LIVE REVIEW - Colour Me Wednesday / Perkie / James Choice & The Bad Decisions / Milk Crimes / Exit Earth @ Wharf Chambers, 01/04/2016

Since the Cockpit last shut its doors in 2014, multiple venues in Leeds have popped up, rushing to fill the void and offer their own take on how to represent the local scene. With The Key Club snapping up most pop-punk acts, and Temple of Boom grabbing most touring hardcore bands, it’s up to Wharf Chambers to be the heart of the DIY-punk scene in Leeds. Tonight, as the latest in Wharf Chamber’s Scene Better Days series of gigs, two tour packages come together for a snapshot of the UK’s vibrant DIY scene. Whilst Perkie and James Choice & The Bad Decisions are two weeks into a three week tour across mainland Europe and the UK, Colour Me Wednesday and Milk Crimes are just ramping up on the second date of their tour.

Harrison Rimmer - C

The next time someone asks me life in York is like, I'm gonna tell them to go check out Harrison Rimmer. He's been kicking about in the vibrant York singer/songwriter scene for a few years now. C is his third EP, and was recorded piecemeal over the course of 2015, with Rimmer playing all the instruments on it. And, surprisingly for an artist located in a small town in the North of England, it comes across sounding like it was birthed in the heartland of America, soaring acoustic guitars, organs and driving rhythms. But I guess it exposes the contradictions of my hometown pretty nicely; it's a city with no high rises, where you can slip down a side street and be mistaken for falling into the sixteenth century, or walk for an hour in one direction and find yourself in the countryside by accident. It feels like an outpost in the middle of the Moors and Dales, so I guess that's where the small-town Americana feel comes from, as well as the inner city angst that Rimmer captures perfectly in his distinct voice. It's the perfect backdrop for this EP. So let's dive in eh?

Xilla - You Crawl

The 'nu-grunge' revival that's been kicking off around the UK is a bit of a misnomer. Bands like Fizzy Blood and Dinosaur Pile-Up take more from fuzzin' up the power chord pop of 90s alt-rock bands like Weezer and Presidents Of The United States Of America, rather than following in the footsteps of the intricate, sludge style riffs that Alice In Chains and Soundgarden managed to compose so easily. Birmingham band Xilla may label themselves as progressive rock, but on their debut single You Crawl, they come across as spiritual successors to the slower and more driving style of grunge that the Big Seattle Four popularised.

ROMP - Departure From Venus

There's this style of US indie-punk that has definitely been on the high rise in the recent years, coming out of a number of DIY scenes in various states. Bands like The Front Bottoms, Tiger's Jaw and PUP have gained international recognition with their mixture of indie lyrical wit and distorted, playful instrumentation. Sleater Kinney returned last year with a No Cities To Love, a great album that just reinforced how influential they have been on the alternative music scene in the last two decades. Scranton's Petal released one of my favourite albums of last year. And bands like RVIVR, Wavves and Iron Chic have embraced this new direction, making their aggressive punk rock fun more appealing to a wider audience, whilst still staying true to their punk DIY-integrity. Into this scene come New Jersey band ROMP with their debut LP Departure From Venus. And let me tell you this, ROMP are fun. Departure To Venus is an energetic and exciting listen, full of indie-pop shine, shimmering keyboards, crunchy guitars and pounding rhythms. But below the pop sheen, Departure To Venus also has a deep, thoughtful and challenging lyrical narrative that adds a real sense of maturity to the band's compositions.

Camel Walk - The Wheel Deal

My favourite novel is Mark Z. Danielewski's House Of Leaves, a fearful meta-fictional tale about how the pursuit of knowledge and truth is ultimately a vacuous and terrifying journey into the self, revealing a nihilism that reflects upon the emptiness of existence. In its fiercely resistant attempts at being discovered, its active rejection of any meaning the reader may impart upon it, the book twists and turns, snarlingly forcing the reader to start examining themselves, redefining the relationship between text and reader.

Camel Walk's The Wheel Deal also has nothing really going for it at its core, but instead of this being something negative, it's instead super positive and awesome and happy. And, where House of Leaves breaks down the fourth wall between the novel and the reader in a violent manner, The Wheel Deal also tries to break this boundary, by just being really up-front and honest about the fact that it's, well, not really going to blow your ass off. But in a good way. It's a funny, earnest and experimental record that invites the listener in under the pretence of there maybe being something a bit deeper to it, even though at its core there's not really a lot of substance.

Kamikaze Girls - Black Coffee (Track Review)

Hearts & Souls were a mainstay on the Leeds alternative circuit for five years, playing their unique styling of grunge-tinged pop-punk for crowds in support of Twin Atlantic, Army of Freshmen and My Passion. However, it took a name change to Kamikaze Girls, and a stripping down to a two piece, for the pure fuzz fury to really unleash the pure potential of their sound. With their songs being released on Spotify and available for streaming on various websites recently, I took the opportunity to revisit their last single.

Released in late 2015 as a lead single from their upcoming debut album, Black Coffee is the sound of Kamikaze Girls embracing their new noise, suggesting a move away from the effects laden alternative rock of their previous cassette tape The Girl Gang Sessions, towards a heavy, fuzz driven, feedback laden slab of powerful alternative rock. With multiple guitar creating feedback in a way that would make Kurt Cobain jealous, and Conor Dawson's powerful drumming underpinning the entire track with a sense of urgency, the repetitive Kinks-lite riff of the chorus gives way to a monstrous chorus. Singer and guitarist Lucinda Livingstone's powerful and repeated plea of "without you, I'd sleep forever" about our favourite caffeine carrying beverage gives the chorus a powerful vocal hook to rally around. Each repetition becomes more howled, more desperate, more demanding, before erupting into a gut wrenchingly powerful scream. But there's still plenty in their sound that hearkens back to their previous melodic offerings, from quick clean guitar breaks to the initial chorus-laden effects verse riff. This is loud, and this is chaotic, but it's also controlled, making the moments where the band engage in noisy feedback or screamed vocals meaningful and more powerful. If Black Coffee is an indication of the shape the debut Kamikaze Girl LP is going to take, then it's a very, very, very good sign. Join the girl gang, and get ready for it to drop.

Released Oct 21, 2015
http://kamikazegirls.bandcamp.com/track/black-coffee

Sink Alaska - Battle Lines From Better Times

There's a riot happening in Scotland, and it's one that sounds reminiscent of the south of California rather than the northern reaches of Britain. Fuelled largely by the impact of the prolific Make-That-A-Take records, the burgeoning Scottish DIY punk scene has grown from strength to strength, with constant releases and compilations showing that punk is thriving in Scotland. The most recent offering from Make-It-A-Take is the fourth EP from Glaswegian punks, Sink Alaska. Right from the title of Battle Lines From Better Times, Sink Alaska set their goals of producing a well crafted melodic punk record that harkens back to 90's melodic punk rock, whilst lyrically reflecting on the maturation of every band of that era's worst nightmare - *gasp* growing up *gasp*.