The Week In #Indie

The Mootekkis Release Against the Ropes (The Week in #Indie Segment)

The Mootekkis Release Against the Ropes (The Week in #Indie Segment)

Tokyo’s The Mootekkis are one of those bands that deliver the musical goods every time. And I mean every time. And this time is no exception with the uber-catchy ‘poptastically’ decadent track that is ‘Against the Ropes’, from their new album ‘Pucker Up‘ (check out our review HERE).

The video above gives the quirky story of love lost, found, and lost again on the epic streets of Tokyo while the band plays on. The video harks back to the glory days of MTV and solidifies the band’s stature as one of those #indie bands that truly get it. Look, and sound like a million bucks and, guess what, you’re a million bucks.

‘Pucker Up’, from The Mootekkis is out now. Get your copy HERE.

The Mootekkis
This booze-loving Tokyo-based 5-piece – Australian, American and 3 Japanese – garage rock’n’roll band was formed midway through 2008 by Jude (guitar) and Mike (vox) and two years later were featured on the front cover of Japanzine after winning the magazine’s nation-wide battle of the bands with their 2010 EP track “Hey…What You Want?”.

More recently a number of their tracks from 2014 debut album “Heckling the Dawn” have been used for the Skateboarding Japan podcast while their tune “The Whiskey” is the theme music for drinkers and skaters delight podcast Got Faded Japan.

Prior to this, in August 2012 they embarked on a 10-day tour of New York where they played Manhattan hot spots Bowery Electric and Piano’s as well as New Haven’s Elm Bar and a handful of basement and loft parties in Brooklyn – before this trip 2 members had never been outside Japan.

Brooklyn’s Ishmael Osekre, an organizer of the festival Aputumpu, had this to say after seeing The Mootekkis at a Bushwick loft party: “This was pure rock’n’roll in a way that most people around here haven’t seen for a long time…it was just amazing.”

The Mootekkis have had the good fortune of having a lot of good people behind them. In 2013 they crowdfunded their debut album and in 2014 they finished in the top 10 of Tokyo’s 126 bands trying to earn a spot at Summer Sonic thanks to immense local and foreign support.

They’re truly humbled and wholly committed to giving rock’n’roll lovers something new with decades of respect for what has come before.

The Mootekkis are:

Mike (vocals)
Jude (rhythm/lead)
Koji (rhythm/lead)
Yo’cchan (bass)
Takahiro (drums)

LINKS:
https://www.facebook.com/themootekkis
https://twitter.com/themootekkis
https://themootekkis.bandcamp.com

Callow Youth Release 'Did It Really Matter' (The Week in #Indie Segment)

Callow Youth Release ‘Did It Really Matter’ (The Week in #Indie Segment)

Teenage Mancunian indie gang Callow Youth has released their debut single “Did It Really Matter?” through all digital channels. The track is currently XS Manchester Radio‘s Record of the Week on their “XS Evening show”, so is played every night for the next week.

“The song is a reflection on tricky teenage relationships in a world captivated by mobile devices and social media, with two young teenagers going out for a night, with high expectations, only for it to end in a messy argument” explains frontman Alfie Turner.

Callow Youth is arguably the most hotly tipped young band to emerge out of Manchester in the past year and hail from the city’s suburbs of Ashton-Under-Lyne and Failsworth. Their catchy, melodic, original songs belie their age and time together – and the fact that most of them couldn’t play their instrument and had never attempted to write a song when the band formed less than 2 years ago.

The band are currently recording new tracks with Gavin Monaghan (respected industry veteran and acclaimed producer of The Blinders “Columbia” album as well as records by Robert Plant and JAWS) – they have material lined up for release throughout 2019, and plan a debut album release before the end of the year.

