a painting, most people look at the painting first. They have a feeling about it. And then they go look at the title and they’re always kind of like, ‘huh? Yeah, ok.’ I think ‘Bloom’ is that kind of title.” 43

While an extensive level of thought has evidently gone into each minuscule contribution to the album, Alex and Victoria rely on their gut instinct. Relatively little is planned; it’s a simple case of writing a song, getting a good feeling from said song and putting it into a recording. Tying this together is a consistent aesthetic; a narrative. If one song fails to fit into that bracket, most of the time it’s set aside. “We’ve been taught to do what we want. So long as we do that, people will like it. For that reason we’re incredibly lucky,” admits Alex. “We don’t ask ourselves how to make people happy or how to sell tickets. We’ve never thought that way. Our first record ever: we made it in the basement of my house in three days. Then we played shows to our friends. Someone said they wanted to

put out our record and they put it out. Over the course of two tours, most of which were unintended, it began to become apparent that people liked what we were doing. So we made another record and slightly more people liked it.” This unprecedented growth has stayed at a consistent level throughout the pair’s career. It shows no sign of halting its current trajectory. Besides, ‘Bloom’ is a substantial step forward. It differs to its predecessor, ‘Teen Dream’, in that it relies less on a conventional verse-chorus structure; opting instead to provide a more intense album experience. This was a wholly conscious choice. “We don’t regard [‘Teen Dream’] as a high watermark for us at all,” says Alex. “We were just in New York and we happened upon a couple of places where our songs were being played...

“We wanted to present this record to the world in a really specific way, and the greedy internet took it away from us.” They just sounded like wannabe pop songs.” This sounds more than a touch harsh, considering it’s often regarded as the band’s best work to date. Alex admits; “at the time, we were into the whole verse-chorus approach. With the new record, I don’t feel like that’s happening so much. It feels a lot more like songs that run through a narrative, songs that work as art, rather than a formulaic line-up.” ‘Bloom’ is a sensational addition to the Beach House catalogue. Loyal fans might currently be devoting time towards a lowquality version of the album, but a quick scour of the web shows an overwhelmingly positive response. Alex and Victoria might have had to deal with experiencing the colossal clash of emotions that come with an album leak, but in the over-saturated sphere of the internet, the pair remain an outstanding force, adored on an almost unparalleled level. ‘Bloom’ won’t put a halt to that; nor will a s**tty leak. Beach House’s new album ‘Bloom’ will be released on 14th May via Bella Union.

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interview hoorah for earth

Hip

H o o r ay

New York’s Hooray For Earth have been taking the UK airwaves by storm of late, with their new album ‘True Loves’. Andrew Backhouse tracks down frontman Noel Heroux.

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et’s set the record straight, just in case you thought this was the new environmental section of DIY: Hooray For Earth are not to be mistaken for tree-hugging, planet-loving do-gooders. “A couple of times people mistook it for an activist group,” recalls Hooray For Earth mainman Noel Heroux, “but people tend to assume it’s gonna be some kind of goofy music.” Yes, that’s right: Hooray For Earth are a band. Like all good party bands, it all started at a party. “Everyone was drunkenly saying ‘hooray for this’, ‘hooray for that’, and Hooray For Earth came up. We were joking ‘okay, I guess we’re called Hooray For Earth’, and it stuck.” It’s strange to think it's held for all these years, and probably to the band’s annoyance; until a few years ago, Hooray For Earth couldn’t be a goofier name if it tried. “Early on in the band we weren’t in a great state and I was feeling pretty miserable. I wasn’t convincing myself with the music I was making.” It was a dark time in the band’s career, with Noel sleeping in the band’s practice room – and he insists it wasn’t because he was engrossed in his art. “It was purely a necessity. I had no money so I was just staying wherever I could. It was pretty lame.” After six years, Noel had had enough. He decided to move in with his girlfriend in New York, and the clouds opened up, softening the cynical outlook of Noel’s songwriting. “It was a huge shift for me I needed really badly,” he says. That longoverdue shower must have done him good. And today, you get the feeling that, were Hooray For Earth in fact a global warming activist group, the UK would be installing solar panels on their mud huts and you’d be reading this issue of DIY on a leaf. Their album ‘True Loves’ isn’t out yet, they’re not even from the UK, but they’ve achieved what UK bands and PRs around the world would sell a kidney for: Hooray For Earth are on the Radio 1 A-list. But how on Earth did they do it? “I’m just starting to wrap my brain around it,” says Noel. “We don’t have an American equivalent.” The song in question is ‘No Love’; a rollicking beast that’s one of the most un-pop yet perfect pop songs you’ll hear this year, packed with juddering synth thunder, leaps of falsetto and shoehorned brass blasts. “I made the record in such a generally dilapidated state of affairs; it was recorded on a desktop PC that was bought in 2004. It’s just really interesting to hear my tracks alongside the other music on the station.”

Indeed, it’s odd to think on the way to work of a morning you can put the radio on in the car and hear Hooray For Earth, sandwiched between the likes of Nicki Minaj and Olly Murs on Chris Moyles’ breakfast show – but it sounds totally natural. ‘True Loves’ is a musical safari, the group trawling the globe for unearthed sounds and unexploited resources, bringing home precious spoils and condensing them into three minute ditties for you to whistle whilst doing the washing up. Hooray For Earth are no pop visionaries like Animal Collective, but while they explore pop music’s past, they also peek into its future. As a result of the iPod shuffle generation, it seems almost anything goes, but the one thing that sets Hooray For Earth far ahead of Ed Sheeran et al is their ability to really put on a show. Needless to say, a virtue of being played regularly on the UK’s biggest radio station is you’re going to shift a fair few tickets, but, as Noel explains, Hooray For Earth have no plans to adapt in order to please their new audience. “I don’t think the way I play or present myself will ever change much. I hope to connect with people and make them think about s**t the same as when playing in a friend’s apartment.” This isn't a band scared of going big. It’s evident on album highlights like the title track and the achingly addictive ‘Sails’, Noel has his sights set on the stadiums. Hooray For Earth have come a long way from the practise room with no shower.

“I made t h e r e c o r d on a desktop PC t h at w a s b o u g h t in 2004.” But the black cloud over Hooray For Earth is how long it will all last. The attention span of the public is paperthin, and it’s sad to think Hooray For Earth’s playlisting is to fill the gap in the market left when MGMT ran off with the fairies. But Noel is one step ahead of the game. “I promise we’ll do our best with it. I’m recording stuff for another record right now - really into moving forward.” Hooray For Earth might not be up there with MGMT or Animal Collective and their two Brit nominations (although maybe they’ll be up for Best Breakthrough too once they’ve got seven albums of their own), but this is pop music at its very best. Hooray For Earth’s new album ‘True Loves’ is out now via Memphis Industries. The band will be on tour throughout June.

interview the temper trap

Success, people pleasing, and holidays. El Hunt phones up The Temper Trap's Dougy Mandagi.

econd Album Syndrome is a phrase so frequently used that it should perhaps be classified as medical terminology – because, unlike many thrown-around pieces of musical jargon, it is a real issue. After battling through the sky-high expectations of the hype, the huge excitement of the first tour outing, and then managing to put out a decent debut effort, a band is left with 48 thisisfakediy.co.uk

another massive prospect – do it all again, but better. It’s not every day you get an emerging guitar band on a small label producing a double gold album in a flourish, and after shifting a cool 800,000 album units and penning the notorious chart-topping ‘Sweet Disposition’, The Temper Trap have the rather unenviable task of living up to ‘Conditions’. The bar is set very high indeed; not that this is a major worry for singer Dougy Mandagi. The run-away success of ‘Conditions’ was “very much an unexpected thing,” he says rather modestly, but despite hearing their music soundtracking everything from indie flick 500 Days Of Summer to the CocaCola advert, The Temper Trap aren’t particularly fazed. “The second album is something totally different; its own entity. Whether or not it gets the same reception as ‘Conditions’, I don’t know, but I guess we’ll find out soon. I don’t feel any pressure though.”

