Milestones: Tye Die Tapes

Milestones is a feature looking to gain an insight into the tastes of a particular character or bunch of people of the music 'industry'. We ask them a few questions and they kindly answer.


Tye Die Tapes are a cassette only label based near Sheffield run by two friends, and are pretty much the go-to people if you want to find a new band in the north-east of England. Putting out releases by Sealings, Bhurgeist, and Cold Hands among others - as well as putting on some excellent gigs - they do what they do for all of the right reasons and are much-deserving of some more love and attention. Check out James' and Adam's responses to the generic Milestones questions below.

The album that first got you into music:

James: I dunno really, it was probably Nimrod I think I still know all the lyrics to that album.


Green Day - Prosthetic Head

Adam: It was Offspring but not one of the good ones. Conspiracy of One. I seem to have missed all the good albums by bands by one all throughout my life.


The Offspring - Want You Bad


The band that dominated your teenage years:

James: Green Day! I had all their albums on either cassette or CD, I lost interest after'Warning but I still enjoy Dookie and Nimrod.


Green Day - When I Come Around

Adam: I really couldn't pick one. Most of it was pretty bad thrash and death metal. At the Gates blew my mind when I first heard them and I still listen to Slaughter of the Soul sometimes and enjoy it. I used to be really into their earlier stuff too. I also dug some pretty crap stuff. In Flames were pretty good, their early stuff was great. Korn until I was like 15. This really isn't cool, is it?


At The Gates - Blinded By Fear


The album in your parents' collection that made a lasting impression:

James: My dad had a really 'dad' taste in music, you know Queen, AC/DC, and Thin Lizzy. I remember thumbing through his record collection and be fascinated with the AC/DC album that has Angus Young getting impaled by his SG, but I never really listened to it, because I was like 5 or 6 and didn't get records. But for an album that made a lasting impression I'd have to say it was my mother's Simple Minds greatest hits album Glittering Prize 81/92. I fell in love with the colours on the art work and I'd sit next to the Hi-Fi with my Dad's big headphones on listening to it on repeat.


Simple Minds - Don't You (Forget About Me)

Adam: I used to think the front cover to Sgt. Peppers was pretty cool. Never liked the music though. My mum has a lot of New Romantic stuff that is good. There's a Bill Withers greatest hits in there too which has a bunch of tracks off the first album and it's got Use Me pretty early on there, that's a good CD and Bill Withers is the man. I have to pick just one don't I? Bill Withers then.


Bill Withers - Use Me


The album that has dominated your last 12 month's listening:

Adam: Formlessness by The World is a Beautiful Place and I am No Longer Afraid to Die. Only four tracks but they're brilliant. Their record label (wish I could remember the name!) gave it out for free with a bunch of not-so-good stuff and I grabbed it on a whim. Before I got a job the 'first thing I'll buy when I get a job' was their second EP but I've still not got around to getting it. I kind of don't want to because it might ruin the magic of that first record. Whoever recorded Formlessness knows how to give a band room to breathe and it's a work of art.


The World Is a Beautiful Place and I am No Longer Afraid To Die - Gordon Paul

James: URGH! So many! But if I'm brutally honest it's either the new Mazes record or Broken Dreams Club by Girls. I'll go with the Mazes record because it is perfect, I'm such a Mazes fan boy, they are real gents, and Jack writes some of the best pop songs i've ever heard, my personal favourite is 'Boxing Clever'.


Mazes - Boxing Clever


The most exciting new band you've heard recently:

James: Hookworms. Without a doubt, they are easily one of the best bands I've seen and heard this year. They are so passionate about what they do, Matt J the singer runs Suburban Home, and when you spend a prolonged period of time with him, as we did when he recorded our band. The first thing you realise is how quietly proud he is of the band, and so he should be there record is phenomenal and there live show is intense. BUY EVERYTHING THEY RELEASE.



Adam: There are too many, that's why we do this. Twisted are one of my favourites but they've split up already. There are a bunch in Sheffield like Best Friends and Drenge who are ace. Kristen Ward who is Shiny Penny has started a new one called mmhmm or something like that and anything she does is great. Sealings are ace and will no doubt get picked up by some biggish label sometime soon.


