Super prolific, very talented, and criminally under-rated, My Name Is Ian has written another new album and obviously it's good.
'eleven', called so because it's the Cardiff/Newport/south west England musician's eleventh record (and fourth full-length - the first with a 'proper' band), is released on CD and cassette in a month (23 September) but also available digitally today on bandcamp.
'Gotta get out soon' is heading the release and it's a super cool, fuzzy, melodic bedroom pop track along tpical Ian lines - a bit odd, super catchy, and just makes you feel kinda warm and happy.
'eleven' also sees Ian revisiting some older tracks and giving them the full band treatment, with 'Larger than the largest dinosaur that's ever existed' sounding especially good.
I bloody love Joanna Gruesome. I love their old songs. I love their new songs. I love their live shows. I love their faces. 'Do You Really Wanna Know Why Yr Still In Love With Me?' is their newest of their new songs, and I love that too.
I love the sinking guitar line. I love the crackling guitar sound. I love the crashing drums. I love the harmonies. I love the chorus melody. I love the breakdown. I love the filthy ending. I love this band.
I went to Cardiff for Swn Festival on the weekend. It was fun. I drank lots of beer and watched lots of bands and saw many friends.
Despite being a Cardiff band, Totem Terrors weren't on the line-up for Swn, which is sad because they are good. Their latest song, 'Unkind' is an example of this. Jerky guitars rallies with bass while vocals bounce between male and female, all coming together to sound slightly The Fall-style post-punk/art-rock.
It's been a while since we heard new material from Saturday's Kids, which makes this post all the more exciting, for me at least. The young South Wales band are due to put out a new 7" early next year, and 'Black Pocket' is one of the songs taken from it. Carrying the same kind of youthful, post-punk angst that we've grown to love in their previous work; the four-piece also continue to make massive forward strides in sound with this release. They're not content to sit still and be comfortable, and they're all the better for it. Catch them playing two live dates with Future of the Left later this month
It's been a long time coming, by Islet have finally confirmed the release of their debut album. Called Illuminated People, it'll come out through their own Shape Records and Turnstile on January 23rd.
Luckily for us, the Cardiff four-piece are also giving away a track taken from it. 'This Fortune' is synth heavy and whirring noise - rallying between moments of loud panic and considered calm, much like their excellently loud and energetic live shows, backed by the 'tribal' that we've become familiar with. Needless to say it's good, and the full-length is likely to be more of the same.
Let's be honest, lots of the bands that take a clear influence from The Fall are pretty rubbish. An excuse to not sing properly and be lazy musically seems to be how some see it. Totem Terrors - a two-piece from Cardiff, previously using the name Joy of Sex - take The Fall kind of post-punk and move it into interesting directions, putting their own touch on it. Two new tracks have popped onto bandcamp since the name change and both of which are very good indeed. Listen and download below.
Cardiff two-piece Yajé are a bit odd. Their name is odd both to type and pronounce. Their music is odd. And, surprise, surprise, their song's accompanying videos are odd. There's something ultimately charming and inviting behind all that anti-social raucous noise though, don't you think?
Joanna Gruesome are fast becoming my favourite new band of the minute for their kick-ass 90s lo-fi sound, and new track Lemonade Grrl could well seal the deal. Expanding on their previous work, and still taking influence from the likes of MBV, The Cherry Smash, Rocketship and Beat Happening, it's twee yet 'FUCKYEAH' at the same time from the Cardiff five-piece. The distorted guitar, the harmonised vocals, the lo-fi drum noise - it all sounds right. News of new releases soon, apparently.
It's not usually Basement Fever's "thing" to blog about new videos, but this effort from Among Brothers seems the perfect opportunity. Following on from debut EP Homes (which we waxed lyrical about back in January), the Cardiff six-piece return with Loved, a brand new single - and what progression. Using a similar formula as previous works - a delicate but powerful blend of post-rock, folk, and pop with added electronic twinkles - but, in my opinion, better than anything they've written so far, Loved is interesting, exciting, and beautiful. And the video's a good watch, too.
"Recorded with Rory Atwell" is fast becoming code for "this is fucking good". It seems everything and anything that the former Test Icicle (and current Warm Brains) is involved with is well worth blogging about, and the latest Kutosis recordings are no different.
A three-piece from Cardiff, the band wear their influences openly on their sleeves: fans of Mclusky, Liars, and Les Savy Fav will like their noisy, feisty alternative rock songs. Guitar riffs and distorted, chomping bass lines work wonderfully in unison whilst choruses soar. Satisfyingly heavy yet sufficiently catchy, single Shadows is out on Barely Regal Records on September 5, and full-length Fanatical Love will follow.
In all the excitement (?) of yesterday, it looks like I missed some new music by Jewellers. Still regularly give the Newport duo's debut album - the excellently chilled out Sleep Education, available for free from their bandcamp - plenty of listens so it's ace to see they're working on new material.
The line between taking influence from and merely imitating is fine and highly subjective. What one person lauds as a respectful nod to, someone else will call direct plagiarism. This is an age old debate, and one that will undoubtedly never be resolved.
Indeed with acts like Cardiff five-piece Joanna Gruesome opinion will be split. Their fuzzy guitar and twee boy-girl vocal pop sound is by no means a new one - yet at the same time it's not a massively popular genre that they've decided to sound like so that they immediately shoot to fame. They're just a few kids making the kind of music that they love, and that's cool with me.
Hear a few older tracks on Basement Fever back here, or listen to the two newer ace demos below.