Despite seeming almost entirely unperturbed by the buzz of expectation around follow-up album ‘The Temper Trap’, the band does acknowledge the need to keep things fresh. “It’s important to keep yourself entertained as an artist,” explains Dougy; “and it’s important to keep the creative juices flowing, not to be stagnant. There’s nothing worse than putting out the same record twice. We’ve managed to move on, but kept the good things about us, about the band and the sound that worked in the last album.” When I ask Dougy about the choice to self-title this second album, and whether to use the journalistic cliché - The Temper Trap have ‘found themselves’ as a band, he just laughs. “We just couldn’t agree on a name to be honest. There’s a lot of people to please in this camp, so we just decided there was no harm in not naming it.” Album title squabbles aside, The Temper Trap do

“I don’t feel any pressure.”

seem more settled. Bringing in a new member along with different musical directions, the band have also been making the most of producer Tony Hoffer, who has previously worked with M83, Phoenix and Belle & Sebastian. Dougy talks highly of Hoffer for his “freezer,” less polished recording style, and says it allowed the band to “explore something else sonically, to move on from the last record and progress”. On the settling in process for the new keyboard player, the band seem protective and it’s clear he’s now a fully-fledged member of the group. “Of course it changed the dynamic,” Dougy says, laughing, and hastily adding “in a good way” so as not to sound hostile. “It’s always going to stir the water if someone else comes into the picture, but I think he’s played quite a pivotal role in the whole thing. He seems to be adjusting very well.”

The tender, fragile falsetto tones that defined ‘Conditions’ are still very much present, presumably one of the components The Temper Trap wisely saw fit to keep firmly at the centre of the band’s sound. On the debut we had our fair share of grief-fraught lyrics like “Our love was lost / In the rubble are all the things / That you’ve, you’ve been dreaming of,” and that sentiment is also clearly here on the follow-up. Although he finds it hard to pin the album down to one theme, this next record, Dougy says, is about similar things to ‘Conditions’ - but it’s only “half and half ” about break-ups this time round. On writing lyrics Dougy explains; “It’s kind of mixed. Some of the songs are break-up songs, but then we’ve got other things going on, like in our song called ‘London’s Burning’. The band, like many Londoners, were trapped in their east London home during the height of

“It’s important to keep yo u r s e l f e n t e r ta i n e d as an artist.”

last summer’s riots, and the riots, among other things have led towards the band “writing about different themes here and there.” The Temper Trap have taken a very open approach towards the release of this second album, and European listeners can already hear the first single ‘Need Your Love’ on Spotify, along with stripped back acoustic number ‘Rabbit Hole’. With talk about free streaming destroying the music industry flying round hither and thither, Dougy has his own opinions about whole fiasco. “It definitely has an upside, it means that your music gets to the fans way before you can. People will have already grown familiar with your songs, there’s more anticipation”. Dougy also points out that even though Spotify might effect music sales, it does make selling out rooms on tour a whole lot easier. The new era of social networking does have its perks, and The Temper Trap are excellent at using this to their advantage. With an active Twitter feed manned by two band members, they are 49

very media savvy; with Dougy reasoning “that’s the way that music is heading.” The Temper Trap do seem to value connecting with fans above and beyond other bands though – in fact, despite not feeling pressurised by critics, they really do seem to care what their fans think. Dougy tells me the band are always conscious of “what the fans want; they want to feel like they’re somehow playing a part, or I think they just want to feel closer to the artist and to the whole process.” Having finished recording ‘The Temper Trap’, the band can’t wait to hit the road. Taking the five-piece across America, Australia, and Europe, before culminating in a headline set at Truck Festival on the

little old island of Great Britain, extensive is somewhat of an understatement, but Dougy is characteristically relaxed about the whole thing. “We love touring, we’ve been waiting for this for a long time. Writing was good, recording was really fun, but it’s great to finish with that and start a new kind of phase - touring. It’s really where all the fun begins.” “You can expect new songs,” says Dougy before cackling to himself, “but no, seriously, it’s early days but obviously we’re going to do the best that we can to put on a good show. I think this time round people can expect a little more production, we’re going to use more visuals and whatnot.”

"I think this time round people can expect a little more"

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What’s next for the band, I ask. In typical Australian fashion, The Temper Trap have got their priorities sorted. “Obviously we’ll move onto another album eventually, but I think we’ll probably just all go off on a nice holiday,” says Dougy. After the huge, and initially unexpected popularity of ‘Conditions’ many bands might be at least a bit overwhelmed, but The Temper Trap seem thoroughly relaxed. It’s nice to talk to a band who genuinely love making music for their fans, and you know what, I think that after a follow up like this, a holiday is extremely well deserved. The Temper Trap’s self-titled new album will be released on 21st May via Infectious Music.

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interview 2:54

2:54

give

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Harriet

Jennings

the

411

their

debut

album.

2:54, also known as Colette and Hannah Thurlow, have safely set themselves up as one of the bands to look out for in 2012. Recently signed to Fiction, home of The Cure and Crystal Castles, the sisterly duo are about to release their debut album to a flurry of expectant fans. We caught up with Colette ahead of their biggest headline slot to date to hear how the pair pieced together their LP, with the aid of some extra special production talent. Obviously you guys have known each other a long time, being sisters and all. How do you think that relationship helps and hinders you? Hannah and I have just always made music together, prior to 2:54, and we always will. It’s only ever been a strengthening thing for the band. Did you always know what sort of a sound you wanted to create as 2:54, because you were in a band together before, weren’t you? Yeah, we were in a little punk band, sort of a band-by-numbers. We were just discovering playing live so we tested it out with that band. Hannah started writing pieces of music and I started writing melodies and lyrics to them. It all happened quite naturally, there were no preconceived ideas about it at all. Is that the same writing pattern that you still work with now, or has it changed over time? We work quite separately actually. Hannah will make the entire track, drums, bass, all the guitars, and send me a complete track. I’ll do the melodies and the lyrics and then we’ll meet up and structure it, making a song. With the album, your press release says that “expectations will be obliterated” - what does that mean? I guess you’d have to ask whoever wrote it! I don’t know what anyone’s expectations are of us. I know that we’re incredibly proud of the album we’ve made and that’s it, that’s all we can really say. Will there be something on the record for fans of the older material? Absolutely, I think ‘Scarlet’ and ‘You’re Early’ are big indicators of the way the album sounds but we wanted each song to have its own little world and each song to stand on its own as well. I feel there’s a thread between them all but I feel they’ve all got their own little atmosphere. When putting together the final tracklisting, was it difficult to work out what of the older material to keep in? ‘Scarlet’ and ‘Creeping’ are on the album, they just felt right. I see it as a family of songs and it felt like the best fit so that’s why they stayed.

time to expand or embellish on tracks. We have a really clear idea of what we want. You recorded with Rob Ellis, didn’t you? Did he have much input, if you were very set on what you wanted? I think because we worked with him on the EP and Rob’s heritage in music is massively appealing to us and he’s an incredible drummer, he found us some incredible drum sounds for the album. He found some things that we didn’t even know about or know how to do. That was fascinating for us. But like I said, we had a very clear idea of what we wanted so we went in and we made the record.

you feel you fit in best with? We’ve been fortunate to have good responses from most of the crowds we’ve performed in front of, as much as a support band can, really. There have definitely been things that match better to our sound - like Warpaint, there’s a lineage there - but overall it’s been a warm response. Do you prefer your own headline dates or bigger support slots? We’ve played so few headline shows, we’ve only played two or three so it’s completely new terrain for us. It’s exciting to headline, it’s something we hope we can do more of but it’s also incredible to experience different venues,

“We’ve never any formal lessons…

had guitar ever.”

Was he always who you had in mind to work with? Yeah, it just felt like the natural choice. It worked for the three tracks that we did with him before.

different places and different support bands as well. I think being a support band has been incredibly educational and fundamental in our development as a band.

I read that you guys are self-taught on guitar, is that right? Yeah, Hannah taught herself the guitar when she was a teenager. I don’t even know how she did it. I think just by listening to songs. Eventually I asked her to teach me a few chords and so she did and that was it really. We’ve never had any formal lessons… ever.

Do you have any plans for a headline tour this year? We’ve got a headline stint coming up with Chelsea Wolfe and Deaf Club, which we’re really looking forward to because we’re really big fans of both bands, and then a few festivals in the summer, I think.

Do you think the album comes across as cohesive, if some tracks are older than others? For us, it absolutely works as a whole. We wanted to take our time and make something that felt complete and representative of our sound at this point in time.

Do you think that shaped the album at all, not being tied down to any formal rules or traditional regulations? Potentially. It’s all we know so I wouldn’t really be able to tell!

