British trio Our Girl stopped by Paste’s Atlanta Studio to perform songs from their debut album “Stranger Today”, out now via Cannibal Hymns. Paste included Stranger Today in our list of 10 Great Albums You Might’ve Missed in 2018, and we also premiered their “Being Around” music video.
Our Girl are currently touring the U.S. with The Japanese House, and they popped into our Atlanta HQ to perform three songs: “I Really Like It,” “In My Head” and “Two Life.” Lead vocalist and songwriter Soph Nathan also discussed the origins of the band and filming their video for “I Really Like It” in her living room. Completed by drummer Lauren Wilson and bassist Josh Tyler, Our Girl’s tender lyrics and steamy guitar squalls are an incredibly effective paradox.
Setlist : “I Really Like It,” “In My Head” and “Two Life.”
Our Girl inhabit a space bigger than the first loves, sleepless nights and growing pains that define Stranger Today. Don’t miss this very special debut. For fans of The Big Moon, Lush and The Breeders
Oh Sees – Smote Reverser
Crack the coffers, Oh Sees have spawned another frothy album of head-destroying psych-epics to grok and rock out to. Notice the fresh dollop of organ and keyboard prowess courtesy of Memory Of A Cut Off Head–alum and noted key-stabber Tom Dolas, while the Paul Quattrone / Dan Rincon drum-corps polyrhythmic pulse continues to astound and pound in equal measure, buttressed by the nimble fingered bottom end of Sir Tim Hellman the Brave and the shred-heaven fret frying of John Dwyer, whilst Lady Brigid Dawson again graces the wax with her harmonic gifts. Aside from the familiar psych-scorch familiar to soggy pit denizens the world over, there’s a fresh heavy-prog vibe that fits like a worn-in jean jacket comfortably among hairpin metal turns and the familiar but no less horns-worthy guitar fireworks Dwyer’s made his calling card. Perhaps the most notable thing about SmoteDestroyer is the artistic restlessness underpinning its flights of fancy. Dwyer refuses to repeat himself and for someone with such a hectic release schedule, that stretching of aesthetic borders and omnivorous appetite seems all the more superhuman!
Mitski – Be The Cowboy
Hailed as the new vanguard of indie rock following the breakout success of 2016’s Puberty 2, Mitski returns with Be The Cowboy via Dead Oceans Records.
Mitski’s carefully crafted songs have often been portrayed as emotionally raw, overflowing confessionals from a fevered chosen girl, but in her fifth album, Mitski introduces a persona who has been teased before but never so fully present until now—a woman in control. “For this new record, I experimented in narrative and fiction,” comments Mitski. Though she hesitates to go so far as to say she created full-on characters, she reveals she had in mind “a very controlled icy repressed woman who is starting to unravel. Because women have so little power and showing emotion is seen as weakness, this ‘character’ clings to any amount of control she can get. Still, there is something very primordial in her that is trying to find a way to get out.”
Throughout the 14 songs, the music swerves from the cheerful to the plaintive. Mournful piano ballads lead into deceptively uptempo songs. “I had been on the road for a long time, which is so isolating, and had to run my own business at the same time. A lot of this record was me not having any feelings, being completely spent but then trying to rally myself and wake up and get back to Mitski.”
Mikey Collins – Hoick
Hoick is the solo album from Allo Darlin’drummer Mikey Collins, who combines his love of solid grooves and joyous harmonies to create a fun and sonically varied record. Mikey played most of the instruments and mixed the record himself, with some assistance from Laura Kovic (Tigercats) on vocals and fellow Allo Darlin’ member Paul Rains on lead guitar. The flicker of his previous band provided the building blocks of an upbeat, positive record, but Mikey wanted to add his own quirky, disco spin and sonic expansiveness. The aim to make a record that people stood a chance of being able to dance to. Mikey draws on influences as far flung as Dexy’s, Bruce Springsteen, Night Works, Matthew E White and Father John Misty. Mikey began working on the album while he was in Allo Darlin’. The last few years were a conveyor belt of change as he; got married, had a child, bought a house, moved from London to be by the Kent coast and opened a residential studio Big Jelly Studios (Girl Ray, Metronomy, Pete Doherty, Mt Wolf, Seamus Fogarty and Elva). In short, he grew up. The record journeys through these changes but has its roots firmly grounded in his new seaside habitat.
