EP Review - King and Country - Mountains

The boys from South Wales are at it again!! The release of their second EP 'Mountains' see's them producing more of what has bought them the following that was started with the release of heir debut EP 'Changes'. Except there is one thing different with Mountains. The sound is even BIGGER!! (If that was at all possible). The twin guitars of brothers Ash and Tom Taylor are used to even fuller effect this time round, and you can't help feeling the 4 tracks just isn't enough :)

It all kicks off with 'One For The Weekend' which is a track all about the party lifestyle, which in itself sounds good to me, lol. Driving guitars and drums start us off and bring us into an 'almost' McFly type verse, apart from being a bit heavier than the McFly boys, it has that catchiness to it with both the verse and the great anthem like chorus. Fab start to this new release. 'Cherish What You Have' comes in next with a great riff to begin with. If you listen to the 'Changes' EP and then listen to this 2nd piece, you will notice a definate maturing in the sound. In the time that has elapsed between the releases, they have honed their sound immensely and what you end up with is another great EP. My favourite track, although only by a very small margin as they are all single quality tracks, is 'Not Alone'. It's a great track, with verses that are much more stripped back than the other tracks, and an almost slower feel to it, but the power comes in the chorus. Another KanC chorus that just screams out audience participation at live gigs. The pace and power returns with the final track on the EP, 'Soldiers'. Another track full of power riffs, great drums and then a great bridge brought to an end by more gritty guitar work from the brothers Taylor.

Ash, Tom, Matt, and Alex have certainly pulled it off again. Another great piece of work, 4 great, solid tracks, that need to be heard on UK wide stages, and sooner rather than later.

Although Breathe In Breathe Out features on the 'Changes' EP, the 'Mountains' realease is that shiney and new, there are no vids yet. :)

You can purchase your copy of 'Mountains', as well as King and Country t-shirts, vests, etc from their Big Cartel page here.

BritRockArmy Presents....The Unsigned Album

Calling ALL UK unsigned bands!!

Here it is folks, the news you've all been waiting for!!

Applications are now being taken for tracks to appear in the BritRockArmy double album, in association with Freaky Pug PR & Records!!

Any bands wishing to be a part of this fantastic, exciting opportunity need to email their nominated track to BOTH zara@freakypug.co.uk and britrockarmy@gmail.com. We are looking for 30 bands. So whether you are punk, indie, alt, metal or pop/rock, get emailing. You only have 2 weeks from today to get your tracks in for consideration. So you need to act fast. Part 1 of the album will be selected by BritRockArmy, the 2nd part will be a 'people's choice'. ALL bands wishing to apply, MUST be following both @FreakyPugPR and @BritRockArmy on Twitter, and must also LIKE the respective Facebook pages. Any bands not doing either of these things will not be considered.

BritRockArmy came about purely through social media, so band interaction and how bands interact with fans, etc, is the key to its success.

Once the application process has finished in 2 weeks, the bands not selected as part of 'disc1' will be posted on the BritRockArmy Facebook page. Fans will then have 4 weeks to vote for their favourite bands, but the tracks will remain a secret. The 15 bands with the most likes, will then be the chosen ones for 'disc2'

We are asking for as many of the tracks as possible to be new tracks, or 'exclusives', so tracks that are not currently available for download, streaming, etc, tracks that won't necessarily have been heard before. If that's not possible, then whatever you feel is the track that best showcases your music.

So, what are you waiting for!? Get emailing those tracks over to BritRockArmy and Freaky Pug. You've got until Monday November 5th to get your tracks in!!

Good Luck!!

BritRockArmy Headliners - Sinners Highway

On December 13th, there's a real treat in store for anyone who decides to attend the BritRockArmy gig at Scruffy Murphys. The headline act are one of the Midlands' best known unsigned bands. Nottingham hard rockers Sinners Highway will just have completed their first headline UK. It will be a chance for those who couldn't travel to any of the tour gigs the chance to see a fantastic young, extremely talented and enthusiastic band perform on a live stage. The 5 piece have been going for just over a year and are already proving to have a major pulling power, when it comes to attracting crowds to gigs. At their EP launch, held at Rock City in Nottingham on May 31st this year, they wowed the local music scene with a fantastic show to a crowd in their hundreds who wanted to what the band were really made of.

There are you typical rockers, with twin guitars in full flow, rockin basslines, awesome solo's, and some anthemic choruses. The title track from their Sinners Highway debut release, is a fine example of this, from it's brilliant guitar riff opening, to the chorus which screams out 'Crowd Participation!' Si's vocals are in the mold of Jon Bon Jovi and Axl Rose, in fact, there a GnR feel to alot of the track.

Once the November/ December tour has finished, the guys will be focussing on the completion of their second release at some point in 2013.

Sinners Highway are :-
Si Ross - Vocals
Tim Everington - Guitar
Sam Heaton - Guitar
Jaemar Malavi - Bass
Alex Morley-Finch - Drums

Sinners Highways support on the night will come from Scottish rockers Toby Michaels Rolling Damned, Cheltenham punk duo GagReflex and Greater Manchester alt/rockers I Invented Fire. It promises to be a fantastic night of rock!!

BritRockArmy Headliners - Thunder Lion

BritRockArmy's second live event, takes us to a second venue. One no less auspicious than The Roadhouse, with a great name for bringing fantastic rock music to The Second City. Scruffy Murphy's stages the second BritRockArmy gig, and the headline act come to stage as one of the regions popular unsigned bands. Thunder Lion are from Redditch just outside Birmingham and they are no strangers to the local circuit, having played at Scruffys before amongst many other venues and also after playingthis years Loaded Festival with fellow BritRockArmy headliners, (from the launch party), Sister Shotgun. Their music is good old fashioned groove laden rock n roll. With an almost bluesy feel to some of their songs, the TLZ lads know how to make their fans groove and rock all at the same time.

