ALBUM: Argonaut – ‘Forever’

Let me posit an idea: The writer asks themselves the questions required for the process of a good album review. Actors do it, why can’t we? My first (and only, to be honest) question would be: what do you think has been lacking from the overall music scene? Aside from estrogen, queerness, and artists of colour, it’s the space for old-school DIY punk rock spirit that is most sorely vacuous.

London-based band Argonaut have that in spades. The card spades, because Wiki told me that one time when I thought it meant the tools you scoop up sand with at the beach. Influenced by bands that make me weak in the knees – Pixies, Sonic Youth, Le Tigre – Argonaut have absolutely nothing to prove when it comes to the art of do-it-yourself no wave art-anarchy.Their third album, Forever, was recorded live over a couple of days in Bally Studios in Tottenham Hale and hits the punk rock spots I sometimes forget still exist.

I remember hearing Dave Grohl talk about his recording process before the Foo Fighters. He’d record the song all the way through, then he’d have to record that tape on another tape to add the next track and so on, so forth. Always thought that was fucking cool.

Recording tracks live and in one piece is a challenge and fifty more, but in listening to tracks like Argonaut’s ‘Zero Said’, ‘Touch Electric’, and the Breeders-like ‘No Song’, you wouldn’t know it. I mean, just listening to the album (which I have been on loop for the last week, battling against the mainstream white-boy snoozy pop music coming from next door’s Sonos), I could hear Argonaut on a line-up with their influences. Or like in a quick cutscene from the (best) documentary (of all time), 1991: The Year Punk Broke. Like there’d be Sebadoh and Dinosaur Jr. and Babes in Toyland, and then Argonaut. Yeah, I could see that.

Even cooler is the fact that despite the music landscape these days being so openly accessible to anyone with cash or an internet connection, the band are releasing the record as a limited edition of 100 CD copies. I love the fucking up of a corporate future. The limited release will also be available only from former Argonaut bassist, Paul Saiya’s, independent record store.

If there’s anything better in life than from the belly of the beast punk rock, I don’t even want to know about it. I am awash with the joys of a kid who worshipped Kim Gordon, Deal, and Kathleen Hanna, and because of Argonaut’s Forever, I’m reminded once more that punk will never die. Not so long as there are women around.

Now, how fucking cool is that?

Argonaut’s Forever is out now. Order it here.

Em Burfitt
@fenderqueer

Get In Her EarsLeave a comment

ALBUM: Skating Polly – ‘The Make It All Show’

Skating Polly transcend genres with their eclectic melodies and undeniable punk attitude – aiming to take on the world with the release of their fifth LP, The Make It All Show. Formed in Oklahoma City almost a decade ago by step-siblings Kelli Mayo and Peyton Bighorse, The Make It All Show sees the “Ugly Pop” multi-instrumentalist duo expand as a group. Not just by morphing into a trio, due to the addition of Kelli’s younger brother Kurtis on drums, but by expanding their already impressive sound, and flaunting their DIY punk-rock roots.

Opening with the infectious ‘Classless Act’, Skating Polly set the bar high for the rest of the record with politically charged screams (“I want better than that classless act”) offsetting grunge-inspired guitar riffs, before slowing everything down with ‘Little Girl Blue and The Battle Envy’ – perhaps their most poetic track to date.

‘Free Will At Ease’ picks up the pace with a bassline that defines the track’s power pop melody, before breaking into ‘Queen For A Day’ – co-written, and featuring guest vocals from Exene Cervenka (of the seminal punk rock band X) – a punk-rock song with a traditional punk-rock chorus full of raw emotion and glimpses of vulnerability.

Skating Polly instinctively let loose on ‘They’re Cheap (I’m Free)’, drawing their thrashing sound and ferocious vocal delivery from the riot grrrl movement – Kelli emulating Kathleen Hanna’s signature screech. Indie-pop track ‘Long Ride’ follows with duelling, multi-layered vocals about shitty friends, before tearing apart the misogynistic nature of the American frat-boy culture with future punk anthem ‘Camelot’ – “Are you upset? Did I hurt your little feelings?”

Continuing their soft/loud/soft dynamic – their more subdued, reflective verses leading way to drive and distortion, and vice versa – Skating Polly poke fun at the idea of “selling out” with ‘Hollywood Factory’; hooking you in with their sarcastic wit, before expressing their frustration with yet more shitty friends on the Queens of the Stone Age inspired track ‘This Vacation’. The final two tracks – the rhythmic love song ‘Flatwound Strings’, and the gentle, piano-driven ‘Don’t Leave Me Gravity’ – bring closure to The Make It All Show with their comforting harmonies, and prove that Skating Polly have honed their own, distinctive style.

Over five records Skating Polly have displayed maturity as songwriters, having grown-up producing music under the watchful eye of both their fans and their peers. The band wear their influences on their sleeves, crossing genre boundaries with their unique and varied sound, and as performers they just ooze pure unadulterated chaos. The Make It All Show proves that Kelli and Peyton have not lost any of their punk-rock grit. Skating Polly vs. the world.

