Track Of The Day: The C33s – ‘Harpurhey Hostility’

Surf-rock doesn’t always need a beach. For Manchester three-piece, The C33s, the genre that grew out of the Californian coastline is perfectly suitable for their rattling takes on contemporary life. In latest single ‘Harpurhey Hostility’, turning their collective eye on the area of their home town named “the worst place in England” in a 2007 headline by the Manchester Evening News. Throwing the genre’s snappy guitar lines in with a blast of Anglo punk lyricism gives the band’s observations on deep-seated urban decay all the power it needs to be stuck in your head for weeks.

Dogs bark, a siren wails and a dirt bike engine revs – as introductions go, this one’s about as uncompromising as the song that follows. There’s no gentle lead-in for ‘Harpurhey Hostility’; it’s straight into the riffs, slamming into top gear, replete with a few quintessentially surf yelps courtesy of drummer Judy Jones, who takes lead vocals here.  There’s no verse-chorus-verse either: just twelve lines sung either side of an instrumental section. That being said, there’s an appeal to the sparseness of the lines – reflecting the setting of the song, and its video – and the mentions of local politician and Harpurhey councillor Patrick Karney and “wasps instead of worker bees” are a fond ribbing of Mancunian sensibilities. Pleasantly raw as it develops, the track reveals it owes as much to garage as it does to surf, with kicking bass and blamming drums that only lull slightly to allow for a trigger-finger lead guitar solo, before kicking back in for the song’s final twenty seconds. And, after the music echoes out, it closes out with a magnificent vocal snarl – what else?

The accompanying video opens with a quote from one-time Harpurhey resident, and literary explorer of society’s disenfranchised, Anthony Burgess: “It is as inhuman to be totally good as it is to be totally evil”. It’s a fitting choice – a defiant and seemingly contrarian statement about human nature under pressure, much like the track that follows it. The narrative of the video features three Harpurhey residents, and their activities, culminating in a lager and crisps-fuelled revel. That too, seems a conscious choice by the band (who cameo, offering a fag at a bus stop), almost as if to say that those three people could be them, or anyone, if born and raised in a hostile setting, living off their wits. Fortunately for us, Judy, Cav and Ste play music instead.

John McGovern
@etinsuburbiaego

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Track Of The Day: Peaness – ‘Kaizen’

Following last year’s ‘Breakfast’, and support from the likes of Huw Stephens, John Kennedy and BBC 6Music’s Marc Riley, Manchester/Chester based trio Peaness have now returned to our ears with their new single ‘Kaizen’.

An instantly catchy blast of hope, it’s propelled by jangly hooks and an uptempo energy, as sugar sweet vocals and twinkling harmonies flow. A reflective and honest dose of ‘Pea-Positivity’, ‘Kaizen’ is the perfect antidote to these grim January days. Of the track, the band explain:

“It’s a song to remind myself that with every act of kindness and every crime, we affect the future, and that those choices go on to shape others, and our beautiful planet, long after we’re gone. The word ‘Kaizen’ is a Japanese word that literally translates to ‘change for the good’, and that’s what we’re hoping for.”

Watch the Japanese pop culture-inspired new video for ‘Kaizen’ here:

Peaness are about to embark on their biggest UK tour to date. Catch them live:

27th January – Leicester, Firebug
28th January – Birmingham, The Hare and Hounds
29th January – Guildford, The Boileroom
30th January – Brighton, The Prince Albert
31st January – Southampton, Heartbreakers
1st February – Oxford, The Wheatsheaf
7th February – Manchester, Soup Kitchen
8th February – Leeds, The Lending Room
28th February – Bristol, Ritual Union (w/ Marika Hackman + more)
6th May – London, The Lexington

 

Mari Lane
@marimindles

 

 

 

 

 

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LISTEN: Mealtime – ‘Denim’

Manchester band Mealtime have shared their debut single ‘Denim’ and it’s a sultry synth-pop gem. Released via Someone Great Records/PIAS, the six-piece have a refreshingly melodic approach to songwriting, culminating in an upbeat and well produced new track.

‘Denim’ is about the relationship between distorted body image and modern beauty standards, but this heavy context is hidden behind buoyant riffs, catchy beats and smooth vocals. Speaking about the track, the band explain: “’Denim’ is a polite introduction to the six of us, and it’s only going to get weirder. With our sound, we’re interested in making something that’s equally as melodic and sweet as it is chaotic, abrasive and challenging.”

Following their sold out debut headline show at Manchester’s YES in March, the band played a free single release live show on 3rd May at Manchester’s Fairfield Social Club alongside Dream Wife and The Ninth Wave. Keep your eyes peeled for more of Mealtime’s live dates, and listen to ‘Denim’ below.

Follow Mealtime on Facebook for more updates.

Kate Crudgington
@KCBobCut

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EP: URF – ‘For The Ride’

The sound of URF‘s debut EP is as satisfying as the band’s name. The punning colloquialised portmanteau of Ur, hinting at something primal and original, and Earth, being both something spacey and, quite literally, grounded. As a callback to the drone/post-rock American group, Earth, and Black Sabbath who also went under the moniker, it’s a good indicator of what the band will bring too – combining a sound that draws from shoegaze, ’90s indie, post-punk and psych, but with their own shiny new twist.

For The Ride’s opener, ‘Say You Don’t Mind’, starts things off with a spectral but bassy guitar, before lead singer Abbi Parcell comes on all Liz Fraser with soft, almost whispered vocals. But there’s nothing soft about the song’s chorus which explodes with a My Bloody Valentine swoop into crunching guitar. Dry synths courtesy of Sophie Erasmus haunt the track, reeling the listener into the whirlwind of a chorus, at which point Abbi’s vocals become yelps as Jack Brigg’s drums crash around them and the guitars become more sinister. At its close, the synths rise to the fore, drawing sharply from the chaos.

 

‘Night Driving’ has a more standard Britpop chug feel, particularly in the driving chords of its chorus and the picked guitar solo of its middle-eight. There’s more than a nod to Siouxsie Sioux in Abbi’s vocal style and, with a chorus that leans like Suede running into Hole, there’s a feel of an alt.rock trip on the cold night roads of a Northern town. That is, before the track’s final minute leaps into a flurry of percussion, as though the drive has come to a firey end.

The cinematic finish leads perfectly to closer and title track, ‘For the Ride’, which opens with a balladic guitar, and just a hint of a Western feel from lead guitarist Scott Woodcock. It’s a sombre, brooding opening, over which Abbi’s vocals mourn and flow into a banshee wail. The song builds from a post-rock epic that starts at a canter, before picking up the pace to full-rock gallop four minutes in, and taking no prisoners with an emphatic, shoegaze-meets-desert-rock-meets-psych steeplechase for its final 90 seconds.

The Manchester five-piece only released their first single ‘Athena’ in August last year, but already seem to have carved a niche within the ever-growing UK psych scene. For the Ride is the distillation of a number of wide-ranging influences, but crucially the band haven’t let those influences over-ride the scope of their ambition. Creepy, epic, rocking and melancholic, the three tracks show off the breath-taking potential and indicate that URF are ready to put together something truly elemental.

For The Ride is out now.

John McGovern
@etinsuburbiaego

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