When did the writing process begin? How much of it changed in the studio? We don’t write in the studio. Basically, when Hannah and I are satisfied with our demos, we go and replicate them in a professional recording situation. We certainly don’t use recording

You’ve toured with quite a wide range of musicians in the past, from The Maccabees to Wild Beasts to Warpaint - whose fans did

Do you have any goals for the album or anything you’d like it to achieve? We’re really proud of it, the four of us, Alex and Joel, the boys too. We just want it to be out in the world now. We just want to let it go and see what happens. 2:54’s self-titled debut album will be released on 28th May via Fiction Records.

fashion the enemy

Tom, Andy and Liam are about to release their third studio album - their first through new label Cooking Vinyl ("they just get stuff done quickly and they're passionate") - and they've sold out their recently announced homecoming show in mere seconds, leaving them with no other choice but to slot in a few more. "We've just put on another one at Coventry Cathedral, which will be on the day of album release," Tom tells us. "It got bombed in the Second World War and it's just a ruin but it's beautiful. We've wanted to play there for years but it's so hard to make gigs like that happen. It's going to be the best gig we ever play." And that's not the only "best" we hear today. Superlatives are flying high and The Enemy are visibly excited about what's coming next. "The thing is, we've made an album that we're really, really happy with," says Tom. "I honestly think it's our best one." That not-so-new confidence has been given a fresh sheen by the trio joining up with a rather special producer. "We wanted to work with Joby from The Bronx, which was a bit of a bold move," Tom gushes. "He's a genius. I want him to make the next album. Before we'd even started thinking about recording, he came and sat in our rehearsal room and went, 'Ok, the songs are good. Here's what's wrong with them.' He stripped them apart and told us how to make them better. And he's right, he's a brilliant songwriter." And we've not long to wait to hear exactly what he's talking about, with the band's latest LP due out later this month and a UK headline tour to boot, The Enemy will be getting away from here (sorry) and over to you shortly. The Enemy’s new album ‘Streets In The Sky’ will be released on 21st May via Cooking Vinyl. Photos: Jake Green

enemy

The Enemy. A pairing of words that can conjure up a collage of images: violence, flaring tempers, the colour red… the three lads of the same name that we meet today however are in decidedly good spirits as we set up our shoot. And understandably so. 54 thisisfakediy.co.uk

www.scottsmenswear.com

Left to right liam Tee by Fred Perry £35.00, Exclusive to Scotts Tom Jacket by Penguin £80.00 Jeans by Denham £130.00 andy Shirt by Fred Perry £65.00 Jeans by GStar £89.00 Pumps by Lacoste £50.00 all from www.scottsmenswear.com

Adidas Gazelle II ÂŁ60.00, exclusive to scotts Fred Perry ÂŁ50.00 all from www.scottsmenswear.com

56 thisisfakediy.co.uk

Shirt by Fred Perry £60.00 Jacket by Pretty Green £90.00 Jeans by Denham £130.00 all from www.scottsmenswear.com Watch is Tom's own

www.scottsmenswear.com 57

Polo by Fred Perry ÂŁ60.00 from www.scottsmenswear.com

58 thisisfakediy.co.uk

Sweat by Fred Perry ÂŁ70.00 from www.scottsmenswear.com

www.scottsmenswear.com 59

Here Comes The Sun

Extra fashion

Jacket: schott Jeans: allsaints Tshirt: sinstar Boots: Allsaints

p h o t o g r a p h y : b e n ja m i n

glean

fa s h i o n s t y l i n g : n e e s h a s h a r m a & g e m m a s wa n gro oming: lo

RnD

simmy c r e at i v e s

mode l : s e an fox @ n e vs

TshirT: adidas Jacket: alpha industries Shorts: humor Trainers: adidas Watch: kennettÂ

Tshirt: sinstar Jacket: luke Jeans: asos Watch: kennett Shoes: duffer

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Tshirt: luke Shorts: gabicci Jacket: alpha industries Boots: luke Cap: new era

Jacket: sinstar Tshirt: luke Trousers: luke Shoes: duffer Watch: kennett Hat: allsaints

Cap: new era, Vest: asos Jeans: mqt, Watch: kennett Rosary (worn as bracelet): lucifer Trainers: adidas

extra tech

Peopl e Peopl e Wi-Fi Invis ibl e Spe ak e r

RRP TBC

The gizmos and worth get ting about this

gadgets e xci t e d month

Ok, so it’s not quite invisible, but we reckon if it really was, People People would have a hard job on their hands trying to get anyone to part with any cash. Still, we get what they’re doing and we like. Why? Because we can’t help but be wooed by a bit of impressive minimalism every once in a while. We’re also keen on the fact that unlike loads of techie stuff, this speaker is all about being as environmentally friendly as possible. When you place an order, the glass panels that make up the speaker box are ordered from your nearest glass repair shop so shipping is reduced by 90%. What’s more, it’s delivered in a flat box so it fits through your letterbox and you assemble it at home, IKEA-style. Genius in so many ways.

Scented Gummy Bear Headphones RRP £9.99

Skywatcher Explorer-130 Reflector Telescope RRP £170

Pitch this up at your window and you’ll be able to see all sorts of exciting goings on. No, we’re not talking about what’s happening in your neighbour’s bedroom (there are rules about stalking these days – catch up) we’re actually more concerned with what’s going on in the night sky. This telescope is great for the beginner, has a pretty robust Aluminium tripod, 10mm, 25mm and two Barlow lenses plus a red dot finder. And although fiddling about with this of an evening is hardly going to turn you into Sir Patrick Moore, it’s got to be better than frying your brain cells in front of the TV. Well, at least for one night out of seven. 66 thisisfakediy.co.uk

Sometimes the world of tech can take itself just that little bit too seriously. Everything comes in grey, silver or black, it’s all extremely cutting edge, and well, there just doesn’t seem to be that much to laugh about. And that’s why we’re literally bouncing here, there and everywhere (ahem) at the discovery of the Scented Gummy Bear Headphones. No, they probably don’t offer you the best in sound technology, we’re sure top DJ’s won’t be using them, but hell, if you can’t indulge in a bit of stupidity on your commute into work, when can you?! Choose from strawberry, blueberry, apple and blackberry and get ready for strangers to start sniffing your lugholes.

Swatch Touch RRP £10 0

Ah, Swatch. How we loved your Pop Swatch in the 90s, and how, like fickle consumers, we shunned you for the last 15 years. But not any more! And it’s all down to your newest addition – the Swatch Touch. We’ll forgive you for jumping on the touchscreen bandwagon because, quite simply, we’d be foolish not to. And it’s all down to the delicious design of this bit of wrist candy – which, aside from the camouflage-print version, has us drooling uncontrollably. Anyone who’s ever used a touchscreen (pretty much everyone under 40 then) will find it simple to use: scroll sideways to view the timing display, and tap to access the chrono, alarm, timer and beep menus.

reviews backstory

BACK STORY

A Joyful Noise W i t h t h e i r f i f t h s t u d i o a l b u m a b o u t t o h i t t h e s h e lv es , w e s i t d ow n w i t h G o s s i p ’ s N at h a n H ow d es h e l l t o d i s c u s s h ow t h e b a n d m a d e ‘A J oy f u l N o i s e ’ .

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How did ‘A Joyful Noise’ come into being? We started writing last summer. We have a practice space at a warehouse in Portland so me and Hannah and Beth just jammed there for a month or two and recorded all of the ideas, picked the ones we liked and got rid of the ones we didn’t. Pretty easy. Where did the move to work with Xenomania come from? We were pretty open to whatever with this record. Brian [Higgins, producer and Xenomania founder] was the label’s idea. I hadn’t really heard of Xenomania, I wasn’t familiar with pop music really. They introduced us and we got along really well with him so I just went with it. A lot of people were quite surprised that was the direction you decided to take. Did you try working with anyone else in the beginning? I worked a bit with Mark Ronson but our schedules were too conflicting, he was very busy, and then we sort of moved on with Brian and finished it up in about two weeks in Portland. Brian Higgins is typically a pop producer, what did he bring to the table? I thought he had a really good ear. This is definitely our poppiest album but you have to try everything once! He added a pop scene that we probably would have been afraid of tinkering with before, but why not, I guess? Were you happy with the way the record turned out? Yeah, I enjoy the record. I can never listen to the music we make though, it’s like hearing your own voice on the phone machine and you’re like, “Oh God, do I really sound like that?” What was the studio set up like? We recorded some of it in a basement studio in Portland and then I went to London and played dubs with guitar and synthesiser at the

Xenomania place, which was just unbelievable. It’s like a fairytale house, it’s wild. How did you know when the record was finished? Was it a definite end, or were you inclined to keep messing with mixes? That’s quite an interesting process because I just improvised a lot of stuff, I literally laid down hundreds of ideas that were coming to me. Some of them worked and some of them didn’t. It’s a weird guessing game as to what parts to use. Several of the songs had three or four different vibes and then we tried to whittle them down to the ones that made the most sense. Beth’s cited ABBA as an influence. Who were you listening to at the time, and what impact did that have on the final piece? For me, personally, it’s different things. The guitar work is more traditional on this record because I’ve been listening to old country music and classical music, so that’s maybe changed it a touch. Generally the guitars are really rudimentary because I still can’t play guitar. You’ve got plans to play shows in the UK soon. Are there any tracks on the new record that you’re worried about performing live? No, we’ve added a synthesiser player so we’ve been playing pretty much all the songs except for two or three. They sound great live, I think. So it’s definitely more of a live album for you then? Was it recorded live or was it tracked? Yeah, it’s all live, no preprogrammed computers or anything. It’s all totally live. We’re a live band and live, I think, some of the stuff sounds more punk-inspired than the record does. The pop-sheen is gone when we play live, which I think is fun. Gossip’s new album ‘A Joyful Noise’ will be released on 14th May via Columbia.