Sealings - My Boyfriend's Dead


And the one song that best represents what it is that you do:

Adam: That's difficult, I guess some of the songs I've heard 50+ times when dubbing tapes before I got a tape deck that could do it at 2x speed. I think Rusty Arms by Ethiopians is my favourite track out of what we've put out so far. I actually know the lyrics to that one too. Ethiopians are now Captain Cult Leader and are still rad. I would say a Sealings track because I love them but I have no idea what the lyrics are; they slam everything so hard on their recordings that it's just like an excellent wall of noise. Sometimes you can make stuff out but I usually have no idea what's going on.

Black Out by Captain Cult Leader

James: Oh I've no idea. But I've been listening to Portastatic all day and fist pumping to his song 'Polaroid' so I'll choose that, because it's real nice and I hope we do real nice stuff.


Portastic - Polaroid

Find out more about Tye Die Tapes on their Tumblr, stream some stuff on their SoundCloud, or give them money in exchange for tapes at their online shop.

Top 10 Discoveries of 2010

I didn’t listen to enough albums to make a "Top 10 Albums of 2010" list, but I did listen to lots of new music, so instead I’m making a list of my 10 favourite bands or labels or musical things that I found out about this year. These are things that I’ve really enjoyed, and hopefully you might not have known about and will enjoy too. So, in no particular order:

H. Hawkline
H. Hawkline kind of came out of nowhere for me. One minute I’m listening to some brilliantly spooky weird folk songs on Huw Evans’ (H. Hawkline’s) MySpace to write a blurb for the Swn Festival programme, the next I’m watching Huw plus 2 friends play some brilliant psych surf pop in Cardiff Arts Institute almost ending the show in a scuffle with an audience member, and then in barely no time I’m listening to a beautiful full-length album (released through the wonderful Shape Records, who also released Islet, who would have been on this list had I not seen them live in 2009) of weird instrumental folk meets driving psychedelic krautrock. He’s just finished touring the UK with Gruff Rhys, and apparently might be doing some more recording soon. Seriously good.

H. Hawkline - Gelly

Art Is Hard Records
Only a recent discovery, Plymouth-based independent label Arts Is Hard, but certainly a significant one, especially for me as Plymouth is my home town. There isn’t a great deal of stuff going on here, music-wise (or at all, to be honest), but Art Is Hard really have got me excited and made me believe that the country doesn’t stop at Bristol. Their most recent release has just come out on iTunes (and they also have some vinyl available) – a split with Falmouth’s The Black Tambourines and Exeter’s New Years Evil – and they also released a compilation of some exciting ‘local’ artists. So, so glad I found these.

The Black Tambourines - Tommy

Cycling Season - 1943

Yuck
Probably one of my first new band discoveries in 2010 and possibly my favourite, too. ‘Georgia’ gripped me on first listen way back in January and Yuck have been a brilliant, if a little teasing, ride since then. More songs have slowly trickled out throughout the year – the sludgey drone of ‘Rubber’, the melancholy jangle of ‘Suicide Policeman’, the driving fuzz of ‘Sunday’ – and they played a great set at Latitude. With a full-length is expected towards the start of 2011, and having recently being named on BBC’s Sound of 2011 list, next year could be an exciting year.

Yuck - Georgia


Yuck - Rubber

Jay Reatard
As tragic as it is, I (and probably lots of other people like me) only ever listened to a Jay Reatard song after the news of his suicide in January of 2010. I didn’t realise what a talent the world of music had lost before it was already gone, but, although I am obviously sad about the his death, I do feel privileged to be able to listen to some of the fantastic music he left behind.

Jay Reatard - It Ain't Gonna Save Me

Barely Regal Records
The second new independent label on this list, Barely Regal are Cardiff based and are doing some mighty fine things. I interviewed Matt and Isaac ages ago (word of warning to potential employees: an interview I still haven’t actually transcribed) and we quickly became good chums, but that’s not to say that they appear on this list for that reason alone. They released a compilation a good few months back featuring bands either from or with a link to the city, have put on a good amount of good gigs (including taking over Irish pub Dempsey’s for a night of Swn curating), and have some exciting releases upcoming from the likes of Among Brothers (who Isaac and Matt both are part of) and Strange News From Another Star.

