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The Basement Bar in York tonight has a nice line-up not only do we get two fine young bands from our region but the Big Scary Monster signed Copy Haho from Scotland too. Their EP Bred For Skills & Magic has to be up their for my proverbial best all out indie EP of the year award, if it existed anyway… Local lads Lost From Atlas supporting with their mathematical instrumental stylings, but more on them later I’ve got a review of their demo going up on this very blog soon. Before all that though the night opens with a band I’ve not seen before, Wakefield’s indie rockers The Spills.
I settle in with a pint to melodic sounds of The Spills, their sound is somewhere between an indie rock jangle and more a more rocky sound. The track ‘Oh My Days’ was a belter as was the final two of their set, the names of which escape me.
Lost From Atlas brought many fans with them and played a wicked set of tappy indie/post/rock instrumentals with that addictive clean sound that I kind of like to call gleamo. I’ll talk more about this lot at a later date as the demo is very good indeed and it deserves its own post. But they looked like they were enjoying themselves and it was a tight performance with plenty of locked grooves, chops and changes plus many hypnotic moments dispersed with some rock out sessions, I say rock out sessions you wont be getting a circle pit going here and not only because The Basement Bar hasn’t got the room for it. The more I see them the more I enjoy it.
Now for the main event on this quite night in York, Copy Haho as I’ve mentioned before have made one of my favourite all out indie rock ep’s of the year and these Scots easily lived up to that hype in the flesh. On record they have more of a jangle but here there was a raw edge to it all, with plenty of fuzz and noise. This may well have been the room’s fault, it was a bit of a mission to pick the vocals out some of the time but this didn’t detract from the performance for me there was to much energy in the sound to keep my head nodding. There were plenty of highlights including the fantastic ‘Puling Push Ups’, ‘Bad Blood’ and ‘Cutting Out The Bad’. Copy Haho came across as a right laugh as well as proper nice guys it was a pleasure to hear them, thoroughly enjoyable.
http://www.myspace.com/pleasepleaseyoufun
http://www.myspace.com/basementcityscreen
http://www.myspace.com/copyhaho
http://www.myspace.com/lostfromatlas
http://www.myspace.com/bumthespills
Copy Haho have been in my peripheral vision for quite some time now, I could see them out the corner of my eye but I hadn’t quite got round to giving them my full attention yet. Now their time has come, I’m staring them right in the indie pop chops.
Bred For Skills & Magic is full of joyous hooks, riffs and twangs. Everything is so melodic and fun but they also manage to stray away from the cheese in fine style too. They have that playful energy that people like Pavement and Weezer had. But Copy Haho are no copycats they do it there own way. They channel their energy’s into wonderful slabs of lilting indie pop that bounce and swing like a late night in a friendly small town pub. Which is quite apt really as they hail from Stonehaven on the east coast of Scotland.
Vocalist Hearty has that Scottish twang that kind of gives a melodic drunken feel to the songs, I’m not saying all Scots are drunks or that this one is by the way, but these tracks do have a mellow boozy vibe to them that I think comes from the vocals.
Bad Blood is maybe my favourite track on Bred For Skills & Magic, it’s also the one that reminds me most of Pavement with a splash of Jonquil in the chorus. The Last Dash is in a similar vain too, both of these just sounds so cool to my ears the chord progressions give off an effortless charm that’s hard to pin down but you know just sounds damn good.
Opening track Pulling Push Ups sounds a bit like an indie anthem in the making; I could just imagine this being played in to the kids in the skinny jeans clubs all over the land. It’s a joyful sugar rush kind of tune it makes me smile. This is one of those EP’s that everyone will have a favourite track.
At first glance Copy Haho seem to make standard indie gubbins but these songs bubble under the surface in a slow burning kind of adorable manner before exploding with vibrancy and joy. There is something subtle about them that really draws you back in time after time. For a debut EP it’s a tasty treat so gobble it up like a big scary monster and enjoy.
Live Dates (all w/ The Xcerts)
02/02 - Sneaky Pete's, Edinburgh
03/02 - Cafe Drummond, Aberdeen
04/02 - Mad Hatters, Inverness
05/02 - The Doghouse, Dundee
06/02 - The White Room, Sunderland
08/02 - Club 85, Hitchin
09/02 - Boiler Room, Guildford
10/02 - Hamptons, Southampton
11/02 - Old Blue Last, London
13/02 - Tap n Tin, Chatham
14/02 - Marquee, Hertford
15/02 - TBA, Glasgow (no Xcerts)
www.bsmrocks.com
www.myspace.com/copyhaho
Download: Copy Haho – Pulling Push Ups
News from one of my favourite labels:
Big Scary Monsters have launched their our '2009 Collection', a series of four compilation CDs featuring new, rare, unreleased, live and remixed tracks from the BSM roster. Each CD is limited to just 365 date stamped copies and will be released seasonally, with the Spring Collection kicking things off in February. The compilations will be sold separately for £5 each or you can subscribe (via www.bsmrocks.com) to the whole series for £15 and receive a free collectors edition tin to hold all of the discs (photos coming soon), as well as other gifts and promotions through the course of the year.
Spring, The first in the series, is now available to pre-order and features 14 tracks including Mimas performing a wonderful cover of This Town Needs Guns hit, '26 Is Dancier Than 4', who return with 'Japanese Ultra Violence', a track which is previously unreleased in the UK. Other highlights include a massive dance remix of Pulled Apart By Horses, an exclusive album demo from Blakfish (as well as a track featuring members of the band singing a 'lounge' medley of Tubelord songs down the phone!), a brilliant old demo recording from Meet Me In St Louis, album/EP tracks from new boys Copy Haho, Wintermute and The Tupolev Ghost and loads more. As an added bonus, there are also two live videos including PABH and Blakfish playing some massive covers at a house party back in December. Most of these recordings won't be found anywhere else.
When purchasing/subscribing, let us know your preferred date and we'll do our best to stamp your CD(s) accordingly. The 'Summer Collection' will be released in May so look out for news and tracklistings for that one nearer the time at www.bsmrocks.com
The Basement Bar in York tonight has a nice line-up not only do we get two fine young bands from our region but the Big Scary Monster signed Copy Haho from Scotland too. Their EP Bred For Skills & Magic has to be up their for my proverbial best all out indie EP of the year award, if it existed anyway… Local lads Lost From Atlas supporting with their mathematical instrumental stylings, but more on them later I’ve got a review of their demo going up on this very blog soon. Before all that though the night opens with a band I’ve not seen before, Wakefield’s indie rockers The Spills.
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