Track Of The Day: Girl Ray – ‘The Way We Came Back’

Following the success of last year’s debut album Earl Grey, and charming us with their sunny charisma at Green Man Festival, North London’s Girl Ray have since been receiving acclaim from the likes of BBC 6 Music, The Line Of Best Fit and The Guardian, and have now shared an infectious new single.

Written by Poppy Hankin when she was just sixteen, ‘The Way We Came Back’ is the perfect antidote to this bitter weather. Flowing with the band’s trademark smooth, swooning vocals and uptempo, jangly melodies, it oozes a sparkling, uplifting grace. As sweeping, lush harmonies glide alongside delicate refrains, it’s another shimmering slice of gentle garage-rock from the band, cementing their place firmly in our hearts.

Of the track, Sophie Moss explains:

“It’s an early, early – we’re talking pre-Earl Grey here – banger that we wanted to oil up. A plump cow that needed to be milked. It was one of the first songs Poppy wrote when she was 16 which we all found pretty impressive. Sly arrangement, good vibes here”

Watch the new video for ‘The Way We Came Back’ (fittingly filmed in below freezing temperatures on the Isle Of Sheppy) here:

Catch Girl Ray live:

10 April – Bristol, Thekla
11 April – Nottingham, Bodega
12 April – Hebden Bridge, Trades Club
13 April – Glasgow, Art School
15 April – Middlesbrough, Wegarth Social Club
16 April – Sheffield, The Leadmill
17 April – Manchester, Deaf Institute
18 April – London, Heaven
19 April – Brighton, The Haunt
05 May – Leicester, Handmade Festival
06 May – Newcastle, Hit the North
28 July – Derbyshire, Indietracks

Mari Lane
@marimindles

Photo Credit: Nyla Davison

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Track Of The Day: Skating Polly (feat. Exene Cervenka) – ‘Queen For A Day’

Following 2013’s  Lost Wonderfuls, 2016’s The Big Fit, and last year’s New Trick EP, sibling punk-rock trio Skating Polly are now ready to release a brand new album. Marking themselves out as favourites when we caught them a couple of years back, putting on an immense live set at The Lock Tavern, Kelli and Peyton have since recruited Curtis on drums, to create an even bigger, high-octane sound.

Taken from the upcoming album, and featuring guest vocals from Exene Cervenka (from seminal punk band X), ‘Queen For A Day’ builds as honey-sweet melodies develop into a gritty climax of whirring, raging hooks and raw emotion. As scathing vocals are interweaved with lush harmonies, the trio exude their trademark seething energy and understated subtle power. Once again marking themselves out as going against the grain, with ‘Queen For A Day’ Skating Polly deliver an empowering sentiment, uniting anyone who doesn’t want to coincide with the confines of society’s limitations.

Accompanying ‘Queen For A Day’ is a tongue-in-cheek new video, Kelli Mayo explains:

“The lyrics for this song came from a conversation we had backstage with Exene about the old game show ‘Queen For A Day’.. The premise of the show was that women with tragic stories (sick children, dead husbands, poverty, etc) would compete against each other for applause from the audience… Months after this conversation Exene sent me lyrics in a text and we wrote the song around them. She’s singing on the second and third choruses too. We wanted the video to emulate the old show but also look like it was directed by John Waters.”

The Make It All Show, the new album from Skating Polly,, is out 11th May via El Camino Media. And Skating Polly will be supporting The Go! Team on a number of US tour dates (what a line up!).

Mari Lane
@marimindles

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Track Of The Day: Mesadorm – ‘Yours And Not Yours’

An urgent exploration of insecurity and doubt, London-based collaborative project Mesadorm have shared their latest single ‘Yours and Not Yours’. Released via Babylegs Records earlier this month, the track is taken from the band’s upcoming album Heterogaster, which will be released in Spring 2018.

Formed in 2015 by a group of long term friends, Mesadorm are a combination of each band member’s musical and artistic influences. Every individual is a performer in their own right, having written and/or recorded with such artists as Goldfrapp, MIKA, Paloma Faith, Rae Morris, The Magnetic North, John Metcalfe, The Unthanks, Hannah Peel and Frank Turner.

‘Yours and Not Yours’ is an amalgamation of each band member’s talent, collectively exploring an intense sense of doubt, ricocheting between security and unease with the help of an abrasive synth line and urgent, rich vocals.

“’YANY’ is a purging song for me,” vocalist & songwriter Blythe Pepino explains about the track.”It has something of the moment when self-doubt and doubt in everything around us collides. A special kind of doubt I think us ‘beneficiaries’ of the Western Capitalist model are now experiencing. The kind where, perhaps at a certain destabilising point in your life, the kind faces of friends and family and lovers melt into the smiles of the adverts forced upon you for addictive crap you don’t need. It has something of the taste of looking for home when everything you’ve been grown to enjoy carries the smell of burnt flesh and deceit. After that you must learn to look for what joy really is to you because the potential to fill yourself up with the other stuff is very real and very easy and all the while someone else is dying for your comfort on the TV screen.”

Listen to ‘Yours And Not Yours’ below, and follow the band on Facebook for more updates.

Mesadorm are: Blythe Pepino (Vox/Keys), Aaron Zahl (Guitars/Production), Daisy Palmer (Drums/Bvs), David Johnston (Bass/Bvs), Jo Silverston (Cello/Bvs).

Photo Credit: Sarah Cresswell

Kate Crudgington
@KCBobCut

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Track Of The Day: LIINES – ‘Shallow’

Having supported Desperate Journalist and Nelson Can on tour last year, Manchester trio (and GIHE faves) LIINES have fast been gaining attention from the likes of John Kennedy, The Quietus and BBC Introducing, as well as earning the title of ‘Ones To Watch 2018’ from yours truly. And, having cemented our love of them by blowing us away with their riotous, impassioned energy at The Finsbury last month, the band have blasted into our ears once more with their gritty, brand new single.

Filled with the band’s trademark dark, brooding power, ‘Shallow’ starts off with steady, stripped-back beats as it builds to a high-octane climax of raging riffs and throbbing bass lines. Oozing an immense, thrashing energy and the raw, commanding vocals of Zoe McVeigh, it’s another intense blast of perfect post-punk with shades of the likes of Savages of Sleater Kinney.

Of the track, McVeigh explains:

“It’s relentless and on loop, which I hope shows how it feels when obsessive feelings develop and won’t let up. I wanted a song that made the listener feel like they were suffocating and almost relieved when it was over.”

‘Shallow’ is out now, and LIINES’ debut album Stop – Start is set for release on 4th May via Reckless Yes Records. Catch LIINES live at the following dates:

2nd March – Night People, Manchester
10th March – The Audacious Art Experiment, Sheffield
16th March – Tooting Tram and Social (for John Kennedy), London
30 March – The Golden Lion, Todmorden
13th April – Sound, Food & Drink, Liverpool

Mari Lane 
@marimindles

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