The Grubby Mitts From: United Kingdom The Grubby Mitts are a 5-piece band from Bedfordshire, fronted by visual artist Andy Holden who recently exhibited at the TATE Britain. Their debut single (out on 18th April) 'To A Friends House' takes it's refrain from a cross-stitching that used to hang by the front door of Holden's grandmother’s house. It's quirky, affectionate, affecting and sounds like The Polyphonic Spree if they'd been brought up in a council house in Croyden. Their unique take on The Beach BoysGod Only Knows ups the quirk stakes considerably, somehow turning it into the theme tune to a never shown PostgateWatch With Mother series from the early 70s.
New York based 3-piece Violens are an enigma wrapped up in a puzzle. Just when you think you've got them all worked out they throw a smoke bomb in your eyes and disappear in another direction. If you caught them early in their development you'd have them marked down as Joy Division rehearsing in their dad's garage. If all you'd ever heard was 'Doomed' you'd have them marked down as Sarah Records devotees with better producers. If your only exposure was the quite awesome Violent Sensation Descends from their new EP you'd swear blind they were a bunch of acid casualties with a Beach Boys fixation. It's their restless search for pop perfection that has them tattooed on the hipster lips of the indie cognoscenti.
The fidgety trio release their debut album Amoral today via the increasingly impressive Brooklyn label Friendly Fire Recordings and their own imprint Static Recital. An event that will be marked as the first day of the rest of the music industry's life. Go Try MP3 - Violens - Acid Reign This track is linked direct from the Friendly Fire Recordings website and is therefore already freely available so please don't claim breach of copyright Go Visit
New Jersey duo Slow Animal deliver fuzzed up blasts of washed out slacker-surf rock that sounds like they've been intravenously fed The Velvet Underground, Pavement and The Beach Boys since birth. Check out 'Sitting Here' another song that's made it onto the unfeasibly large list of contenders for the Devil's top 10 of the year.
Go Try
MP3 - Slow Animal - Sitting Here This track is linked direct from the Slow Animal Last.FM site and is therefore already freely available so please don't claim breach of copyright
UK harmonic alt folkies Marthas & Arthurs have taken sometime out from searching for an Arthur to talk to the Devil about their love of the Mamas & the Papas, performing in care homes and wearing knitwear!
The Devil:
Why did you opt for the name Marthas & Arthurs? What other names did you consider before finally deciding it had to be Marthas & Arthurs?
Marthas & Arthurs:
We love the Mamas & Papas so it's kind of homage to them, with a knitwear-wearing twist. For our first gig we were After School Singing Club For Squares (I can see why you changed it - The Devil). We can't tell you the other name we discarded as it's the best bandname in the history of bandnames and it's dying to be used at some point, but it didn't really suit the music we're making at the moment.
The Devil:
Who are your biggest influences?
Marthas & Arthurs:
All four of us listen to lots of different types of music but probably in terms of Marthas & Arthurs we're most influenced by Mamas & Papas, Belle & Sebastian, and Beach Boys when they're out-Spectoring Spector. But if we listened to songs like 'Don't Worry Baby' too often we'd probably just give up. We love any kind of pop with vocal harmonies that's produced and played like it's really meant. There's a bit of folk in there too, but not much. We love Anne Briggs for her simple, unadorned voice. But you've got to be careful with folk...
The Devil:
What was the first record you owned and what was the first record you ever bought?
Marthas & Arthurs:
Well, the others have already sloped off to get a cup of tea, so I'll answer just for me. Chuck Berry's Greatest Hits, double album on vinyl. I was so enthralled with the crackle and the rasp of the guitar that I didn't really notice or mind that all the songs started with the exact same riff.
The Devil:
Name three pieces of music that rattle up your spine and shake your body like a hurricane?
Marthas & Arthurs:
We've already mentioned 'Don't Worry Baby' by the Beach Boys, but it's so good that we'll say it again. 'Needle In A Haystack' by the Velvelettes. If that doesn't get a party started nothing's going to and you should leave.'Ragged Wood' by Fleet Foxes. or most of the songs off that album. Beautiful songs, beautifully sung, beautifully played, beautifully recorded.
The Devil:
What's the strangest place you've played and would you go back there?
Marthas & Arthurs
For a band that's not been going that long we've played in some rum places. We started out playing in care homes, which was an interesting way to spend an afternoon. And we also played a central London homeless drop-in centre at their Christmas staff party, which was in April for some reason. the PA was about the size of an iPod and nobody paid us the slightest bit of notice. We're booked for next year. And we took part in an organised busk in Bury St Edmunds as part of their town festival. but they forgot to organise it. we actually got moved on at one point.
