Getintothis Jukebox
The Getintothis Jukebox is a potent collection of locally-sourced acts, artists touring the city in the month ahead, and an eclectic selection of the best new tracks released into the ether from overseas. Getintothis’ Jake Marley takes the helm.
The year has barely begun and the god awful BRIT Awards nominees have been announced, always a depressing time for the underground music world. So for those of you feeling the strain and having your faith in the music industry tested, here’s the pick of this month’s new music plucked from all around the globe to revitalise your musical tastebuds.
We Are Catchers kick things off closer to home with their latest offering When You’re Here You’re Not There. A majestic key-led jangle that boasts a true return to form for the Domino Records signed trio following the success of their eponymous debut album in 2014.
The Cheap Thrills know only one way. Noisy, youthful, scouse-drawlin’ grit. 2015 was a killer year for this quartet featuring heavy support from Liverpool FC and a trip to support scouse legends Cast in Dublin among other jaunts, but they aren’t resting on their laurels. Just as everyone downed their final drink of the year these lads were preparing to kick off the new year with a bang. New Year’s Day saw the release of their new single Machine. Instantly championed by Fred Perry Subculture, Amazing Radio and BBC Introducing Merseyside it sees the lads turn it up a further notch in the anthemic chorus stakes. They like to say “to classify is to limit” so I’ll say no more and keep this machine a tad mysterious (until you click play on the trusty jukebox that is.) – You can catch The Cheap Thrills live at Studio 2, Liverpool, February 3.
Keeping on with the Merseyside quota, we’ve got a new cut from SeaWitches, with some Liverpool dirt-pop majesty. The group work with Edge Hill Uni’s not-for-profit independent label The Label Recordings and released pummeling psych-pop offering FATHEADS to celebrate the turn of the year. The track recently received air-play from BBC Introducing Merseyside and is the final release ahead of their work with Ex-Coral guitarist Bill Ryder-Jones, coming later this year.
Read more about The Label Recordings and their fine work here
Liverpool’s majestic psych-rockers Indigo Moon are back with Inescapable, another silky offering from their self-titled EP released last month. It’s long been a crime to nail them down to any particular genre or style and the un-orthodox, off-kilter jaunts that dance around the powerful vocal kicks of Ash Colley are a funky-liquor joy to behold. They support FRONTEERS at The Shipping Forecast on January 28.
Rounding up other significant Merseyside releases that have caught our eye in the last month, is LUMEN’s Sea Birds; captivating dream-pop with an infectious earworm guitar line that just won’t go a away amongst an echo chamber of clambering vocals. In Atoms provide an area of lush reflection in the form of 1006, beautifully measured, subtle key strokes riding the crest of a gentle wave.
Eton Mess’ Classified Ad For Female Musicians is quite possibly the strangest thing I’ve come across for a good stint – off-kilter spoken-word, tongue-in cheek avenues of musical conversation over a low-key backing track. John Cooper Clarke probably recorded loads of these on the sly straight to tape. Bet they’re hidden under his bed!
Santa’s been and left without even saying goodbye, so we’ve arranged for an array of other guests to come to town in the month ahead. Strangely they’re all musical. Kingston upon Hull’ers FRONTEERS headline The Shipping Forecast on January 28, while Bradford lads NGOD bring their dynamic harmonies to Studio 2 February 4.
Travelling a little further than either of those groups, unpredictably raw LA rock ‘n’ rollers PANGEA cross the Atlantic for a jaunt at Studio 2 on February 7, but they have competition in the form of Irish born, Glasgow torn, singer-songwriter Marth Ffion who brings her quaint charms to The Shipping Forecast on the same night.
Finishing up the Liverpool underground gig guide for another month, Fickle Friends join in the fun at a very popular venue across February, as they also roll into Studio 2 on February 16, strong on pop tones that have seen them compared to the 1975. Being put in the same sentence as Matt Healy and the lads is quite a name to live up to, Studio 2 will tell the story next month.
If Liverpool is not enough for you and you just crave gigs, get down the M62 as Manchester welcomes a few underground beauties over the next few weeks too. That FRONTEERS lot are busy as they join a fantastic array of talent for the This Feeling’s Big in 2016 bash at the city’s understated gem The Night & Day Cafe alongside the fresh, amplified hooks of local lads Cupids who’ve just dropped a host of new tracks, but we recommenced Money, it’s pure frantic filth. Bet you can’t down two pints before the track is over!
Now for the gin in your tonic. A bundle of tracks artists have dropped into the global ether in the last month. It’s like pick ‘n’ mix when you close your eyes, you could get anything, who knows what’s dropping in, here it goes, go mad, take the lot as your own, no complaints here.
Domino Records’ New-Yorkers Porches, throb-synth their way into our list with latest cut Be Apart. Joining them, fellow American’s, Misun from Washington D.C. They quite simply set the bar for electric pop bangers for the year ahead with this one, it’s got more hooks than the captain himself, the irresistible June. Another new offering is Sun City Creeps from Woods, an outside-the-box project pulling influences in from just about anywhere, this is a group with a sound so diverse and vast it’s currently dangerous to live there, mirages and shit, or so I believe. The penultimate mixtape pick comes from Explosions In The Sky, hailing from Austin, Texas, this is genre-bending instrumentation at its finest, they even gave it a cool name to go by, this instrumental gem is Disintegration Anxiety.
Finally, we’ve got Norwegian self-confessed minimalist Frøkedal, a true believer in less is more and she’s right, especially if it sounds like her newbie The Sign, we’ll have more of that less please, cheers.
Rounding up this extensive package of new music tips, we always grab a guest selection from within the confindes of the music industry. This weeks’ new music pick comes from 2/5th’s of shit-hot Stockport band Blossoms. Frontman Tom Ogden and drummer Joe Donovan picked It Might Be Tomorrow by fellow Manchester based group Dantevilles.
Joe: “Tom first saw these on a one-off at Night & Day Cafe in Manchester and loved this tune, said it reminded him of The Housemartins. Then he showed me and I was into it too, so it’s got to be this one.”
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