Another year, another twelve months when hundreds of bands have been showcased on Live4ever via reviews, New Tunes Guides, interviews and Presents features.
Here, our editor Dave Smith has picked out 20 of the best Indie songs for you to revisit or perhaps discover for the first time, be it the ‘naive enthusiasm’ of Wild Smiles, the ‘raucous, foot-to-the-floor, blink-and-you’ll-miss singles’ of Slaves, or the ‘sense of joy, of wonderment’ that underpins Trampolene‘s ‘I Don’t Know‘. Tomorrow, Trampolene will be talking us through ‘I Don’t Know’s origins and their plans for 2015.
Don’t forget, you can catch up with our Essential Listening 2014 series so far at this link. The final installment, The Albums, is coming next week.
Live4ever’s Essential Listening series is here to share, not preach! An interactive celebration of rock and roll where your favourites can contribute. Make sure your stand-out videos of the year get a clearly deserved mention by leaving a comment below.
20: The Wands – ‘The Dawn’
“‘The Dawn’, and its video, were released online in early April, in tandem with announcements of two soon-to-follow shows in London. The track ensures their gigs are, for a variety of reasons, well worth attending – and not just for the most devout psych-rock followers. Worth attending because they appear to have interpreted and recycled some of the many different trippy tones that make The Beatles ‘Love‘ album a production masterclass, and because they managed to do that in just over four minutes.”
19: The Tapestry – ‘Right As Rain’
“Finished off nicely on the last show in Oxford where we played at the O2 and then travelled down to London to play our own show the same night. Liam Gallagher was there, watched our set and he was backstage with us too after. That was a great end to a week on the road. A true gent.” That was The Tapestry talking to us back in 2013 – fast forward a year and the progression was clear on ‘Right As Rain’; steeped in Britpop melody but rounded off with a sublime change of pace conclusion which takes it off in a different direction entirely. New single ‘Infatuation’/’Look Out’ is due on January 26th next year.
18: Desert Mountain Tribe – ‘Take a Ride’
Desert Mountain Tribe were a highlight of the March 15th edition of the New Tunes Guide after ’emerging from London’s cultural undergrowth’ in late 2012, as they put it. Jonty Balls (guitar/vocals) and brothers Philipp (bass) and Felix Jahn (drums) have since been busy sharing the stage with the likes of Damo Suzuki, The Cult of Dom Keller, The Lucid Dream, Wall of Death and The Telescopes, and recorded their debut EP immersed in the unlikely surroundings Shaken Oak Farm in Oxfordshire with Brett Orrison of The Black Angels.
17: Broncho – ‘Class Historian’
They always say the best make it seem easy, but should it sound this easy? Should “Dahdahdoodoodoo” repeat, repeat, make for one of the year’s most ridiculously catchy choruses? Well why not when it’s achieved as adroitly as Broncho on ‘Class Historian’, one of the stand-outs of the equally marvellous ‘Just Enough Hip To Be Woman’ album. The band were a highlight with ‘What’, another cut from their second LP, on our New Tunes Guide just before it was released through Dine Alone in September.
16: GANGS – ‘Daisy’
“Punchy and aggressive, but with a soft and fluffy underbelly, the ‘Back To School’ EP offers an exciting set of songs for lovers of classic British indie. Opener ‘Daisy’ may have plenty of bite, while ‘Young Employment’ licks you all over lasciviously, but it’s the incongruous approach to music that makes the GANGS sound so interesting, what with feisty love songs and lush political diatribes, it manages to constantly surprise. With the garage rock staccato of bands like The Lyres and the lyrical verve of The Clash, there is much fun to be had from these four powerful tracks. A truly swift and effective attack.”