Gossip A Joyful Noise

When Gossip first smashed dancefloors in 2006 with their frenetic breakthrough single ‘Standing In The Way Of Control’, they were a brash, feral lot, cast unmistakably in the punk mould. How things change. After Beth Ditto’s rise to pop culture icon status, Gossip’s choice to go with Brian Higgins hardly seems radical anymore. Though Higgins and his Xenomania team have previously worked with Girls Aloud and Sugababes, that’s not to say Gossip have been tarred with the same auto-tuned brush. Xenomania purvey, in the words of Higgins, “everything about the interesting side of music, but with tunes the postman will whistle.” That is bang on what has been created here in ‘A Joyful Noise’. Prior to recording, Ditto decided to spend a whole year listening to ABBA. While Gossip might not have donned coordinating jumpsuits, they have taken a certain je ne sais quoi from the Swedish four-piece, as well as other retro pop acts - though ‘A Joyful Noise’ is far more than just inoffensive mum music (no offence, Benny, Björn and co). It’s a bundle of danceable, soul laced power-pop, and there’s an irresistible hint of typically Beth Ditto-esque rebellion you just won’t find in Mamma Mia. Album opener ‘Melody Emergency’ reminds us that Ditto has quite the lungs on her - as if we didn’t know that already. “You can’t deny the animal in you,” she belts, backed by some slinking percussion and 80s-flecked guitar that keeps the whole thing just that bit untameable. ‘Perfect World’ sees Ditto’s potent vocals taking centre-stage again, this time as a power-pop diva. While the lead single is far more polished, heaving slick production and radio-friendly hooks, it only serves to highlight the raw power that so many shiny pop acts lack. ‘Horns’ is another standout, with a loveable bass line that would make Stevie Wonder himself beam with joy. While Motown, disco and soul are the main driving forces, those magic guitars from the band’s debut are there lingering in the background. It’s very clear that this album is a nostalgia trip - but it still belongs firmly to Gossip. Where ‘A Joyful Noise’ really shines is when the group’s newfound command of seductive pop music is allowed to cavort with the deep-rooted rawness that made us pay attention right at the beginning. The result is a great album full of slightly haywire, unpretentious pop music. (El Hunt) 69

reviews albums

Hatcham Social

Cold Specks

I Predict A Graceful Expulsion

Tinged with elements of folk and gospel, the theme of death runs thickly throughout Cold Specks' 'I Predict A Graceful Expulsion' – in fact there is barely a song in there that doesn’t mention it in some form. ‘Winter Solstice’ swells from the bleak winter blues into a rousing chorus of trumpets and backing choir, and by the time ‘Elephant Head’ comes around two thirds in, it’s clear what started as a doom-laden record is in fact an unashamedly moving and redemptive piece of musical genius. This is a stunning debut, bursting with life and creativity. (Bevis Man)

About Girls Gone are the alt80s styles and references that dominated the Finn brothers’ debut – not for nothing did Alan McGee compare Hatcham Social to Orange Juice – and in their place a new-found pop sensibility and keen ear for melody. 'About Girls' is a bright and breezy listen, full of the jauntiness that characterised the 60s songsmiths that it's so obviously in thrall to. Shades of Davies (‘Nicola Tells Me’) and Costello (‘All Summer Long’) appear alongside stomping guitar (‘NY Girl’) and taut, dark grooves (‘Escape From London’), lending an altogether punchier and perkier air to their tales of love won and lost. (Derek Robertson)

Polica

Give You The Ghost

DZ Deathrays Bloodstreams

What do you know about DZ Deathrays? They’re loud, right? Always “they’re loud.” While extreme volume may well be lurking in their arsenal, their catchy songwriting and hook-laden songs are more than capable of leading a larger more satisfying attack. In ‘Bloodstreams’ the Aussie twosome have an album with unexpected depth and a much greater sonic dynamism than their uber-rock and roll reputation would suggest. The clever way they pick when to throw their heavier punches makes for a captivating and danceable listen, even if it is heavily indebted to the climatic associations of the word “Woah!” (Matthew Davies) 70 thisisfakediy.co.uk

Translated from Polish, Polica means ‘urgent action’, ironic as most tracks seemingly stay rooted to the spot: opener ‘Amongster’, for example, simply drenching itself in a sprawl of frothy synths throughout. ‘I See My Mother’ is defined by skeletal side snares, while banshee-like wailing haunts the restless ‘Violent Games’. An album that doesn’t tediously trail, this is one of the most mesmerising works Polica have created. Themes of alienation and anguish bring a human element to an otherwise robotic record; combined with hypnotic instrumentation it’s easy to immerse yourself and get lost in its alluring character. Once you finally return to your senses though, you’ll want to dive straight back in. (Alex Yau)

Gaz Coombes Here Come The Bombs

Broadening his sound with a degree of playful sonic experimentation, there is something deeply compelling about Coombes’ organic, understated melancholy on ‘Here Come The Bombs’ and the insistent pulse of ‘Sub Divider’. Despite being markedly different in sound, there are fleeting reminders of Supergrass’s exuberant pop, particularly on the driving guitars of ‘Hot Fruit’ and the swaggering glam rock of ‘Whore’. Going solo always opens new vistas for a singer and Coombes has grasped the opportunity to do something different in this impressive debut. (Martyn Young)

Various Cruelties

Superbly soulful songs with singalong choruses might seem a simple formula, but Various Cruelties spice it up with a healthy dose of introspection and melancholia. The haunting sentiment of ‘She Is The One’ contrasts the shoegaze slumber-pop of ‘Capsize’, showing musicality, not genre, unifies this band. Gifted with a voice that effortlessly carries the heart-wrenching paean ‘If It Wasn’t For You’, we can only hope Liam O’Donnell gets his heart broken more often. Though lyrically on the lighter side of the spectrum, they deliver a moving and memorable debut for a band with a knack for stadium-filling melodies and angstridden confessions. (Linda Aust)

I Like Trains

Lissy Trullie

To hear 'The Shallows' retreading much of the same ground as 2010’s ‘He Who Saw The Deep’ brings a pang of disappointment, though it's worth stating that whatever its inertia, this album will certainly delight long-time I Like Trains fans. For the casual listener, the Benjamin Curtis-like leads in 'Mnemosyne' offer an easy introduction, while 'Reykjavik' stands out as an idiosyncratic highlight. To have been privy to a greater range of tempos and dynamics might have helped, and while perhaps not career-defining, tracks like 'We Used To Talk' leave us in no doubt about the continued status of I Like Trains as a band that matters. (Alex Lynham)

When Lissy Trullie scrapped her original album sessions to work with John Hill and TV On The Radio’s Dave Sitek, it resulted in a record fed on a diet of 80's pop culture. The heart-wrenching tale of obsession ‘I Know Where You Sleep’ is the Blondie homage Ladyhawke could never make, while ‘Heartsound’ chugs along like Duran Duran’s ‘Rio’ and ‘Spit You Out’ borrows from Kate Bush’s ‘Hounds Of Love’. Elsewhere, the album emits sass and attitude, with ‘X Red’ sugarcoating The Kills’ brand of dirty punk and closing track ‘You Bleed You’ replicating the jagged guitars of early Razorlight. It all sounds Trullie effortless. (Alex Yau)

