Scuzz Sundays: Hard Fi – ‘Hard To Beat’

April 17, 2022 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘Stars Of CCTV’ (LP) (Released on July 4th, 2005) (via Necessary Records)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and I’m wishing you a good Easter Sunday with my latest installment of ‘Scuzz Sundays’ on the blog, given how it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! To be 100% transparent, I barely thought about ‘Easter’ this year and since ‘Easter Music’ isn’t really a thing, and it is not inclusive for all cultures and relgions anyway, I thought that I’d simply cover a band who have been in the news lately this week. The band in question is Hard-Fi, who released three albums between the years of 2004 and 2011 which all did decent business, spawning well-remembered hit singles like ‘Cash Machine’ and ‘Living For The Weekend’ in the process, before going on hiatus in 2014. The band received one Mercury Prize and two BRIT Awards nominations for their work, as well as a #1 album in 2007 and a 2x platinum certification for the sales of their debut album. They also dipped their toes into podcasting with their series ‘Hard-Fi: Rockin’ The City’ that was widely available in 2007 and even got nominated for ‘Best Podcast’ at the Digital Music Awards that year. I think that ‘Hard To Beat’ must be their best-known single as it did the rounds on the soundtracks of ‘FIFA 06’ and ‘MLB 06: The Show’ shortly following release and it reached #9 on the UK Singles Chart as well as #34 on the Billboard Hot Modern Rock Tracks Chart in the US too. If you’ve been following Hard Fi-related news lately – and you would be forgiven if you haven’t honestly due to them not being around for such a long time – they have been teasing a rare fifteenth anniversary show for ‘Stars Of CCTV’ with posters spotted on the London Underground that features a date pointing to a gig in mid-October. Just don’t shout ‘Hard-Fi’ if you see it next to your fellow passengers because they would probably take you for some kind of a mental lunatic. Let’s revisit ‘Hard To Beat’ below.

A series of social media posts relating to ‘Stars Of CCTV’ have been posted gradually by Hard-Fi elsewhere and they have not performed live together since 2014. In April 2020, Richard Archer – the frontman of the Staines-Upon-Thames formed indie rock outfit – told NME that Hard-Fi were considering a return to the stage to mark their unforgotten first album’s 15-year milestone, saying, “That album has defined people’s lives and when they were growing up. We’ll definitely do it at some point, but with new music too so we’re not just trading on past glories”, in an interview. ‘Hard To Beat’ takes obvious cues from Daft Punk’s ironically overplayed 2002 hit track ‘One More Time’ with filtered disco guitar sounds mixing with a more urban twist created by the lightly distorted Synths and Grunge-driven Bass melodies. Lyrics like “You in a short skirt/Shining eyes of deep brown/You had a dirty hook, you caught me on your hook” feel rhythmic and have a catchy twang to them, but the light darkness of the sexually aroused emotions consummates the rather evident marriage between the LCD Soundystem-influenced House genre explorations and the more “ladd-ish” feel of the ruthlessly driving mid-00’s lead guitar riffs. A hint of paranoia comes through, with lyrics like “I said come on, let’s dance/We’ve got to take our chance/You whispered in my ear/You wanna get out of here?” that talk about living in an environment like London, even though the band are much closer to Cornwall. Some obvious shots of Franz Ferdinand and The Clash are in here too, with the danceable Synths drawing out the vocals at the end and gruff Drum melodies riffing against the slightly more expansive electronic effects that create the Disco vibe most vibrantly. There is a light political commentary on surveillance and urban decay within their songwriting in the grander scheme of things beyond ‘Hard To Beat’ as a standalone single, but Archer doesn’t quite have the sharp-pointed vocal dexterity of Maximo Park’s Paul Smith or the socially observational abilities of Arctic Monkeys’ Alex Turner – two comparable indie rock bands that also found fame in a similar timeframe – but there’s an admirable attempt to ground the material in a sense of place that isn’t just tied to London in here, nevertheless. The Disco vibe is damn infectious too, but the lyricism works better when they’re smoothly trying to pick up love interests instead of reciting pains of urban dilapidation. That said, the track is a fun and melodic single that wears it’s influences on it’s sleeves and it simply feels very catchy. It felt a little disposable for the time but, admittedly, it still gets a fair amount of airplay today. It has stood the test of time because it is so memorable and pretty dynamic, if nothing very special. It goes to show that sometimes a simple throwback is, well, hard to beat.

Pictured: Richard Archer (Lead Vocals/Lead Guitar), Kai Stephens (Bass Guitar/Backing Vocals), Steve Kemp (Drums/Backing Vocals) and Ross Phillips (Rhythm Guitar/Synths/Backing Vocals) (2006) (Photo via Getty Images)

Thank you for checking out my latest post because your support is absolutely valued every time, and I will be here kicking off the brand new week’s worth of music posts tomorrow with a review for a recent release by an Atlanta-based Hip-Hop duo who are also founding members of the Spillave Village collective. Their well-received second studio album, ‘Ghetto Gods’, was released in February via Dreamville Records.

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Scuzz Sundays: Foo Fighters – ‘Everlong’

April 3, 2022 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Dave Grohl (Lead Vocals/Rhythm Guitar), Pat Smear (Lead Guitar), Nate Mendel (Bass Guitar), Chris Shiflett (Backing Guitar/Backing Vocals), Rami Jaffee (Piano, Keyboard) and Taylor Hawkins (Drums/Percussion/Occasional Backing Vocals) (in 2017) (Photo Credit: PR/Brantley Guttierez)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and the time has come for me to get writing up for the 968th time (That means we’ll soon be coming up to my 1000th post on the site) for ‘Scuzz Sundays’ with yet another daily track on the blog, because it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! It is always interesting to write about music from a famous band who have an absolutely gigantic fanbase like Foo Fighters, but it’s also very saddening that it’s happened due to some very unfortunate circumstances this time around. In case you’ve been living under a rock for the last two weeks, their beloved drummer Taylor Hawkins has died at the age of 50, and the band have also cancelled their performance at the Grammy Awards and the rest of their tour dates to allow for a time of somber reflection instead. How they move forward as a band is unclear, but what is clear, is the influence and the gifts that Hawkins bought to the world. Hawkins was born in Fort Worth, Texas in 1972 and he attended school with Yes vocalist Jon Davison, who became a close friend of Hawkins, and the two friends graduated from Lagune Beach High School together in 1990. Hawkins went on to play in experimental bands like Sylvia and Sass Jordan on the Orange County rock scene, before he was scouted by Canadian 90’s star Alanis Morissette, and he appeared in a handful of her music videos. Hawkins joined Foo Fighters in 1996, when Dave Grohl fell out with previous drummer William Goldsmith while they were in Seattle to record their second album with Gil Norton as their producer, and Grohl was suprised to learn that he wanted to voluntarily join Foo Fighters because he wanted to be a drummer in a rock band rather than a touring drummer for a solo artist. Hawkins went on to record eight albums with Foo Fighters, as well as pursue many side projects including The Birds Of Satan, Chevy Metal and The Coattail Riders, and he has performed a number of key vocal and songwriting duties as part of Foo Fighters too. ‘Everlong’ is a very important part of the band’s legacy now, and I’ve chosen to cover the track because it was the last song that he had played live with the rest of Foo Fighters in a live performance at the Lollapalooza Festival in Argentina on March 20th, 2022. You can see the live video above or you can remind yourself of the original music video below.