Slaves – Acts Of Fear And Love
Slaves release their third album Acts of Fearand Love via Virgin EMI/AMF Records. The band’s third album reflects that fear and love may actually be the biggest motivators in the world at the moment. Working with previous collaborator, producer Jolyon Thomas (Royal Blood, U2) in Brussels, the band opened themselves up to a new sonic territory. Not concerning themselves with other people’s expectations of what a Slaves album should sound like the band have experimented with their style, without any boundaries; embracing pop song writing and tender moments alongside the more traditional hardcore riffs and scream-along choruses. Standouts include the joyous thrash of Bugs, the sprawling and tense title track and the Blur mixed with Weezer esque banger Chokehold.
Anna Meredith – Anno
Anna Meredith releases Anno, a boundary-pushing collaboration with the Scottish Ensemble, in which original pieces of work by the classical-electronic composer are intertwined with Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. Released via Moshi Moshi, the project began as an immersive 360 degree live experience but is now available on double vinyl and CD. After a recording process using the unusual ‘binaural recording head’ the project will also be available in an exclusive binaural recording – allowing the listener to experience the unique spatial aspects of the piece through headphones.
Follakzoid – London Sessions with J Spaceman
It should come as no surprise to fans of the Chilean trio Follakzoid that upon meeting the legendary Jason PierceAKA J. Spaceman (Spacemen 3, Spiritualized), they discovered they were kindred spirits. Follakzoid and Spaceman’s projects share a restless drive to explore the outer limits of music, as well as an uncanny ability to lock into a groove until it infiltrates the deepest recesses of the listener’s psyche. When Follakzoid met Spaceman backstage at a Wooden Shjips gig at London’s Electric Ballroom several years ago, they instantly became friends. For London Sessions, the Chileans and Spaceman joined forces for new, live-to-tape renditions of Electricand Earth, two highlights from Föllakzoid’s III. The recordings were made in a private studio in London while Follakzoid was on tour in Europe in June 2016, and Spaceman’s contributions breathe new life into the songs. “Jason added a very different harmonic atmosphere to the songs,” guitarist Domingo Garcia-Huidobro explained. “It somehow rearticulated the space and metric that already existed in a way the band never could. These new versions have a different edge.”
The Myrrors – Borderlands
If you see The Myrrors as the dust-caked disciples of a specific strain of desert-drone mysticism, theres little on Borderlands, their fourth full-length Myrrors album released in as many years, to dissuade you from that vision. Theres only confirmation an intoxicating combination of outlook and output that clarifies and crystallizes the bands many sonic strengths throughout the albums fantastically unfolding forty-plus minutes. From the beginning, with an appropriately Albert Ayler-ish blast of Awakening, to the epic 20-minute B-sidelong excursion, Note From the Underground, the beating heart of The Myrrors current statement. Borderlands will be extremely satisfying to otherworldly music seekers who find aural transcendence through the works of artists such as International Harvester, Taj Mahal Travellers, Trad Gras och Stenar, Kikagaku Moyo, Amon Duul, and Agitation Free, to name a few.
We’ve known that something special happens when these three get together ever since we first laid ears on their early, startlingly noisy live shows. that surprising volume still explodes at times here, for this is a band still in thrall to the racket that stirs when they lock horns. it makes for a thrilling and gorgeous ride through a set of songs with heft, hooks, and heart. “a blissful, dreamy haze that you’ll want to relive again and again.” overcast, shoegaze-indebted indie that whips and swirls with uncompromising force.” – nme.com
At first, it’s difficult to pinpoint exactly what makes Our Girl so special, or why the Brighton-formed, London-based trio’s music stands out within a busy crowd of fellow guitar-wielding-types. but if an explanation didn’t jump out when they first emerged with a debut ep of mighty fuzz-soaked songs in november 2016, it surfaces with ‘Stranger Today’, a debut album of personal, emotional juggernauts that could have only been made by these three people: guitarist / vocalist Soph Nathan, bassist Josh Tyler and drummer Lauren Wilson.
