Formed during the pandemic lockdown of 2020, Yorkshire’s Cliché Cult gradually built an online following via the release of a half dozen digital singles. The band’s mix of indie, post punk and energised jangling guitars set them out as a band to watch. In addition, the tonal shift between the Bunnymen-ish ‘Plastic World’ single in 2022 and the semi-funky ‘Veronica’ (released in March ’23) suggested they were a band who weren’t about to play things safely, or get pigeonholed.
Tag Archives: indie rock
THE SUBWAYS – Uncertain Joys
This 2023 release from UK indie rock favourites The Subways marks the end of a long period of silence from the band. It comes eight years after their self titled fourth LP, and marks the first long player for a new line up and a new record label. Drummer Josh Morgan left the band for the second time in 2020, and his replacement Camille Phillips (also of The Ramonas) does an absolutely terrific job throughout the album’s twelve songs, and at the record’s best, the sheer punch the “new” Subways give the material is especially confident.
THE CHASE – Not The F*cking Game Show EP
Indie rockers The Chase began issuing digital singles in 2018. Over the course of the next three years – and amid a global pandemic – they kept up an online presence by drip feeding their audience new material sporadically, one track at a time. Each new tune seemed to suggest bigger and better things, leading to high hopes for a full release somewhere down the track. With gigs back on the table for many bands by the beginning of 2022, things started to fall into place, and The Chase eventually released their debut EP, ‘Not The F*cking Game Show’ in May.
THE SILVER LINES – Sleaze EP
London based rock band The Silver Lines sometimes convey a very retro sound, but unlike some, they’re keen to take a few key influences and at least try to twist them into something new. On their debut EP, you’ll find swathes of retro indie jangle, even a heavy dose of funk, and yet the band never sound as if they’re settled within either camp. Their sound can seem a little busy, yet remains focused; their song writing is hooky, but never anthemic. You might say that The Silver Lines sound absolutely natural – and that would certainly be true of frontman Dan Ravenscroft’s unmistakably British vocal delivery – but whichever way you approach their music, there’s something interesting lurking beneath the surface.
UGLY RUNNER – Romanticizer EP
Hailing from Asheville, North Carolina, three piece rock band Ugly Runner make a gloriously retro noise on their debut EP ‘Romanticizer’. Across its lean and mean nineteen minutes, you’ll hear echoes of the Stooges, Pixies, The Strokes and more as the band presents six tracks of fierce garage rock mixed with the noisier end of late 80s indie.