“Our hearts go out to his wife, children and family and we ask that their privacy be treated with the upmost respect in this unimaginably difficult tine”, Foo Fighters share about Hawkins’ death. It is very fitting and poignant how their performance of ‘Everlong’ at Lollapalooza ended, as Hawkins tossed his drum sticks out to the crowd and took a bow with the rest of his band before a hearty embrace with Grohl, and so it is very tragic for us to know what would unfold just five days later now. Commenting on his relationship with Hawkins in an interview with Rolling Stone published last year, Grohl said, “I think Taylor really under-estimates his importance in this band. Maybe because he’s not the original drummer, but, my god, what would we be without Taylor Hawkins? Could you imagine? It would be a completely different thing”, in celebration of his service to the group. A single originally recorded for their second album – ‘The Colour And The Shape’ – in 1997, ‘Everlong’ peaked within the top three of the US Billboard Alternative Songs chart and it was written about Grohl’s romance with Louise Post from the band Veruca Salt. Rather than developing ‘Everlong’ like a Grunge off-shoot as expected by the press, Grohl wanted it to feel more sentimental and incorporate Pop sensibilities into the sound, and he did so with gripping and upbeat lyrics like “Breathe out, so I can breathe you in, Hold you in” and “Come down, and waste away with me, Down with me, slow how you wanted it to be” that encourage intimacy with a special person that hasn’t been experienced for a long while by our narrator, while lyrics in the chorus like “If everything could ever feel this real forever/If anything could ever be this good again” touch upon the realization that you have fallen in love after doubting the fact that you could ever again for a few years prior. The themes are simple, but the music thoroughly conveys the emotional qualities behind the track as the vocals dive between subdued and atmospheric, while the simple chord structure is catchy and the softer parts are calming, while the guitar riff is distinctive enough for the track to feel fresh in it’s heyday and the tones are honest and cheerful without coming across as overly twee or gushy. Overall, it is a natural radio hit and a stadium crowd-pleaser that reminds us all to grasp wonder despite any practical or intellectual concerns and relishing the feeling of joy or harmony without not sentimentally rejecting it. It brings the same sense of happiness that Hawkins clearly brought to this band over the decades that he played with them.

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘The Colour And The Shape’ (LP) (Released on May 20th, 1997) (via Capitol Records)

Given how Foo Fighters are such a beloved band who have left a large blueprint on our culture, it is only natural that we have talked about them in the older posts below.

‘Monkey Wrench’ (1997) – https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2020/10/18/scuzz-sundays-foo-fighters-monkey-wrench/

‘Waiting On A War’ (2021) – https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2021/02/05/new-album-release-friday-foo-fighters-waiting-on-a-war/

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘Medicine At Midnight’ (LP) (Released on February 5, 2021) (via RCA Records)

That’s all for now, and my thoughts and prayers go out to all of Hawkins’ loved ones who have been deeply affected over the past two weeks. Thank you for checking out what I had to share on the site today, and I’ll be back tomorrow to kick off the new week’s worth of regular blog posts with a summer-friendly new single by a Grammy and MOBO awards-nominated London-based Afrobeat duo who pitch their sound as “Jazztronica”, and the title track of their new album was built from a Fela Kuti sample.

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Way Back Wednesdays: Gossip – ‘Standing In The Way Of Control’

March 16, 2022 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Beth Ditto (Vocals/Piano), Nathan Howdeshell (Bass/Keyboard) & Hannah Billie (Drums) (2019) (via PR)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time for us to start spreading the word on the street (or the internet) that there is another daily track on the blog in town as we go retro for ‘Way Back Wednesdays’, because it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! Formerly known as ‘The Gossip’ – Gossip were a Beth Ditto-led punk rock band from Arkansas who were originally active between 1999 and 2016 who were another name in a fairly familiar string of Garage Rock Revival sub-genre bands like The Yeah Yeah Yeah’s and The Hives who were also popular in the contemporary mainstream of the time. Exploring a mixture of indie rock, post-punk revival and dance-rock influences, they gained some breakthrough in radio charts popularity with their 2006 track ‘Standing In The Control’, a glitzy Pop-Punk number that reached the top ten of the UK Singles Chart and it has appeared on decade-end lists like NME’s ‘150 Best Tracks Of The Past 15 Years’ at the #34 rank on the list in 2011 and at #429 on Pitchfork’s ‘Top 500 Greatest Tracks Of The 2000’s’ list in late 2009. It was the lead single of Gossip’s third studio album of the same name released in 2006, which reached #1 on the UK’s Indie Chart and it has reached Gold status in the territory. Produced by Ryan Hadlock and Guy Picciotto, it was Gossip’s first album to feature new drummer Hannah Billie, of Seattle’s Chromatics fame. If you used to watch the British TV drama ‘Skins’ on E4, you would also know the track as it was proclaimed to be the ‘unofficial’ theme track of the programme as it featured heavily in promotional materials and it would be played on the DVD main menu’s of the series’ home release. Let’s remember it below.