Callow Youth is:

  • Alfie Turner – Vocals, Guitar
  • Tom Hilton – Lead Guitar, Backing Vocals
  • Nathan Wrigley – Bass Guitar, Backing Vocals
  • Connor Wilkinson – Drums, Backing Vocals

LINKS:
https://www.facebook.com/callowyouth.band
https://twitter.com/Callow_Youth
https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/callowyouth/dmpy

Fugitive Orchestra Releases 'Tomahawk Caress' (The Week in #Indie Segment)

Fugitive Orchestra Releases ‘Tomahawk Caress’ (The Week in #Indie Segment)

Portsmouth-based Singer-Songwriter James Tattington began performing as Fugitive Orchestra after reading a passage in a J. G. Ballard novel. Fusing together Beatboxing, Live-Looping and Guitar, Fugitive Orchestra makes music best described as Alternative Jazz-infused, Bluesy Hip-Pop; drawing inspiration from the likes of Andrew Bird, LCD Soundsystem, Talking Heads, Paul Simon, Kate Bush, and the Blue Nile.

Having garnered support and airplay from BBC Introducing as well as being featured on Tom Robinson’s ‘Fresh Faves’ for BBC 6-Music, the release of 2017’s Rules of the Riddle EP marked a departure from an earlier singer/songwriter approach and saw him developing his sound by incorporating full-band instrumentation. Now with the release of his latest single, Tomahawk Caress, Fugitive Orchestra adds Politically-charged Alt-Funk to his already diverse palette of sounds, incorporating influences from classic funk to Vulfpeck and Childish Gambino.

Fugitive Orchestra has supported the likes of Mr. B The Gentleman Rhymer, The Petebox, Jerry Williams, Miles Hunt & Erica Nockalls (The Wonder Stuff), shared a stage with early-naughties heroes Wheatus at the Isle of Wight Festival, and continues to take his exciting live show to ever-growing audiences.

SOURCE: Official Bio

LINKS:
https://www.facebook.com/FugitiveOrchestra
https://twitter.com/FugitOrchestra
https://instagram.com/fugitiveorchestra
https://www.youtube.com/user/fugitiveorchestra

An Exclusive Interview with Marty Willson-Piper (The Week in #Indie Segment)

An Exclusive Interview with Marty Willson-Piper (The Week in #Indie Segment)

Noctorum has released their fourth album ‘The Afterlife’ – the duo’s first long-play in seven years, which will be released exclusively on CD and gatefold vinyl to PledgeMusic contributors in November 2018. The general release of this album happened in February 2019 via Schoolkids Records.

Noctorum is guitarist/singer-songwriter Marty Willson-Piper and producer Dare Mason.  The duo presents their new single ‘Piccadilly Circus in the Rain’, following up the first single ‘A Girl With No Love’.

Named for the village Noctorum, located near to their childhood homes on The Wirral (near Liverpool), Dare and Marty liked its association with night and its Latin derivation. This collaboration has an eclectic focus, making the quiet-loud and vice-versa, singing words that might be spoken and playing indoor instruments that should be heard outside. It has to be imagined to exist.

“Perhaps city-living is by definition a difficult slog – high rents, a constant pressure to earn, an uphill battle that traps you in a vicious circle that has you so focussed on the job of survival that your aspirations, your dreams, are swept aside, pushed out of reach as all your waking hours are spent treading water, your imagination drowning, your ideas lost in the rush hour,” says Marty Willson-Piper.

“Piccadilly Circus In The Rain addresses the struggle and questions the romantic notion of London as a cultural melting pot – music, galleries, nightlife, history, energy, red double-decker buses, unarmed friendly Bobbies, the cover of Abbey Road and the Queen. Singling out this city is purely coincidental but in truth, for most people with artistic tendencies “London brings you to your knees”.

Having formed in 2002, Noctorum released their debut album ‘Sparks Lane’ on Heyday Records in 2003. In 2006, they followed up with the album ‘Offer The Light’ on that same label, later re-releasing it as a digipak in 2010 via Second Motion Records. Heyday released their third album ‘Honey Mink Forever’ in 2011.