Since forming in Nathan and Tyler’s Brighton home four years ago – Wilson joining as a late recruit when she was wowed by a demo of their self-titled debut track, and ‘Stranger Today’’s opener – Our Girl’s members have only had pockets of time to work together. a day booked in a local studio here, a soundcheck there, full-time jobs and other projects meant the three rarely had a concentrated, collective patch. this changed in september 2017, when they stayed in eve studios in Stockport for a week, recording with Bill Ryder-Jones. their week in Stockport became a crucial catalyst for what would follow. Ryder-Jones is a guitar virtuoso himself (“he did stuff neither me or Soph had ever seen anyone do before,” Tyler remarks), and he became an unofficial fourth member of the group.
‘Stranger Today’ is a special debut for several reasons: first, because it’s the sound of a band beginning to grasp their own value and place in the world. secondly, because you can hear the trio’s hunger to finally get in the same room and put to tape years’ worth of scrapbooks, half-finished ideas, and a slowly-forming feel for how their first album would actually sound. “what band isn’t itching to make their debut? but it’s quite frightening, knowing you’re about to do it,” Wilson remembers.
The real clincher, however, is Our Girl’s dynamic, and how it plays out across ‘Stranger Today’. Best friends in person, the trio share the same close kinship and chemistry on record. on one side is Nathan’s visceral lyricism, which has a habit of detailing and chipping away at precise moments; the first heart-flutter of a new crush; the moment a long-term friendship begins to ebb away. around her, Tyler and Wilson’s rhythm section carefully mirrors each feeling Nathan conveys. when she sings pointedly about love (‘i really like it’), she’s backed by a major-key afterglow. when the subject turns on its head (‘Josephine’), out steps a wall of taut, earth-shaking noise. they each “serve the song,” in Wilson’s words, moving in sync but with their own personal slant. not least on the closer ‘boring’, where all restraint is thrown aside and the trio let out one final, violent thrash. they inhabit a space bigger than the first loves, sleepless nights and growing pains that define this record.
Nathan remembers being in Brighton four years ago, shortly after Our Girl formed, and realising, “i was finally in the band I wanted to be in.” almost half a decade later, and this eureka moment is sewn up on ‘Stranger Today’. it’s the sound of three friends totally at ease in their own space, discontent with being anywhere else; a vibrant document of what it’s like to be young, invigorated and amongst people who feel the same.
Ahead of the release of their debut album, Our Girl’s Sophie kindly opened up for the first time about the inspirations, laughs and loves behind Stranger Today.
Our Girl
Our Girl was the first song I ever wrote, the first song we played as a band and the first demo we ever recorded! We recorded it in Brighton with our friends Gus and Kris who play in The Magic Gang. I was quite nervous to hear it after we’d tracked it, and I remember standing in the corridor listening to it play back for the first time, through the wall. I got a twist of excitement in my stomach, and also of relief that I thought it sounded okay. I really wanted to make music, and I’d never heard a song I’d written recorded before so it felt exciting.
Being Around
Being Around’s a super fun song to play, it always loosens us up/eases us into a set. We had 12 days to record the album, in a beautiful studio called Eve Studios just outside of Manchester. It was amazing, but quite daunting knowing we had so much ahead of us to do, so we started with Being Around to ease us in. Nearer to the end of the studio time when we were adding backing vocals, we all lost the plot a bit and Lauren kept singing ‘being a ram’ instead of being around. Try singing that along to the song, it makes it a lot more fun.
In My Head
This song feels a bit different to the rest of the record. It’s a bit less guitar based – the bass and drums are driving the song the whole way and I feel like the vocals and guitar almost sit on top. It feels good to play! We struggled to finish it and so stopped playing it for ages until one day about a year later, we were in a sound check in Leeds supporting The Japanese House, and we just started playing it without thinking and it finally felt right! It’s been like that ever since. It’s my favourite to play live now!
I Really Like It
This is a happy one! It’s about my girlfriend – I wrote part of it when we were just friends, and part of it after we got together. When I first played it to Josh and Lauren, we all got weirdly teary, and I remember Loz saying that she could tell it was really important for me to write. I think it was! It felt kind of necessary, and really fulfilling and nice to create.