The yellow, black and red graffiti-style cover artwork for the physical single release was designed by none other than Kim Gordon, the bassist of Sonic Youth. Meanwhile, the track itself was written as a response to the Federal Marriage Amendment, a highly controversial code of law that would have outlawed gay marriage across the US. With this theme in mind, the impassioned instrumentation and the reasonably soft, yet minimal and pulsating, lead vocals by Beth Ditto hit harder as a battle cry for empowered liberation than anybody who has ever felt constrained or marginalized may have expected from Gossip. Bursting out of the gate energetically with the unforgettable refrain of “Your back’s against the wall/There’s no one home to call/You’re forgetting who to call/You can’t stop crying” that boasts the core sentiment of denying the authorities’ will to make same sex marriage illegal, a process that feels alien today, which paves the way for Billie to hit her metronomic hi-hat snares and four-on-the-floor bass kicks with her ragged Punk-infused Drum parts, while guitarist Brace Paine contributes some vigorous bass lines and high-energy guitar riffs, that chug along to the distortion-drenched production of the thin and treble-enhanced range of melodies, to the equation. Ditto’s vocals earn a distinction among the wealth of other talents in the Garage-Rock revival business of the mid-00’s as they feel rather Bluesy, yet propulsive, with a smoky delivery on mid-chorus hooks like “You’ll live your life/Survive the only way that you know” and a commanding presence above the instrumentation that recalls the vintage Motown acts of the 70’s like Diana Ross and Ann Wilson in her wailing notes and her lengthily sustained filler phrases. The track also fits squarely into the DIY ethics of an underground Punk feminist movement of the 1990’s called the ‘Riot grrrl’ era in the way that Ditto’s band combine Punk music with Politics on this, probably, best-known single from them. ‘Standing In The Way Of Control’ feels like a natural blend between the two styles, and it creates a noticeable Disco edge too, as it feels impossible not to mindlessly nod your head along to the groove. It was unapologetically brash, and Ditto’s band were transformed from a clan of Dance-Punk disruptors to Pop phenomena in the process.

Pictured: Cover Art for ‘Standing In The Way Of Control’ (LP/Album) (Released on January 24th, 2006) (via Back Yard Recordings/Kill Rock Stars)

That brings me to the end of another nostalgic throwback post on One Track At A Time, and I hope that you have a pleasant day, and thank you for showing your support for the site today. I’ll be diverting your attention back to brand new music tomorrow, as we review the latest single by a Grime-meets-Punk duo based in East London who have toured with hardcore rapper Nascar Aloe, supported Gallows at their comeback gig at House Of Vans in 2019 and were featured in a guest appearance on a BBC Radio 1 session by Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes presented by Annie Mac.

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New Album Release Fridays: The Mysterines – ‘Dangerous’

March 11, 2022 — Leave a comment

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke – and this is the time for us to pick up something for the weekend as we take an in-depth preview of one of the weekend’s most noticeably notable new album releases, because it’s always been my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of new music every day! There’s stiff competition from Dirty Projectors and Coco’s Maia Friedman, as well as rock band The Districts, this weekend – but The Mysterines have the vote of ‘Album Of The Week’ from One Track At A Time for this fine Friday of March 11th. A fair share of music publications frequently seem to assume the emerging Alternative Punk 4-piece of The Mysterines are from Liverpool, but they were actually originally formed in Merseyside. Led by vocalist/guitarist Lia Metcalfe, The Mysterines have been gaining fans all over the music and radio industry across the last couple of years and various tracks by them have each received daytime rotational airplay from BBC Radio 6 Music. They have performed at festivals as beloved as 2021’s Sound City Festival, and I’m sure there are some die-hard UK Hard Rock fans who have been desperately awaiting what’s in store for them as ‘Reeling’ – their first full-length album – finally lands on store shelves today. ‘Reeling’ was recorded in sessions that took place throughout 2021, where The Mysterines worked with Catherine Marks (Foals, The Killers, Eliza Shaddad) as their producer. The record will be supported by a string of tour dates in locations like Cambridge, Dublin, Belfast, Glasgow, Leeds and more throughout the spring. Teasing the style and direction of ‘Reeling’ when it was initially announced, Metcalfe said, “It’s a pretty ambiguous title for most people, but for me, ‘Reeling’ sums up every emotion of the album in just one word”, in the band’s press statement. On that strong note, let’s check out the final pre-release single – ‘Dangerous’ – below.

The final advance single to drum up hype for the album, Lia Metcalfe also said in a seperate statement about the visceral Alt-Rock tune, “Dangerous is about those wild cycles that life sometimes traps you in, the ones that seem desirable at first but quickly become very dangerous”, as The Mysterines’ dynamic frontwoman explains, concluding, “Whether it be with people, places, relationships – the hardest part is always letting go”, in her thoughtful and provoking press notes. ‘Dangerous’ gets off to a heated start as a slightly Folk-led opening guitar riff slowly turns sour in tone and becomes more thunderous at a brisker pace, and Metcalfe soon croons refrains like “I was willing and able/But I was caught in your jaws” and you caught me standing on the table/I saw you watching me fall” that invite you into the Post-Punk style of the single with dramatic lyricism that touches on toxicity and cyclical break-up as key themes. For the chorus, the hooks become more melodic and infectiously catchy as the simple refrain of “It’s such a danger/It’s such a dangerous thing” is given an infuriated amount of emotional weight that grinds under the relentlessly electronic-enhanced electric guitar riffs. Metcalfe’s vocal delivery has a noticeably potent and, most crucially, masculine quality to it, with the rest of the band backing up her gently husky voice by driving the beats forwards with a more standard ‘Indie’ formula of punchy guitar riffs and compact drum riffs. It is probably not the heaviest track that The Mysterines will likely present on the new record, but they have a bunch of ears that show a great knack for catchy melodies that interplay between the Pop and Punk elements of the track. ‘Dangerous’ also feels more eclectic than you may assume, given the title of the track on paper, because there’s some Grunge influences that pull from the more bombastic flair of more modern rock bands too. They were clearly influenced by Nirvana and The Strokes, and there’s a nice mixture of slightly different Rock influences being pulled together pretty neatly in ‘Dangerous’. It, perhaps, does feel like a fairly obvious choice for a radio-friendly single to promote the album as I could definitely envision ‘Dangerous’ being played on a daytime BBC Radio 1 programme as equally as on the next FIFA video game soundtrack, and so they do adhere to a more conventional structure and sound on the track more so than other examples of their music, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing as it ensures The Mysterines are keeping their ambitions broad and attaining more reach with their music to entice others to check out the full record, where the more experimental tracks can find a larger audience. There’s also a Brit-Pop styling, especially in the raw vocals and the lightly distorted guitar riffs, that can appeal to older listeners while balancing out their more off-beat tracks naturally too. Overall, The Mysterines seem primed for sturdy success on ‘Dangerous’, a solid single that feels as though it is fairly diversified while giving the more casual fans of their genre some crowd-pleasing riffs.

