Supersweet

New Bands We Love

September 2008

How many new bands do you think pop up in one day? Fifty? A hundred? Maybe even a thousand if we count bedroom/laptop bands. No one really knows any more as what qualifies a band. But here, we've asked our writers what their favourite new thing to listen to are, and so you'll get 10 bands to be introduced to for now. So maybe this makes a fifth of the daily rate. They go alphabetically...

Adam Gnade

• MySpace
  
• Website

Sometimes you come across an artist one night who reaffirms your faith in all things musical. You hear a track through  your speakers the likes of which you’ve never heard before. It makes you feel both empowered and inadequate. You throw all the CDs you have by last year’s hype band out the window, you‘ve found a new rock‘n‘roll hero to follow. Well, we guess that’s what Adam Gnade did for us. SUPERSWEET heard ‘Room for Three’ late at night and decided that most of our CD collection was useless in comparison.

Adam Gnade, who hails from San Diego, is a pioneer of a new exciting, style of folk music: the talking song. Over the top of a soundtrack of a dozen different shades of post-rock, bluegrass, and  folk, Gnade speaks his worldly-wise, beat-style lyrics. It’s not poetry, more of a narrative, and it’s an enthralling one.

He sings about places you’ve never been to, people you’ve never met. But it never feels like that. You’ve been there, you know that person. Gnade’s lyrics are so personal that it feels like you‘re sitting around listening to an old friend spinning yarn about his latest exploits. He’s like Woody Guthrie but informed by the Beat Generation. Think Jack Kerouac, think Lawrence Ferlinghetti, but set to a soundtrack of Mogwai or Explosions in the Sky. Even a cursory listen to his music on his myspace will reveal the true deepth of Gnade’s talent. 

Words: Will Holloway

Charlene Soraia

• MySpace
• Website

Hailing from…er, Jupiter (according to her MySpace profile), Charlene Soraia is another graduate of Croydon’s BRIT School but don’t let that put you off. Actually from South London, this singer-songwriter sounds like a less maudlin, bluesier, Laura Marling. She has a charming collection of songs about love, drugs, and space that showcase her effortlessly stunning voice, dextrous guitar playing and create a rather heady listening experience.

She’s released three EPs (Lemonade, Daffodils & Other Idylls, and her the latest Postcards from iO) and over the course of these the influence of 70s psychedelia and prog rock bands like King Crimson and Soft Machine is noticeable. The experimental nature of that music turns her sound away from what we’ve come to expect from singer-songwriters in recent years. Instead they’re intricately crafted folk-rock songs with unexpected turns, and rather than sounding pretentious and indulgent, they are dreamy with self-deprecating lyrics and playful song structures.

Still unsigned but the buzz is growing. Earlier this year she supported Jose Gonzales and Stephanie Dosen at this year’s iTunes Live Festival and she’s already had a US number one (albeit on the iTunes folk chart). Compared to the current crop of singer-songwriters, Charlene Soraia has a unique sound, experimental and accessible and worthy of your attention.

Words: Joe Hooper

Cheeky Cheeky and the Nosebleeds

• MySpace

As far as 'happening' parts of the U.K. go, Suffolk rarely features. Cheeky Cheeky and the Nosebleeds, the hippest bunch of farm dwelling ragamuffins to emerge from the county since Bob Hoskins, are set to change that.

At first listen, there's nothing that truly separate's Cheeky Cheeky and the Nosebleeds from every other indie band doing the rounds; they can't dance, they can barely sing and they dress like Topman employees. However, choose to put aside your immediate quarrels and you'll discover a band who's music truly deserves a place in the pantheons of contemporary indie pop. 

Their music reeks of suppressed teenage frustration and self pity (no surprise for a band apparently driven wild by the tedium of dull Sundays spent lying near unconscious on the floors of their respective homes). Add to that the kind of wit and charm bands like the Young Knives die for, immensely catchy guitar riffage and a lead singer whose stage moves strike you as an amalgamation of Chas Smash and Ian Curtis, and you've got a brilliantly unique prospect in Cheeky Cheeky and the Nosebleeds. If their fantastic early demos and electrifying reception at both Glastonbury and Underage Festival are anything to go by, the Suffolk five piece will be wowing audiences for a while yet. 

Their first headline tour begins in October at the Cavern Club in Exeter.