Josephine
We had a good time recording this one. It’s got a long instrumental section at the end of it that we played round in the live room for ages, thinking we’d just fade it out or cut it off early or something. But Bill (Bill Ryder-Jones who produced the record) then played loads of amazing guitar over the top of it, so we kept the whole thing and just kept layering and layering. We love what he did, it’s now our favourite part of the record! It ends with this distortiony explosion noise which Lauren said reminds her of the general feel of being in the studio. Bill and I messed around with a lot of feedback and strange noises, which buried into a song can work super well, but out of context sounds a bit mad. The guitar amps were in a room below the bedrooms, and they were incredibly loud so if you went to bed early, and we stayed up deliriously making noise, then that’s all you could hear for hours reverberating up the stairs, and out of context it sounded pretty creepy.
Two Life
Two Life has a big noisey outro which we made up in our second ever practice together. I made up the rest of the guitar and vocals on my own in my house in Brighton a few months before, so it was nice for the exciting instrumental part of the song to come together the three of us, almost separate to the rest of it! It sort of took on a new life that way. Bill added some sweet noisey sounds on this one too, mainly created by rubbing a screwdriver on the guitar strings, running through a load of distortion.
Level
Level is one of the oldest songs on the record. I wrote it after an important relationship in my life ended. That change informed a lot of the songs on the record actually. I lived in a big house in Brighton opposite a park called the level, and we had a basement that we called the dungeon because it was so dingy and dark down there. It was great though, we had a kit and a bunch of amps set up, so it was amazing to be able to rehearse and write in there! Most of the people in our house played music so there was almost always some sort of noise coming through the floorboards. I was studying at the time and I remember working in the living room, and running downstairs to the dungeon whenever I had an idea for a song. Level was too scary to play loud when people were in the house though, so I’d wait until everyone had gone out and then play super loud round and round until it became what it is. This song means a lot to me, and it’s one of those ones we never have to practice or think about if we haven’t played it for a while, it just comes very naturally.
Sub Rosa
This song was written not long after Level. It came out in one go one night! Most of the songs on this record were written at night, it’s a good time to make things up; everything just feels so still and quiet. When we recorded SubRosa in the studio, we started with the guitar and vocals live first, and then we added the other instruments. I was exhausted and it was late when I recorded it, which I think suited the song a lot. It also meant that because I was just playing without too much thinking, the song pushes and pulls quite a lot. There are pauses that aren’t necessarily planned or in time, but I remember Josh recorded the bass over it in one go, and got it completely bang on and everyone in the control room went ‘weyooo!!’ at him being a one take wonder. Luckily he couldn’t hear us so I don’t think we put him off.
I Wish It Was Sunday
I Wish It Was Sunday is a real mixed bag of emotions. The title came from the feeling of just needing more down time, and wanting to pause everything that was going on around me and have time to relax and be happy. I was going away a lot around the time I wrote that, lots of things had changed in my life, and I was in a new relationship that I just wanted to be wrapped up in all the time.
Heat
This song’s about feeling panicked but trying to stay calm and focused. I feel like that feeling can come in waves – it feels hot and scary and you feel like you can’t get away from it. I’d never had it before this point and it was quite overwhelming. We recorded the song super late one night, and I remember playing and singing in the little booth next to the control room where everyone was sitting (probably falling asleep), and it was dark and the atmosphere was totally right for the song, but I kept messing up! Bill came in and told a really crude joke, which totally loosened me up, and I think we ended up keeping the take I’d done just after that.
Boring
Boring was the first Our Girl song Josh and I ever played together! I remember we were in the dungeon one day figuring out an Anna Calvi song together, and then we decided to try Boring. Josh started by making up the bass line in the second verse, which is so melodic and lovely. Soon after that, we met Lauren and started practicing, and she made this awesome tribal sounding beat for the instrumental at the end. I remember being a bit surprised by it and Loz was like ‘trust me, it’s gunna be good’. And I love it so much now! People often say it’s their favourite bit of the song. Because of that instrumental, it’s a super fun song to end the set with. We’ve always ended it that way, we tried once or twice to end with another song and it felt really wrong! So it was a natural choice to have this song close the record.
This noisy 3-piece dream-pop unit are our faves, and here we *finally* have their massive signature tune on a piece of wax.
Think Breeders, Beach House, and Pinkshinyultrablast. the eponymously titled song is backed here by “Sleeper” on the flip, making for a great (and limited) single.