Pictured: Lia Metcalfe (Lead Vocals/Rhythm Guitar/Keys), George Favager (Bass Guitar/Backing Vocals), Callum Thompson (Lead Guitar/Backing Vocals) and Paul Crilly (Drums/Percussion) (2022) (Photo via WirralGlobe.co.uk)

That leaves me with little else to say other than to thank you kindly for lending a moment of your day to find out what I had to say about The Mysterines today, and I hope that you are looking forwards to their new album as much as most of their devoted fans are. I’ll be back tomorrow on the eve of ‘Scuzz Sundays’ to shine a spotlight on one of the UK’s most lively Grime artists who has just released his new LP ‘Reason To Smile’ via the major label Island Records. He has collaborated with the likes of Mahalia and Swindle, and he has received three nominations at the MOBO Awards. His ’23Winters’ EP reached #3 on the UK Rap & Hip Hop Albums Chart in 2016.

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Today’s Track: Sinead O’Brien – ‘Holy Country’

March 3, 2022 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Sinead O’Brien in a publicity shoot to promote a DIYMag.com feature (2020) (Photo Credit: Louise Mason)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and it is time for you to push your worries aside for a few minutes while we get invested in yet another daily track on the blog, given how it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! I am delighted to write about Sinead O’Brien once again today, who topped my list of ‘The Best EP’s Of 2020’ with her debut extended play ‘Drowning In Blessings’. An incredibly unique talent from Limerick who I describe as the “Post-Punk Poet”, I caught wind of O’Brien when ‘Taking On Time’ was offered for free on KEXP’s ‘Song Of The Day’ podcast in early 2020, a valuable resource when it comes to seeking out and sampling new music. Since then, her star power has risen. She has supported cult artists John Cooper Clarke and The Brian Jonestown Massacre on sold-out theatre shows across the UK and Ireland, she has performed at Eurosonic Festival and SXSW, and she has collaborated with Speedy Wunderground’s Dan Carey (Foals, Black Midi, Squid, Fontaines DC) on singles like ‘Girlkind’ and ‘Kid Stuff’ that she dropped throughout 2021. I’m excited to report that O’Brien has announced that her debut solo full-length album – ‘Time Bend and Break The Bower’ – will release on June 10th via Chess Club Records. Once again co-produced by Carey, the LP’s release has been accompanied by a long string of tour dates across the UK and Ireland for September and October 2022. Irish fans can visit her in Cork, Dublin, Belfast and more – while UK natives can catch her playing at venues in Nottingham, Brighton, Glasgow, Ramsgate, Bristol and more. Once again produced by Carey, her highly-anticipated LP was recorded in South London, and she teases, “The story of the album is built up in layers: One song giving context to the next. I thought about becoming undressed: testing my ideas, my voice. Working myself out across themes of identity, curiosity, creative process. Experimenting with the form and shape of language, using tone and delivery to get to the immediate centre of what I am saying”, Sinead explains in a press release. Let’s give her latest promotional single – ‘Holy Country’ – a listen below.

“The album title ‘Time Bend and Break The Bower’, from the song, ‘Multitudes’, came into my head and made its demands, an idea that pressed on me throughout the record”, Sinead continues to explain about her solo album, concluding, “The clock symbol is enlarged, it looms like a moon over my activity watching, counting me down to zero. Dripping with self-sabotage and the feeling of being chased: it pulls and pushes against the verses which talk of ‘Multitudes’; the things that faithfully come back – the images, the words, creativity. It is creativity itself”, in her expressive press notes. Opening with a sultry acoustic-driven guitar riff akin to the ‘Country’ genre in reference to the track’s title, ‘Holy Country’ finds O’Brien being the architect of vocabulary that makes her really stand out in terms of lyrics, with O’Brien giving us a clear insight into her thought process as sequences like “I stare at the walls when I feel hollow/I stare straight down the hall and I follow the thoughts” swell above a Post-Punk crescendo of sounds that crash, thump and stutter beneath the more abstract, lyrical surface. Her vocal presence is commanding and demanding, as she exclaims the likes of “Take me to the secrets of the Saints” and she points out “The giants of time turning tunes” as she continues to flip the switch, disregarding the warm and folk-ish opening guitar riff at the start in favour of warped synths and rapid percussion that creates a more glitched-out sound. It is very unique and unimitable music from O’Brien once again, although the way that the sharp guitar riffs merge with O’Brien’s more free-form lyricism where she points out mental processes as we traverse her mind isn’t far from the well of Dry Cleaning’s Spoken-sung waxings, but the tone is clearly more serious while retaining an abstract nature. In conclusion, ‘Holy Country’ is another vivid stand-out from Sinead, who continues to convince me that she is one of the most creative human beings on the UK’s live music circuit. A very articulate and talented individual, her album has me hyped to a high amount that is often quite unusual for somebody as obsessive as me who listens to almost anything anyways. It’s shaping up to be a blockbuster and a totally refreshing record.

Pictured: Sinead O’Brien in a PR shot for her ‘Drowning In Blessings’ EP (2020) (Photo via Chess Club Records)

As I have mentioned, Sinead O’Brien has been one of our ‘regulars’ on the blog since I began the project actively in the summer of 2019. If you enjoyed ‘Holy Country’, you can check out some more of her sounds below:

‘Taking On Time’ – https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2020/04/20/todays-track-sinead-o-brien-taking-on-time/

‘Strangers In Danger’ – https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2020/09/03/todays-track-sinead-o-brien-strangers-in-danger/

‘Kid Stuff’ – https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2021/04/15/todays-track-sinead-obrien-kid-stuff/

Pictured: Sinead O’Brien in a press shoot to promote ‘A Thing You Call Joy’ (2019) (Photo Credit: Zac Mahrouche)

That brings us to the end of another day of music coverage on One Track At A Time! Thank you for giving a few minutes of your day to me today, as your support is always highly appreciated, and I will be back tomorrow for another iteration of ‘New Album Release Fridays’. We’ll be previewing the third studio album from a West London-based indie rock singer-songwriter who recently stated “It’s a shame when you’re at a festival, and all you see is white guys” in a very candid interview for The Independent.