Words: Greg Sullivan
Photography: Paul Dugdale

Exitmusic

• MySpace
• Website

Exitmusic are the ultimate postmodern romance; Devon Church and Aleksa Palladino met on a train aged 18, drunk coffee and argued about the existence of evil. Aleksa went home to New York City; making it as a successful actress (see 'Before The Devil Knows You're Dead'). Devon returned to Winnipeg working in a poolhall/crack den. Leaving Winnipeg, Devon found Aleksa again in New York City. Married on Mulholland Drive, they spent their wedding night making demo covers with cardboard, glue and pictures from a photo-booth. Love is a beautiful thing.

Together they produce music that is dark, atmospheric and cinematic, akin to Isobel Campbell and Mark Laneghan but mixed by David Lynch.  Sharing vocal duties, Aleksa is haunting contributing beauty and innocence against a darkened backdrop. When Devon takes over, his heavier tones add a level of  complexity that turns imagined threat into something real. Yes, beneath the surface of all the tracks there is an undercurrent of innocence, fear and violence that Nick Cave would be proud of. Making the most of blissed out percussion, this is Radiohead meets Portishead in a living nightmare. Genius then.

Now unless you're in LA or California you won't be seeing them live anytime soon. However, you can download both 'The Decline of the West' and 'The Following Winds' for free, and it is strongly recommended that you do. Taken from self-released album The Decline of the West this is potentially one of the most effective couplings since Cave and Minogue. Dark, brooding and beautiful. 

Words: Matt Coxon
Photography: Lauren Dukoff

High Places

• MySpace

Brooklyn duo High Places are aptly named. Their music does sound like it’s beaming down from somewhere very high indeed... beyond the Earth’s atmosphere, in fact, in a kind of Douglas Adams wonderworld.

Supernova-coloured good vibes are evident seconds into ‘From Stardust To Sentience’, whose Aphex Twin/Boards Of Canada clicks and hisses float gently in meteor trail luminescence. It wouldn’t sound out of place on the Wall-E soundtrack, when he dances with that girl robot in space.

‘Golden’ has traces of futuristic tropicalia, and ‘New Grace’ dabbles with carnival rhythms, almost like a more subdued, mellow Gang Gang Dance. ‘Head Spins’ is probably their most immediate track, and certainly accessible to anyone who’s enjoyed Animal Collective. Like Avey Tare and pals, High Places maintain a strong pop melody below the surface of their work, enhanced by its unusual, organic-sounding percussion, evocative of water dripping from humid tropic leaves. On the forest moon of Endor. Still with us?

At moments their ambient qualities are almost eerily close to Brian Eno, in particular My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts. But where that pioneering work was characterised by a sinister air of paranoia, High Places sound positively utopian. They should play this 24 hours a day over public address systems when we’re all living in our giant biodomes. Fingers crossed.

Words: Oliver Stevens
Photography: Claire Titley

Hold Fire

• MySpace

Brighton-based four-piece Hold Fire are on the brink of stardom. They’ve already supported many of the big-selling, indie-pop elite, including Kooks, Hoosiers and One Night Only – and, fresh from a summer of festival dates across the UK, including Brighton’s Party In The Park where they played to an audience of 11,000, they’re about to release their debut single via the cutting edge format, USB.

So what do they sound like? The list of bands they’ve supported will have given you a clue. Like The Kooks, they write incredibly buoyant and catchy melodies laced with killer harmonies and foot-tapping rhythms and, like One Night Only they can send a shiver down your spine within a second of a song ‘s intro (check out ‘Change Your Mind’ on their Myspace).

Describing themselves as ‘Kite-rock’ and managing to stay just this side of twee (although the incredibly catchy, happy-clappy Emma Louise pushes the boundaries somewhat) Hold Fire’s Clark (vocals, guitar), Richard (guitar, BVs), Sam (bass, BVs) and Steve (drums, BVs) have everything they need to be the next big thing. Watch this space.

‘Power Cuts’ will be released 6 October and can be pre-ordered from 22 September via the band’s Myspace page.

Words: Isaac Howlett
Photography: Emilie Fjola

John & Jehn

• MySpace
• Website
  

John & Jehn are not exactly a new band, but their stature is now growing at a sharply accelerated rate. It’s like watching a beautiful explosion. Much of this has stemmed from the launch of their self-titled debut album in April this year, which proffered well-written songs about love and zombies. But it’s the live dynamic of the French duo that people are really interested in. Enough industry types have got hold of the idea that this could be another Kills and are pitching in from various angles to empower or disprove the hype.

A central thesis of difference is that John & Jehn appear to be very much in love with each other. So where’s the fun in that? Without the haute tension of aired dirty laundry and croissant flinging they’re unlikely to overcome the cultivated attention deficit of music writing’s more gossip-focused columns. But get beyond this lazy need and you find something with a far longer reward stream – a mutually-supporting platform from which the two feel comfortable enough to divulge their deeper drives, dreams, fears and neuroses. Their performances derive from stripped back honesty rather than moody posturing.   

