I remember being told by some friends who got to see New England’s Perennial live when they were last in the UK that it was one of the best shows they’d ever seen. The band’s chaotic frenzied energy was unmatched and the way they interacted with the crowd whilst delivering their immense mod-rock anthems was unlike anything they’d seen before. So, I am extremely excited that we’re going to have them playing for us next week! Come and experience this one-of-a-kind live show for yourself at A L P H A B E T in Brighton on 9th October, along with Kansas-born Piney Gir and Brighton’s own shoegaze superstars Minor Dents. Tickets are on DICE now and they’re cheaper in advance. In the meantime, listen to their epic new album Modernism (and all their back catalogue from the last few years) and get your dancing shoes ready.
We think one of the best ways to get to know a band is by asking what music inspires them. So, following the release of Modernism, we caught up with Chesley, Chad and Ceej to find out about the five albums that inspired the writing of the new album the most. Read about their five favourites, listen to the Modernism on repeat, get tickets to one of their UK tour dates and watch the glorious video for recent single ‘Ready! Steady! Go!‘ below:
The Who – A Quick One
Our favourites are always changing, so we’ve decided to really focus on the key albums that influenced our new record, Modernism. And A Quick One by The Who is at the very top of that list. It’s a pop art masterpiece — catchy and tuneful and tight while also being brilliantly experimental and abstract and sonically adventurous. It’s all melody and weirdness. We really loved that idea of a compact, 10-song pop record that also finds all this room for more elliptical, left-field stuff. Even within individual songs the record will go from power pop to abstract noise at the drop of a hat. Hooks and killer melodies and feedback and weird sonic collages: What’s not to love? A really, really important album for us.
The Jam – Sound Affects
A lot of what is so brilliant about A Quick One also applies to Sound Affects, another short sharp record full of hooks with all this heady, arty stuff just beneath the surface. Of course the mod sound/aesthetic is a really important element for us, and what The Jam are doing here is the iteration of mod that is most at the heart of what we’re doing today. There’s this very stylish, almost playful post-modernism going on on Sound Affects that we really dig. Take something like ‘Start’, which is so clearly and brazenly borrowing the groove and riffs of The Beatles’ ‘Taxman’, but The Jam trust themselves to bring enough electricity and wit to the table that they can really reframe how that very classic groove works and what it has to say. Just a very cool record featuring one of our favourite bands at the height of their powers.
Various Artists – Hitsville USA: The Motown Singles Collection 1959-1971
I’m fully aware this is probably cheating since this record is a four-disc compilation, but I don’t think there’s a single album that has shaped us more as songwriters and producers. That sense of specificity, of pop songwriting as a widescreen, cinematic endeavor full of detail and personality. Then there’s the production on these records: all this experimentation with instrumentation and arrangement and mixing and effects, but all devoted to making these pop gems are memorable and striking as possible. Add to that the fact that this run of songs is, to my mind, the absolute acme of pop music. In particular the mid-60s Motown singles from The Supremes, The Temptations, The Four Tops, Marvin Gaye, Martha & The Vandellas, Stevie Wonder, etc… etc… etc… is just astonishing. ‘You Can’t Hurry Love’, ‘Ain’t Too Proud To Beg’, ‘It’s The Same Old Song’, ‘I Heard It Through The Grapevine’, ‘Heatwave’, ‘Up-tight’. I could go on and on. Perfection.
Elvis Costello & The Attractions – This Year’s Model (1978)
Pop music played as punk music. Costello’s lyrics on this one are unreal; the way he’s able to put together his phrases, his images, his rhyme schemes. It’s always so clever and sharp and fluid, and on this record in particular its all married to this really dynamic, punchy power pop sound. Poetry that stings while electric organs and Fender basses bash away as accompaniment. ‘Pump It Up’, for instance, is just a marvel. Lyrics that good atop a garage rock stomper that perfect. My goodness! As a working pattern of a record that is so flawlessly tailored and such an endless pleasure to listen to, This Year’s Model really can’t be beat.
The Go! Team – Thunder Lightning Strike (2005)
The hooks, the energy, the studio-as-instrument Technicolor joy. An endlessly re-listenable record. We caught The Go! Team live last year on the anniversary tour for this LP and it was such a beautiful, life-affirming night, and a reminder of just how incredible Thunder Lightning Strike is. There’s this collage effect to the way these songs are put together, where there is some really adventurous studio craft, some real experimental production stuff, but it’s all directed towards melody and energy and making the songs that much catchier and that much more electric. It’s a sonic sugar rush, and a really inspiring album to listen to while you’re working on a new project. This absolute burst of infectious creativity.
Huge thanks to Perennial for sharing their Five Favourites with us! Their new album Modernism is out now and we cannot wait to host them live at A L P H A B E T in Brighton next Friday, 9th October. Tickets available on Dice now. In the meantime, get in the mood by watching their glorious recent video for ‘Ready! Steady! Go!’:
And, if Brighton’s not handy for you, catch Perennial on any of their other UK dates over the next couple of weeks. All tickets here.
Perennial UK Tour Dates:
8th Oct – Oxford – The Library
9th Oct – Brighton – Alphabet
10th Oct – Liverpool – Outpost
11th Oct – Leeds – Grindhouse
13th Oct – Nottingham – JT Soar
14th Oct – Coventry – Just Dropped In
15th Oct – Manchester – The Modernist Gallery Shop
16th Oct – London – The Cavendish Arms