The former track, Strange Blood, is slow-paced, pensive, down-beat and almost-balladry in its make up; crying vocals, big guitar sounds, violin sounding synth, slow paced drum crackles, and minor-key piano chords throughout. It's affecting and effective - and couldn't be much more different to other new song People. Surfy guitar chords jerk in time with echoing snare hits bringing to mind Fair Ohs, and the similarity to US surf-punks remains a fairly valid comparison for the rest of the track also.
Arguably pretty brave to cover such a broad range of sounds especially for a band so early into their 'career', but it pays off here for sure. Listen below and hear more at bandcamp.
You can never really go wrong with a Daniel Johnston cover, as backed up by Cardiff's Yajé with their version of 'True Love Will Find You In The End' on their upcoming cassette. It's not their only trick, though - the release is five tracks of impressive guitar-drum noisy lo-fi jams deeming Yajé well worth to keep an eye on, and the tape well worth a few quid. You can grab it when they support Islet at Undertone in Cardiff if you're there. Oh, and it's pronounced "ya-hey" in-case you were wondering.
Stream the whole cassette at Soundcloud or listen to some below.
Speed is one of the names of the music blogging game. It's also something I lack. Heard about Newport electronic duo Jewellers a few weeks back, but it's taken me until the last few days to properly listen. What a fool I am. Incredible twinkling synth sounds that seem to me good enough for them to become pretty massive. This is intelligent, brilliant stuff. Don't leave it any longer to listen to these - below or at bandcamp where you can get the entire album for free.
What to say about new Cardiff 5-piece Joanna Gruesome? A comment on the name? A comparison to the gazey, jangly twee pop of the likes of The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart or Yuck (or countless other earlier bands)? A reflection on the brilliantly distorted bending guitar work or the top driving bass lines? A thought on the sometimes slightly iffy (hey, it's still early days) saccharine vocals?
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That's right. Welcome to Basement Fever's first ever competition! We're very happy to be here and we're excited to be giving away free stuff from people that we like. We think it's a pretty decent prize, and we hope you do too. Of course by 'we' I actually mean 'I'. Anyway.
Any even semi-regular visitor to or Facebook fan or Twitter follower of this blog will know just how much we like Saturday's Kids. They've featured a good few times on BF (here, here, and here, and we've also shouted how much we like them at other places, like on The Pigeon Post. Their ever-developing post-punk/post-hardcore sound has had us excited on many, many occasions and new tracks never fail to impress even when taking very new directions.
Kindly they've agreed to give away some free stuff to one lucky reader of this blog. The stuff featuring in the picture above. That is:
- A copy of their 10" split with Kids Return (featuring Theorum, Unattainable and Whisper In My Ear).
- A copy of their 7" vinyl (featuring Three Days, Spider's Legs, and A Dirty Dream)
- And a free t-shirt (in the size of your request).
They might even chuck in some pin badges. My left foot, although wonderfully socked, isn't included, unfortunately. All you have to do to enter this competition is answer one easy question.
Which part of the United Kingdom do Saturday's Kids call their home - England, Wales, Scotland, or Northern Ireland?
Email your answer to basementcompetitions@gmail.com with an email headed "Saturday's Kids Competition" (or something vaguely similar) in the next 2 weeks to enter. Entrance to the competition will close on Sunday 20th March, and a winner will then be picked at random. It is a policy of one entrance per individual, though, and address for postage must be in the UK.
And if you've forgotten quite how they sound, have a listen to some tracks below (posted in chronological order to try demonstrating their constant evolution as a group of young musicians).
Saturday's Kids - Social Crimes
Saturday's Kids - Grey On White
Saturday's Kids - Dirty Dream
Saturday's Kids - Whisper In My Ear
Feel free to tell all your friends to increase your chances. Best of luck!
As promised on this St David’s day, today’s featured band is based in Wales – the country of flowing hills, daffodils, and rugby. And my university years. Well, the band is sometimes based in Wales.
My Name Is Ian is another of the releasees of the Plymouth / Weymouth / Portsmouth bedroom label Art Is Hard. Less than me being biased for potential future sofa crashes, however, the regular posts on bands on this label has more to do with their quality. Honest! First appearing on their now sold-out first ever release – a compilation of south-west bands available through purchasing a t-shirt - the one-man band fronted by, you guessed it, Ian is now releasing his ‘Man Club’. A three-part series of cassette releases, the Man Club means that those who pay the £12.79 membership fee are posted the tapes (apparently all varying in genre) one by one, monthly, starting from today. Limited to 20, Art Is Hard warn that these memberships will be sold out very soon (and may even be already for all I know), although I’m sure the music will be available to non-members in digital form at some point also.
It’s another great idea from the label, and made even more appealing given that My Name Is Ian makes rather good music. Influences such as Daniel Johnston, Stanley Brinks, and the Wave pictures are fairly evident but an appreciating for the lo-fi sound has also got AIH stating that the cassettes will also be agreeable for fans of Casiotone For The Painfully Alone, Yuck, and Former Ghosts. Often fairly minimal, songs sometimes consist only of Ian’s downbeat vocals and sliding, echoing guitar lines – though they are just as likely to also be ridden with buzzing synth lines and twinkling bleeps. They’re wonderfully put together regardless of their means, though, as well as being honest and emotive songs and I'm looking forward to hearing more.
Cardiff people who like Sweet Baboo will undoubtedly be fans, as will those who enjoy Voluntary Butler Scheme and all of those other bands that have been mentioned thus far. Find out more info on My Name Is Ian at Art Is Hard here and here. Preview some tracks below!
My Name Is Ian - If I Found Out I Was Termanilly Ill
[taken from cassette #3]
My Name Is Ian - Staring at the Sun
[taken from cassette #1]
My Name Is Ian - Give it a Year
[taken from cassette #2]