Marty Willson-Piper has been writing and performing internationally for over 35 years. He is best known as a long-time member of Australian psychedelic rock band The Church, who he was with from its inception through to 2013. He joined All About Eve in the ’90s, releasing two studio albums and several live albums with them. He is also lead singer and lyricist with Swedish band MOAT and a touring member of Swedish Prog legends Anekdoten. Since the mid-1980s, Willson-Piper has maintained a steady solo output, releasing six solo studio albums and three live solo albums to date. He has also co-written music with many artists, including Grace Slick, Aimee Mann, Susannah Hoffs, and Linda Perry.

As a house engineer at London’s world-famous Townhouse Studios, Dare Mason has worked with the likes of Prince, Paul McCartney, Boy George, Tina Turner, Ravi Shankar, and Soul II Soul, among others. After becoming a freelance producer/engineer in 1991, he produced albums for The Grid, The Church, Placebo and AC Acoustics, working in London, New York, Sydney, and Stockholm. He finally moved to Cornwall, where he set up the VIP Lounge studio in 2001. Nowadays, Dare is mainly known as a mixing engineer, having mixed recordings by Brix Smith (ex-The Fall), Cinerama and Tommy Tokyo. Dare is also a composer, songwriter, and accomplished guitarist, singer, and dabbler in keyboards, usually contributing musically to the artists he produces.

Check out the full interview HERE.

LINKS:
http://noctorum.band
https://martywillson-piper.com
https://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/noctorum
https://www.facebook.com/Noctorum
https://www.facebook.com/marty.willsonpiper
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwdErmBx2NQI7_lOdwqgepQ/videos
https://twitter.com/mwillsonpiper
https://soundcloud.com/noctorummusic
https://open.spotify.com/artist/14rNOocOS3RnmAKhT4GnU4
http://www.anekdoten.se

Tiny Fighter Releases 'Tell Me' Video (The Week in #Indie Segment)

Tiny Fighter Releases ‘Tell Me’ Video (The Week in #Indie Segment)

Swedish-Australian indie pop outfit Tiny Fighter have announced their new ‘Tell Me’ EP, to be released via Stockholm-based label Bay Terrace Records. Ahead of that, they are previewing the title track, which features stunning deadpan vocals from frontwoman Therese Karlsson.

The new EP was recorded and produced by legendary multi-Grammy, Gold & Platinum Award producer Thomas ‘Plec’ Johansson at The Panic Room in Skövde, a quiet country town in southern Sweden. This collaboration allowed them to further refine and push their sound.

On previous releases, they recorded in Los Angeles and Stockholm with Daniel Rejmer (Foals, Ben Frost, Girls Names), extending on the more melodic moments from their previous work with bands such as Fire to the Stars and Mid-State Orange.

Tiny Fighter offers an enticing mix of indie-rock and berserker chamber pop. Despite the staggering odds against them ever meeting, Therese Karlsson (a truck driver from Kalmar in southern Sweden) and Tim Spelman (a doctor from Melbourne, Australia) met in Stockholm and began collaborating in 2017. Tiny Fighter quickly expanded into a 5-piece with the addition of Tommy Wilen, Marcus Wallberg, and Robin Zimmermann, bringing all the dynamics and volume of their recorded material on to the stage.

“Tell Me is an appeal for clarity – both personally and politically – in a setting where distrust and ambiguity appear increasingly to dominate people’s relationships, both with each other and the broader world in general. It’s about exasperation, about a need for a simple, straight answer – tell me, yes or no,” says Therese Karlsson.

Tiny Fighter has quickly built a strong reputation for their stirring live performances and for their ability to tastefully mix catchy indie-pop with darker themes and arrangements. Sharon Van Etten, Catpower and Agnes Obel number among their influences, as d Gyllene Tider, Mitski, Veruca Salt and Kim Shatturk/The Muffs.

“After starting life as a duo, this is the first recording with a full band, and I think that’s reflected in the stronger, fuller sound compared to our earlier singles,” says Tim Spelman.

