Hi all! I'm Wull the resident low end guy in Algernon Doll. For me one of the best things about playing in a band is travelling around and making new friends along the way, so not too dissimilar to OJ's post I'm gonna be talking about some bands that I really like from outside Scotland in the UK and beyond.
So it's a hard one to start but let's start with some of my favourite people The Winter Passing, generally when someone asks you how a band are and you answer with “they're lovely people” you assume it follows with “but the band aren't up to much”. In this situation it couldn't be further from the truth. The Winter Passing come from strong lo-fi punk roots and combine that with great well crafted songs with melodies that will get stuck in your head for days. They'll have a new record out this year which I'm really excited about picking up. When we were on tour with them in November after doing a house show we joined them on a video session for Already Heard (Mikey is the man) for the single they released during the tour you can watch below.
Late in 2013 we got the opportunity to play with Hey Joni in Dundee but didn't get the opportunity to see them due to some travel issues, but luckily last year during out summer tour with Pinact. We ended up crossing paths three or four times, we even stayed in a squat/abandoned house together in Norwich... while they previous owners were essentially tearing the place apart, we literally had to find squares of carpet of appropriate size to sleep on. Touring is swell. Oh yeah, as I was saying Hey Joni play pretty explosive angular punk with big doses of noise and military precision, they are one of the best live bands I've seen. Our last minute gig with them in Manchester was one of my favourite shows of the year. They recorded a new EP out in France last year with a bunch of great songs but I still highly suggest checking out Isabelle.
So when we played what I think was our first full band show out of Scotland last year we were invited to do a festival in Nottingham with a bunch of great bands one of the ones that really stood out for me was Muskets from Brighton and they did not disappoint in the slightest, this a band who take playing live seriously and are an incredibly good band to watch. We all got to play with them twice on our summer tour once in the fun night in Norwich and in their hometown of Brighton. Brighton is now one of my favourite places, even if I spent a whole bunch of my time there trying to find out if someone could fix my bass amp after if blew up the night before and then in turn I accidentally left my pedal board at the venue and went to London without it... thanks to Dan from the band for helping me get it back. They have a new record out this year and you can check out the song Focus below.
Next up is Kamikaze Girls from Leeds, as a band they've played 3 shows however up until like November last year they went under the name Hearts & Souls who we had the pleasure of playing with at one of the Struggletown gigs at Bloc and have since seen them again playing another Struggletown showcase. They have produced some fantastic almost indie laced thought provoking emo punk with a great use of dynamics and again like all the bands I've mentioned above put on a great live show. They released a tape last year which you can buy on their Bandcamp and you can check a sample of what's on it on below.
If you know me even a bit you'll know I'm a big fan of board/card games. Most specifically I'm a big fan of the game Magic The Gathering so when we were in Chicago I decided to play in a little tournament. I went 2-2 with a Temur aggro deck. Anyway in my last match I got paired against a guy called David who was playing a Jeskai tokens deck. We got to talking about music and I mentioned about being out there to record and he was telling me about his band Stoop Goodnoise. When I finally got the chance to check them out I really digged them, the band have great hooks with a big dynamic sound with lots of reverb and delayed lines up the neck and some solid grooves to back it up. You can check out the title track to their last album The Sea One below.
We got the opportunity to play with, stay with and party with so many great bands last year and I wish I could write about more of them so I'll just leave a bunch more quick links down here.
Bluebird
Jaded
Hora Douse
Forrest
Hindsights
Home Schooled
James Carroll
Arizona
Algiers
Stay Punk,
Wull x
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