The Brighton trio bring us the dreamy delicacy of Beach House and noisy shoegaze eruptions of 90s shoegaze on their second release, reminding us again that they are ‘the little band that could’.
Soph Nathan’s personal lyrics float in a delicious array of sounds: rhythmic drum and guitar hooks make dynamic jumps to thick garage-rock riffs, then suddenly cut to beautiful, intimate moments of lone guitar and reverb-hugged vocals. a great 12”. “… they’re only set to make more waves still beyond brighton’s pebbly beaches” – diy
Emerging from the thriving Brighton scene that includes the magic gang, theo verney & abbatoir blues, this superb band are capable of switching from stark tenderness to pulverising noise in a flash.
singer/guitarist Soph Nathan’s honest, personal lyrics float in a delicious array of sounds: rhythmic drum and guitar hooks make dynamic jumps to thick garage-rock riffs, then suddenly cut to beautiful, intimate moments of lone guitar and reverb-hugged vocals. the trio played at our record store day 2014 spectrum event & blew us away. if you’re a fan of honey blood or nadine shah, you definitely need to check this lot out.
Brighton, U.K. trio Our Girl’s debut album Stranger Today is the perfect gift for the listener that loves a good musical dichotomy. Fronted by The Big Moon’s Soph Nathan, the band exudes the sweet and tender meets heavy and formidable sound of groups like the Pixies and My Bloody Valentine with their cathartic, thoughtful pop/rock and distorted shoegaze and grunge. As much as the term “grunge” has been thrown around to describe the band, it doesn’t fully account for the beauty and richness of Nathan’s songs and guitar playing.
In 2006, Michael Gondry released the surrealist science fantasy comedy The Silence of Sleep, apparently based on a bed-time story written by a 10-year-old. Centered around the story of a man who’s dreams and imagination begin to infiltrate his reality, it’s also inspired the latest video from melodic rock band Our Girl.
Made up of Soph Nathan, Josh Tyler and Lauren Wilson, the three-piece have been tipped for greatness left, right and centre. Now with their eagerly awaited debut album Stranger Today set to wow us on 17th August, they’re giving us a little taste of the magic to come with new track “In My Head”. Born during a time of big personal change in Nathan’s life, the accompanying video – released today! – channels the lyrics which “toe the line between the reality of the situation, vs the alternate version in your head, of how you wish something could’ve gone.”
Directed by Tayo Kopfer, the video uses stop animation and surreal imagery to explore the difference between reality and dreams in a visually stunning and hypnotic way. As Nathan states, “We took inspiration from a film we love called Science of Sleep, which has a lot of weird and wonderful surreal imagery in it. It uses stop motion and other beautiful and psychedelic techniques to explore the cross over between dreams and reality. We wanted to create a similar world for ‘In My Head’. The song explores the claustrophobia of love and regret, and the lyrics toe the line between the reality of a situation, vs the alternate version in your head, of how you wish something could have gone. It felt natural to us to use stop motion to create that feeling, and Lauren had the idea that our heads could be opening up with all sorts of imagery and thoughts coming out. Tayo took that idea and made something really cool!”
At first, it’s difficult to pinpoint exactly what makes Our Girl so special, or why the Brighton-formed, London-based trio’s music stands out within a busy crowd of fellow guitar-wielding-types. But if an explanation didn’t jump out when they first emerged with a debut EP of mighty fuzz-soaked songs in November 2016, it surfaces with ‘Stranger Today’, a debut album of personal, emotional juggernauts that could have only been made by these three people: Guitarist / vocalist Soph Nathan, bassist Josh Tyler and drummer Lauren Wilson.
This fantastic debut captures this dreampowertrio evolving from startling noisiness to sweet songwriting excellence, we’ve known that something special happens when these three get together ever since we first laid ears on their early, startlingly noisy live shows. that surprising volume still explodes at times here, for this is a band still in thrall to the racket that stirs when they lock horns. it makes for a thrilling and gorgeous ride through a set of songs with heft, hooks, and heart. a blissful, dreamy haze that you’ll want to relive again and again. indie that whips and swirls with uncompromising force.”
