The more I hear Yard Act the more I enjoy them. The Leeds, UK band re-imagine Parklife-era Blur as a post punk band instead of Brit pop. So far their vocals have been much more along the lines of spoken word or ranting than actual singing. Their latest single, "Rich," has this blistering building intensity that goes in stark contrast to the cheerfulness at the beginning of the song. Very slowly the song gets angrier and drips with more and more attitude the further you get into the song. "Rich" starts off as an almost accessible song and then devolves into a much noisier and discordant one towards the end. A+.
Frontman James Smith says of the new song:
“‘Rich’ is the natural successor to ‘Payday’. That’s the end of the story right? Success! Status! Security! Except, there’s always more money to be made, and you’re deemed a failure if your life starts to head back in the direction it came from. It’s about being so lost you’re sure you know exactly where you are and how you got there. I also wrote it because I thought it would be quite funny if Yard Act made a shit ton of money after I’d written an anti-capitalist concept album. It’ll be funny if I’m singing this song on stage when I’ve made my mint.
"At worst it makes no sense, at best it comes off as pretentious, but that’s the point I'm trying to make when I write anything really. Things only really make sense if you exclude the bits that don’t back up the point you’re trying to make. I’m a hypocrite just like everyone else. I don’t have the answers and I’m just trying to do the best I can. It’ll never be good enough though. Enjoy the ride, life is short and you never know what’s round the corner.”
You can watch the video for "Rich" below. The Overload is due out on January 21 via Island Records/Zen F.C., and can be pre-ordered/pre-saved here. For more on Yard Act, check out the band's Facebook and Twitter. Upcoming tour dates are below the video.
21 Jan | Rough Trade East, London, UK 12pm 21 Jan | Rough Trade East, London, UK 6p– SOLD OUT 22 Jan | Sister Ray / 100 Club Outstore 1pm 22 Jan | Pryzm, Kingston-Upon-Thames, UK 9pm 23 Jan | Pie and Vinyl Instore, Southsea, UK 1pm 23 Jan | Resident Music Instore, Brighton, UK 6pm – SOLD OUT 24 Jan | Truck Music Store, Oxford, UK 1pm 23 Jan | Rough Trade, Bristol, UK, 6:30PM – SOLD OUT 27 Jan | Rough Trade, Nottingham, UK – SOLD OUT
2 Feb | L’Aéronef, Lille, FR 3 Feb | Trix, Borgorhaut, BE 4 Feb | Paradiso Kleine Zaal, Amsterdam, NL – SOLD OUT 5 Feb | Molotow, Hamburg, DE 6 Feb | Stengade, Copenhagen, DK 7 Feb | Plan B, Malmö, SE 9 Feb | Badehaus, Berlin, DE 10 Feb | Blue Shell, Cologne, DE 11 Feb | Rotondes, Luxembourg, LU 12 Feb | La Boule Noire, Paris, FR 17 Feb | Village Underground, London, UK – SOLD OUT 18 Feb | Patterns, Brighton, UK – SOLD OUT 19 Feb | The Joiners, Southampton, UK – SOLD OUT 21 Feb | Exchange, Bristol, UK – SOLD OUT 22 Feb | Clwb Ifor Bach, UK Cardiff – SOLD OUT 23 Feb | Bodega Social, Nottingham, UK – SOLD OUT 24 Feb | The White Hotel, Salford, UK – SOLD OUT 25 Feb | The Trades Club, Hebden Bridge, UK – SOLD OUT 26 Feb | Brudenell Social Club, Leeds, UK – SOLD OUT
1 Mar | The Cluny, Newcastle, UK – SOLD OUT 2 Mar | The Caves, Edinburgh – SOLD OUT 3 Mar | Mono, Glasgow, UK – SOLD OUT 4 Mar | Whelans, Dublin, IE
14 Mar – 20 Mar | SXSW, Austin, US
22 Mar | Union Pool, Brooklyn, US 23 Mar | Johnny Brenda’s, Philadelphia, US 24 Mar | TV Eye, Queens, US 25 Mar | The Sinclair, Boston, US 27 Mar | The Garrison, Toronto, CA 29 Mar | Sleeping Village, Chicago, US
5 Apr | Earth, London, UK 15 Apr | The Casbah, San Diego, US 18 Apr | The Crocodile, Seattle, US 19 Apr | Doug Fir Lounge, Portland, US 21 Apr | Rickshaw Stop, San Francisco, US 30 Apr | Liverpool Sound City, UK
11 May | Trinity, Bristol, UK 18 May | Rescue Rooms, Nottingham – SOLD OUT 19 May | Zanzibar, Liverpool – SOLD OUT 20 May | Irish Centre, Leeds, UK – SOLD OUT 21 May | Band on the Wall, Manchester, UK – SOLD OUT 22 May | The Foundry, Sheffield – SOLD OUT 26 May | O2 Academy, Leicester, UK 27 May | Arts Centre, Norwich – SOLD OUT 28 May | Wide Awake Festival, London
22 Jul | Truck Festival, Oxford, UK 24 Jul | Tramlines, Sheffield, UK 29 Jul | Deer Shed, Thirsk UK 30 Jul | Ynot Festival, Derbyshire, UK
5-7 Aug | Off Festival, Katowice, PL
9-13 Aug | Oya Festival, Oslo, NO
24 Nov | O2 Academy, Leeds 25 Nov | O2 Ritz, Manchester
Somehow Peter Prescott of Mission of Burma and Volcano Suns has another band that I never knew about. Minibeast already released an album that I completely missed back in 2012, and they are currently at work on the follow up, Free Will. Based on a track from the upcoming album, "High Sea," Minibeast shares some common sonic ground with Mission of Burma, but with an added emphasis on the groovy side of things. It's basically the noise and dissonance of Burma but heard through a 60s surf groove, as if Frankie and Annette were punks. You can listen to "High Sea" below. Minibeast currently have a Kickstarter to help fund the final production of Free Will. You can get more information on that here . It should be out sometime in June.
Earlier this week I was expressing sympathy for Limp Bizkit. Limp Bizkit just don't seem to be riding that surge of 90s nostalgia that all sorts of other terrible bands from that era are. Sure, they're terrible. But are they really that much worse than Filter, Alien Ant Farm, and other bands on those 90s nostalgia packages. And then this video is released. The first lyrics to the song are literally "Go fuck yourself." It then features Fred Durst sitting on a toilet, bikini clad chicks pretending to fellate garden hoses and leaf blowers, and Fred Durst talking about fucking bitches, all while wearing a hoodie and a backwards red baseball hat. Then Lil Wayne comes out. Please keep in mind Fred Durst is a 42 year old man.
Photo by Annabel Kean For their latest single, New Zealand's The Beths have released "Mother, Pray for Me." This is a heartbreaking ballad consisting of Elizabeth Stokes' vocals and guitar with just the slightest hint of organ. It's a deeply personal song for Stokes, made obvious with how intimately the song comes across. It truly feels almost confessional, and it's quite simply beautiful. The Beths are most known for huge little indie rock gems perfect for bopping along to, but "Mother, Pray for Me" is quite the opposite. Stokes' vocals and lyrics are right up front on this one, and I can't imagine it any other way. Elizabeth Stokes says of her latest single: “I cried the whole time writing it. It's not really about my mother, it's about me — what I hope our relationship is, what I think it is, what it maybe actually is, and what I can or can't expect out of it. “My mother is a first gen Indonesian immigrant, and very Catholic....