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Scuzz Sundays: Boy Kill Boy – ‘Suzie’

February 6, 2022 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘Civilian’ (LP) (Released on May 22nd, 2006) (via Vertigo Records)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time for me to pay another visit to one of Pop-Punk’s ghosts of the past with yet another weekly entry of ‘Scuzz Sundays’ on the daily music blog, given that it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! During the heyday of Scuzz TV, many of the most regularly featured bands were American with stateside favourites like Fall Out Boy, Bowling For Soup and Green Day proving popular with the station’s executives, and so we’re spicing things up by looking at one of the British hopefuls to rival The Killers from the time, but it sadly didn’t quite work out that way for Boy Kill Boy – a Leytonshire native rock band led by Chris Peck, who released two albums before splitting up in 2008, citing a host of issues regarding their label and some disappointing sales for their second LP – 2008’s ‘Stars And The Sea’ – as factors to their downfall. It started out promisingly for them, with the band opening the Radio 1/NME stage at Reading and Leeds Festival in 2005 and headlining NME’s New Bands Tour in 2006, as well as getting lots of support slots for Feeder, Maximo Park, Echo & The Bunnymen, The Cribs, The Automatic, The Charlatans, The Long Blondes and more throughout the UK, US and internationally. Their debut album – 2005’s ‘Civilian’ – also managed to do decent business despite largely ‘meh’ reviews from critics, with the band developing a cult following and it simply went wrong when their label did not see this band as marketable due to their very classically influenced guitar rock sound – according to Peck in subsequent interviews – but they struck a chord with audiences. Boy Kill Boy’s most well-known single is probably ‘Suzie’ as it is also their highest-charting. It reached #17 on the UK Singles Chart, while other singles like ‘Back Again’ and ‘Civil Sin’ also reached the Top 50. The band also performed ‘Suzie’ on an episode of BBC’s ‘Top Of The Pops’ back at the time. Let’s catch up with ‘Suzie’ below.

Lead vocalist Chris Peck started his own solo project when he teased ‘Riversong’ on YouTube in 2011 and keyboardist Peter Carr went on to play the keyboards in the backing band for Marina and The Diamonds in case you were wondering what happened to some of Boy Kill Boy’s line-up. They also reformed for two gigs at Oslo, Hackney, London in November 2016 to sold out sales and critical acclaim, but it’s unclear what has happened to them all outside of those few details. However, ‘Suzie’ represents the band at their peak period, with dimly dressed vocalist Peck squelching “This is not a movie, Things just ain’t the same as your favourite video” after the Synth-led intro that feels like The Killers. The Synths roll along suggestively, while the hyper guitars and drums boast a fast-paced workout with a feel that isn’t entirely commercial because the buoyancy feels quite ramshackle in delivery, and the vocals boast an unpolished sense of agitation, yet there’s some questionable accents put forth by Peck throughout the song when you listen attentively to his half Scottish and half Irish, somewhat laddish, type of croon at close attention. The structure feels catchy, with quick sections like “They said, don’t let me down again” being repeated a few times, as to wind up a live crowd and get them involved with the sing-along nature of the chorus, where Peck screams “Countdown to the disappointment” with a bitterness in his voice that is counteracted by the more blithe instrumentation where the keyboards are engaging and the Synths have a brightness to them. I enjoyed owning the full album for ‘Civlian’ when I was eight or nine years old – possibly younger – and when you listen back, it doesn’t feel outdated by a terrible amount as such. The issue is more that, at some points, you can hear them trying to recycle the laddish tropes of Kaiser Chiefs or The Ordinary Boys, and at some other times, you can hear Peck having a bash at being Maximo Park with his give-and-take live crowd-oriented delivery, and so you end up with something that feels like a re-hash of the tried-and-true tropes of peer groups from (around about) their contemporary time. That said, there’s a charm to the unpolished production with relatable lyrics about dealing with your own pessimistic spirit and how that shapes a relationship within that environment, as we all go through times like Peck’s issues with ‘Suzie’ where we think that things are going to be better than they really turn out to be. Moreover, there’s an anthemic quality to ‘Suzie’ that I feel, if we were living in a different world, could have put them more firmly on the map. As it stands, while some things aren’t quite as good as you remember them, ‘Suzie’ was certainly not a failure. It was just oddly sweet in knowingly fulfilling the London fashionista trends of 00’s ‘Indie landfill’ as the critics call it, rather than setting the world of guitar-driven rock alight for an extended period of time outside of initial success. It was only a slight disappointment.

Pictured: Chris Peck (Lead Vocals/Lead Guitar/Rhythm Guitar), Kevin Chase (Bass Guitar/Backing Vocals), Peter Carr (Keyboards/Synths/Backing Vocals) and Shaz Mahmood (Drums/Percussion) (2006) (Photo Credit: NME.com)

That’s all for now! Thank you for giving me a moment of your attention today, and I’ll be back tomorrow to kick off a new week’s worth of hyper-active blog posts, in daily succession, with a recent single by a non-binary rapper/producer from Philadelphia, Pensylvania who has been a member of Liberal Art, Third Eye Optiks and Indigold. They released their third studio LP, ‘CANDID’, on Les Fleurs Records last Wednesday.

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Today’s Track: Placebo – ‘Surrounded By Spies’

January 22, 2022 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Cover Art for ‘Never Let Me Go’ (LP) (Available from March 25th, 2022) (via Rise Records/Elevator Lady)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and it is time for me to bring you some company for this barren January wasteland with yet another daily track on the blog, given that it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! A high-profile act formed in 90’s London who became widely praised for their androgynous appearances in their music and the media with lyrics that openly discussed taboo topics of the time like drug abuse, mental health and sexuality, it feels fitting that there is once again a gap in the market for Placebo, a London-based alternative rock/grunge band who have sold over 11 million records worldwide, to shed their skin. In their earlier years, Placebo collaborated with prolific names like David Bowie and Michael Stipe and, to date, each of the seven studio albums they have released have all reached the Top 20 of the UK Album Charts. Anybody who grew up in the late-90’s may recall the divisive single ‘Nancy Boy’ that was famous for it’s genre-blurring content. It has been 9 years since 2013’s ‘Loud Like Love’ was released, but the now-duo of vocalist-guitarist Brian Molko and bassist-guitarist Stefan Olsdal are about to follow that LP up with another – ‘Never Let Me Go’ – which arrives on March 25th via Rise Records and Elevator Lady. Following the first comeback single – ‘Beautiful James’ – the more recent track of ‘Surrounded By Spies’ was created using William S. Burroughs’ cut-up technique. Molko says that he used shredded pieces of written words to rearrange into a new text to piece together the track that lyrically envisions a society where every camera is fixated on the fictional narrator, forming a wise commentary on CCTV surveillance. Let’s give it a spin below.

