Track Review: The Courteeners - The 17th

So Liam Fray and co are back. Their 5th album 'Mapping the Rendezvous' is out on October 21st which will no doubt prompt those who love a good ellesse polo and the odd smoke bomb to wet themselves with excitement. But in my opinion, it's a shame that album release date isn't 50 years in the future if The 17th is anything to go by. 

This first glimpse of new material is the perfect example of The Courteeners at their most complacent. The track never really gets going as it lumbers along at a mind numbing pace with a 'Don't You Want Me' drum beat and tip toe pianos. Liam Fray does his best Matt Berninger impression throughout with both his vocals and his lyrics but falls massively short of The National frontman. When Fray tries to wistfully paint a romantic picture with lyrics such as "So let's find that place with the pink neon sign / the one that points to you and says do you wanna be mine" and "everyone can hear you but nobody's listening / we've got another wedding and another christening"  he sounds woefully like a love struck 14 year old who's just discovered a thesaurus. 

What's worst about The 17th however, is the sheer lack of ambition it shows. With making this the lead single The Courteeners have simply shown that this album isn't going to progress their sound or even them as a band at all. All it does is tell everyone that Mapping the Rendezvous is going to be the same drivel as their last album, and the one before that and so on. 

Because The Courteeners have never changed since their second album; their happy to push the same old shit knowing they've got the fan base that'll lap it up regardless of what it sounds like. The band are happy enough to coast along with tours in venues that aren't your best mates front room but still aren't arenas without pushing the envelope and having the bollocks to actually take a risk on something a little different now they have an established fan base. But then again, while ever The Courteeners continue to sell out tours we'll never seen any real musical progress from them.

Live Review: The SSS @ The Leadmill 19/03/2016

To say this is the biggest moment of The SSS' short life as a band would be a bit of an understatement. Not many bands sell out the main room of The Leadmill without releasing their debut album but the local boys did just that, with a little help from their main support The Wired.

Admittedly I did miss first support Franko Fraize as I may or may not have been enjoying some beverages with friends but turning up in time for The Wired was definitely a good idea. I wasn't the only one who had got to The Leadmill early either as the band emerged to a sizable crowd. Performing in pretty much darkness apart from a single strobe light, the lighting almost personified their dark and brooding sound perfectly. Reminiscent of the old school melancholic indie of White Lies and Editors, The Wired posses towering riffs and buoyant basslines that are held together by thumping drums throughout. Everything is tight knit and sharp and new single 'Fit The Feel' is a definite highlight of the set. The only minder hindrance is that a lot of their songs sound almost too similar to one another, which isn't a massive problem but it leaves you wanting something that just a tad different to the rest of their tunes.

Arriving onstage to SSS chants the band had gone all out for their big day as they were accompanied by an extra drummer and keyboardist for the first two tracks which beefed up their already ambitious sound. The whole gig shows just how far the SSS have come in a relatively short space of time and this is made abundantly clear as they play 'Snake in the Grass', which they played at their first gig at the Shakespeare pub. Past single 'Eighteen' provides the first singalongs and the first anthemic moment of the night. A brief cover of The Human League's 'Don't You Want Me' follows and merges with the catchy 'Find a Way' firing up the crowd in the process as the lead guitar chases frontman Josh Coddington's vocals like an obsessed love interest following you round a club.

Not content with their already stellar back catalogue The SSS use their biggest gig to date to preview a host of new material. New single 'Stay With Me' is a Cribs like ballad that allows Coddington's voice to shine through whilst 'Told You Twice' stays in the same vein as their Love. Lust. Loss. EP but it's a definite effort to create a festival anthem. The main set is brought to a close on a poignant note with 'Into The Sun', the bands tribute to a late friend, which fits the occasion perfectly. It's fair to say that the SSS look surprisingly at home on the big stage, at one point Coddington even jokes "whoever gets the best picture with Max [SSS drummer] gets to keep Cal [SSS bassist] for a week". If anything, the magnitude of the show doesn't seem to effect the band but instead it drives them to perform even better.

Starting the encore with a cover of Nena's '99 Red Balloons', complete with red balloons falling from the ceiling, was as unexpected as it was brilliant but it sums the band up perfectly; they're good for a laugh but even when they're messing about, they still deliver. First single 'Morning Light' sparks a singalong that brings a fitting end to proceedings and if tonight is anything to go by, this won't be the last time The SSS are selling out big venues in the UK.   

Track Review: Bloody Knees - I Want It All

After a year and eight months without releasing a scrap of new material, Bloody Knees finally strapped on some plasters and shared 'I Want It All' with the world.

Although it is a bit different to their carnivorous 'Stiches' EP, it still firmly retains their identity as this is undeniably a Bloody Knees track. In a similar fashion to Nai Harvest's refinement for their album 'Hairball', compared to their rough around the edges early material, the Cambridge four piece have trimmed the fat and polished their sound. The guitars are crunchy whilst frontman Brad Griffiths' voice is less hoarse and he actually sounds like the frontman of a fully fledged rock band (not the type that'll get 50 year old bald men with massive beards and biker jackets turning up to their shows though, don't worry).