Based on the success with their first three singles ‘New Century’, ‘Want Friends’ and ‘Hollow Talk’, Tiny Fighter have grown from an artsy studio project to a full-fledged live band capable of selling out tours and filling larger music venues. Tiny Fighter completed a run of sold-out shows throughout Scandinavia and Europe in the summer of 2018, followed by a North American tour in November 2018.

Tiny Fighter will be returning to North America in May 2019 for a run of the east coast and Midwest dates. They kick things off on May 6 in Toronto for performances during Canadian Music Week.

LINKS:
https://www.facebook.com/tinyfighterz
https://tinyfighterz.bandcamp.com
https://twitter.com/TinyFighterz
https://www.instagram.com/tinyfighterz
https://www.youtube.com/c/tinyfighter
https://soundcloud.com/tinyfighter
https://open.spotify.com/artist/0TqpxHIKbhZJzcXreXDEvv
https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/tiny-fighter/1338567635

Paris Street Rebels Release Double Single 'I Don’t Wanna Die Young' / 'Freakshow' (The Week in #Indie Segment)

Paris Street Rebels Release Double Single ‘I Don’t Wanna Die Young’ / ‘Freakshow’ (The Week in #Indie Segment)

Willed into existence in the year 2017, Paris Street Rebels take the best parts of the transatlantic Punk explosion of the 1970s and combine it with towering melodies and 21st-century working class outrage.

The 4 piece hail from the tough mining town of Ballingry, Fife, Scotland. The mines have long shut down and ‘Thatcher’ is still a dirty word, the band looks to music as an escape, an antidote and a means to elevate themselves and others like them from the indignity of a story left untold, a destiny unfulfilled.

Informed and inspired by their own lives and the records that shaped them a pact was formed in between the chord changes and a promise was made.

Beyond the confines of their beginnings, Paris Street Rebels’ ultimate goal is to unite the forgotten people, the misfits, the lost, the persecuted, the afraid and everyone in between.

To give something back to an age where musicians and artists only exist to take. To give the world what it’s been missing ever since Rock ‘n’ Roll lost its teeth.

‘I Don’t Wanna Die Young’ is a meditation on suicide and it’s uncomfortable place within celebrated Rock ’n’ Roll myth, in an age where mental illness is finally losing its stigma and hope is still out of fashion. This is the band’s attempt to put that last part right.

‘Freakshow’ is a schizophrenic anthem penned in desperation. The need to escape to an almost mythical promised land where authenticity trumps artifice and drives the narrative whilst simultaneously realizing that this can only be achieved by changing the place and time you’re in.

Built from old smashed up Punk LPs and broken bottles it’s designed to excite and leave a nasty scar.

Paris Street Rebels are:

Grant ‘G’ Malcolm – Vocals/guitar
Kevin Murphy Jnr – Vocals/guitar
Jordan ‘Jazz’ McLean – Bass/vocals
Cameron ‘Cammy’ Gaudin – Drums

LINKS:
https://www.facebook.com/ParisStreetRebelsUK
https://www.instagram.com/parisstreetrebels
https://soundcloud.com/paris-street-rebels/freakshow
https://open.spotify.com/artist/3DZsxCsiAA7eRRsRLKzx4f

Brim Liski Premieres 'A Different View' (The Week in #Indie Segment)

Brim Liski Premieres ‘A Different View’ (The Week in #Indie Segment)

It has been seven years since their latest album, their previous one being ‘The Repetitions’ album in 2012. They released their eponymous ‘Brim Liski’ album in 2009.

Brim Liski presents a blend of electro, goth and future pop that is slightly gazey. This is a mixture of the diverse sounds both artists bring to the table, becoming something a bit different than the typical electroclash that is currently out there.

Their music is inspired by epic sounds you might imagine occurring in the cosmos. This is dark, limitless night music perfect for driving down an endless moon drenched highway.

