The Surfing Magazines record has an immediate and unique energy – an old quality. It feels handmade. Analogue. Fun. In keeping with those themes – and because it’s nearly impossible to get every member of such a super-group in the same place at the same time – the plan was to do all the videos in one go. Just to keep it fresh – that location was a boat. That boat being The Grand Cru, a boat Pete Townsend made into a studio (apparently so him and Eric Clapton could make a record at sea). The results are three videos that revel in their unpolished existence. Long Live The Surfing Magazines.” – Piers Dennis, director.
The Surfing Magazines are a garage rock supergroup. The band contains one half of Slow Club and two thirds of The Wave Pictures. Dominic Brider, who has played with many local bands and is an extremely groovy dude, completes the line-up on drums.
Band Members
Charles Watson, David Tattersall, Dominic Brider, Franic Rozycki
Du Blonde has announced a new album Lung Bread For Daddy, which sees the self-sufficient artist utilise her multiple skills to try and create the project as independently as possible. “I know exactly what I want my record to sound like,” Houghton explains, “and apart from drums, I have the ability to play all the instruments, so I did.”
Houghton knows her direction, particularly when it comes to visual projects, having made videos for the likes of Red Hot Chili Peppers, LUMP, and Ezra Furman. Lung Bread For Daddy’s lead track “Buddy” arrives with a self-directed video, which features a bath, three bottles of vegetable oil, and hella spaghetti (37 packets to be precise)
Buddy is her first single from the album with a self-directed video featuring a bathtub, 3 bottles of vegetable oil and 37 packets of spaghetti.
Band Members
Beth Jeans Houghton,
Du Blonde returns with new album ‘Lung Bread For Daddy’ on 22nd February on Moshi Moshi Records
Despite having released two records prior, Kiran Leonard’s latest album Western Culture is his first professional studio album and his first with the backing of his live band. Though assisted by some additional players, Leonard contributes the lion’s share of instrumentals with everything from guitar, organ, piano, violin and vocals to sandpaper, goat bells and frying pan. After releasing a five-movement concept album last year, Western Culture is similarly elegant, but far more expansive and pop-oriented. Leonard’s brand of baroque pop-tinged rock is both astoundingly pretty and wildly vigorous. Tracks like “The Universe Out There Knows No Smile” and “Working People” sound almost too highbrow and meticulously composed to be considered rock, yet too dogged to be classified as classical or baroque-pop. Western Culture isn’t just a gorgeous album of nuance, it’s also laced with musings on the recurring problems plaguing the populace like the lack of communication and feelings of alienation.
Unreflective Life is taken from Kiran Leonard’s forthcoming new album WESTERN CULTURE, out on Moshi Moshi Records on 19th October
Du Blonde is the project of UK-based multi-instrumentalist Beth Jeans Houghton. She has announced a new album, “Lung Bread For Daddy” for Moshi Moshi Records, and has shared a video for a new song from it, “Buddy.” Lung Bread For Daddy is due out February 22nd, 2019 her first for the label. Houghton self-directed the video for “Buddy,” which features her taking a bath filled with spaghetti.
The album is the follow-up to 2015’s Welcome Back to Milkand 2012’s Yours Truly, Cellophane Nose. The latter album was released under her given name and both came out via Mute Records.
Houghton oversaw every aspect of Lung Bread For Daddy. “I know exactly what I want my record to sound like and apart from drums, I have the ability to play all the instruments, so I did,” she says in a press release.
She even painted the album cover, a self-portrait taken from, as the press release describes it, “a photograph taken during one of her lowest points, the image depicts Beth devoid not only of makeup, but of self-worth and confidence.”
Houghton elaborates: “I look tired and pretty much destroyed, which is a feeling I’ve known many times over; in the aftermath of relationships and that of making a record. Lyrically the album is very naked, so I’m carrying on the nudity of my previous album covers, only this time it’s emotional instead of physical.”
A press release describes the album this way: “Veering wildly between proto-punk, psych rock and the wholesome songwriting of the 1970s, Lung Bread For Daddy takes the listener on a journey through the landscape of her past. It is an honest and often uncomfortable look into the life of a person whose experiences have been touched by a myriad of characters, homes across continents, periods of extreme loneliness, mental illness and a search for an understanding of personal identity.”
Houghton adds: “My lyrics are always autobiographical. I have to be able to identify with what I’m singing, and telling my story is therapeutic.”
Buddy is her first single from the album with a self-directed video featuring a bathtub, 3 bottles of vegetable oil and 37 packets of spaghetti.
Du Blonde returns with new album ‘Lung Bread For Daddy’ on 22nd February on Moshi Moshi Records:
For an artist who’s released so much, it’s easy to forget Kiran Leonard is just still 22 year’s old. The Saddleworth-born musician already has an enviable back catalogue, with two home recorded albums and 2017’s ambitious literate concept album, Dervaun Seraun. Kiran’s latest album, Western Culture out next month, is also his first to be recorded in a professional studio, and is a record Kiran describes as, “both more accessible and more peculiar than my other records”, which Kiran Leonard fans will know makes for something really quite peculiar!
Ahead of the release, this week Kiran has shared the video to the latest single from the record, “Unreflective Life”, notable not least for what Kiran describes as, “a nice Bon Jovi solo at the end”. Lyrically as ambitious as always, Kiran suggests the track is what he sees as a total misunderstanding of how we use the internet, “the internet is not about total self-absorption, or attracting users to look in our direction,” says Kiran, “it is a complete paralysis, a disarticulation of the self which is caused by the act of looking outwards and being subsumed by the vastness of the violence we witness”. Musically, there’s a focus and a drive here, perhaps the result of recording with his live band for the first time. As always the track ebbs and flows, clattering from visceral crescendos to lush, intense periods of calm, and that guitar solo really is quite something! Kiran Leonard remains one of the most intriguing artists this planet has to offer, as challenging, rewarding and boundary pushing as ever, the constant re-invention of Kiran Leonard is a wonderful thing to behold.