“I began writing the lyrics when I discovered my neighbours were spying on me on behalf of parties with a nefarious agenda”, Molko explains about the source of the inspiration for his production techniques and the music video in a press release, later writing, “It’s a true story told through a lens of paranoia, complete disgust for modern society’s values and the deification of surveillance capitalism. The narrator is at the end of their tether, hopeless and afraid, completely at odds with our newfound progress and the god of money”, to his text description. The most die-hard of Placebo’s fans have noted how the music video has a few similarities with that of 2013’s ‘The Bitter End’, and the audio experience of ‘Surrounded By Spies’ similarly does not pull any punches as Molko charismatically repeats hooks like “The search for meaning is killing me” and “Dead fly on the national anthem” with a dark-natured heart over the top of some harsh instrumentation. While ‘Beautiful James’ – the preceding single – buzzed with some light-hearted Synths, ‘Surrounded By Spies’ feels starker and more brutal in contrast. The building guitar riffs are a subtle slow-burn, as Molko buckles under the weight of a lack of public privacy with blunt lyrics like “I saw you jump from a burning building” and “I’ve seen you move like Elvis set on fire” that conjure up some gothic rock-based imagery. The vocal delivery has a gentle air of Spoken word about it, as Molko recites a collage of dark-pop lyrics that touch upon paranoia and consent as key themes, with the half-way refrain of “I gave my heart, now I want it back” forming a key moment of soul for the song. It starts off with a backdrop of ethereal Organ chimes aided by fragmented percussion as the tension builds within the soundscape and the titular hook of “I am surrounded by spies” grows the intensity of the sound before an eventual payoff. The deft lyrical delivery portrays a claustrophobic mood in effective ways where the quiet-and-loud pace of the fluctuating sounds connects with the wry refrains throughout the track as the walls fittingly close in on the central character. It doesn’t really fit the feel-good direction of most late-90’s Pop Punk acts and so it subverts my expectations in a moving way, and the darkened Synth riffs relate to the sharp qualities of the songwriting nicely. All-around, it is a neat and cohesive package that continues to make Placebo feel like a band with a definite edgy sensibility to them. The vocals sound a little disorienting in the mix, but to be honest, I enjoyed how ‘Surrounded By Spies’ feels candid and casual instead of over-produced in any way. A poetic piece that feels dark while moving towards realism, this is a still strong offering by Placebo.

Pictured: Brian Molko (Lead Vocals/Lead Guitar/Keyboard/Percussion), Stefan Olsdal (Bass Guitar/Piano/Backing Vocals) and Steve Forrest (Drums/Percussion/Backing Vocals) (2003) (Photo Credit: Jamie Crossnan/NME.com)

As Placebo were a fairly prominent part of the 00’s Pop-Punk scene, they have also been subjected to my distinctive feature of ‘Scuzz Sundays’ before. You can revisit the sound of ‘Pure Morning’ from 1998 here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2020/03/15/scuzz-sundays-placebo-pure-morning/

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘Without You I’m Nothing’ (LP) (Released on 12th October, 1998) (via The Hut/Virgin)

That’s enough privacy invasion for one morning! Thank you for joining me today, and I’ll be back tomorrow for another weekly installment of ‘Scuzz Sundays’ which, this week, features a unique Pop-Punk cover of Nena’s German 90’s hit ’99 Red Balloons’ by a California-based ska punk band who got their own version used in pop culture media productions like ‘Not Another Teen Movie’, ‘Our Lips Are Sealed’ and ‘Eurotrip’.

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Today’s Track: White Lies – ‘As I Try Not To Fall Apart’

November 16, 2021 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Cover Art for ‘As I Try Not To Fall Apart’ (LP) (Available from Feb 18, 2022) (via PIAS Recordings)

Good Morning to you! You’re tuned into the words of Jacob Braybrooke and it’s time for another quick daily track on the blog, because it has always been my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! The calendar for a new year of album releases seems to be filling up all of a sudden, with the likes of Charli XCX and Metronomy set to issue anticipated new long-players in the early months, but the Ealing-based Post Punk Revival group White Lies, who were originally formed as Fear Of Flying in 2007, are yet another cog in the machine of 2022 releases. A band who gained popularity at a similar time to their peers of Editors, The Pigeon Detectives and The Bravery, White Lies have survived the ‘Indie Distortion’ of the 00’s as a critically acclaimed live act. Their debut album, ‘To Lose My Life’, was a number one hit on the UK Albums Chart in its first week on sale, and they were also recruited for BBC’s ‘Sound Of 2009’ poll, and nominated for the BRIT’s Critics Choice Award. They are shortly going to issue their sixth LP, ‘As I Try Not To Fall Apart’, which they recorded within two studio sessions at the Assault & Battery and Sleeper studios in their homestead of London, where they resumed their partnership with frequent collaborator Ed Buller as their engineer. It was also co-produced and mixed by Cladius Mittendorfer, who has previously spent time behind the decks with Panic! At The Disco and Weezer. The title track and lead single, ‘As I Try Not To Fall Apart’, is our first taste of the record, which the Indie Rock trio describe as their most ambitious project yet. It has been accompanied by a music video directed by James Arden, which finds vocalist Harry McVeigh embossed in an hourglass of sinking sand. They will be touring the UK and Europe in Spring of 2022, and the accomplished new single explores the anxieties of modern masculinity in a mental health position. Let’s give it a spin below.

