Singer-songwriter Patrick Boutwell is best known for being a member of alt-rock band The Brother Kite. For his 2016 solo release, he takes a side-step from some of the noisier and spikier aspects of his band work to increase the focus on some good, old-fashioned power pop, but without losing too much of the grit. Although the title ‘Hi, Heaviness’ may suggest an inward looking approach, the nine tracks on the album are largely concerned with a brighter outlook, helped no end by most of its tracks being awash with a clean toned guitar. Obviously, the power pop, Posies-esque influences should be enough for some of you to seek out this recording immediately, while for those already familiar with The Brother Kite, there are chunkier elements that provide a link with the past. He’s got both ends covered…and with ease.
Tag Archives: alternative
BEAR MAKES NINJA – Shenanagrams
Bear Makes Ninja released their second EP, the critically acclaimed ‘Shouting at Bridges‘, in 2012. From that point on, there was much talk of a full length release but nothing seemed to be happening very quickly on the recording front. Not that the band had been lazy; the next couple of years were taken up with numerous live performances and time spent sharpening the Leicestershire trio’s musical craft. Their long-rumoured full length finally appeared during the first quarter of 2016 and, for those already familiar with the off-kilter BMN style, does almost exactly as expected. There are times where an increase in production budget makes things seem a little more polished than before, but their angular math rock tunes and deliberately obtuse lyrics are still a far cry from easily digestible radio fodder. This, of course, is a good thing.
MIND VICE – Humanimality EP
In the mid-90s, lo-fi producer Conrad Uno was a busy man. He put his name to various Mudhoney projects, produced the Supersuckers, Fastbacks, Zeke, The Groovie Ghoulies and countless other bands. He founded the PopLlama record label. In terms of commercial success, however, he’s probably best known as the man who produced the debut album by novelty rock band The Presidents of the United States of America, a record that spawned sizeable hits in ‘Peaches’ and ‘Lump’.
JOYKILL COLLECTIVE – Joykill Collective EP
Joykill Collective are a collective in the genuine sense. Formed in the attic of a shared house, the band are not a band at all, but a gathering fronted by a man named Leif, whose primary interests appear to be music and left-wing politics. With friends, he created music, grew his own food in a rooftop garden and shared political ideals. This debut EP collects the Collective’s earliest recordings, four songs of heavy-ish, guitar driven indie rockers that often have a sinister edge, conveying the dark political times in which they were written.
LADY JANE’S REVENGE – 1554 EP
It’s hard to believe that by the time of this release that there are people out there who still think pirates are cool. By the turn of 2016, The Pirates of the Caribbean franchise is still coughing up dregs of adventure even though the pirate thing is, by this point, older and more tired than Keef Richards’s addled skeleton. Still, here we are, and Lady Jane’s Revenge make their entrance into the alternative rock sphere with a barrage of riffs and a somewhat pirate-y undertone (obviously, by that, it doesn’t insinuate any involvement from Fergal Sharkey with an eye patch, peg leg and parrot combo, though this EP would perhaps be more interesting if it did).