WATCH: pink suits – ‘Are You Gay Yet?’

One of the first songs written, but the final single to be released from pink suits’ recent album Dystopian Hellscape, ‘Are You Gay Yet?’ has now been blessed with an accompanying music video, complete with all the riotous style that makes up the band’s signature impact on the punk scene.

The video is set in the kind of classic British pub that will be instantly recognisable to anyone who has ever stopped for a pint in a small town. Union flag bunting is strung up above the bar and a painting of the queen watches over the punters. Other than rather muted blues and greys, the only pop of colour is the golden yellow of very manly beer as the old mate from school chuckles, “Are you gay yet?”

As the music ramps up and the band delivers their response, the video switches gear. With the rallying cry “Am I gay yet? Fuck yes”, the band infuse the drab, simple setting with vibrant energy and colour. They swap out a grey hoodie for a pink mesh tank top and fringed leather waistcoats and leap up onto the karaoke stage. As the song goes on, the crowd joins in, replacing jeans and jumpsuits with bold silk scarves, bright pink cowboy hats and an eclectic assortment of fetish-wear. The camera lingers on different looks, highlighting all the styles and identities that fall under the queer umbrella; making a question as simple as “Are you gay yet?” horribly insufficient in its goal of pinning a label on any individual.

Throughout, neither the setting nor the people change. But the way the band bursts unapologetically into the scene opens a door for everyone there to embrace their own uniqueness and individuality. It hammers home the unavoidable truth that queer people aren’t separate from society, but a fundamental part of it. Whether you see that at a glance or not, the only difference is how much they hide it from you when they’re not sure if you’re safe to come out to. By standing up and being themselves, pink suits take a bland heteronormative room, where it passes as a hilarious joke to suggest someone might be gay, and turn it into the party of the century.

As the video continues, the line “What will the neighbours say?” is delivered from behind a pink latex fetish mask complete with blond braids and a spiked collar. The answer is right there in the room: the neighbours are as wild as anyone else and have been waiting for exactly this permission to show off their authentic selves.

Of the inspiration behind the video, the band explain:

The video was inspired by a real conversation Lennie had in a pub in Manchester with someone they went to school with, as well as an awkward experience doing Karaoke in a bar in a small town in Colorado. The guy hosting the karaoke night had a toy guitar and would play all of the guitar solos, so Lennie did a song and on the solo got on their knees to play the guitar with their mouth and it made the guy absolutely freak out and lose his shit at having a bloke drop to his knees in from of him. It was a very uncomfortable end to the song!”

Watch the joyously empowering new video for ‘Are You Gay Yet?’ now:

Kirstie Summers
@actuallykurt

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EP PREVIEW: Zami Yazeed – ‘Release’

Finding strength in tenderness and catharsis in her confessional songwriting, Maldivian-raised, London-based musician Zami Yazeed pushes through doubt and emerges as a more resilient artist on her upcoming EP, Release. Set to be shared later this year via Village Live Records, the six tracks that form her debut record are poignant reflections on love, shame, autonomy and resistance, all underscored by her considered instrumentation and smooth, emotive vocals.

“The world can be cruel, my darling” Zami earnestly muses on ‘Rest’, the EP’s opening track. Her compassionate acknowledgement is personified through her gentle, atmospheric guitar strums and sympathetic lyrics, both of which lull listeners into a state of calming bliss. This is a feeling that underscores all of the tracks on Release, with Zami’s affecting vocal acting as a benevolent guide through any uneasy or painful sentiments. This is especially true of following track, ‘Conversations I’ll Never Have’.

Her delicate blend of romantic guitar tones, soft percussion and beautiful, lilting string instrumentation and melancholy saxophone notes – which gradually builds to a rush of majestic sound – provides the cathartic release of the imagined ‘Conversations’ Zami alludes to in the title. By blending elements of folk, jazz and traditional Maldivian music, her narrative-led songs manage to simultaneously flow in both a deeply personal and poetically universal vein. Her clear ear for melody also aids this admirable combination. This skill shines through again on ‘Redhan’. Named after a Bioluminescent Plankton in the Maldives, Zami sings in her native language of Dhivehi here. The track is a rumination on homesickness and the healing power of nature, with the yearning quality of her voice transcending any need for direct lyrical translation.

Zami is at her most expressive towards the end of EP. On ‘Guilt’, she asks “and what is love? If it’s not freedom?” – dwelling on the unease of unresolved feelings in the aftermath of a breakup. The penultimate track ‘The Sinner’s Song (Live)’ feels like a companion piece, with more of Zami’s delicate, yet full-bodied instrumentation enabling her to express the complexities of her emotions, as well as continuing to impress listeners with more of her rich vocal range.

Despite it’s somber sound, eponymous track ‘Release’ is a poignant way to bookend a record that has clearly been crafted with great care. It’s refreshingly short too, clocking in at just two minutes and thirty seconds. As a whole, Release is a record that allows Zami to contemplate the troubles that have prompted her writing, and through her genre-blending sounds and vulnerable, yet assertive voice, hopefully it has afforded her the space to resolve them too.

Release will be available to listen to later this year.