“We wrote this song quickly, late at night, and often the songs which come quickest are written from the gut and the heart, not with the head”, the band collectively say about their latest single, noting, “We wanted the melody to feel like a hymn, to give the confessional lyrics weight despite being wrapped up as a Pop song. It’s about accepting vulnerability as a man, and knowing it’s ok to be broken. There’s never been a more pressing time to spread the message that it’s ok to not be ok”, in their press statement to announce their forthcoming full-length album. Built on an intoned, Synth-enhanced drum groove that should be familiar to fans of Joy Divison or Interpol, bands that White Lies have cited as their inspirations, McVeigh reflects on the strength that modern men are pressured to conform to, with lyrics like “It’s not the way a man like me behaves/It’s not the way the world would make me play my part” in the chorus, and the opening refrain of “Am I a faulty kind of man so tender in the heart?” says a lot about how the band view the stereotypes of men being quiet and well-composed, somewhat cold and emotionless, in British society. Meanwhile, the instrumentation decorates the scene with glistening, 80’s New Wave Synth hooks and a vocal delivery that feels silky, but the brooding evocations of the lyrics are still a little bleak and colder than your average Pop/Rock record. It feels a little gothic and dark, which is representative of the band’s earlier work, while also giving the hooks a more distinctly airy sound. They follow a conventional Pop/Rock structure, with the bright tonality of the Synths counteracting the more harsh, aggressive guitar-led beats. It walks a delicate tightrope between 80’s Pop and Post-Punk, and, thankfully, it is a tightrope that White Lies walk confidently. In fact, given how I haven’t seen the trio to be particularly relevant in recent years, I was suprised how much I enjoyed this new track and that’s because I personally really, really enjoyed it very much. This is very catchy Post-Rock music that feels influenced merticulously by the band’s own late-00’s image and the likes of Tears For Fears from the 80’s. It manages to fulfill the ‘Indie Dancefloor’ niche of their genre, while the post-modern existentialist lyrics within the songwriting give you something more to feel and think about that resonates beyond the commercial accessibility of the new track, and so it feels brooding and bleak enough to please Post-Punk fans while reeling in some audiences who may typically steer away from the Alternative Rock scene. Overall, this was an excellent single that feels catchy and easy to access yet intriguing, as with each listen, I can find something new to come to light that I may have skipped beforehand. While it is perhaps not likely to tip the planet over on its axis, this was a solid and engaging single from a band who simply know what they’re comfortable with doing and what to give their fans, and stick to it well, while gradually evolving their style with subtlety.

Pictured: Harry McVeigh (Lead Vocals/Rhythm Guitar), Charles Cave (Bass Guitar/Occasional Backing Vocals) and Jack Lawrence-Brown (Drums/Percussion) (2017) (Photography by Red Light Management)

That’s all for now! Thank you for joining me on the blog today, and I’ll be back tomorrow for the newest entry in our ‘Countdown To Christmas’ feature, as we look at some Festive music that’s new and original, coming from an American Singer-Songwriter and Pianist who has won nine Grammy awards and she was ranked 60th on Billboard magazine’s artists of the 2000’s decade chart. She also made her acting debut in the 2007 movie ‘My Blueberry Nights’ – which was directed by Wong Kar-Wai.

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Scuzz Sundays: Hoobastank – ‘Out Of Control’

November 14, 2021 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Doug Robb (Lead Vocals), Dan Estrin (Lead Guitar/Backing Vocals), Jesse Charland (Keyboard/Bass Guitar) and Chris Hesse (Drums) (2013) (Photo by http://www.hiddenjams.com/)

Good Morning to you! You are reading the words of Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time for us to delve back into 90’s-00’s Pop-Punk territory for yet another edition of ‘Scuzz Sundays’ on One Track At A Time, the music blog where it’s always been my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! If you were to name a list of acts with wacky or purely silly names, the likes of Chicano Batman and Bowling For Soup would probably ring the most bells. Somewhere near to the top of the list with them, however, would have to be the Agura Falls native Rock band who are still known as Hoobastank. The band did pretty well for themselves, meanwhile, by scoring a wide range of sync deals in popular culture and selling their way to over ten million units worldwide with crossover chart hits like ‘The Reason’, which we previously covered in the blog upon the dreadful Covid-damaged season of last March, to a pretty negative reception from myself, to be honest. It has been over a year since that time, however, so it’s time to see if we get more positive results this time around. An understandable pick to do so would be ‘Out Of Control’, the lead single from the band’s most well-known album, ‘The Reason’, which was their third full-length studio album release in 2004. It charted at #16 in the US Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks Chart and at #9 on the US Hot Modern Rock Tracks chart. The single also features backing vocals by Ian Watkins and Jamie Oliver, two prior members of the controversial Welsh alternative rock band Lostprophets. It was also featured in the soundtrack for a few video games, including ‘Backyard Wrestling 2: There Goes The Neighbourhood’ as well. Let’s remember the Nathan Cox-directed music video below.

Now a multi-platinum selling group with three Grammy Award nominations under their belt, Hoobastank decided to give ‘The Reason’ a 15th anniversary re-release to celebrate their success in 2019, which was printed on both standard black and limited edition white Vinyl, and it featured four previously unavailable bonus tracks as well as an exclusive acoustic version of the album’s title track. ‘Out Of Control’ was included on the record, and the lyrics follow the narrative of a person who has gone out of control in a downward spiral after blindly following the orders of someone else. Sequences like “Try to focus but everything’s twisted” and “All alone I thought you would be there” are very straight to the point and explicit in their meaning, with lead vocalist Doug Robb musing on distrust and confusion, while lyrics like “Where should I go? What should I do?/I don’t understand what you want from me” are more focused on seeking of purpose and looking for answers to alleviate your pain and suffering. He reminds me of Faith No More’s Mike Patton in terms of his screeching delivery when he breaks down the title of the track in the chorus. Musically, the instrumentation blends a decent variety of heavy styles because the verses are a little familiar to Nu-Metal fans, the chorus goes for more of a rousing pure Pop style, and the bridges touch upon some Post-Grunge effects leading to a pre-chorus which screams Foo Fighters to my ears. Backing harmonies pop up from time to time, and the backbeat feels grittier in mood than the more Rap-Rock delivery of the post-chorus. In terms of my opinion of the track itself, I found the chorus to be relatively catchy and the instrumentation to seem perfectly fine, with a decent lead guitar performance from Dan Estrin elevating the aggressive, strong vocals from Robb to a more memorable degree. The problem, however, is that everything feels pretty in-your-face and there’s no subtlety to make the songwriting feel a little more profound. This is certainly not designed to be high art, but the lyrics feel so direct to the point where there’s nothing vaguely interesting to take away from them at all. That said, the drum beats feel very brash and the Power-Pop chorus are complementing the overall style in a way that feels solid, and so the track holds together reasonably well despite some flaws that I have with the songwriting. Overall, I much preferred ‘Out Of Control’ to ‘The Reason’, which I covered on the blog last year, as it was a fun track to listen to that, despite feeling very of-its-time, has some decent performances from the band members who all play their instruments to the Grunge-inspired formula of the track pretty nicely. I just wish the lyrics weren’t so plain and bland, as it could have been better in that regard, but it is still a fair improvement. We were just about over half of the way there.