“Like the EP as a whole, ‘A Different View’, is about the challenge of acceptance to new unexplored territories in our lives. Making big changes. Accepting things aren’t working and to move on. I personally had many issues blocking me from being who I wanted and needed to be,” says Ryan Policky.

“I had been falling victim to acceptance to things I should be pushing away, and once those things were fully pushed out of the picture, things became that much clearer. Just like the discoveries of new galaxies, formations on other planets, and other unknowns, the focus is becoming more apparent as technology and time move on.”

Brim Liski may have formed in 2008, but they sound more closely resembles a band from 2024. Their music is about as cosmic and dreamy as Saturn’s Hexagon, which also features on the cover art of their new EP.

Today Brim Liski is a duo comprised of experimental multi-versed digital artist Cacheflowe (aka Justin Gitlin) and Ryan Policky, who is vocalist and producer for renowned prog-gazers A Shoreline Dream.

“I had been working with Justin at an ad agency – working on games for a bunch of entertainment projects for Sony and the like. I found out his passion for music production and we instantly hit it off. He had been working on material and setting up PR for his project, Cacheflowe, and I was working super hard on getting A Shoreline Dream up and going,” says Policky.

“We exchanged ideas and eventually started working on remixes, eventually leading to Brim Liski, which was a side project for both of us, but an important one. One of my dearest girlfriends Michelle Brim had just passed away, and I was torn apart. Brim Liski, named in her memory, became that passion project to get those emotions out, and I was lucky enough to have Justin’s talent help bring it to life.”

With strong initial support from XLR8R and Filter Magazine, it was clear that Brim Liski’s videos feel more like a blurred out dream being torn apart by technology. Their unique and dramatic live shows blend the art of dynamic installations and vivid colors.

LINKS:
http://www.brimliski.com
https://www.facebook.com/pg/Brim-Liski-589032774456227
https://twitter.com/brimliski
https://twitter.com/latenightwn
https://www.instagram.com/brimliski
https://brimliski.bandcamp.com/album/duels
https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/brim-liski/334774461
https://open.spotify.com/artist/2D1djVg5W8mSqKuZiMvajn?si=NFlh7qSLQZCmgUl28h9EkA

Dar.Ra Premieres 'Diamonds N The Shadows' Video (The Week in #Indie Segment)

Dar.Ra Premieres ‘Diamonds N The Shadows’ Video (The Week in #Indie Segment)

Shot in a pseudo-50s sitcom style really fits the video for the new track by Dar.Ra titled ‘Diamonds N The Shadows’. The video gives a stylistic way to tell a story in a campy comedic way. The track is five minutes twelve seconds of sonic bliss that never lets up and is comprised of an almost continuous hook. ‘Diamonds N The Shadows’ is a track that really needs to be put on a loop. It’s that melodic and tasty.

About Dar.Ra
Born in Dublin, Ireland, Darragh J Brady – AKA Dar.Ra has been in the music industry for a while with hits in the UK and Australia, signed to EMI, Festival and various dance labels over the years, remixing Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Tears 4 Fears, Savage Garden, and writing for Rachel Brown (Faithless, Groove Armada) plus having music on various Hollywood films like ‘Snakes on Planes’ films starring Hilary Duff on ABC TV, Match Of Day (BBC TV) and US Documentary City Of Hope.

He grew up in Brighton and London and his first solo album Soul Hours was released in 2010 made the album of the week of Spain’s Heart FM, as well as receiving support from BBC Radio, playing to over 1 million people on air within one live show.

Also an author, Dar.Ra has a book available called ‘Road Tales’ which has been getting brilliant reviews and is based on people Dar.Ra met while being the road from the late 1990s to 2008.

LINKS:
https://facebook.com/Dar.Ra7
https://youtube.com/kushadeep7
https://twitter.com/kushadeepmusic
https://instagram.com/dar.ra.brady

Kids on Bridges - Weapon Of Choice

Kids on Bridges Premiere ‘Weapon Of Choice’ Video (The Week in #Indie Segment)

Fresh from a support slot with Grammy Award Winner Beck and shows with The Hot 8 Brass Band, Soulwax, and Calvin Harris, the Liverpool trio are just about to complete album 3.

The bands versatility has seen them described as somewhere between Phoenix, Foster the People & Mutemath with a hint of Daft Punk & Depeche Mode thrown in, and this has seen radio support from BBC 6 music, X Radio, and Radio 2 and two hype machine number 1 Kids on Bridges are currently heading back over to America where they are going to finish work on a brand new album and have drafted in Eagles of Death Metal bass player Jennie Vee to join them on a number of tracks, along with New Orleans poet Chuck Perkins. Having previously worked with The Chemical Brothers producer Steve Dub, the new album promises to be a sonic assault! Recently The Band has been on remixing duties for Grammy Nominee Ledisi and Beating Nile Rodgers to the remix of calling all nations for INXS’s Kick 30.

Although the guys are certainly no strangers to having great guest performances on their releases, the last single ‘Say Ok’ featured New Orleans drumming legend Zigaboo Modeliste of the Meters. The band also found themselves nominated for best Alt video at the Paramount Awards in Hollywood for the single ‘Something in the Water’ a song that has recently been featured as the Footlocker advert and is set to also be featured in a new American TV show as the show’s Theme song.

The Bands Track ‘Walls’ was used in many Anti trump marches across America and they were also honored to be the UK representatives at last year’s Special Olympics in LA performing alongside Stevie Wonder.

With excellent performances at Creamfeilds, Wickerman, Bestival and Ibiza Rocks, the future couldn’t be looking brighter for the Liverpool Band.

LINKS:
https://www.facebook.com/KidsOnBridgesMusic
https://twitter.com/Kidsonbridges
https://www.instagram.com/kids_on_bridges/
https://soundcloud.com/kidsonbridges
https://www.youtube.com/user/kidsonbridges

An Exclusive Interview with Slug from Atmosphere (The Week in #Indie Segment)

An Exclusive Interview with Slug from Atmosphere (The Week in #Indie Segment)

I love it when a guest in one of our exclusives is brutally honest and to the point. That’s the way the world should be. It cuts through the bullshit and things get done a lot faster and more proficiently. And today’s guest is a perfect example. That guest is Slug from Atmosphere. It’s that very honest, both with others and introspectively, that helped make Slug what he is today: A legend in the music industry and a founder of one of the most respected labels in that industry, namely Rhymesayers Entertainment.

Today I get to talk with Slug about the importance of being honest to one’s self, as well as their following. We also get in depth about ‘Mi Vida Local’ (My Local Life) and the meaning of the music and the process of making the album. We also get some updates of the Mi Vida Local Tour (tour information below) and the supporting acts.

Think of this more as a conversation with a true innovator.

Atmosphere on tour
US Hip-Hop legends Atmosphere return to Europe for the Mi Vida Local Tour. After extensively touring North America since the release of their ‘seventh’ album, Mi Vida Local, the kings of indie Hip-Hop will be coming across the pond for eight exclusive live shows this April.

Mi Vida Local has received extensive critical acclaim since its October release and showcases their innovative and defining style of Hip-Hop. With over 20 years in the game and such a phenomenal back catalog, Slug and Ant promise a run of unforgettable performances.

Main support for the Mi Vida Local Tour Europe will be from newer Rhymesayers signee deM atlaS off the back of his debut album Bad Actress, which was produced entirely by Ant (Atmosphere) and was also released October 2018. The innovative rapper/singer/crooner also released his spellbinding 5-song visual EP, “Bad Loves Company” in line with the album. Additional supporting artists include The Lioness and DJ Keezy.

Featured image credit: Dan Monick.

LINKS:
https://rse.lnk.to/MiVidaLocal
https://rhymesayers.com/artists/atmosphere
https://www.facebook.com/Atmosphere
https://twitter.com/atmosphere
https://www.instagram.com/atmosphere

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