ALBUM: Fightmilk – ‘Contender’

Recorded in two sessions a year apart, GIHE faves Fightmilk’s second album Contender is worth every second of the wait, following 2018’s Not With That Attitude. The band’s writing and recording process has understandably changed over the past twelve months. Combined with the influence of their new bassist Healey and and an expanded musicality, their style has developed without losing any of the raw emotion at the heart of what makes Fightmilk special.

The album kicks off with an authentic false start. This, along with later interludes, makes for lovely humanising moments that give DIY bands so much charm. Then the music comes in hard and fast. From the first beat, you get big drums, powerful vocals and guitars layered beautifully over each other. The album is rich with riffs, fantastic flourishes of strings that make every song pop. Both in individual tracks and across the album as a whole, the instruments build to roaring climactic moments that launch the vocals to an impressive new reach. The band know how to use their instruments to ramp up the power of every track at exactly the right time.

The songs explore the human experience with Fightmilk’s distinct brand of unapologetic vulnerability. There are wonderfully fuzzy love songs (‘Overbite’, ‘Maybe’) and pettiness-about-your-ex songs and please-dump-your-awful-boyfriend songs (‘Hey Annabelle’). There is also a song about “a hypothetical billionaire and his hypothetical pop-star girlfriend”, which is definitely hypothetical…

The lyrics are intense and personal in a way you can’t help but relate to. Every song is evidently grounded in real experiences and so imbued with emotion. The themes don’t shy away from the darker side of reality, but examine the impact of heartache, the patriarchy or corrupt governments on your soul with a twinkling, scuzzy charm. There’s a great balance between the reflective songs and hopeful ones. It starts and finishes with uplifting tracks that beautifully frame the journey the album takes you on, concluding with a sense of scrappy DIY optimism.

The album captures the essence of 2021 perfectly, drifting easily between plague and feelings and third wave capitalism and exes. The range of powerful energetic songs and more gentle ones fit well alongside each other without jarring. The changes in tone and emotion between tracks flow together with an endearing ease. Contender is at once cathartic, validating and empowering. It’s everything I want in the music that will propel me out of the lockdown slump and into a year that makes up for every lost minute.

Contender is out now via Reckless Yes. Buy on bandcamp now.

Kirstie Summers
@actuallykurt

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FIVE FAVOURITES: girlhouse

A creator of intuitive, catchy indie-pop anthems, Portland-born Nashville-based musician girlhouse aka Lauren Luiz’s debut self-titled EP rings with an earnest charm. Inspired by her relationships, personal learning curves and navigating a new life in L.A, the record balances the joys and frustrations she experienced whilst living in the City Of Angels.

We think one of the best ways to get to know an artist is by asking what music inspired them to write in the first place. We caught up with girlhouse to ask her about her “Five Favourites” – five songs that have inspired her song-writing techniques. Check out her choices below and scroll down to watch her video for her recent single ‘Pretty Girl in LA’ at the end of this post.

1. Sharon Van Etten – ‘Seventeen’
I made the girlhouse EP when I was in the last year of my 20’s and this song became a big part of the soundtrack for that time in my life. The production is so simple but also so huge. I think it lends itself to the story so well. Everything sonically about this song is incredible. Sharon’s vocals also shred in this song. I wish I could go back in time and talk to myself when I was a teenager. I think I would tell her to talk slower and stop trying to be everything for everyone. The music video is so simple and tells the story so perfectly.

2. Big Thief – ‘Shark Smile’
Adrianne Lenker’s style of writing has been a big inspiration for my lyrics for a while now. I think her storytelling and melodies are so poetic and creative, I listen to her songs and it really makes me want to push myself to be better. This song is about a car accident where someone dies but it doesn’t feel sad, it’s really dark and complex! I wanna write songs like that. It was so hard picking just one Big Thief song. The first time I heard them I was on tour while I was driving late at night. I didn’t want to stop driving so I could get through their whole catalogue. I can’t remember where we were or where we were driving to, but it fit perfectly.

3. Phoebe Bridgers – ‘Smoke Signals’
I, like many people with a pulse, am obsessed with Phoebe Bridgers and the honesty in her lyrics. This album put me in a dark place for a long time but art is supposed to do that sometimes, it made me feel things! Phoebe is another one that really makes me wanna be better. She and I used to live in the same neighborhood in LA, I saw her at a yoga class one time in eagle rock and wanted to say Hi so badly, but I got nervous. I think I read that this song was about someone trying to get her attention or breaking up with someone? It’s hard to push someone away, doesn’t feel good ever. I really appreciate her writing about things that aren’t necessarily pretty or perfect.

