Sunday 24 June 2012

Bleech Album Launch Show at The Borderline, 22nd June 2012


 (Top photo: Jen of Bleech, Bottom photo: Drag Your Heels)

After recently writing reviews of their recent single 'Adrenaline Junkie' and also their debut album 'Nude' recently, I managed to get myself into their album launch party at London's Borderline venue on Friday. I've seen them once before a few years back at the Pink Festival when the band were known as Slummin Angels and even then I thought they were great, and they've developed so much more since then.

I hadn't been to The Borderline and was quite surprised how small it was, but it is a lovely venue with two bars, places to sit, (where you could watch the bands on a TV screen if you wanted to) as well as a nicely lit stage and dance floor.

The first support act were Drag Your Heels. The band are a female fronted three piece based in London who say they are inspired by blues, girl groups and punk. Their singer Lucy, reminded me a lot of Stevie Nicks, although their music doesn't remind me of Fleetwood Mac! They had a fantastic full sound, rock n roll infused with blues and catchy chorus's- I dare you to have a listen to the song 'How It's Meant to Be' and not tap your feet! In fact, I dare you to not be moved in some way by any of their songs.

The second support act I didn't watch properly so straight on to Bleech!
They came onto the sound of her majesty herself introducing them over the speakers as they happened to release the album on the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. * To a packed out venue, they blistered their way through the majority of 'Nude' including 'Break My Nose',  the slower track 'Flowerhands' and an extended version of 'Dancing Without You' before ending it with my personal favourite (and most other people's it seemed by the crowd's reaction) the ever so catchy 'Monday's.'

They talked a little between the songs, joking that the audience was just their mates and talking about releasing the album their selves and encouraging us to enjoy ourselves.  There was no need- with music as fresh and exciting as theirs is, it was inevitable. If you get the chance- buy the album and see them live it'll be well worth it!



Sunday 10 June 2012

Awesome Bands: Trash Monroe





In my awesome bands post last week, I wrote about We Rock Like Girls Don't, a band although I've been interested in for a long time, I've only seen live recently.

Another awesome band who I've seen many times as they are a local band, and I've also had them play at two events I've organised, headlining one of them- the one time I've ever seen a local band be urged to play an encore- they were that good!

The band I'm talking about is the fantastic Southend based Trash Monroe. The band have garnered quite a reputation for their live shows as well as their music, and I really can't understand why this band are not well known yet!
It's quite hard to put into words what their music is like as it's a mix of several genres, so here's some videos for you to check out, my personal favourite song is 'Venus Envy'











Sunday 3 June 2012

Awesome bands: We Rock Like Girls Don't






Last night I got to see the fantastic We Rock Like Girls Don't live for the third time and the second time in a venue local to me, thanks in a way to my Pigtails and Army Boots live night as the sound engineer Duncan, actually asked them to support his punk covers band Swindle at Club Riga and they agreed- hooray!

Each and everytime I have seen them whatever the circumstances they have always performed a fantastic and lively performance. The first time I saw them live was at Ladygarden in Cambridge last year, which was in a tiny and very crowded pub and it was a proper rock n roll finish to the event- then I saw them at my event, sadly due to things running late there wasn't a massive crowd for them but they still managed to perform a great rock set, and then last night I was really happy for them as despite not being a 'punk' band and being a support act, the crowd reacted very positively to them and were asking about cds etc.

I've known about WRLGD for quite some time, back in the ye old MySpace days and had one of their cds sent to me years ago but it was after seeing them at Cambridge that I got back in touch and subsequently got more of their music and even interviewed them for my show.

In recent months the album 'How Did We Get to This' has been one of my most played- particularly 'I Just Want to Stick My Head in the Bass Drum' and 'Rock n Roll Freak' there may only be two of them but they make a hell of a lot of noise and it's an excellent rock n roll explosion of joy for your ears.

If you haven't already checked them out, I highly suggest you do- they sound great recorded but even more amazing live- here are some videos of their music for you to enjoy: