Posts Tagged ‘Menace Beach’

Listen: ‘The Shitty Beatles (Live)’ by Magick Mountain

Posted: 26 May 2020 in Recommended Streams and Videos
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
0

Leeds trio Magick Mountain have shared new single ‘The Shitty Beatles (Live)’, the first to be heard from ‘Come Stay With Me’, a fundraising compilation by and for Leeds based artists.

Made up of Lins Wilson (Grammatics), Tom Hudson (Pulled Apart By Horses),  and Nestor Matthews (Sky Larkin / Menace Beach), Magick Mountain are a trio who embody the long running collaborative spirit that has made the city home to some of the UK’s finest new DIY bands and, thanks to a number of ferocious live performances, have built a strong reputation as one of the most exciting new bands from the West Yorkshire city.

New single ‘The Shitty Beatles (Live)’ captures the band at their noisy and riotous best. The two-minute whirlwind of frantic garage rock was recorded live last year in Mabgate Bleach, a small independent arts space in a decommissioned textile mill just outside Leeds city centre. Just one of a number of treasured small venues in the city currently crowdfunding to try and survive through a difficult time. The band want to highlight these campaigns with their live single explains singer and guitarist.

Lins Wilson: I think this track is probably as punk as Magick Mountain gets. A 2 min ankle biter that’s over before you can cry ‘Help!’. Usually the last track of our set – it’s like a snarling ‘full stop’ that’s been released from Iggy Pop’s clenched butt cheeks. This track was recorded live at one of our favourite Leeds DIY venues, Mabgate Bleach whilst supporting Aussie fuzz queens, Stonefield and we think it has a sort of feral charm about it. We’re massively missing live music right now, I think this is the longest we’ve ever been without any of us playing or going to a show. It’s great that people are finding new ways of connecting and performing online, but absolutely nothing can beat a live gig, where you truly feel the force of music.”

‘The Shitty Beatles’ will be released on ‘Come Stay With Me’, a collection of 13 new songs from bands and artists across Leeds including Talkboy, Dialect, Team Picture, Van Houten, Dead Naked Hippies and more. Set for release in July on eco-vinyl, all profits from Come Stay With Me will be shared between the contributing artists.

While the vinyl won’t be arriving until July, Come Play With Me have launched a new crowd funder for the compilation where it can be pre-ordered now.

Launching in 2015, Come Play With Me is a record label, promoter, magazine and development organisation based in Leeds working to support artists in the region and releasing a series of 7” record splits, compilations, magazines and more.

Listen to ‘The Shitty Beatles (Live)’ here:

Order the compilation here.

MM

Credit: Jessica Ciantar

Post War Glamour Girls / Menace Beach – Split 7”

Posted: 26 August 2016 in Singles and EPs
Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
0

Too Pure Singles Club – 30th September 2016

Christopher Nosnibor

I’ve been saying that Post War Glamour Girls are one of the best bands to have emerged from anywhere ever since I first clapped ears on their debut single, and never once have they disappointed since, thus justifying my opinion. Actually, it’s not an opinion, it’s a fact. And here they are on a split 7” in the mega-cool Too Pure Singles Club series on a Leeds showcase edition shared with Menace Beach. The occasion? The 45th anniversary of legendary Leeds record store, Jumbo Records. I’ve spent a fair few quid in there over the years, and the fact they’re still trading is a testament to the fact it’s as great an independent music outlet as you’ll find.

The two tracks couldn’t be more different: Menace Beach’s ‘Hex Breaker’ is a hazy, fuzzed-out lo-fi drifter, a mid-tempo slow-burner that sounds like it was recorded on a condenser mic. With laid-back vocal and hefty, plodding riff, it’s something of a departure from their conventional feedback-drenched motoric slacker indie. That said, it’s still a brilliantly loose performance and boasts an effortless melody that’s breezy and accessible. File alongside your early Pavement EPs if you do that ‘by style’ thing. If, like me, you file your vinyl alphabetically, you might struggle with this.

Despite what the title might suggest, the PWGG offering on the other side, ‘Welfare by Prozac’ is anything but sedated, a characteristically tense and angular burst of post-punk that’s over and done with in a fraction over three minutes. It packs so much in, too: a nagging, jangling rhythm guitar is cut by a howling angular lead. A stonking bassline and thumping tom-led drum track meld together to provide the backdrop to the contrasting vocals: Alice’s nonchalant monotone is the perfect counterpoint to James’ wired hectoring, calling to mind the best of Brix era Fall and then adding a twisted pop sensibility.

This is a perfect example of why 7” singles are cool, and why not only records, but the split single endure. A split MP3 release just doesn’t cut it.

 

PWGG Menace Beach Split