4. Decemberists – ‘Make You Better’
Picking one Decemberists song is like picking my favourite dog, nearly impossible and a viscerally painful process. This was the first band I ever stanned HARD. They’re from the Pacific Northwest as well so I’ve seen them play Edgefield (an amazing outdoor venue in Oregon) COUNTLESS times, it’s possibly the best vibe in the world. Writing with Colin Meloy has been a goal since I was 12. I picked this song because I feel like it represents how I feel about most of the relationships I’ve had in my life/ I used to be all about seeing the “potential” in people instead of accepting who they are in the moment and that was shitty of me. You gotta let people be people.

5. Lucy Dacus – ‘Night Shift’
For me, there is no better breakup song than this one. I love how the lyrics feel like a letter or a journal entry. It reminds me of being in the valley in LA for some reason, I feel like most of the people I dated and had break-ups with lived in the valley. Lucy’s style of singing feels so effortless and easy to listen to, I don’t feel like she’s trying to do anything cool, she just is the coolest!

Watch the video for girlhouse’s new single ‘Pretty Girl in LA’ below.

Follow girlhouse on Spotify, Twitter, Instagram & Facebook

Photo Credit: Alex Justice

Kate Crudgington
@KCBobCut

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VIDEO PREMIERE: The Pearl Harts – ‘Suck It Up’ (Live At Anchorbaby Studios)

A classic rock and roll anthem full of pounding drums, commanding vocals and raucous guitar licks, London-based duo The Pearl Harts have shared an exclusive live video of their track ‘Suck It Up’. Recorded in the summer of 2020 and filmed at Anchor Baby Studios in Kent, the band teamed up with producer Dan Lucas and videographer Sean Hardy to make the slick new visuals, which reflect the power and charisma of the duo’s live performance.

The Pearl Harts – like many bands – were hit hard when the covid-19 pandemic put a stop to touring in March 2020. The duo used their time in the subsequent lockdowns to remotely write & record material for a new album, and once restrictions were lifted they began performing a series of socially distanced gigs, including a drive-in show with VC London, the UK’s only all-female motorcycle crew.

Now, the pair are busy preparing for an interactive online gig with Blacksanta at The Fiddlers Elbow on Thursday 20th May. Whilst audiences are still not permitted inside, they’ll be able to experience the band’s set live from their own home, with the ability to be seen and heard by them in the venue. Fans can also join friends in groups, video chat in the virtual bar and continue to text chat whilst the performance unfolds. Tickets are available here.

Watch the video for ‘Suck It Up’ below for a taste of what to expect from The Pearl Harts on the night.

Follow The Pearl Harts on bandcamp, Spotify, Twitter, Instagram & Facebook

Kate Crudgington
@KCBobCut

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Track Of The Day: Body Breaks – ‘Eyes To Brightness’

A jagged, hazy art-punk tune that meanders through the restless thoughts we have when we’re attempting to sleep, Canadian duo Body Breaks have shared their latest single ‘Eyes To Brightness’. Taken from their upcoming album Bad Trouble (We Are Time), which is set for release on 18th June, the track chronicles band member Julie Reich’s lifelong struggle with insomnia.

Formed of Reich and Matt LeGroulx, Body Breaks create sounds inspired by the likes of Pavement, Velvet Underground and Sonic Youth. Fuelled by a strong DIY & experimental ethos, LeGroulx played with quarter tone guitar scales to form his distinctive riffs on their debut album, whilst Reich mined her own personal experiences to form the lyrics. New single ‘Eyes To Brightness’ is a cohesive culmination of these efforts, with it’s striking vocals and off-kilter guitar twangs.

“I’ve always hated sleep ever since I was a little. It means the day is over, and I’ve never wanted that to happen,” Reich explains about the context of the track. “This was the first song I recorded vocals for on the album. It’s different from all of the others in terms of the recording process and how I approached it. After this I decided on an identity for the person writing these songs, even though it’s all me. The video is a 3D animation that I made mainly using SketchUp. I like to create worlds, so this was a fun exploration.”

Watch the video for ‘Eyes To Brightness’ below.

Follow Body Breaks on bandcamp, Twitter & Instagram

Photo Credit: Natalie Logan

Kate Crudgington
@KCBobCut

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