The Shallows

Lostprophets Weapons

Amidst a tidal wave of mediocrity, it's ‘Jesus Walks’ which shines brightest on Lostprophets' new album, a call to arms propelled by a bed of gorgeous synths, bold, brash drum beats and a fist-pumping chorus. ‘Better Off Dead’ sees Watkins try his hand at rapping, an idea worse yet in practice than in principle. On a more positive note, ‘We Bring An Arsenal’, with its terrace-like chanting is an anthem destined to be part of their live sets for some time. ‘Weapons’ has no shortage of big choruses, slick production and crunching riffs but is let down by tired lyrics and too many forgettable songs. (Greg Inglis)

Lissy Trullie

The Cribs

In The Belly Of The Brazen Bull

Anyone expecting a full-blown return to the lo-fi racket of the Wakefield brothers' early efforts on 'In The Belly Of The Brazen Bull' will be sorely disappointed. It’s not that there are absolutely no signs of the noisy, care-free Cribs from their self-titled debut here, but the more grown-up sound heard on 2011's Marr-assisted 'Ignore The Ignorant' still lingers strong. A good album with some excellent songs, but perhaps not what most Cribs fans will be hoping for. ( Jake May)

The Wave Pictures

Long Black Cars

Keeping with the band's discipline of one-take, no-overdubs, live recording; the twelve songs on this album (The Wave Pictures' twelfth since 2003) are the sort that just sound right even on your first listen, with Tattersall’s distinctive lyrical style delivered in a soulful voice that wrenches every last bit of pathos, as on the eponymous chorus of 'Come Home Tessa Buckman'. Possessing an ability to romanticise mundane activities like a couple sharing a tin of kidney beans, it's unlikely you’ll forget Wymeswold’s favourite sons if this is your first experience. If you're a veteran, 'Long Black Cars' is a good reminder of their brilliance. (Tom Baker)

Best Coast The Only Place

Best Coast’s ‘Crazy For You’ debut read like a lengthy, gushing love letter to their home, California. Turns out it had a second page. Adoration for the Golden State comes from a different context than previously: last time round, Bethany Cosentino was in love with a few boys and the only refuge she found from love troubles came from her home. Now, she writes about touring, seeing every sight there is to see before harking back to those glory days of staying indoors and playing video games. Erring on the side of repetitive it might be, but like California, ‘The Only Place’ is not without its charms. ( Jamie Milton) 71

reviews albums

Ellen & The Escapades

Zulu Winter Language

Tropically styled, catchy indie, ‘Language’ is not boring; rather an expertly blended mix of light and shade, with plenty of attention paid to songwriting and a hint of samba-tinged frenzy. It’s easy to imagine the yelping beginnings of ‘Bitter Moon’ drifting over a field full of swaying arms, while ‘You Deserve Better’ showcases Will Daunt’s killer voice over shimmering synths and a sea of drums. They’re not going to spawn any new multi-adjectived genres, but this is what makes it so good. Expect Zulu Winter to become the festival season’s one to watch. (El Hunt)

All The Crooked Scenes Kicking off with the gently swung, earnest 'Run', it's almost amazing how slick an outfit Ellen & The Escapades have become. Remarkably listenable, 'All The Crooked Scenes' crucially retains some of the character that marked the band out as a bit special early on. Front and centre is Ellen herself, husky-of-voice and in fine lyrical form. Her understated performance used on the title track to counterpoint atmospherics points the way to a potentially more interesting future for the band's sound. 'Without You', on the other hand is the rollicking folk-pop that most are probably expecting. It’s a vessel that could take them far. (Alex Lynham)

Adventures In Your Own Backyard

Lower Dens

Flats

Nootropics

Smoke Fairies Blood Speaks

In the wake of the banjos ‘n’ beards revival of recent years, it can be easy to forget that folk, as a genre, used to mean a bit more than a well-produced barn dance. Smoke Fairies’ second album brings more punch than pastoral, with gently twisting spirals of electric guitar floating past unexpected bursts of blues-rock. The London-by-way-of-everywhere duo’s harmonious vocals too are by turn gently evocative and powerfully straightforward, telling of something deeper, darker and more primal than folk is generally approaching these days. ‘Blood Speaks’ is a force of nature, in more ways than one. ( Joe Skrebels) 72 thisisfakediy.co.uk

Patrick Watson

Equally dizzying as their 2010 debut, Lower Dens find themselves in slicker territory where rattling snares rasp underneath the fevered yearning of Jana Hunter’s smoky voice. Balancing urgent tempos and high registers with the haze of psychedelic numbers like ‘Lion In The Winter’, the soaring vocals and surging keys that populate the suffocating ‘Nova Anthem’ find a counterpart in ‘Stems’, whose taut instrumental and robust melody do nothing to prepare you for the sprawling twelve minute finale. Absorbing, distant, and effortlessly flowing, ‘Nootropics’ is not an entirely different beast from ‘TwinHand Movement’, but its refined edges and understated opulence find the band’s sonic landscape revitalised. (Lauren Down)

An album that's full of the wear and tear of countless tours, Patrick Watson's 'Adventures In Your Own Backyard' is a reaction to not wanting to be anywhere but home. Imagine those 14 hour days you had to do last month, now times that by two years, add a piano, some ethereal vocals and a string section and you'll probably be pretty close to what this sounds like. Melancholic and joyful, it's both soft and harsh; but more impressive than any contradiction is the gorgeous use of timbre. A wonderfully simple, elegantly performed album that puts the importance of texture into perspective. (Harriet Jennings)

Better Living

‘Foxtrot’ kicks 'Better Living' off with an ominous bass line before Dan Devine’s Frank-Carter-withno-concept-of-timing vocals make their ugly presence all too clear. The riff in ‘Country’ complements Devine’s delivery markedly better than the tracks around it, and ‘Slam’ is musically the album’s best track, but its gargantuan guitar line is still far closer to Lostprophets’ debut than anyone would care to admit. Flats aren’t far off being the biggest cliché around and could easily be nominated to fight Towers Of London in a contest to be punk’s greatest disappointment. Dead Kennedys? The Damned? The Clash? It’s closer to Cher Lloyd. (Matthew Davies)

Willis Earl Beal

Acousmatic Sourcery

M. Ward

A Wasteland Companion

We all know that music likes to raid its own back catalogue, and 'Acousmatic Sourcery' takes this to a logical conclusion. It’s pre-rock and the Delta blues that Willis Earl Beal mines on this rough diamond; his raw, guttural howl, some awkward strumming, and rhythms bashed out on pots and pans acting as his only instruments. By turns haunting, baffling, and heartbreakingly beautiful, it’s by no means an easy listen, but Beal is happy to shoot straight from the soul and follow his own path. Ignore the buzz, take it on its own merits, and you might very well be rewarded. (Derek Robertson)

There aren't many people you'd bother warning “I think you're spending a bit too much time with Zooey Deschanel,” but someone needs to have a word in our man's ear. Their moment together on 'Sweetheart' is so asinine and trite you almost wonder if it's a pastiche. Just when you're close to giving up, 'The First Time I Ran Away' arrives and 'A Wasteland Companion' suddenly and brilliantly clicks. 'There's A Key' stabs at senses of regret, while the burned-out melancholia of 'Crawl After You' is, genuinely, stunning. And then everything is forgiven, he's got a hold on our hearts once again. (Dave Rowlinson)

Allo Darlin’

Jack White

Listening to an Allo Darlin’ record is like looking through a box of old photographs. The first flushes of a relationship, the nostalgia of a holiday abroad. So here we are with ‘Europe’, a continuation of their charming debut. That means we get a witty and heartfelt album centred on Elizabeth Morris’ literate tales. ‘Capricornia’ is four minutes of sophisticated, jangly popgoodness, while ‘Some People Say’ sees her singing of “heading for the sunshine” over a gently strummed ukulele. Stand out ‘Still Young’ ups the pace with its driving rhythm while ‘Neil Armstrong’ is another highlight. However, while ‘Europe’ is an enchanting and elegant record, it’s no giant leap forward. (Danny Wright)

In a way, Jack White has always been a bit of a solo artist. Though recent admissions claim in The White Stripes it was Meg running the show, it was always Jack that seemed the creative force. The Raconteurs and The Dead Weather both live in the shadow of their leader; even when taking up production duties for someone else, it's Jack who finds himself 'the story'. On his de facto solo debut it's fair to say he flourishes. From the screaming riff of 'Sixteen Saltines' to the tripped out dream sequence of 'Take Me With You When You Go', every indication suggests that - if this does become White's main creative outlet - he's on to a winner. (Stephen Ackroyd)