Western Culture is out November 9th via Moshi Moshi Records.
He’s already achieved so much that it can be hard to remember Kiran Leonard is still only 22-years-old. The Saddleworth songwriter released his debut album back in 2014, took a giant leap forward with 2016’s Grapefruit and then proceeded to write,“a concept album in five movements inspired by five pieces of literature and arranged for piano, strings and voice”,a move as inspired as it was ludicrously ambitious. This week Kiran has shared details of his upcoming third album, Western Culture, as well as sharing the first single from it, Paralysed Force.
Kiran Leonard: “”Paralysed Force” is about how insecurities you should settle within yourself often get transplanted onto other people you know. Projecting the question towards another allows you to shirk responsibility for your own well being, but all this does is suspend the issue at hand, and prolong an inevitable falling back. “There’s also a sort of compulsiveness, a wanting to be suspended, that’s involved in it all, because sometimes it feels good not to have to think about yourself. I suppose the song’s about being caught between those two points — basically, that even if you know you’re being irresponsible (and possibly daft), there’s still a desire to give yourself up.”
Western Culture is the first album Kiran has ever recorded in a professional studio, as well as his first recorded with the involvement of his live band, and he has suggested it is, “both more accessible and more peculiar than my other records” – on the evidence of Paralysed Force you can certainly see where he’s coming from. Discussing the track, in his usual inimitable fashion, Kiran has suggested it is about, “how insecurities you should settle within yourself often get transplanted onto other people you know.” Musically it is as close as Kiran ever gets to a straight up indie-rock song, it’s still angular and awkward sure, however in the melodies and rhythms at times there’s an unquestionably hooky and approachable quality. With a title like Western Culture, it’s inevitable that this is a record that glances out to society, Kiran has suggested it looks to the power of words to shape the discourse, how, in his own carefully chosen comment, “the words we use have a funny sort of position, both as a feeble opponent to real-life violence, and as the critical foundation for that very violence.” With our own words, we’d strongly urge you to explore the fascinating work of quite possibly this countries most intriguing new musical voice.
Kiran Leonard releases brand new album Western Culture on 19th October 2018 on Moshi Moshi Records:
Teenage sensations Girl Ray draw heavy influence from the classic indie era of C86 and bring all that lofi goodness bang up to date. The North London indie trio specialising in wan, winsome heartache have ambitions to rival the song writing greats. Having just released their first LP , they now headline their shows giving you the chance to hear the new material live. Catch them live .
This last summer saw the release of their debut album Earl Grey. Released through cult indie label Moshi Moshi, it is receiving widespread critical acclaim and is becoming the underground album of the year.
“The idea that actual teenagers made an album this sharp and sophisticated and interesting is the kind of thing that should make the rest of us feel bad.” – Stereogum
It starts slowly as if nothing is actually happening but be patient because it eventually breaks out into a lovely slab of lilting Gorky-style orchestral pop that floats along as if on the softest of breezes. Lovely.
This trio of teens from Wales deliver bouncy, breathless pop that sounds like part bucolic beauty and part wild overgrown garden. Elements of Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci and Kevin Ayres lend excitement to Earl Grey and make them a band I’m excited to see what comes next for them.
London-trio Girl Ray’s rise has been pretty much metoric. The band only formed two years ago, but now signed to Moshi Moshi Records, they’ve recently put out their debut album “Earl Grey”, to massed critical acclaim. Following that release, the band have taken a brief break from playing basically every music festival going, and shared the video to new single, Don’t Go Back At Ten.
New cut ‘Don’t Go Back At Ten’ is a bittersweet offering, matching those chirpy, upbeat guitar lines with a downbeat vocal.
Poppy Hankin: “After a break-up I was super low, and as clichéd and teen-movie as it sounds, it was truly my friends who got me through it, making sure that I didn’t just mope about the whole time eating pots of cottage cheese and crying. I guess I wrote this one to cheer myself up in a way. Not many of the songs on the album are happy but this one is, kinda!”
The video is a nostalgic blast of early 00’s inspiration, that will either be a throwback to your formative years, or make you feel very old that anyone can feel nostalgic for such recent days. Musically, Don’t Go Back At Ten is one of the album’s highlights, scratchy electric guitars, steady drums and pulsing bass making for a winning backing to Poppy’s creative vocal melodies. Already one of the year’s break-out indie-pop acts, Girl Ray are showing no sign of slowing down anytime soon.
The official video for Girl Ray’s ‘Don’t Go Back at Ten’ which features on their debut album ‘Earl Grey’, out now on Moshi Moshi Records:
Garage rock super group The Surfing Magazines share “New Day” , Comprised of one half of Slow Club and two thirds of Wave Pictures, The Surfing Magazines are already garage rock royalty.
Drawing influences from ‘60s surf music and taking inspiration from greats like Dylan and Reed, the band are on a war path to destroy today’s bongo pop demigods and pretentious prog-indie-rock millionaires.
Speaking more on the track the band say: “New Day’ is a super quick tune. I’m not totally sure what its about. There’s some Russian dolls in there, a birthday clown, and apparently I want to throw all my clothes away”.
The Surfing Magazines are a new supergroup featuring Charles Watson from Slow Club, David Tattersall & Franic Rozycki from The Wave Pictures and Dominic Brider. the band have also announced their debut festival appearance at End of the Road Festival this summer,
“New Day” out now via Moshi Moshi Records.
Lines and Shadows by The Surfing Magazines is taken from their debut self-titled album out on 1st September:
The Fat Angel Sings 