The Devil is dedicated to unearthing unknown, unheard, unseen, unheralded, unfamiliar or down right unbelievable bands old or new that have not yet hit the radars of the British public. If you are a new band or artist and would like to be considered for inclusion then please contact me via email, twitter, myspace or facebook.
Still Blue Still Turning is a New York City-based duo located at the point where shoegaze, dreampop, and slow-fi collide; the point where noise and beauty collide, the point where Brian Eno, Slowdive, My Bloody Valentine and Sigur Ros collide. Prepare to be astounded.
It's a bank holiday in England today and what better way to celebrate a day off work, a day away from the commute, a day to spend doing whatever you want than to indulge in the joys of simple indie pop songs courtesy of Georgia's This Bank Holiday?
Go Try
MP3 - This Bank Holiday - Even In The Future Nothing Works This track is linked direct from the This Bank Holiday Last.FM site and is therefore already freely available so please don't claim breach of copyright. MP3 - This Bank Holiday - A Trampoline May Win Your Heart This track is linked direct from the Asaurus Records website and is therefore already freely available so please don't claim breach of copyright. Go Visit
Tremor Low From: Oakland, California, United States
Tremor Low wear their influences on their sleeves like a cub scouts badge of honour. From pitch perfect covers of Echo & The Bunnymen'sKilling Moon to the singers uncanny impressions of Robert Smith at his most melancholy you can trace Tremor Low's musical ancestry without resorting to a DNA test. Indeed if imitation is truly the sincerest form of flattery then The Cure must be feeling really flattered by Tremor Low's take on the new wave of cold wave.
Go Try
MP3 - Tremor Low - Paint My Eyes Black This track is linked direct from the Tremor Low Last.FM site and is therefore already freely available so please don't claim breach of copyright.
Go Visit
Tremor Low - Myspace : Last.FM Go View Tremor LowLive At The Stork Club, Oakland
Where Suicide Party stir up a maelstrom of psycho goth garage surf punk The K V B take their inspiration from the birth of rock 'n roll with an 80s new punk twist. It's like the sound you'd hear if you stumbled upon The Jesus & Mary Chain butchering Eddie Cochrane in a back alley.
Go Try
MP3 - The K V B - Slow Death MP3 - The K V B - Straight Through My Soul These tracks are linked direct from the K V B Last.Fm site and are therefore already freely available so please refrain from alleging infringement of copyright.
If you like the K V B then check out Von Barrel's other bands...
MP3 - Suicide Party - She Screams This track is linked direct from the Suicide Party Last.Fm site and is therefore already freely available so please refrain from alleging infringement of copyright. MP3 - ManOnTheMoon - Already Dead MP3 - ManOnTheMoon - A New Dawn These tracks are linked direct from the ManOnTheMoon Last.Fm site and are therefore already freely available so please refrain from alleging infringement of copyright.
Part of the collective of Brighton based indie folk acts, operating under the banner of The Willkommen Collective the troupe of alt folk refugees wander purposefully around the darker alleyways of folk. Each song is soaked overnight in buckets of emotion and then infused with raw honesty before being released into the community.
It's folk Jim but not as we know it. It's dark, it's complex, it's muscular. It's folk sans knitwear and stripped of any hint of rural whimsy.
And yes the band does actually include two members who have fathers called Noel and Adrian.
Go Try
MP3 - Sons of Noel and Adrian - 30 Boys With Bats This track is linked direct from the Sons of Noel and Adrian 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.
Guilty Ghosts is the pseudonym of lo-fi drone rocker Tristan O’Donnell. Most of his tracks follow a very similar pattern. Layers of droning guitar, mechanical drum machine and the occasional stab of found sound. It's melancholic music for darkened rooms. It's come down music for the early hours; music to ease the tripping mind. But there's a twist. Tracks like the ominous, foreboding Prelude/Postlude and thefeedback drenched Grand Illusions have a dark, sinister edge. Guilty Ghosts will lull you to sleep while infecting your brain with the stuff of nightmares.It's chillout music as reimagined by Hitchcock.