For all that John & Jehn carry incredible poise. Every nuance of sound and word feels charged with significance. It helps that their inspiration comes from such cult wellsprings as inflammatory French legend Serge Gainsbourg as well as more widely trodden ground like the Velvet Underground. Above all they maintain a strong sense of the filmic, which will surely serve them further if and when the honeymoon ever does end. 

Words: Alderson
Photography: Steve Gullick

School of Seven Bells

• MySpace
• Website

This band is so good that we actually thought we'd not write anything at all and could instead just post a video of us honouring them with raining hand gestures. But some of us are too camera shy and some would be trying to sneak winks at the Deheza sisters. So we resorted to words, humble words. At least this way we can convey how smitten we are with Ben Curtis's guitars and his three racks of effects. It's also appropriate to address how their songs are often like letters written between dream spirits.

Formed in New York by ex-Secret Machines Curtis in early 2007, the School really came to the fore at the end of last year following tours with Blonde Redhead and Prefuse 73. Seven Bells actually makes a profound and confident departure from the ground previously covered by Secret Machines, but induces some of the same ground swell. The transporting, hypnotic sound is loosely reminiscent of Spacemen 3 and benefits from harnessing the developed vocal talents of twins Alejandra and Claudia Deheza, formerly of the innovative On! Air! Library!

So it goes without saying (think of the hand gestures) that The School is one of the must-see acts currently. Those in the know eagerly await a longer studio outing, having got their first tastes through singles such as "My Cabal" and 12 inch EP Face to Face on High Places, not forgetting their fine collaboration with Prefuse 73, which is appropriately titled 'Class of 73 Bells'. We'll be making lots of noise when they come to do their London debut in November. Woohoo! Just like that.

Words: Alderson
Photography: Guillermo Hrrren

Ten Kens

• MySpace
• Website

It’s a little known fact that the water in the taps of rehearsal rooms in Canada is actually laced with magic talent juice. Adding to the recent crop of great Canadian bands (across the spectrum of talent juice guzzling bands recently are Holy Fuck, Arcade Fire, Crystal Castles, Broken Social Scene etc etc) are Ten Kens.

Taking influence from the likes of Interpol, Pixies and the aforementioned Arcade Fire, Ten Kens blend them all up to create a captivating and original sound. Ten kens are dark and haunting, with loud, reckless guitars and creative, meandering song structures that really hold the listener.

Ten Kens’ self titled debut album is due to be released in September on FatCat Records and promises to start creating ripples beyond their home town. The album is a brooding monster of conflict and passion. Singer Dan Workman chops and changes from soothing vocal chords to Radioheadesque wails via pained spoken words. Tracks flit between mock happy pop with scrappy guitars to wailing anti anthems which build and build into a crashing crescendo of battered instruments. To put it simply, Ten Kens are exciting, refreshing and deserve, nay demand, your full, unwavering attention.

Words: Gavin Williams

Wave Machines

• MySpace

Filtering through the cracks, Wave Machines are finally making impact after bobbing around the art-rock pool for the last year. The Liverpudlian line up comprise of four mask wearing lads that despite the slight Michael Myers demeanour, what they lack in stab happy mentality (phew..) gives us rhythmic tickling thrill.

Just at the beginning of summer we were given a taste of their raw pixilated sound in single “I Go I Go I Go” but we were left cursing with only three tracks on their MySpace to find fulfilment in. But through these four songs we get a snippet of the diversity of Wave Machines. ‘Punk Spirit’ pays tribute to brooding guitar and lyrics “where’s my punk spirit? ...when I need it?” and serene ‘Dead Houses’ welcomes a crisp clarinet solo to merge into a synthesizer disco.  Their harmonic singing does anything but represent the “Scouse” accent, which at times drips an asexual distortion in ‘The Greatest Escape We Ever Made’.

Already Wave Machines are removed from the standard four-piece; their responsibilities in the band are a music mouthful. Vocalist; Tim Bruzon plays guitar, keyboard and drum machine, Guitarist; Carl Brown gets involved with percussion, vocals and the keys, Drummer; Vidar Norheim keeps it simple joining in with vocals and malletkat while Bassist; James Walsh goes creativity galore playing synth-bass, percussion, clarinet, ukulele (plus!) vocals.

Wave Machines' soft vocals and honest lyrics disguise their predatory approach to music technology; once unappreciated yet now ready to pounce on the music world.

Words: Gemma Dempster
Photography: Simon Gross

If that's not enough, watch some of these guys' videos here!