Since forming in Nathan and Tyler’sBrighton home four years ago – Wilson joining as a late recruit when she was wowed by a demo of their self-titled debut track, and ‘Stranger Today’’s opener – Our Girl’s members have only had pockets of time to work together. A day booked in a local studio here, a soundcheck there, full-time jobs and other projects meant the three rarely had a concentrated, collective patch. This changed in September 2017, when they stayed in Eve Studios in Stockport for a week, recording with Bill Ryder-Jones. Their week in Stockport became a crucial catalyst for what would follow. Ryder-Jones is a guitar virtuoso himself (“He did stuff neither me or Soph had ever seen anyone do before,” Tyler remarks), and he became an unofficial fourth member of the group.
‘Stranger Today’ is a special debut for several reasons: First, because it’s the sound of a band beginning to grasp their own value and place in the world. Secondly, because you can hear the trio’s hunger to finally get in the same room and put to tape years’ worth of scrapbooks, half-finished ideas, and a slowly-forming feel for how their first album would actually sound. “What band isn’t itching to make their debut? But it’s quite frightening, knowing you’re about to do it,” Wilson remembers.
The real clincher, however, is Our Girl’s dynamic, and how it plays out across ‘Stranger Today’. Best friends in person, the trio share the same close kinship and chemistry on record. On one side is Nathan’s visceral lyricism, which has a habit of detailing and chipping away at precise moments; the first heart-flutter of a new crush; the moment a long-term friendship begins to ebb away. Around her, Tyler and Wilson’s rhythm section carefully mirrors each feeling Nathan conveys. When she sings pointedly about love (‘I Really Like It’), she’s backed by a major-key afterglow. When the subject turns on its head (‘Josephine’), out steps a wall of taut, earth-shaking noise. They each “serve the song,” in Wilson’s words, moving in sync but with their own personal slant. Not least on the closer ‘Boring’, where all restraint is thrown aside and the trio let out one final, violent thrash. They inhabit a space bigger than the first loves, sleepless nights and growing pains that define this record.
Nathan remembers being in Brighton four years ago, shortly after Our Girl formed, and realising, “I was finally in the band I wanted to be in.” Almost half a decade later, and this eureka moment is sewn up on ‘Stranger Today’. It’s the sound of three friends totally at ease in their own space, discontent with being anywhere else; a vibrant document of what it’s like to be young, invigorated and amongst people who feel the same.
Rising London-based three-piece Our Girl have shared new single ‘I Really Like It’.
It’s been a busy few months for the band, touring with Pale Waves, The Magic Gang, and more. ‘I Really Like It’ contains their precocious live energy, a raw recording that allows their heartfelt songwriting to rise unhindered to the surface. That nagging chorus will stay lodged in your cranium for days – it’s aptly named, for sure. Singer Soph Nathan explains:
“It’s one of our newest songs. I was initially quite nervous to share it because it feels quite different to the others. I’d never written about love in this way before. It has the inevitable moments of craziness and longing that can come with falling in love, but mainly it’s just a really happy song.”
Our Girl have shared their self-titled single, which you guessed it is titled ‘Our Girl’, which carries on the theme of self-titled releases and is the Brighton trio’s first release since their self-titled debut EP dropped last November.
The new single is produced by former The Coral member Bill Ryder-Jones who brings over the fuzzy hooks which were plentiful on the Merseyside man’s last record West Kirby County Primary which shine through on ‘Our Girl’.
Soph Nathan guitarist vocalist from the band said more about the song, she said: “Our Girl was the first song I ever wrote, the first song we played together, and the first demo we ever recorded and shared with people. We ended up naming the band after it! So this song feels like the perfect re-introduction to everything we’ve got coming.”
It’s a busy old time for the Brighton band at the minute, as they are currently touring the UK as part of Class Of tour alongside Pale Waves and Bloxx then they will be heading stateside to perform at SXSW. Following this, they will then be supporting The Magic Gang on their upcoming tour and have their own headline show at London’s Moth Club on 22nd May.