Joan Of Arse From: Ireland The curiously monickered Joan Of Arse were a band from Dublin, Ireland who formed in 1996 and went their separate ways about seven years later. Their dark, mercurial slo-core folk suffered from being a few years ahead of it's time and were undeservedly ignored by the mainstream outside their home of Ireland. Even roping in Steve Albini to produce one of their albums wasn't enough to raise their profile. Their jokey, can't take it seriously name, probably didn't help them get the recognition they deserved.
It's time for a reappraisal of the band, to ignore the name and just listen to their dreamy, melancholic folk with it's hints of a Neil Young at his most muscular and Will Oldham and wonder were it all went wrong for a band that should have filled stadiums.
Go Try MP3 - Joan Of Arse - The Fusing Of The Continental Plates This track is linked direct from the Joan of Arse Last.FM site and is therefore already freely available so please don't claim it's breaching copyright. Go Visit
Pagan Wanderer Lu is Andy Regan (born in Bolton) a one-man 'Indietronica' band originally formed in Aberystwyth but now based in Cardiff.
As Pagan Wanderer Lu Andy, who also passes his time playing bass in Silence At Sea, has self released countless albums and EPs of world weary, witty ditties. He is a uniquely British, razor sharp commentator on the foibles and irritations of British life. Part of a tradition that stretches back as far as the wandering minstrels of medieval times through to the more recent likes of performance poet John Cooper Clarke, socialist rock agitator Billy Bragg, absurdist commentariats like Half Man Half Biscuit, and the witty observational pop of Jarvis Cocker.
I was going to wait until the end of October to bring you Fetch the Witches as part of a Halloween themed special but they're too good to keep under wraps until then! They sound a little like Radiohead before they'd learned the word "avant-garde", discovered studio trickery and started exploring the outer limits of progressive indie. In other words Fetch The Witches are perfect for nostalgic Radiohead fans like me who yearn for a return to the good old days of The Bends and Pablo Honey.
They haven't yet (and I stress the yet) produced an across the decades classic like 'Creep' but give them time.
The Angry Years are a lo-fi minimalist trio who sound like the best bits of Glasvegas, Nick Cave and Patti Smith all tied up in a gothic bow. Their early demos have created a buzz and it's easy to see why when they're as good as 'The End Of Boredom' which sends the same shivers down my spine as the early demos of Glasvegas and 'He Hit Me & The Cameras Flashed' whichis a dark gothic tale that sounds like the lovechild of Patti Smith and Nick Cave.
Tom Robinson thinks they're fab and you can add the Devil to The Angry Years growing fan base.
The Purple Om Eaters are a gang of London based rockers injecting the music scene with a potentially lethal dose of hallucinogenic psychedelia, sunshine pop and garage rock. Like an eclectic musical sponge The Purple Om Eaters have absorbed everything from Eddie Cochran to the MC5, The Cramps to the Jesus and Mary Chain, The Strokes to the Black Lips and regurgitated it as raw, kinetic, rock executed with equal amounts of reverence and irreverence!
London rockers The Jim Jones Revue have risen from the ashes of legendary UK garage rockers Thee Hypnotics to deliver the world from the computer generated focus group pap that passes as music today. It's savage, it's raw, it's exciting, it's rock & roll in it's purest form.
With their new album, Burning Your House Down, scheduled for release in September, the retro quintet unleash an aural tsunami of primal rock 'n roll with a curled lip, a sexual swagger and a punky snarl. It's a fantastic mess of raw untamed rawk 'n roll with more energy than a kindergarten on a sugar high. It simply explodes, beating your eardrums into submission while Jim Jones screeches and wails like Little Richard on red bull or a psychotic Jon Spencer. 'Burning Your House Down' is the shot of adrenaline that the dull and complacent music scene needs to wake it from it's lengthy slumber. Put the fire brigade on red alert The Jim Jones Revue are about to burn down your house and set fire to the charts.
Go Try
MP3 - The Jim Jones Revue - Big Len This track is published with the permission of The Charm Factory so please refrain from alleging infringement of copyright.
Go Visit The Jim Jones Revue - Myspace : Last.FM Go View
Lil Daggers From: Pegadito al internacional mall (Miami), Florida, United States
Floridian garage punkers Lil Daggers (much better than their first choice name Lil Dicks) have recently released the 'King Corpse' ep, a brilliant fuzzed up little 7 incher that's got the ol' Devil's juices flowing.
With it's thumping drums, screaming vocals and relentless organ 'King Corpse', the EP's title track, sounds like four horsemen of the apocalypse coming over the horizon. It could be the last thing you hear as the world goes to hell in a handcart. If so then at least we'll all die happy.
The Devil's favourite track 'Hungry' sounds like a fuzzed up echo from underneath the floorboards of CBGBs, like Richard Hell & The Voidoids with a rocket up their arse. You can almost hear the sweat dripping from the ceiling. “Ya Tu Sabes” mines an even deeper seam sounding like an original artyfact from the first Psychedelic era. Lil Daggers are well worth a stab.
Go Try
MP3 - Lil Daggers - Hungry This track is published with the permission of Lil Daggers so please don't claim breach of copyright. Go Visit
Los Angeles kooky electro ensemble Hotbodies have cooked up a storm with their first single 'Lollipop'. Starting off like an electro torch song it soon morphs into a Soulwax mainlining Ariel Pink ode to the world changing medicinal wonders of Lollipops. If it's casual refrain of 'Fuck yeah I got a lollipop, I don't give a fuck' doesn't take permanent residence in your brain you've probably been lobotomised.
Take a suck on Hotbodies 'Lollipop' and you truly won't give a fuck!
Go Try
MP3 - Hotbodies - Lollipop This track is published with the permission of Hotbodies so please don't claim breach of copyright.
If the pics on their myspace site are typical Menemona are disturbingly fond of getting their clothes off. There are pics of them au naturel in the bath, in a tree and one with a band member appearing to give birth!
Ironically the frequently unclad Portland trio dress up their music with all sorts of sonic trickery and symphonic magnificence. They've just released their new album, Mines, which recalls The Flaming Lips at their melodic best. Loaded with meandering melodies and swirling, layered psychedelic hooks it's a sweeping statement of intent, a magical mystery tour of discovery.
Go Try
MP3 - Menemona - TAOS This track is published with the permission of the Orchard so please refrain from alleging infringement of copyright
LA's Haunted Tiger are one of the many bands featured on the CV of exotic and punky American chanteuse Lately Blu Blu (featured on the Devil's blog back in March this year Blu Velvet). I promised at the time of the Lately Blu Blu feature that Haunted Tiger would be following the next day. I clearly got a little side tracked as five months have passed since that broken promise. Well better late than never today's post is dedicated to Haunted Tiger.
Where Lately's own project is understated, aloof and confrontational Haunted Tiger are more chilled with a fine line in spine-chilling psych rock that'll have you waking at night in a cold sweat. With it's twanging guitar, plink plonk piano and serial killer vocals Tele4Me (Disxo) could be The Black Angels as remodelled by David Lynch. The equally impressive I'm A Mummy starts with a screech before turning into a piece of pure gonzo psych that curiously sounds like Haunted Tiger have cross bred The Hives and The Brian Jonestown Massacre.
The new Get Cape.Wear Cape.Fly album will be hitting the shelves, or should that be the servers, on September 13 via Cooking Vinyl. For those who can't wait till then he's released a video of 'Collapsing Cities' as a little taster. The video, which was shot in one take, is like This Is England goes to the village fete. The track was issued as a single earlier this week backed up by a cover of Justice's'D.A.N.C.E' .
Y Lime? is a brother sister duo from Chicago. Emily sings and plays guitar, while Zak plays bass. They sing songs about zombies, veganism, and friends like the anarchist vegan cousins of the Moldy Peaches.
Go Try
MP3 - Y Lime? - Hippocripotamus MP3 - Y Lime? - Casper These tracks are all linked direct from the Y Lime? Last.FM site and are therefore already freely available so please don't claim breach of copyright.
transmittens From: Lawrence, Kansas, United States
With a name like transmittens and tracks called Balloons in the Sky and Meet Me At The Swings it doesn't take a genius to guess that the Kansas based duo are a little bit twee. Their special brand of tinny-beated, moog-enhanced light and airy pocket pop wouldn't sound out of place on a Sarah Records retrospective or a Slumberland Records compilation. It's the aural equivalent of mainlining cupcakes. Go Try
Birmingham based power trio Calories make an impressive noise that's beefier than a beefeater's Sunday lunch and poppier than an arsenal of popguns. They sound like a poppier, non fattening English version of Fugazi.