Among Brothers - Montgolfier

Strange News From Another Star - Bullets (Crop)

Spectrals
Okay, so technically I first heard about Leeds (ish)-based (and blog post cover star)Spectrals in 2009 after a blog post in November by The Pigeon Post, he only properly became stuck in my mind in early 2010 so I think Louis Jones (the one young man behind Spectrals) still deserves a place on this list. First came some fuzzy demos, then came some more fuzzy demos, and then came a brilliant show at Latitude, and finally a month or so ago came the wonderful and surprisingly clean 60s wall of sound inspired debut EP, A Spectrals Extended Play (and then came not seeing him at Swn Festival, but I wont focus on that). It must have been an exciting year for Louis, starting it fairly innocuously, and ending it casually Tweeting Best Coast after a string of support slots. Two-thousand-and-ten truly would have been a far more dull and drab year without his music, and I hope there’s much more to come in 2011.

Spectrals - Peppermint

Spectrals - Keep Your Magic Out Of My House

Mazes
Manchester’s Mazes were just about the only redeeming factor of 1234 Shoreditch festival lazy summer, but they alone made the price of the tickets and the journey from Cardiff to East London via Egham and the very nearly missed last train from Reading worth it alone. Like Spectrals, I found out about Mazes from The Pigeon Post and, like Spectrals, Mazes also take influence from the 60s, only add a little extra rock and roll rather than pop. Putting out material on the brilliant Suffering Jukebox (which is part run by Jack of Mazes and puts out stuff by lots of other good bands), I’ve been really enjoying their stuff and am excited to hear lots more.

Mazes - Painting Of Tupac Shakur

Mazes - Don't Worry Baby

Beaty Heart
London’s Beaty Heart first grabbed my attention in Loud and Quiet magazine, not for their description of the band, but for the trousers worn in the photo of the band by one of the drummers (notice the plural – they have three drummers altogether). It was nice to find, once listening to their stuff, the band’s sound was as Afro-influenced as the trousers. The fact that they have more than one drummer comes across in their sound, and with a focus on drum beats as well as harmonic vocals, it’s difficult for me not to mention Animal Collective. They’re far from a plain old covers band though, which I reckon they’ll show in style next year when hopefully we’ll get to hear a whole lot more other than the few tracks up on MySpace.

Beaty Heart - Cola

Beaty Heart - Lekka Freakout (demo)

Killing Joke
What kind of moron only discovers Killing Joke in 2010? This kind of moron. I’ve so far only managed to Spotify their debut 1980 self-titled release, and it is incredible. The number of bands that I love that they have clearly had a strong influence on is ridiculous (including a fair few of the bands my Dad has played in over the years) - the riffing, distorted guitar; the angry, harsh vocals; the synth-y buzz; the tight, driving drum beats. I’m disgusted at myself for only listening to these now, but excited to gradually work through their extensive catalogue.

Killing Joke – Requiem


Best Coast
This list would be a lie without Best Coast. As much as I wish I found about Bethany Cosentino’s brilliance before Best Coast, and as much as I wish I found out about Best Coast before 12 months ago, I didn’t. The early, scruffy demos had me incredibly excited, her live performance at Bristol’s Louisiana (where Surfer Blood were also in the crowd) confirmed that they were definitely something special, and then the debut album managed to live up to and exceed all expectations. Much cleaner than the demos but still 60s pop inspired, it allowed Bethany’s fantastic voice to really take centre stage. Her Christmas song with boyfriend Nathan Williams (Wavves) may be a bit pants, and her bratty lyrics combined with her weed consumption may make her a little irritating, but the music is wonderful.

Best Coast - When The Sun Don't Shine

Obviously there was much more in 2010, but these are the 10 that stand out, and that will probably continue having an effect on me well into 2011. Narrowly missing out on this top 10 list were: Twin Sister, Pheromoans, The Racket, The Human Race, Human Hair, and Effort, so check out these, too.

Art Is Hard

The music scene in the south-west is still a long way off from being anywhere near as busy or thriving as most other parts of the country, but that's not to say that there isn't anything good going on down in these parts. Art Is Hard Records are slowly making me believe that.