Europe

NIki & The Dove Instinct

For a while, we wondered if Niki & The Dove had held on to their debut album a bit too long. How wrong we were. With the nights getting lighter, all of a sudden the Swedes' icy cool loses any lingering sense of detachment and becomes something closer to flat out euphoric. Opener 'Tomorrow' stands out as one of the moments of 2012 - hitting its stride with a chorus so huge it's easy to worry how on earth they'll follow it. Those hoping for one of the debuts of the year won't be disappointed. (Stephen Ackroyd)

Blunderbuss

Mystery Jets Radlands

There's something to be said for consistency, and even more for a consistent level of quality. Though Mystery Jets may have had more ammunition from the hype machine with their opening efforts, over time they've proved that the best bands get better with age. 'Radlands' marks yet another high point for the Eel Pie Islanders, lead single 'Someone Purer' showing a maturity in their craft few of their peers have stuck around long enough to develop. The wondrously titled 'Greatest Hits' and disco tinged 'The Hale Bop' represent an act comfortable in their own skin. There's little more appealing than that. (Stephen Ackroyd) 73

photo: Richard Isaac

reviews live

London Hammersmith Apollo is not your average low-ceilinged, stickyfloored music venue. With art deco grandeur, and seating tiers that spiral to dizzying altitudes, it all feels very theatrical, like what you’re about to see is timeless. This is, after all, a stage which has hosted The Beatles, Johnny Cash, Queen and David Bowie. The place has a notorious reputation for legendary concerts. Due to a faux-pas by the friend entrusted with the logistics of booking from the seating plan map (it later turned out she read it upside down) we were at the most vertigo-inducing heights of all, the back row. However this actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise, because seeing Laura Marling - a lone figure with a guitar - commanding one of the biggest stages in London was something quite special. Laura Marling knows this is a very special night too. “Once I came here to see Steely Dan” she says in her adorably gentle voice, to cheers of approval from the packed audience. “I think I was the youngest, and most female person here” she giggles nervously, and the audience are in love already. “Marry me Laura!” yells a particularly infatuated girl. Marling coyly replies that she doesn’t believe in marriage before coolly picking out the intro to ‘Darkness Descends’ and unleashing that incredible voice. Hundreds of blinding gold lights erupt from the back of the stage and Marling is no longer alone spotlighted in the dark. 74 thisisfakediy.co.uk

H a m m e r s m i t h A p o l lo, A full live band boasting cellists and flawless backing harmonies burst into life. The whole effect is breathtaking. It may be clichéd, but it is one of those ‘goosebump moments’ you chase after as a music fan. ‘Blackberry Stone’ is particularly magical; a noteperfect Marling backed only by a dimly lit string section. We are also treated to a new song titled ‘Pray For Me’, and with the dark lyrics “I cannot love, I want to be alone” everyone is hushed in awe right back to the top row. The folksy pounding of 'Devils Spoke' and the sheer beauty of ‘Rambling Man’ are both clear crowd favourites, leading to further marriage proposals. Marling can’t quite believe it. “We were really

nervous about tonight,” she says softly before playing her final song “but this has been everything we ever wanted. It’s really special to be here”. The final notes of ‘I Speak Because I Can’ ring out, and the whole Apollo gets to their feet in standing ovation. As the lights die and the audience file into the night, not even a sighting of Bill Oddie in the foyer can steal the spotlight away. The word "special" keeps coming to mind time and time again because there is a feeling that we’ve just witnessed something great. Laura Marling deserves to have her name written among the legions of legends that have graced the Apollo’s notorious stage, because she too is timeless. (El Hunt)

photo: Richard Isaac

Al e x an dr a Pal ace , Lon d on As Florence Welch takes to the stage dressed in a black sequinned catsuit and swirling cape, an orchestra strikes its opening chord, but is almost drowned out by an almighty roar from the crowd. Launching into ‘What The Water Gave Me’ from latest album ‘Ceremonials’, it’s as if we’re not watching a performance, but a superhero living out their wildest fantasy, with Florence’s ethereal vocals and eccentric costume, coupled with the venue’s murky lighting, plunging us into some sort of fictional underworld. The difference between ‘Ceremonials’ and previous album ‘Lungs’ is marked, with the latest offering taking on an altogether darker tone. Florence’s voice is faultless throughout,

demonstrating that it is possible to combine physical movement and vocals simultaneously (Britney Spears: take note). The only criticism that can be made of the show is that the visual side of proceedings seemed to be lacking. A glitter cannon, a few dancers or perhaps an old school smoke machine wouldn’t have gone amiss as, despite Florence and the Machine fulfilling the musical side of proceedings above and beyond requirement, the sheer size of Alexandra Palace meant that, at times, the place felt a little industrial. However, selling out three consecutive nights at one of London’s most renowned music venues can’t be sniffed at and we fully expect Florence & The Machine to keep their ladder leaning firmly on the wall of success. (Wendy Davies)

SE c C ,

Glasgow

You Me At Six are no strangers to arenas, granted, but tonight is an entirely different affair. In the past, they’ve taken to the stage as both openers and main supports – think Fall Out Boy in 2008 and Paramore in 2009 - but this evening in Glasgow marks the band’s first ever headlining stint, and it’s not one to be missed. The room in which we find ourselves is cavernous and there’s something really quite surreal in the air. The level of hysteria has been turned up to eleven, and the screams of fans are ear-piercingly loud. When the lights go black, and the eery echoes of ‘Sinners Never Sleep’ closer ‘When We Were Younger’ rebound around the room, it’s hard not to get a lump in your throat. Then, as the curtain drops – after the band imitate their cover artwork amidst a sea of spotlights – the venue bursts into life along with ‘Loverboy’. Blasting through a set primarily comprising of tracks from their latest offering, it’s unsurprising to only hear one track from their debut, and a handful of singles from ‘Hold Me Down’, proving that they’re inevitably more comfortable with their newest material. The most impressive factor though, lies within the scale of the production, and the band’s attitude to their larger audience. Sounding tight, confident and overall, holding an undeniable air of showmanship, their set tonight is enough to prove that, whilst this may be their first arena tour, it most certainly won’t be their last. (Sarah Jamieson) photo: Sinead Grainger

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Repping new music since 2OO6 www.ilovealcopop.co.uk - Fuckinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Indie

TV the walking dead

Christa Ktorides gets her geek on and heads to the Birmingham NEC for the MCM Expo show and to meet the stars of The Walking Dead, following the explosive ending of Season Two

British-American actress Lauren Cohan is well known to small screen genre fans for her roles in Chuck, The Vampire Diaries and Supernatural. We ask how it felt to come into an already established cast to play farm dweller Maggie Greene. “Amazing,” she replies in a surprisingly non-Southern and quite posh accent. “I think the story that I’ve gotten to tell as Maggie and as part of the whole Greene family has been very exciting. To be a family that hasn’t been exposed to the whole - as Hershel would call it - virus. And then literally just to be side-swiped first by the group and then by the zombies like we see at the end of the season. We’ve basically gotten to do every thing under the sun in Season Two.” With Maggie embarking on a relationship with Steven Yeun’s nerd-turnedzombie slayer Glen, is it easy to act out tender, emotional love scenes while surrounded by carnage? “I think it makes it easier in a way,” Cohan ponders. “I think when you’re on The Walking Dead and you’re thinking about if you only had your few loved ones left, your access to your emotions is very close to the surface, so

it’s been good. I think what’s great about Maggie and Glen is the solace that they find in each other.”

to process, thinking about surviving, not knowing what to do with her own self. There’s too much to think about.”

We ask if she reads the books and knows what’s in store for her character, even though the writers deviate from Robert Kirkman’s source. “To a certain degree it follows the comic book,” she reveals. “She has a lot to do this season, she gets a lot tougher. We’re really out there in the wild now there’s no safety anymore. I can’t wait - I’ve got goosebumps now when I think about it! It’s fun because the writers talk to us a lot about our relationships with the characters and our ideas for that but they’re still very tight-lipped about what’s coming. I wish I could give you more teasers than that!”

Carol’s relationship with strong, silent survivor Daryl [Norman Reedus] is becoming increasingly intriguing. How do you think Carol feels about Daryl? Is it romance? “Romance was not something that was on Carol’s mind,” she offers. “I think it’s more about protection, who she feels comfortable with, who she feels safe with, who she feels like she can share things with and who she’s identifying with.”