Follow Zami Yazeed on Spotify, YouTube, Facebook & Instagram

Kate Crudgington
X: @kate_crudge
Insta: kate_getinherears

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LISTEN: LIINES – ‘Holding On’

The first new single from Manchester’s LIINES since 2021, ‘Holding On‘ blends the post-punk grit that they are known for with a raw emotional depth that draws you into the vulnerability of the track. A song about hope and desperation, the ache in the delivery makes it impossible to ignore how those two sensations can often be two sides of the same coin.

The song broadly centres on a connection that has shifted into dissatisfaction; not going into specifics, the lyrics focus on feelings of anguish. The verses are simple and direct, narrowing in on the physical sensations that go hand-in-hand with the emotions at the core of the song, leaving them at the forefront of your mind as it leaps back into the powerful choruses. Zoe McVeigh’s vocals ache with the emotion of the song, as the repeated lines “… and I’ll wait for you” are delivered with a tone that shifts as the feelings behind them shift with the passage of time. It starts out confident that the wait won’t be too long or arduous, then becomes increasingly forlorn as that confidence wavers, until it is finally belted out in a desperate plea for that confidence to return; clinging to the last of the hope as desperation takes over.

Throbbing bass and drums create the foundation for the track. Combined, they create a heartbeat that begins with a consistent but fairly gentle rhythm, then ramps up to with a fierce energy as the song reaches its most intense moments. Wailing guitars match the intensity in the vocals perfectly, until at last the instruments fade away allowing the vocal cry to ring profoundly out into the silence.

Keep your eyes and ears peeled for more from LIINES throughout 2024!

Kirstie Summers
@ActuallyKurt

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ALBUM: Mammoth Penguins – ‘Here’

There’s a cliché that, as bands mature, they tend to drift away from something essential into experimentation. For Cambridge’s Mammoth Penguins – made up of Emma Kupa (vocals, guitars), Mark Boxall (bass, keys, vocals), and Tom Barden (drums, percussion, vocals) – their fourth album – Here – takes things way, way back. To such an extent that, though largely recorded at Norfolk’s Sickroom Studios, the band decided to make additions to the album in the simpler environment of a garden shed belonging to Tom.

It’s not surprising then, that the album blends some of the rawer elements of garage or US college rock, and smatters of math-rock, alt-country and post-punk, with the more whimsical instrumentation of British indie-pop. The lyrical approach of the latter, open-hearted and often confessional, is present throughout with narratives that appear to be drawn directly from songwriter Emma’s life. In that way, and especially given the album’s title, the whole appears to be an attempt to define where, in 2024, Here is.

The dozen songs on the album zip by, despite frequent switch-ups of pace. Structurally, the songs are mostly grouped thematically in pairs; this is most clearly demonstrated in the titles of consecutive songs ‘Old Friends’ (a lilt full of jaunty strums which has both bleeps and a full-on rock guitar solo in its middle eight and lyrics expounding on the positivity of reuniting), and ‘Lost Friends’, which is acoustic guitar led and brief (coming in at less than two minutes) but as poignant as its title suggests. Elsewhere, Emma’s lyrics discuss the relative ups and downs of being in bands – ‘Flyers’ with its bouncy bass, and ‘Blue Plaque’, with its overdriven lead guitar. She reflects on surviving the days in ‘Help Yourself’ (whose Camera Obscura style opener, blends into guitars full of whammy) and the gentler sound of ‘Success’, which opens with birdsong but still contains biting lyrics in its final chorus: “Fuck success, fuck expectation”.  

There are bops, in the shape of the album’s second single ‘Everything That I Write‘, where spiky guitar flecks and power chords belie lyrical discussion of someone dedicated to a band. Similarly, ‘Nothing and Everything’ is a full-on stomper, with spectral guitar and interwoven backing vocals, while lead single and album opener ‘Species‘ discusses Emma’s relative unimportance against the “between two-hundred and two-thousand species that go extinct each year”, as a flurry of percussion explodes beneath the vocal line.  

What the album really leaves you with, though, is the sense that there is an emotional core underneath the rock stylings. ‘I Know The Signs’ is alt-country (with shades of Courtney Barnett), and reflects on a relationship going south. ‘Here’ sits Emma’s yearning vocals prominently alongside acoustic guitar, with lyrics about waiting for an unknown person who will partner you in adventures. Album closer ‘A Plea for Kindness’ is the nearest to an outright political statement, as its title suggests. Its opening lines “I don’t care what’s in your pants, I care what comes out of your mouth” begin against a downbeat bass, but as the song progresses, with the same lyrics repeated throughout, it turns musically into a garage stramash, clocking in at five minutes ten. Directed at the completely ill-founded and unnecessary hatred and prejudice that transphobic people insist on sharing, it offers  a heartfelt message of solidarity with our trans and gender non-conforming siblings. A fitting summary of the album that has preceded it.  

For Mammoth Penguins then, Here is where you were, where you are, and where you’ll be, with someone new but thinking about those that have gone; not getting what you want, but striving for more anyway. And, in another year of social and political upheaval, what better directions could there be?

Here, the new album from Mammoth Penguins, is out now via Fika Recordings. Find it on bandcamp.

John McGovern
@etinsuburbiaego

Photo Credit: Gavin Singleton

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