It's time to watch the Calories.
Go Try
MP3 - Calories - Let's Pretend That We're Older This track is linked direct from the Calories Last.FM site and is therefore already freely available so please don't claim breach of copyright.
Like fellow travellers SALEM and oOoOO, Balam Acab take the dubstep baton and bend it into unusual and unnerving soundscapes that make the hairs on the back of your neck rise. It's akin to burying Burial in a deep pit of drone while a ghostly choir rehearses a holy incantation. The sound has been variously labelled chillwave, witch house, haunted house and drag. Whatever term sticks it's the sound from under the floorboards of Kafka's boarding house and it sounds like the future.
Go Try
MP3 - Balam Acab - Heavy Living Things MP3 - Balam Acab - See Birds These tracks are linked direct from the Balam Acab Last.FM site and are therefore already freely available so please refrain from alleging infringement of copyright.
With a name like Freedom or Death, the war cry for the people of Greece during the 1820's Greek War of Independence, I was expecting a cacophonous, passionate blast of death metal scorching my eardrums and turning my brain to a soggy mush. I was certainly not expecting the Canadian Coldplay, I was not expecting Radiohead lite!
There's angst a plenty in FoD's heart wrenching, tear jerking adult oriented rock. It's perfect for the upwardly mobile global professionals who ache for a band to fill the Coldplay sized void in their lives while they wait for LP5's release. Go Try
Finnish mellowdramatists Delay Trees claim that they play tender pop songs that'll melt your ears. Well they are wrong. The body part most at risk from their love lorn laments is the heart. Yep before you listen to a Delay Trees track be sure to have a cardiac nurse at your side with a box load of Epinephrine ampules.
Go Try
MP3 - Delay Trees - Cassette 2012 This track is linked direct from the Delay Trees website and is therefore already freely available so please refrain from alleging infringement of copyright. MP3 - Delay Trees - About Brothers This track is linked direct from the Delay Trees Last.FM site and is therefore already freely available so please refrain from alleging infringement of copyright.
Exeter indie rockers and possessors of one of the more intriguing band names of the year Ono Palindromes took some time out from thinking about palindromes that they can deploy as the title of their first album to talk to the Devil about the strangest place they've ever played, their dodgy taste in music when they were younger, why they chose their name and what is the longest palindrome they can think of.
The Devil: The Devil has been mildly critical of your name so what possessed you to opt for Ono Palindromes? What other names did you consider before finally deciding it had to be Ono Palindromes?
Andrew W Kame (AK): We had a four or five names before we decided on Ono Palindromes. I remember Dig For Fire was one we considered but like every other name that one was taken! I like the fact our band name means absolutely nothing, it's just something you associate three people to.
Andy Death (AD): Yeah the name doesn't mean anything, but I loved that. I hate the fact that you hear a band and you can bracket them- like you can usually tell who's twee, who's indie, who's punk. We're into loads of stuff, why be straight jacketed by a name? We wanted something fluid, something people could listen to with an open mind and make up their own minds! The Devil: Who are your biggest influences?
AK: At The Drive-In, Refused, Eastern Europe, Tool.
Serge Pascal (SP): Mikey Shoes' hips and fingers. AD: Politics, punk, sex, drugs and rock n roll!
The Devil: What was the first record you owned and what was the first record you ever bought? SP: Owned: Pink Floyd- The Pulse; Bought: QOTSA Rated R... Post Feel good hit of the summer getting blasted out of my friends stereo at the tender age of thirteen.. Right after that I brought Michael Jackson's Earth Song on cassette.
AK: The embarrassing part, the first album I ever bought and owned was Limp Bizkit - Chocolate Starfish & The Hot Dog Flavoured Water. If it wasn't for that album I would not be into what I am into now!!! The Devil: What's the strangest place you've played and would you go back there?