As distraught widow and mother Carol Peletier, the softly spoken Melissa McBride is sat next to her unfortunate screen daughter Sophia (a happy and chatty Madison Lintz) at the show. We ask the actress about the lack of grief process her character has been given over the shock conclusion to the hunt for Sophia. “I think there is a little bit of denial,” says McBride. “A little bit of already having come to terms with it as much as she can, but there’s so much going on, so much

One of the most memorable moments in the season finale was Carol being heroically swept on the back of Daryl’s chopper during the big walker invasion. “When Norman [Reedus] and I were shooting the scene and he comes to rescue Carol on the bike, we shot her getting on the bike four or five times already. It was very cold, he was tired and it was probably the fourth take I got on the bike and I couldn’t get my leg quite over the back and I sheared his arrows off,” she laughs. “He took off and I was like, ‘I think I just broke all your arrows!’” Is he a good driver? “He’s so fantastic, he’s a great driver. He’s very, very fun to work with.” 77

reviews FILM

Avengers Assemble

26th April 2012

The Avengers get off to a shaky start, as SHIELD stalwarts Fury and Coulson lead us through particularly dry exposition hell. However, once our superheroes start assembling, Joss Whedon's movie becomes quite extraordinary. The Buffy creator's sharp wit and ear for ensemble dialogue makes sparks fly between Robert Downey Jr's Tony Stark and the rest of the gang. As Thor, Chris Hemsworth brings yet more superb comic timing, but The Avengers really belongs to Mark Ruffalo. Hulk finally gets the film he deserves; not only the heart and soul of the movie, but responsible for the most crowd-pleasing, cheer-inducing moments. Scarlett Johansson is terrific - her fight scenes as Black Widow are the best in the film, teaming up with Jeremy Renner's Hawkeye. Finally, as a brave old-fashioned soldier, Chris Evans' Captain America is given more character development and action in this ensemble piece than in the whole of his disappointing 2011 feature. And who knew Whedon had it in him to bring such jaw-dropping showdowns? He faces off the heroes with each other (Hulk vs. Thor is mind-blowing) and tremendous, heartbreaking villain Loki (Tom Hiddleston even gets an epic Shakespearean putdown in) for a staggering amount of action sequences. The ultimate superhero supermovie. (Becky Reed)

the raid 18th May 2012

The talk of film festivals around the world, The Raid is a bone-crunching, back-breaking, cheekslicing, fridge-exploding orgy of violence. It's an extraordinary feat of bravura for Welshman Gareth Evans, who plucked silat expert Iko Uwais to display his martial arts skills in their second feature together, which is set to bring them worldwide fame. The very photogenic Uwais is tightly wound bundle of discipline as a SWAT team member sent to bring down a notorious crime overlord who dwells in an ominous and derelict Jakarta apartment block, with every floor hiding increasingly vicious drug dealers and murderers. For all its audacious gasp-inducing action sequences, it fails to emulate its obvious influences (Die Hard, Assault on Precinct 13) with a lack of plot, characterisation and wit. Those wanting a fresh, bloody and exhilarating martial arts fest will not be disappointed. (Becky Reed) 78 thisisfakediy.co.uk

Safe 4th May 2012

Jason Statham plays Luke Wright, a former cop turned cage-fighter, forced onto the streets by Russian gangsters where he becomes suicidal, while Catherine Chan is a 12-year-old maths genius with a photographic memory. Before long, their paths cross, and Stath spends the rest of the film saving her (physically) from the Triads, the Mafia and dirty NYC cops, while she saves him (spiritually) a dynamic the film is keen to hammer home without subtlety. The Stath actually gives quite a good performance, while the set-up is both economical and interesting, but sadly the action lets the film down, devolving quickly into repetitive gun-fights which get stale fast. With bland action and anonymous baddies, even some wonderfully cheesy one-liners can't save it from being a bit of a disappointment. (Alex Mullane)

American Pie: Reunion 2nd May 2012

The class of '99 reunite for a gross-out weekend, with the entire cast back for brilliantly immature shenanigans. The fourth proper installment in the franchise ends up as energetic and hilarious as the first, though it's soured by a large misogynistic and homophobic streak. Alyson Hannigan, Tara Reid and Mena Suvari are glorified extras while Jason Biggs, Chris Klein, Thomas Ian Nicholas, Eddie Kaye Thomas and Seann William Scott escape from work and family stress by being utterly ridiculous. Jim, Oz, Kev, Finch and The Stifmeister remain loveable dorks despite the best efforts of directors Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg to get mean-spirited (some dreadful fat and slut-shaming going on). An unashamed nostalgia trip, with the cast having as much fun as the audience. Fans get the sequel they deserve, but the nastiness should've been kept in check. (Becky Reed)

film the raid

W h at h a p p e n s w h e n a W e l s h m a n t r av e l s t o I n d o n e s i a t o m a k e T h e R a i d, o n e o f t h e m o s t ta l k e d - a b o u t ac t i o n films of the year Ever since it first screened at festivals, The Raid has continued to surprise jaded action junkies, and now arrives in the UK on 18th May. Expert in the martial art of Silat and fight choreographer Iko Uwais takes on his second leading role, reuniting with his Merantau director Gareth Evans for a movie that is 100 minutes of expertly orchestrated bloody mayhem. Uwais plays a young member of a SWAT team sent into an impenetrable Jakarta apartment block which has become a safe house for the city's most dangerous criminals. We sat down with writer and director Evans on one of his rare trips back to the UK to find out exactly how the amiable Welshman pulled off this extraordinary feat. How did you first persuade Iko Uwais to get in front of the camera? At first he didn't trust me at all. He wanted to do work in commercials, and he got involved with an agency. They screwed

him over, made him pay a deposit, then he did the commercial, didn't get paid and didn't get his deposit back. So he just thought 'no, screw the media', and went to work at a phone company. We were doing a documentary after that; my wife and I saw him perform and just thought 'wow, this guy's got screen presence' and so we said that we wanted to offer him the lead role in a film. He didn't believe me, and I don't think he did until the first day of the shoot, which would have been a really elaborate prank to pull on him! What were the influences for this high concept film? The obvious ones are Die Hard, Hard Boiled, Assault on Precinct 13 - anything contained in one building. Peace Hotel was one: the central concept was that the landlord of the Peace Hotel rented out rooms to people who needed to get away. I remember seeing a picture of Chow Yun-Fat with a f**king Winchester rifle and thinking that this was going to be the

greatest movie ever made. When I finally got to see it, it was a romantic comedy with musical moments. I just thought, make it a tower block, make him a drug boss, a bad guy. Then I saw the Romain Gavras video for M.I.A.'s 'Born Free' and thought 'F**k, I want to do the SWAT team thing'. Can you tell us about Iko's injuries on set? After hurting his knee [while trying out co-stars] he had to rest for like three or four weeks. He also had chicken pox - we were planning to shoot the training scene on the first day, where he has his shirt off, but he just looked like f**king bubblewrap! There was one guy swinging a machete at him, and he has to shield with his arm. It wasn't a real machete, but was made of metal. You can still see the bruise - it's been there since May! What are your favourite moments in the film? I really like the bit when we drop through the hole, because we shot that without a storyboard. It was really nerve-wracking, so it was kind of a thrill for me. We had to find a studio that was high enough to build a two-storey set, but the only one was fully booked, so we had to use a badminton court with a tin roof. It was so hot, we were dropping like flies. I think it's whatever punishes you the most, you end up loving the most when it's over.

reviews Games

Out Now & Coming Soon

Kinect Star Wars (Microsoft) – Xbox 360

It's not quite the Jedi experience you imagine, but there's an undeniable joy in being sucked into a galaxy far, far away as you swing your make-believe lightsaber around in your living room. That's pretty much a standard weekend for us, but now you can do it with a friend in a coop Jedi campaign mission, as well as stand-alone Podracing, Duels Of Fate and Rancor Rampage modes. Don't expect wonders, this is truly simplistic, gimmicky stuff and Kinect 'isn't quite there' yet with regards to accuracy, but anyone who's ever been a geeky kid at playtime will get a thrill from this. Just don't mention the Galactic Dance-Off mode... seriously, don't.

Lollipop Chainsaw

(Warner Bros) – Xbox 360, PS3 Release Date: 15/06/12

Just when you think gaming can't exhaust the zombie genre any further, along comes Lollipop Chainsaw. Juliet Starling is a cheerleader, wielding a chainsaw, carrying around the decapitated (yet still talking) head of her boyfriend Nick and tearing up the undead with ruthless fervour. With a pounding and diverse soundtrack featuring both Atari Teenage Riot AND The Chordettes, we couldn't be more excited about this one if it was thrust into our hands via an explosion.