The track itself is sludgy, heavy and menacing to the point where it feels like it stalks the streets late at night kicking the shit out of anything it comes across. It's slower and more grungy than their previous material when they've take their foot off the gas, like on Garbage Brain, and to put it simply, it's a bloody brilliant return.

Hopefully it won't be too long before Bloody Knees are back out on their own headline tour and if 'I Want It All' is a sign of intent, they'll be laying waste to venues across the country yet again.
  

Feature: Girls Against and Groping at Gigs

Sexual harassment at gigs has been a problem for decades but now the problem finally has a voice. I spoke to Girls Against and The Leadmill in Sheffield to investigate why this age old problem has finally been brought into the mainstream.

If you’re a fan of indie music it’s been almost impossible not to notice a number of the genres biggest bands speak about the same problem over social media in recent months.

Spector, Swim Deep and Foals have all spoken about the topic; Drenge have claimed that it makes them want to “stop playing gigs”, Slaves warned perpetrators that they “weren’t welcome at their shows” and Peace frontman Harry Koisser stated “If you think this is ok, then please don’t come [to shows]”.

The topic that has garnered such a strong response from a number of different artists is one that’s existed at gigs for many years; groping.

You might think it’s pretty strange for this new breed of artists to raise awareness of such a longstanding problem but it’s all down to a campaign set up by a group of five teenage girls.

Girls Against logo

“We created the campaign after my experience of sexual harassment at a Peace gig in Glasgow in September 2015”. Explains Hannah Camilleri of Girls Against. The subsequent group put together by Hannah and her friends Anna, Ava, Anni and Bea who are all aged 15 to 17.

“Many others began to share their experiences, forcing us to acknowledge how widespread the problem is hence leaving us compelled to do something about it.”

Girls Against: Hannah, Ava, Bea, Anni and Anna

Since starting the group, the girls have been giving away badges at gigs in London and Scotland, where the group are based, and have set up a crowd funder page in order to produce other items of merchandise to raise awareness. So far the page has surpassed its target of £500 and raised £655.

In terms of what to do if someone finds themselves a victim of sexual harassment at a gig, Hannah explains the best course of action: “If you are in that situation get out of it immediately.

“Depending on what you’re comfortable with either confront the perpetrator, alert security and the people around you or just move out of the crowd and let the venue staff or us [Girls Against] know as soon as possible afterwards. The same thing goes for anyone who notices someone being groped – don’t be a bystander.”

Despite the group mainly receiving the experiences of girls being groped by the opposite sex, they do get instances of men being groped and people being harassed by people of the same sex. “We do get fewer reports of them but they do still happen,” explains Hannah.

One of the many bands who have supported Girls Against, Spector, onstage

One thing the group has noticed however is “if it’s girl on girl or boy on boy it’s generally because they want to get a better spot in the crowd.” However this doesn’t excuse these cases as “they are, of course, still cases of sexual harassment”.

The group has received overwhelming support from a vast array of bands as well as appearing on BBC Breakfast and being featured by NME, BBC Newsbeat, The Huffington Post, and The Daily Mail, which is something the girls never saw coming.

“We set up the account on a random Tuesday night with no goal really apart to make some noise about the issue. Since then things have kind of snowballed and it’s very humbling and overwhelming at times.”

Even though they set out with “no goal” the girls are now focused on what they want to achieve with “no sexual harassment at gigs” being the ultimate aim, yet the magnitude of this task isn’t lost on Hannah.“It’s hard work and things aren’t going to change overnight no matter how much we want them to, which is why we’ve got to keep chipping away at things.”

This includes working with venues across the country “to ensure that a no tolerance is enforced,” which they’re aiming to bring in by “getting their security companies involved and ensure that learning how to spot and deal with sexual harassment appropriately is a mandatory part of training”.

The Leadmill

However according to Elyse Peacock, the brand manager at The Leadmill in Sheffield, the venue already operates “a zero-tolerance policy against harassment and all our security staff are fully aware of the issue.”

When asked how the security staff would deal with a complaint of sexual harassment Elyse explains “Our security staff would speak to the members of public that are involved in the incident to clarify the situation and if necessary the customer that caused the incident would be asked to leave the venue.”

Although The Leadmill don’t see groping at gigs as a growing problem and instead “believe that there is just more publicity and awareness regarding the issue,” the venue would “be happy to fully support” Girls Against which could mean that the group’s goal to work with more venues could soon become a reality.

Yet, The Leadmill claim that they “don’t have record of any incidents relating to harassment taking place in the past five years”.

But after a Palma Violets gig at this venue, tweets emerged claiming that fans had experienced sexual harassment, with one user tweeting  "shoutout to the two melts at pv’s [Palma Violets] who thought it would be good to grope girls and p*** on the floor to hold their place.”

Therefore this shows that despite the amount of awareness being successfully generated by Girls Against, the real progress against sexual harassment at gigs will only be seen when everyone feels confident to take action against it, in the moment that it occurs.

This will only come in time as Girls Against is still in the infant stages of its campaign but for as long as this problem has a voice, sexual harassment at gigs will become less of a stigma for all sexes.