AD: I played my first gig in Bristol when I was 14 in a function room at this place called the Bulldog. We got there with our mates and it was a pretty rough pub. We were all into our punk and stuff so we were all really excited. Anyway, I remember smashing my guitar up and taking out the venues lighting system at the end of the set- by accident of course! Anyway, next thing I know the locals came rushing in and started beating us all up. Then the landlord grabbed one of my friends round the throat asking who broke his ceiling lights- my friend blurted out the kid with the blue hair! Unfortunately, I'd got one of those one day only hair dyes and dyed my hair blue- so I legged it to the bogs and started trying to wash out this blue hair dye! Then I turned to another mate and asked if I'd got it out and he turned to me and went, “mate your hair's OK but your face is blue!” At that point I just legged it out of there! So yeah that was pretty weird and no I wouldn't go back! AK: We played at a festival one time and it was really weird. We were playing in a tent to an audience varying between the ages of 5 to about 80. There were all these young kids as young as 6-7 dancing round at the front and a bunch of old dudes at the back nodding their heads. It was a very surreal experience. It would be cool to do it again. SP: Truckfest 08 with an old band. The stage and audience were freaking huge. Surreal. The Devil: Other than Ono Palindromes who are the most exciting bands on the current music scene?
AD: I love this band from Cardiff called Saturday's Kids. I went to their EP launch the other day- it was in this basement like something out of Fight Club, but weirdly to go to the toilets you had to go upstairs and above it was this antiques shop- was really cool and surreal. Also love a new new band called New Years Evil! They're kinda like what a British response to Sonic Youth or No Age/ Abe Vigoda should be!
SP: Pulled Apart By Horses. No question. Those guys kick the shit out of everything, all the time. Also Spectres. Dark, noisy little man-scamps. AK: There are some good bands around at the moment, bands like That Fucking Tank, Part Chimp, And So I Watch You From Afar, Future Of The Left & Pulled Apart By Horses to name a few. The Devil: If you weren't in Ono Palindromes how would you keep yourself occupied? AK: I would probably be plotting something which would fail to materialize, exciting hey?
SP: Collecting and Painting Warhammer models and playing shit loads of Age Of Empires.
AD: I'd be becoming the British enfant terrible of film directors, inspiring a new wave of transgressive cinema and general bad taste!
The Devil: If you were interviewing yourself what would your killer question be and how would you answer it? SP: My favorite question is: Name three pieces of music that rattle up your spine and shake your body like a hurricane (what a great question I think I may use that in future interviews - The Devil)...
My answers would be: Beirut - Guyumas Sonora, Joy Division - Love Will Tear Us Apart, The Shins - Caring Is Creepy
AD: But seriously why?
AK: That is a good question! The Devil: What's your favourite joke?
AK: The joke is usually on me, haha.
SP: Where does Napoleon keep his armies?... Up his sleevies.
The Devil: What's the longest palindrome you know? AK: I found this one the other day.... Now, sir, a war is never even–sir, a war is won! ......true statement to!!
AD: There's a longer Latin one: “in girum imus nocte et consumimur igni” which means we go wandering at night and are consumed by far- so that's cool- although checking it yours is longer!
SP: I've got a longer one! Dennis, Nell, Edna, Leon, Nedra, Anita, Rolf, Nora, Alice, Carol, Leo, Jane, Reed, Dena, Dale, Basil, Rae, Penny, Lana, Dave, Denny, Lena, Ida, Bernadette, Ben, Ray, Lila, Nina, Jo, Ira, Mara, Sara, Mario, Jan, Ina, Lily, Arne, Bette, Dan, Reba, Diane, Lynn, Ed, Eva, Dana, Lynne, Pearl, Isabel, Ada, Ned, Dee, Rena, Joel, Lora, Cecil, Aaron, Flora, Tina, Arden, Noel, and Ellen sinned. (Wow that's impressive any Devil readers got a longer one than that- The Devil) The Devil: Is there anything else you'd like to say to the Devil's readers?
AD: Many hands make light work. Too many cooks spoil the broth. Better the devil you know than the devil that's dead... anything else?
SP: Don't cut corners. Don't get caught.
AK: Awooooogah
If you want to find out more about Andy Death favourites old school punkers Saturday's Kids then check them out below...
Still Blue Still Turning is a New York City-based duo located at the point where shoegaze, dreampop, and slow-fi collide; the point where noise and beauty collide, the point where Brian Eno, Slowdive, My Bloody Valentine and Sigur Ros collide. Prepare to be astounded.