Journey

(Sony) – PS3 (Download Only)

The thing about Journey is that you'll spend most of your first playthrough in a state of complete bewilderment. You'll have no clue what's happening, where you're going, what does what, or wh... wait, it's finished?! But in such a short time frame you'll be utterly mesmerised by the beauty of the game's experience. Guiding your nameless traveller through various treacherous elements towards a shining light in the distance, you'll encounter interactive totems and rags (yep) that enable you to float through the air and glide across environments with silky precision. A joy to play from start to finish which, incidentally, will only take you a few hours. But what a few hours!

Dragon's Dogma

(CAPCOM) – Xbox 360, PS3 Release Date: 25/05/12

You know what gaming needs? More dragons! More fantasy-styled swordswinging! More mages firing magic bolts! MORE! So, it may be oversaturated, but Dragon's Dogma is looking like it may break the mould. This open-world action RPG may take its cues from the likes of Skyrim, but its odd execution and companion-collecting abilities will elevate it above the generic. Especially since it contains Shadow Of The Colossus-style enemy clambering!

Silent Hill: Downpour (Konami) – Xbox 360, PS3

Of course the purists will have hissy fits, but any of us who've ever played a Silent Hill title of late will know it can be a lot worse than this. Focusing, annoyingly, more on clunky combat than chills, you take on the role of Murphy Pendleton, a convicted criminal, as his jailbus crashes on the outskirts of a misty town. Guess where?! Yes – Hull. With some genuine jumps and an undeniable sense of foreboding, Silent Hill: DP does its best but sticks idly to the constraints of the survival horror genre, providing nothing new but entertaining you with a spooky formula you'll either lap up or reject. 80 thisisfakediy.co.uk

Aliens: Colonial Marines (SEGA) – Xbox 360, PS3, PC, Wii U Release Date: TBC

Aliens have come to your home console in a brand new first-person shooter from SEGA putting you in the camouflaged jockeys of a colonial space marine unleashing flamethrowers, machine guns, pulse rifles and RPGs and those poor, innocent xenomorphs with their friendly, dripping teeth. Co-op and competitive multiplayer have both been confirmed, but an Aliens VS Marines mode has only been hinted at... It's a bughunt!

Retro Game Of The Month

Mr. Angry

(Codemasters, 1986) – Commodore 64

Play out your fantasy of being the most hideously under-prepared paparazzi of all time in this blocky, frustrating platformer! You're presented with a series of doors in a hotel, behind one of which is a movie star for you to pap like the uncaring beast you are. Thing is, you've somehow managed to come out without a camera. Or a bulb for your camera. Or a press pass. Or a key for the movie star's room. So you have to find those objects hidden randomly behind closed doors all the while being pursued by relentless and idiotic hotel staff. Behind one of the doors, though, is Mr. Angry – an agitated bald fella in pyjamas. And if you uncover him, he'll join the hunt to stop you in your parasitic quest to earn dough. Each level is one screen with a bunch of doors and an array of increasingly annoying ways to access them. You can leap across gaps, which requires terrifying accuracy, or take a bunch of confusing moving platforms which, we're sure, would completely ruin the ambience of the hotel.

2012 AD HD

Immediate apologies for the worst article title in the history of article titles but, let's face it – 2012 has, so far, been a year of HD remastering. Konami have gone HD mental all up in the hizoose with releases of Metal Gear Solid HD and Silent Hill HD. And with Capcom releasing Devil May Cry HD, there's also a stunning fanmade Sonic The Hedgehog 2 HD as well as SEGA promising us an HD Shenmue port. So, is 2012 set to become the year that the letters HD replaced having to actually make a new game? Who can blame publishers? Like a sequel, a previous success means the HD remastering will be easy money in the bank - a sure-fire rewarmed hit. But haven't we already paid for these before? Sometimes, though, digging out your old PS2 and memory cards to trundle about in Shadow Of The Colossus can feel just as ancient as

playing it on a Casio watch. Although the digital remastering won't smooth all those jagged edges, the comfort of playing on a modern console, particularly with the added bonus of unlocking trophies and achievements, can re-ignite the original passion you had for the titles. But it's not quite the same. Yeah, you don't have to sit as close to the TV due to the huge wire dragging from the console to your palms. Do you really want to dust off the old Dreamcast for a game of Shenmue when you'll be able to download it? Old consoles have their vintage sparkle, but ultimately, unless you're a console purist, you'll grab what you can for your most recent gaming-box... because we don't all have the cupboard space for a million consoles. And, to be fair, sometimes the old boys need return to the playground to show the new kids how it's done. We're looking at you, Shenmue.

BE SURE TO d own load. .

The game's main flaw is the fact you can plummet to your death off one rung of a ladder (or are they meant to be stairs...?) and if you misjudge a jump, poor old pap is going to go splat on the hotel carpet. Its other flaws include being awful, and being worse than awful. Perhaps we're being harsh, but the game does feel like a huge random version of the card-game Concentration, with the extra bonus of being irritated. This is poorly made, but one you'll, for some reason, keep slugging away at with the dedication only a maniac can muster. Avoid if you enjoy life.

Sine Mora (Xbox 360)

Like farting in a beauty queen's face, Sine Mora manages to mix vileness with stunning visuals. In a complete bullet frenzy that's more poetry than pwning, this old school 2D 'diesel punk' shoot 'em up is easy to get lost in and pumps thousands of rounds of new life into the genre. Created by Grasshopper Manufacture and scored by Akira Yamaoka, its sheer hypnotic beauty elevates it above its peers and then shoots them down in a relentless, chaotic burst. Lovely stuff ! Best shooter of this generation, anyone? 81

a date with... FIXERS

a date with... L u k e M o r g a n B r i t t o n w i n e s a n d d i n e s s ta r s o f t h e m u s i c w o r l d Sometimes circumstances just don’t go your way. Life is such a fluctuating place that it’s often hard to predict what is going to happen one step in front of you, whether you’re going to trip over your laces creating a too-painful-toeven-tweet-about awkward situation, let alone be able to arrange things for weeks in advance. Arranging dates can be quite tricky anyway; to ponder what suits your two separate personalities best, what mutual interests you have, where’s the best place to avoid any mutual friends all that essentially teenage stuff. It’s like a crazy golf course set upon a minefield.

photo: Emma Swann

Waking up at the end of what had been a glorious week to find the sight out your window to be blighted by London fog on the specific day you’ve organised an outdoor activity with a band is not the best of feelings. Add to it that the print deadline looming like the grey

82 thisisfakediy.co.uk

cloud currently covering the sky and you resign yourself to the fact that you’re going to endure a bit of a rubbish date, both pretending to have fun like midtable football fans when they doggedly sing about being “the greatest team the world has ever seen.” I guess if all else fails, you can just make small talk about the weather. It would be like having a date with your barber. But sometimes things turn out alright just at the nick of time, as the clouds part as swiftly as in a biblical retelling. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves and speculate that this proves the presence of a higher being. No, let’s just enjoy this little miracle for ourselves. With Fixers being from Oxford, we thought we’d celebrate this glorious day by taking them for a picnic at Shoreditch Park. It must be tedious for the band having to commute back and forth the M4 corridor endlessly. And what if traffic is really bad on this Friday afternoon, we wouldn’t want them to get homesick now would we? So we bring a little bit of Old Oxfordian

tradition to East London, kind of like taking Glasvegas for a deep-fried banquet along Brick Lane followed by dessert at a cardiac arrest clinic. “I actually was intending on going on a diet today,” lead singer Jack informs me as I pass him a flaccid paper plate wilting under the carb-heavy weight and pressure of an array of meat-based produce. “And I haven’t touched alcohol for two months,” he adds just as I open a bottle of wine. Seeing as it is 11am in the morning, we substitute the wine for lemonade but as he picks up a handful of sausage rolls, the damage has already been done. I already know that this, if continued, is going to be a toxic relationship. Six months down the line our lives will probably end up like the accompanying video to ‘We Found Love’, only a bit more meta, each of us bickering over which gets to be Rihanna. Not a healthy way to live any lives. I tell Jack about my love-hate relationship with pork pies. By rule I just don’t really think anyone should eat a meat product almost the size of a human head in a single sitting. It just seems a bit too much like cannibalism to me. Halfway through the conversation about “needing a good lie-down after a whole pork pie,” I realise how much of a come-on it sounds and how phallic all the picnic foods are, thus we end the date in the midst of meat sweats and pork regret. A message comes on my Twitter feed later that day. “Had a lovely picnic with DIY earlier.” It’s like we’ve become one of the couples that flood news streams with identical photos of themselves in varying mundane backdrops. To stop this from ever happening, I restrain myself from tweeting back. And with it, goes the chance of a second date. My plight to find love in the hopeless place that is this music industry continues.