Pictured: Hoobastank playing at Shepherd’s Bush Empire, London (2019) (Photo by Connie Taylor)

If you need an excuse to check out some of Hoobastank’s music, you have ‘The Reason’ here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2020/03/22/scuzz-sundays-hoobastank-the-reason/

Pictured: Cover Art for ‘The Reason’ (LP) (Released on April 26th, 2004) (via Island Records)

Thank you for reading my latest blog post and thank you for your continued support by reading the site each day or discovering the blog for the first time today. I’ll be back tomorrow with music from a Los Angeles-based artist who is releasing her debut LP in February. She has currently signed to 100% Electronica – George Clanton’s label.

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Today’s Track: Parquet Courts – ‘Walking At A Downtown Pace’

November 11, 2021 — Leave a comment

Pictured: Cover Art for ‘Sympathy For Life’ (Released on October 22, 2021) (via Rough Trade Records)

Good Morning to you! I’m Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time for you to jive along to yet another daily track on the blog, because it’s always been my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! First of all, apologies for teasing this week’s ‘New Album Release Fridays’ pick at the bottom of the page yesterday a day early – where we’ll be looking at the exciting new album release from the multi-time ARIA Award winning indie female singer-songwriter Courtney Barnett – my brain thought it was Thursday. The fact is that we’ve got one more regular shout-out to go before then, and it’s a golden one coming from the NYC-based Post-Rock quartet Parquet Courts. I really enjoyed their previous album, 2018’s ‘Wide Awake’, and I’ve seen plenty of very positive reactions for their follow-up album – ‘Sympathy For Life’ – which was released late in October via Rough Trade Records – from fellow members of the BBC Radio 6 Music Listeners Group community on Facebook. It has also received positive reviews from Pitchfork, Paste and Pop Matters, also including a five-star review from NME and some lovely words from Professor Skye’s Record Reviews on YouTube, which is one of my favourite channels on the viral platform. Produced by The XX’s mainstay Rodaidh McDonald and musician John Parish, the Garage Rock 4-piece’s new album takes some influence from bands like Primal Scream and Talking Heads. The Grunge-inflicted group have been around for quite a long time, and ‘Sympathy For Life’ is actually their seventh main LP release overall. According to ringleader Austin Brown, “Wide Awake was a record you could put on at a party. Sympathy For Life is influenced by the party itself”, and the band recorded the main bulk of the tracks pre-pandemic in England before they flew back to New York just a couple of days before the official Lockdown periods began. They flirted with the idea of tweaking songs and adding new content for the album, but they decided to just keep working on the songs they had already developed and just delay the release. The lead single, ‘Walking At A Downtown Pace’, comes with an excellent music video put together by the street photographer David Arnold, who captures a diverse array of surrealist and frenetic scenes throughout the band’s city of New York as he captures choreographed chaos in a one-shot technique. On that note, let’s check it out below.

Talking more about their new album’s origins, Brown explains, “Most of the songs were created by taking long improvisations and moulding them through our own editing.”, adding, “The biggest asset we have as artists is the band. After ten years together, our greatest instrument is each other. The purest expression of Parquet Courts is when we are improvising”, in their new album’s description. This sense of improvisational genesis is easily detectable in the scattered guitar riffs and the unclean vocals of ‘Walking At A Downtown Pace’, where the band pin their initial jamming sessions into a delectable drum groove created by Max Savage, who manages to nod clearly towards Disco and Funk in his filtered style. Meanwhile, lyricist Andrew Savage places us on a curbside as we watch the world go by in the complimentary music video. His lyrics, with wry and witty sections like “I’ve found a reason to exist/Written on the tile of the platform wall/Begging not to go extinct to all those who saw”, plays upon a numb reflection of his own disassociation from society. Other lyrics, like “Combining sound from the corners that you use yourself to tune/Like a Piano, well-tuned and walking slowly”, slip his mood down. These sections provide an interesting contrast to the bombastic nature of the music that swirls around him, acting passively like irrepressible downtown traffic and crowded neighborhoods, that warp around the somber analysis from our lead man as the narrator. All in all, ‘Walking At A Downtown Pace’ plays to the strengths of the band in showing off their outstanding ability to deliver bleak observations in the form of catchy grooves that hint towards other, more light-hearted genres than their typical categorization as a Post-Punk or Garage-Rock outfit. The kind of tune that can make you want to nod your head in slight happiness or nod in agreement to the songwriting, it establishes the band in the same ilk of King Gizzard and Dry Cleaning in how they clearly love to just jam a ton of content in the studio together and give us their better takes as their audience. The final results clearly bring a smile to your face.

Pictured: Andrew Savage (Co-Lead Vocals/Co-Lead Guitar), Austin Brown (Co-Lead Vocals/Co-Lead Guitar), Sean Yeaton (Bass Guitar/Backing Vocals) and Max Savage (Drums) (2018) (Photo via PR)

My introduction to the band and another song done in a similar style was ‘Wide Awake’, which has also been previously featured on the site. If you’ve had a blast ‘Walking At A Downtown Pace’ with them just now, why not give it a shot here?: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2019/09/18/todays-track-parquet-courts-wide-awake/

Pictured: Cover Art for ‘Wide Awake’ (LP) (Released on May 18th, 2018) (via Rough Trade Records)

That brings us to the end of the page for another day! Thank you for joining me on the blog today, and if you’ve already caught up with yesterday’s post or paid your full attention to today’s, let’s see if you can guess what I’ll be covering tomorrow *winks*.

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