Our Girl Tour Dates
Feb 20 Boileroom Guildford, UK
Feb 22 Storey’s Field Centre Cambridge, UK
Feb 23 Westgarth Social Club Middlesbrough, UK
Feb 24 Studio 2 Parr Street Liverpool, UK
Feb 26 The Cellar Oxford, UK
Feb 27 The Cookie Leicester, UK
Feb 28 Chapel Leeds, UK
Mar 01 The Sugarmill Stoke On Trent, UK
Mar 02 O2 Academy 3 Birmingham Birmingham, UK
Mar 04 King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut Glasgow, UK
Mar 05 The Leadmill Sheffield, UK
Mar 06 Manchester Gorilla Manchester, UK
Mar 07 The Garage London, UK
Mar 08 Thekla Bristol, UK
Mar 12 The British Music Embassy Austin, TX
Mar 19 St Pancras Old Church London, UK
Mar 22 O2 Institute2 Birmingham Digbeth, UK
Mar 23 Manchester Academy 2 Manchester, UK
Mar 24 The Church Leeds, UK
Mar 27 Thekla Bristol, UK
Mar 28 Electric Ballroom London, UK
May 05 Leeds City Centre Leeds, UK
May 22 Moth Club London, UK
The Normally EP, the follow up to their debut single Sleeper, was recorded in the Summer in one day with Steve Ansell of Blood Red Shoes.
“Lots of the songs are about emotional distance – not knowing what someone else is thinking, and how that can make you feel crazy. It can cloud my judgment to the point that shrugging it off as indifference is the easiest thing to do. Although it still reflects those feelings of self-doubt, Being Around is probably the most hopeful song on the EP. It focuses on the positivity in the relationships I have, and the gratitude and care I have towards those people for being who they are, and being there for me in the way they are,” explains frontwoman and guitarist Soph Nathan.
Nathan’s honest and personal lyrics float in a delicious array of sounds: rhythmic drum and guitar hooks make dynamic jumps to thick garage-rock riffs, then suddenly cut to beautiful, intimate moments of lone guitar and reverb-hugged vocals. You’d think Soph Nathan in particular might struggle to fit in allocated hours for napping these days; besides maintaining an outstandingly colourful shirt collection, and shredding guitars for The Big Moon, she also fronts ace trio Our Girl. Signed to Cannibal Hymns – the same Brighton label backing the likes of Dream Wife, Abattoir Blues, and Tigercub – the band specialise in inward-looking, complex meshes of haze. Our Girl’s latest, Being Around is their most ambitious yet. Our Girl have shared the stage with the likes of Sunflower Bean, The Wytches, and Dream Wife and head out in support of The Japanese House later this year.
Rough Trade Counter Culture 12 Inch Volume 1 (Sad Fuzz – Ty Segall Cover)
We are excited to announce the first in our new series of Counter Culture 12 inches. The concept is the same as our yearly Counter Culture compilations, however we aim to give you a taste of what we’re loving throughout the year, rather than just annually. Volume 1 features 4 female fronted bands that we LOVE. Includedis the Our Girl track with a Ty Segall cover. They take Sad Fuzz and give it a neat lo-fi reworking and make it sound like a female fronted version of the Libertines. This is limited to just 500 copies worldwide. Pressed on solid white vinyl.
Includes unlimited streaming of Rough Trade Counter Culture 12 Inch Volume 1 (Sad Fuzz – Ty Segall Cover)
Brighton trio Our Girl have been among bands to watch especially as Soph Nathan doubles as guitarist in the Big Moon. Live, the three-piece are a blizzard of energy and ideas, with those ideas gradually coming into clearer and clearer contrast. Their new EP ‘Normally’ was recorded over the course of just one day this summer, with the session being overseen by Steve Ansell of Blood Red Shoes.
Its a righteous four-tracker, to be released on November 18th via Cannibal Hymns and it seems to nail some indefinable sense of atmosphere. The video for languid slacker jam ‘No Big Deal’, with its hazy melancholia being contrasted with some underwater visuals. Our Girl’s Soph Nathan explains:
“We wanted to film the video to ‘No Big Deal’ under water to reflect the erratic nature of the song: the sense of not being able to breathe or move as quickly as you need to, like in a bad dream where you can’t get away from something that’s chasing you. We liked the idea that under water there’s a fine line between that kind of claustrophobia and complete tranquillity. You can also create an immense sense of calm under water – the sound of silence when you’re floating, weightless. It’s this sense of volatility that we thought would suit the feeling of the song so well.”
The Fat Angel Sings 