The Make It All Show is out now via El Camino Media.

Ken Wynne
@attackplanetb

Photo Credit: Amina Cruz

 

Get In Her EarsLeave a comment

ALBUM: Colour Me Wednesday – ‘Counting Pennies In The Afterlife’

To escape from the remnants of Royal Wedding fever in the air, there is nothing better you could do than listen to the new album from DIY band, Colour Me Wednesday, fronted by the Doveton sisters (Jen on vocals, Harriet on guitar). Counting Pennies In The Afterlife, their second album, showcases the band’s alt-pop layered guitar and bass melodies aided by new addition Laura Coles, and abetted by the intricate drumming of percussionist Jaca Freer.

The album kicks off with the power-punk of ‘Sunriser’; with a guitar and bass line worthy of the Sex Pistols, it’s a track about a broken relationship – “I dreamt it before it even happened… I’m forced to be the strong one again.” – and offers hope and the reclamation of personal power (“I can see the horizon, the sun in rising”). Other stellar power-pop moments occur on ‘Heather’s Left For Dead’, with its Weezer-like guitars and layered vocals, and ‘Disown’, oozing more gorgeous guitar washes. 

There is something here for everyone here, with the album covering themes of relationships (‘Tinfoil’) employment (‘Entrepreneur’, wry and Smiths-like), capitalism (‘Boyfriend’s Car’) and male privilege (‘Exposure’), whilst ‘Sad Bride’ is a critique of the institute of marriage – “why would you seal your fate?”.

The album ends with two slower tracks; ‘Take What you Want’, which introduces elements of electronica, and ‘Not my Turf’. Both songs add an introspective note to the end of the album, leaving you much to mull over. There’s a hidden track right at the end too, but I won’t spoil the surprise – you’ll have to listen to find out more! What I will say is that Counting Pennies In The Afterlife offers 11 unaffected songs from the heart, a genuine outpouring of emotion. It’s refreshing because there are no manifestos to beat you over the head with; instead you are hit with a dose of pure, catchy power-pop, and lyrics dealing with personal politics in a capitalist economy.

Counting Pennies In The Afterlife signals Colour Me Wednesday’s return in the best of ways; a perfect collection of tracks to suit any mood, it showcases everything there is to love about this band.

Counting Pennies In The Afterlife is out now via Krod Records.

Fi Ni Aicead
@gotnomoniker

Photo Credit: Katie Gatt

 

Get In Her EarsLeave a comment

ALBUM: LIINES – ‘Stop-Start’

LIINES‘ debut album has a tendency to skip from one track to the next barely taking a breath – rarely has a title seemed more fitting than Stop-Start. The band’s name, too, couldn’t be more fitting given their principal musical style of post-punk, with vocal, guitar, bass and drum lines all competing for prominence. If the cyclical nature of things means that musical movements are revived about every twenty years, then LIINES are perfectly placed for indie’s re-embrace of post-punk, a movement which dominated in the early 2000s.

First track ‘Shallow’ kicks things off and gets to express-train speed in seconds, with its choppy guitar line, and Zoe McVeigh’s vocals reminiscent of Sleater-Kinney’s Corin Tucker. ‘Never There’ follows with a drive like that of Silence Yourself-era Savages. ‘Be Here’ is similarly unrelenting with its garage rock feel.

But this isn’t just a bouncing alt. rock album – behind the pace you’ll find sinister guitar solos and basslines that bubble like poisonous liquid. By ‘Find Something’ and its oppressive post-punk aura – coming off like Interpol hanging out with PINS, before halting abruptly – the album has its immense, dark hooks lodged into your brain.

‘Cold’ chills things down noticeably, coming as close to balladeering as Stop-Start gets, with Zoe’s vocals nearing a torch song style plea. ‘Blackout’ is constructed around another sinister guitar line, before ‘Disappear’ merges that sound with straight-out stomp via a flurry from drummer Leila. ‘Hold Your Breath’ is a broken love-song, whilst ‘Never Wanted This’ sounds like PJ Harvey fronting Breeders. Former bassist Steph’s deceptively simple rhythm work kicks off closer ‘Nothing’ and, as album closers go, it’s a banger with shades of Pixies in its structure and a wailing Zoe at its centre.

Whilst the two bands have a different emphasis, contemporaries Desperate Journalist’s 2017 album Grow Up is perhaps the most apposite point of comparison for Stop-Start, with both bands taking the best of their indie/alt predecessors and blending it into something that’s fresh.

Between them, LIINES and producer Paul Tippler (known for his work with indie luminaries such as Elastica, Idlewild and Stereolab) have created a sound combining riot grrrl disquiet, post-punk gloom and new-wave urgency. Despite losing a bassist (Steph Angel now replaced with Tamsin Middleton), the trio have crafted a debut that promises to be the pulsating start, rather than the end, of LIINES. A truly impressive debut from the Manchester trio.

Stop-Start is out now via Reckless Yes Records.

 

John McGovern
@etinsuburbiaego

Get In Her Ears1 Comment