Marshmellow by thunderlionz

The Loft, in fact, almost has a Led Zep feel to it, with a Robert Plant-esque vocal from Dave Zero. Who knows, is another track that kind of breaks away from the feel of a lot of their other songs, showing a greater depth and quality to Daves voice. Having never seen Thunder Lion live, it should be a great show on November 29th at Scruffy Murphy's.

Thunder Lion are:-
Dave Zero - Vocals
Norway - Guitar
Simon Donovan - Bass
Kris Allen - Drums

The support for Thunder Lion at this gig will come from North Wales/Cheshire based brothers Faltered, who have promised to treat the crowd to their awesome cover of Justin Timberlakes Sexy Back, up and coming London alt rockers Amaryllis, and friends of TLZ Severed Ties.
 

DRAG - Get The Punk Out!!

DRAG or DRessed As Girl, are an energetic, sleazy punk band from Birmingham. Female fronted, but more ballsy than a lot of their male counterparts, the lyrical content covers subjects that a lot of bands would steer clear of.

They sing songs that cover issues such as gender issues, self harm, and the single Hollywood Waist deals with eating disorders. And there are no apologies for their choices of subject matter, and indeed why should there be? When these issues are so prevalent in modern society, is it just that other bands are scared to cover these matters. But hey, that's a topic for another discussion, on another day.

Make no mistake, this girls are no shrinking violets! Their live performances prove this. There is a crackling tension between Heather and Velma being completely unapologetic, and making no secret of thier sexuality. They are another marvel of the current 'underground' music scene, being completely self funded, and have recorded and promoted all ther#ir own material to date.

In April this year, they released their 2nd EP titled Homemade Plastic Surgery, under their own independent label, Sleazy Punk Records. It was released worldwide on iTunes, Amazon and Spotify.

They are another fanatstic West Midlands band. Adding to the current crop of ever increasing talent coming out of this part of the country. 

DRAG are:-
Heather - Vocals
Velma - Guitar
Si - Drums

EP Review - Black 16

You'll notice lately, that a lot of the bands I'm featuring on the blog are very new bands. Ones that more of you will be unfamiliar with, than familiar with. Black Sixteen are no exception to this. I only picked up on them a couple of weeks ago myself, as usual, via Twitter.

They're a four piece band from London who formed in 2010 when songwriter and guitarist Amir Khan, and drummer Matt Burn got together using the temporary name 'Rain Hits Concrete'. The quartets line up was completed in early 2011, when Amir and Matt were joined by bass player Alex Brock and keyboard player Laura Sepp. The band however, still needed a front man, and it was Amir who stepped into the breach as the songs the band had collected had evolved to be very personal to him.

Influenced by bands such as Nirvana, The Afghan Whigs, Ministry and Nine Inch Nails, the newly confirmed and renamed Black Sixteen set to work on the debut EP, which was released at the beginning of 2012.

Red Light Princess by blacksixteen

The self titled Black Sixteen EP is a cross section of many different rock styles, with a bit of punk, a pinch of grunge, a smattering of classic rock, and a whole lotta attitude. It's a 6 track offering, with 'Die For Me' kicking things off. It's a song that starts off with a good grungy guitar riff, which then blends into an almost distant vocal for the verse, but then transcends into a dark and angry chorus. Amir shows off a multi faceted vocal range which see him go from an almost gentle verse into a FFDP style chorus. It's a solid way to start off a debut release. 'Kira' follows which has a much moodier feel to it, with almost sinister, gothic overtones to aspects of the vocal and instrumental performance. As with a few tracks on the EP 'Choke' has a very dark punk/gothic feel to it, very akin to Marilyn Manson, although there are more melodic aspects to track 3 too. Again, much like someone with a split personality, Amir switches 'character' in the blink of an eye from a gentle, almost tortured soul, to the one doing the torturing. It's another really strong vocal performance which is carried over into 'Nude Model'. You could almost be forgiven for thinking 'Red Light Princess' is a change of pace, as the intro begins life as an almost lullaby-esque keyboard intro, however at the 30 second mark, if you're worried you may drift off, have no fear as the drums that kick in are a massive wake up call, and you are dragged back to exactly where Black Sixteen want you. Held captive by the thought of what is to come next. Kick has an almost industrial feel to it, with the way it is built up in layers from the intro, and with the final offering Ghost Kiss the EP is brought to a fitting end, with another powerhouse vocal performance from the ever dark Amir and a great keyboard track from Laura, giving aspects of the song an almost 80's feel.

All in all, its 7 angst ridden, angry tracks, with an order of bitterness, over a range of grungy, punk like riffs and great keyboard work floating in and out to give some tracks an all together different feel to what you would expect. It'll be interesting to see where Black Sixteen's sound takes them in the future, with what they currently have, it could go in one of many very interesting directions. I for one wish them luck, and will be monitoring their progress very closely.

Die For Me by blacksixteen

Charity Raffle - December 27th Indie Night

I've got some great acts booked to play an event at The Roadhouse, Birmingham on December 27th, right in between Christmas and New Year. the acts playing are The Union, The Evacuees, Hottaches, The Universal, and R.i.D.

I'd like to do something to help out the BritRockArmy charity of choice, Balls To Cancer, as well as the charity gig in March 2013.

So what I though I'd do is, at the event on the 27th of December, have a raffle with ALL proceeds going to charity. If anyone out there, especially any awesome, generous bands, would like to donate any merchandise, cd's, anything at all, I would be hugely grateful!!

Please get in touch via any of the usual channels.

Thanks in advance.

P.S I've already had some fantastic donations from Coventry based band The Loaded, and when I say 'fantastic', I mean FANTASTIC!!!