Predominantly based in Plymouth, and sometimes based in Bournemouth and Portsmouth depending on university term dates, Art Is Hard is a DIY bedroom label in the truest sense of the word. Run by two friends, they are looking beneath each under-explored rock and in every nook and cranny in the area to find local bands doing something worth listening to, and they're doing a good job of it - having released a compilation album of south-west bands (available through purchasing a t-shirt) and more recently a split release between The Black Tambourines and New Years Evil, they're making sure that people like me are made aware that there are things worth listening to down here. I spoke to (emailed) David about his label.

Hello, Art Is Hard. Who am I speaking to, and tell us a little about the things that you do?

Hello! You're speaking to David. Art is Hard is a record label, but not in a traditional sense I guess. I think I view what we do as more of an outlet, or an aggregator or a cataloger? So far we've only worked with bands from the South West. Although this is more by accident than anything else, it seems to be working quite well for us at the moment.

It’s more and more common for bands to do things completely themselves, and it’s increasingly difficult to break even let alone make money in the music industry today. What motivates you to run a small record label?

I think putting out music by bands you love is something everybody who has more than a fleeting interest in music dreams of. I'm not sure how it really escalated from this pipedream to where we are now. I think one of the main motivations for doing it is drunkenly telling uninterested people in nightclubs that I run a record label.

The South-West of England isn’t best known for its rich collection of alternative music. Why there, and does it have more going on than people think it does?

I think wherever you look there's always something worth your time if you scratch beneath the surface of no-hoping open mic and pay-to-play pop punk bands. It just seems that in the South West you have to do a little more scratching than in other places. The whole 'only releasing bands from the South West' thing was only intended as a theme for the first release; but it feels like it's stuck and when you look back at the great labels (Factory, DTTR, Dischord) they've always had a very strong emphasis on location. Whether we can produce anything as seminal as those releases is yet to be seen.

You said in other interviews that you have some new and interesting ideas, such as your first release (the compilation) being available through purchasing a t-shirt. Without giving too much away, what other interesting ideas do you have as a label?

The great thing about t-shirts is that people always buy them, so you can almost trick people into being interested in the music. Other things young people would rather spend money on than music include pizza and beer, so maybe we'll work on this basis. In all seriousness though we do have a couple of weird release concepts but they'd only lose us more money if we tried them out now. Maybe sometime next year!

You, your most recent release (New Years Evil/The Black Tambourines), and the bands on it have all been getting some decent press coverage recently on blogs and websites, and in magazines. Have you been surprised by how well what you have been doing has gone down?

It's always nice to find somebody has even taken the time to listen, let alone write about us and the bands. Unfortunately we're already coming to realise that selling actual records is pretty hard, irrelevant of how many times you get on the hype machine. God I sound bitter and ungrateful, we're happy really!

Have you got many more releases lined up? What does 2011 hold?

We're undecided what order our next releases will go out in but we have some really great artists lined up. Hopefully an AIH tour within the first months of the year. We definitely have a lot to give in 2011.

Thanks!

Cheers!

Find Art Is Hard on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter or at their blog. Listen to the tracks from their latest release, a split with The Black Tambourines and New Years Evil, as well as some tracks from their first compilation release below.

The Black Tambourines - Tommy

Colours - Desert Dessert

New Years Evil - Shame

Barely Regal Records - An Introduction to Cardiff's Newest Record Label

Last night saw the welcoming of brand-spanking new Cardiff-based record label Barely Regal at Clwb Ifor Bach - and a good night it was too.

Fitting the bill for their official launch, as well as the release of their compilation CD made up of their favourite Cardiff bands, were three acts from this CD - Samaons, Theo, and Man Without Country - who all did their part in making the night a massive success. The highlight of the three, for me, was without doubt Theo. The one-man instrumental post-rock/math-rock machine makes an incredible noise, building layers of intricate guitar loops before destroying the drum kit over the top of this (not too dissimilar to Right Hand Left Hand, for those aware of them only with half the man power). Definitely worth checking out live; you'll be impressed.

Other bands on the compilation disc, which comes with a snazzy little booklet with some info about each band and how the gents at Barely Regal came to know of them, include Strange News from Another Star, Right Hand Left Hand, Goodtime Boys and Among Brothers.

Find Barely Regal on Facebook, Twitter, or at their very own blog for more.