15: Wild Smiles – ‘Girlfriend’
“Marked by drums that bang away like naïve enthusiasm and a guitar that pirouettes through a haze of noise and fuzz, their style is in one piece even though their influences seem fragmented. What John Holmstrom described as ‘Bubblegum Heavy Metal’, epitomised by the Ramones, is perhaps also apt for Ben Cook and brothers Chris and Joe Peden’s straight-sailing approach. Early US punk being the groundwork, there’s some garage and grunge in there too, which – although rooted in the 60s and 90s respectively – is reminiscent of the wave of late 2000s UK bands like the Kaiser Chiefs. Though their music is dubbed ‘indie’, it shares a similar connection to the past.”
14: White Reaper – ‘Cool’
White Reaper are fun. ‘Cool’ is fun. The video looks like bloody good fun. In other words, it all celebrates the joy of the single, something which used to be just as rock and roll as a 90-minute concept album, something which is all too often overlooked nowadays and something which is just about central to this list. So what better reason to have the track at the tip of our New Tunes Guide in July as Tony Esposito (vocals/guitar) and twin brothers Nick (drums) and Sam Wilkerson (bass) released their six-song, self-titled debut EP.
13: Mazes – ‘Salford’
On their third album, lo-fi trio Mazes made the New Tunes Guide with ‘Salford’ during the summer, taken from ‘Wooden Aquarium’ and apparently paying homage to a northern British city which couldn’t be much further removed from the secluded, upstate New York studio where their LP was recorded with Parquet Courts producer Jonathan Schenke. Singer and guitarist Jack Cooper remembered: “The studio was completely isolated; an idyllic place to make a record. Green, remote, backwatery, fewer distractions.”
12: F A N S – ‘All This Time’
With the Matt Peel-produced debut single ‘All This Time’, F A N S proudly wore the My Blood Valentine, Jesus & Mary Chain influences on their sleeve, and were a highlight of our New Tunes Guide in April. They move quick; having only formed around a year earlier, the trio are now on another single entitled ‘Another Way’ and have just completed a stint on the road supporting their fellow Essential Listening 2014 featured band Broncho on dates in Manchester, Brighton and London. A debut EP is promised for early next year. Phew.
11: …And The Hangnails – ‘You & I’
“The influences are apparent in ‘You & I’: 2 minutes is enough to start the demolition of the wall of white noise, bleeding from delayed guitar stutters mistaken as keyboards at first, but cut like steel strings to pure teenage skin, still punk and personal. The drums, too, never lose sight of the finishing line, short it may be, but they crash and collide into every surface, pummeling and pushing the chaotic guitar through a filter set to do nothing except unleash the heaviest and most emotive of cathartic experiences.”
10: Spookyland – ‘Rock and Roll Weakling’
“Starting off with a Dylan-esque harmonica and romantic acoustic guitar, the first seconds of ‘Rock and Roll Weakling’ set the tone for lead singer Marcus Gordon’s tough, self-involved melancholy. His teen angsty voice sounds like a worn-out cassette played through the plastic wrapping of a cigarette box, and manages to carry emotion as empathetically as Placebo’s Brian Molko. The badass touch – maybe best shown through the emptiness in Gordon’s vague eyes and facial blood spat at the camera on the track’s official video – is refreshingly welcome in an abundance of artists who can’t keep their cool while wringing their hearts.”
9: Medicine Men – ‘Show What You’re Made Of’
“‘Show What You’re Made Of’ offers so much more than comparisons to many other tripped out, dance-punk, surf-pop artists could. More in the sense of the nature of the song, always fun and inventive in the way the glacier synthesizer orchestras turn angelic the more they levitate into ethereal realms of madness. More in the way the funky, grooving bass-line walks into every wall of noise with every intention of breaking through it, and in the way it still manages to come across as an absolute banger, full of cocksure strut and rocking gusto.”
8: Slaves – ‘Hey’
Slaves have spent most of 2014 putting out ridiculously raucous, foot-to-the-floor, blink-and-you’ll-miss singles, enough to land them a place on the longlist for the BBC’s Sound Of poll for next year. Back in March, we sat down with the duo at South By Southwest when they talked us through the blueprint for the band. “I think this is the band that we deep down always wanted to be in,” Laurie Vincent said. “I’ve always loved punk music. I’ve always loved the attitude. I’ve always been searching for someone else to be in that band. Once we finally started making music together, we both realized that this was the style that we’ve been looking for.”