The Devil:
Other than Marthas & Arthurs who are the most exciting bands on the current music
scene?
Marthas & Arthurs
We played at Standon Calling and Joe Gideon and the Shark were (a lot) further up the bill... they were just the real deal. She's great to watch, never mind listen to, on the drums... quite acrobatic, and he's sort of a David Crosby figure with aggressive love for his bass. (We like the way you said in your question "other than Marthas & Arthurs" in case we went, well actually WE are the most exciting band on the current music scene at the moment...)
The Devil:
If you weren't in Marthas & Arthurs how would you keep yourself occupied?
Marthas & Arthurs:
To be truthful, we are already quite occupied with other things. the band doesn't take up that much time. Mary is a student and also works for a children's charity. Esther makes AMAZING bags, handbags etc out of environmentally-friendly materials, Tom pretends he makes chairs and Vlad is soon to be a world-famous Ukranian record producer.
The Devil:
If you were interviewing yourself what would your killer question be and how would you answer it?
Martha & Arthurs
Question: Hi Marthas & Arthurs, would you like £10 million?
Answer: Yes please
The Devil:
Is there anything else you'd like to say to the Devil's readers?
Marthas & Arthurs
We're giving our first EP away for free on bandcamp, so please go and have a listen (check it out at Marthas & Arthurs Bandcamp). We're starting some more recording soon, so hopefully that will turn into an album by the end of the year... And also... we might lose Vlad back to the Ukraine soon because of visa issues, so if any Arthur thinks they could replace him in bass playing and harmony singing, then get in touch.
Austin's finest indie label Killredrocket Records have just released Decadence a globe trotting album featuring five noisy bands from all over the world that'll shake you out of this boring, mundane existence into a more surreal and dangerous place. A place where living on the edge is the new staying in. As you might expect the Devil is quite partial to the odd bit of decadence every now and therefore over the next few nights the Devil will feature bands from the album.
If you like what you hear then you can download the whole album for free from the Killedredrocket Records Bandcamp site for the perfect soundtrack for the next time you are doing something that you know you probably shouldn't.
First up are UK's self proclaimed 'death surf' band Suicide Party
With a name like Suicide Party and a frontman who calls himself Screamin Joey Outlaw you can hazard a guess that they aren't going to be appearing on the Royal Variety Show anytime soon.
The five reprobrates who make up Suicide Party stir up a maelstrom of psycho goth garage surf punk that sounds like a distant echo from the Batcave (a nightclub in London, considered to be the birthplace of the English goth subculture). It's snarling, dark, raw and raucous an unheard soundtrack to a macabre b-movie starring the Birthday Party, The Cramps, The Horrors and an inverse Beach Boys.
They're coming up so you better get the party started.
If you own California lo-fi sextet Antarctica Takes It!'s first album, then you'll know that songwriter Dylan McKeever is an incurable romantic. The band's debut was awash with magical songs that conjure up the ghosts of late 60s pioneers like Love and Nick Drake, 80s visionaries like Martin Stephenson & The Daintees and Aztec Camera and more recent arch romantics such as Sufjan Stevens, The Decemberists and Belle & Sebastian.
The band's debut, a clattering, charming lo-fi masterpiece, was recorded directly into the internal mic of Dylan's laptop. This clearly sold enough copies for him to be able to afford a microphone and some time in a proper studio, because the band's new album Constellations takes the lo-fi spirit of their debut and introduces it to all the clarity, beauty and sparkling perfection that the modern recording process can offer without losing any of it's charm. The album also broadens the palette with the lo-fi indie being expanded to include soaring Aislers Set-style pop, gorgeous Beach Boys-esque harmonising, the kind of stumbling, good-hearted folk that Bright Eyes might have produced in recent years, and a joyous, wild-eyed, creatively-ablaze energy that has you wondering what the hell he's going to do next.
Go Try
MP3 - Antarctica Takes It! - Constellations This track is published with the permission of How Does It Feel To Be Loved Records so please refrain from alleging infringement of copyright. MP3 - Antarctica Takes It! - I'm No Lover MP3 - Antarctica Takes It! - Antarctica These tracks are linked direct from the Antarctica Takes It! Last.FM site and are therefore already freely available so please refrain from alleging infringement of copyright.
The Grubby Mitts