7: Aaron Keylock – ‘Medicine Man’
“Keylock’s new single ‘Medicine Man’ is underpinned by a ridiculously confident vocal, quivering and afflicting in the grandest blues tradition, driven by a guitar solo of the kind which we just don’t hear enough of anymore. In sound, he’s as authentic as you could ever wish for; ‘Medicine Man’ would have even Keith Richards rifling back through his blues collection searching desperately for the lost fifties 45 this surely must be, such is its immediacy, such is its sense of having been around forever.”
6: Spring King – ‘Better Man’
“Reminiscent of the jolly indie spirit of bands like The Fratellis, lead singer Tarek Musa’s jubilant ‘youhooos‘ on ‘Better Man’ rhyme happily with the ‘knewheeews’. They are backed by steady strumming of the untweaked, garage-kind and – if winter wasn’t approaching – you’d want to go out and play. The band, whose 10-track demo was washed up by the mighty Internet in late 2013, have definitely found a name that fits their music. Like the first rays of sun in the year, their sound is mischievously friendly.”
5: Benjamin Booker – ‘Violent Shiver’
It was a live version of ‘Have You Seen My Son?’ which led our New Tunes Guide back in October, just after New Orleans songwriter Benjamin Booker had made an appearance on Later…With Jools Holland that week. And it’s the track which he so impressively performed on Later…, ‘Violent Shiver’, which makes our end of year list, showcasing a lilt not a million miles away from Jim James of My Morning Jacket and taken from his debut, self-titled album which was released on Rough Trade.
4: Holy Esque – ‘Silences’
Holy Esque released this right back at the start of 2014 and, frankly, haven’t made much of a peep since. There has been more singles, live dates and more recently a confirmed appearance at SXSW 2015, but the album still alludes us. In the appropriately entitled ‘Silences’ though, the band are doing more than most. It’s thoughtful, weighty, even dark, and is carried along with the emotionally charged, bone shuddering vocals of Pat Hynes. Like all the best friends worth having, Holy Esque don’t say much, but when they do speak, everything should stop and everyone should listen.
3: Dry The River – ‘Gethsemane’
“Liddle’s poignantly, near-shrieking vocals add further pertinence to a solemn account of death and betrayal on the single ‘Gethsemane‘, providing a segment of slow burning plucked acoustic splendour which showcases the band at their contrastingly stripped back best, harnessing the penetrating wit of the religious subject matter which draws on the eponymous garden in Jerusalem where Jesus was said to have been arrested before crucifixion, while ‘Everlasting Light‘ arrives towards the latter stages, offering another stand out which comprises arguably the greatest balance of understated verse mixed with ever bolstering melodies.”
2: Little Comets – ‘Little Italy’
“Any band that releases three EPs within a year should be pretty satisfied with themselves. In fact, it would be considered a fairly bumper year. But to be the band that released three truly fascinating EPs in a year well, that is to be the band who can rest up very happy at year’s end. And here sat (proverbially at least) with their feet all over the furniture are Little Comets, surely as smug and satisfied as anyone in 2014. Little Comets appear to have undergone a complete overhaul from their original releases, returning with a mature and intriguing sound. This is complex music designed to entrance and beguile.”
1: Trampolene – ‘I Don’t Know’
“Currently, Trampolene’s biggest strength is that something you pray they keep hold of for as long as possible; that lack of pretension, that sense of joy, of wonderment, at being in a band on the brink of their dreams. ‘I Don’t Know’ especially careers around in all directions and thumps you in the gut like kids playing Bulldog at dinner time, full of innocent abandon and to hell with the consequences. It’s still just about the best single we’ve heard all year. More recent cut ‘Newcastle Brown Love Song’ does betray a touch of fragility behind the bluster though, Jones’ vocals cracking through gentle piano accompaniment, mournfully pouring affection on the mundane.”
