WILL VARLEY NEW VIDEO 'SEVEN DAYS' // PREORDER 'SPIRIT OF MINNIE' OUT 9 FEBRUARY 2018

Will Varley has revealed ‘Seven Days’, the latest track from forthcoming fifth studio album Spirit Of Minnie, released 9 February 2018 through Xtra Mile Recordings. Preorder on white or red vinyl, CD and download. 

Propelled by Varley’s burnished vocals & an innate gift for relatable lyricism, the track arrives alongside an animated music video created by Varley himself. It's almost a nostlagic callback to his video for fan favourite 'Weddings & Wars' - watch it below.

Compelled by the track’s affirmation of life’s fleeting, milestone moments, Varley has created the monochrome pixel art animation which accompanies the release of ‘Seven Days’, influenced by the classic 8-bit dos games of his own 90s childhood.

Following 2016’s much-praised Kingsdown Sundown and a sold out show at London’s Union Chapel, ‘Spirit Of Minnie’ marks a distinct change of direction for the singer songwriter, being the first time he has recorded with a full backing band. Produced by Cameron McVey (Massive Attack, Portishead, Neneh Cherry), the new album expands on the pared back musical palette of Varley’s previous sound, all the while retaining his gift for painterly, affirming and immediate lyric writing.

Aided by McVey’s nuanced, widescreen production and the warm cascading sound of his new band, ‘Spirit Of Minnie’, straddles Will's sound and style from past to present. Counting the likes of Billy Bragg, Valerie June and Frank Turner as his fans, and with tours scheduled across Europe and America, the young songwriter from Deal seems poised for a huge 2018.

UK HEADLINE TOUR (see dates and grab tickets for all Will Varley dates on our gigs page)

JANUARY
30 Birmingham @ 02 Institute 3
31 Nottingham @ Rescue Rooms

FEBRUARY
01 Leeds @ Brudenell Social Club
02 Edinburgh @ La Belle Angele
03 Manchester @ Club Academy
06 Southampton @ 1865
07 Cardiff @ The Globe
08 Bristol @ Trinity Centre
09 London @ Shepherds Bush Empire

Spirit Of Minnie tracklisting

1. All Those Stars
2. Seven Days
3. Screenplays
4. Breaking The Bread
5. Statues
6. Spirit Of Minnie
7. Let It Slide
8. Postman
9. Insect

facebook.com/willvarleymusic/ / Twitter: @WillVarleyMusic / www.willvarley.com

GET CAPE. WEAR CAPE. FLY. - WATCH LIVE VIDEO FOR NEW SONG 'VHS FOREVER' // NEW ALBUM 'YOUNG ADULT' OUT 19 JANUARY 2018

One week away from the release of Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly's new album Young Adult – out 19 January 2018 – Sam Duckworth has released a live video for 'VHS Forever'. The album track will be available instantly to those who preorder the album on CD, vinyl or download.

Ignited by an irresistible three-chord riff, this retro-futuristic bottle rocket of fizzing synthesisers and beatific brass is just one of many stratospheric highs to be found on the first Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly album in four years.

A treasure trove of golden couplets and diamond one-liners, ‘VHS Forever’ sees Duckworth offering his unique perspective on the shear nuttiness of consumer trends in the here and now. He says:

"'VHS Forever' is probably the most absurd of the songs on the album. It’s a little bit of fun really. So much of the music that I’ve made previously has been quite heavy and quite political. I just wanted to write a song that highlighted the ridiculousness of feeling like all eras are being relived and rehashed at once, perpetual nostalgia. With one foot in pub rock (especially Dr Feelgood) and another in Britpop, I wanted to write a three-chord pub rock song that was fun and didn’t take itself too seriously.

For me it’s odd because now I’m 31 years old, and the fashion of the current age looks exactly the same as the fashion of the age when I was growing up. Being an artist that’s been around for a long time a lot of people say to me: ‘I used to remember you from my primary school’ and I just think, well I’m talking to adults who remember me from their childhood, when in some ways I still feel like I’m still a child myself. [In ‘VHS Forever’] I’m just trying to wrap it all up into a nice little bubble in a way that doesn’t feel too heavy.”  

New single ‘VHS Forever’ sits alongside formerly released tracks “Adults”, “Always”, “Just A Phase”, and “DNA”, all of which are available to watch / listen to now, ahead of the full album release.

Plus, to mark the release Sam Duckworth, plus a full band (the same band as featured in the ‘VHS Forever’ video) will be launching the new album with an unmissable one-off live performance at The Village Underground, London on 18th January 2018. Get your tickets here.

WILL VARLEY NEW SONG 'STATUES' // TAKEN FROM NEW ALBUM 'SPIRIT OF MINNIE' OUT 9 FEBRUARY 2018 // PREORDER NOW

Will Varley has released ‘Statues’, the latest track from his forthcoming fifth studio album Spirit Of Minnie, released February 9, 2018 through Xtra Mile Recordings. Preorder it on CD, vinyl and download.
 
Unfurling from its sparse, organ and slide guitar-backed beginnings, ‘Statues’ explores the push-pull between our past, present and future selves. Swelling to a fully-fleshed, resonant chorus which posits the idea that time is deceptively static, ‘Statues’ finds Will’s songwriting intersecting with ideas of regret and uncertainty, observed with his distinctive lightness of touch.

Following 2016’s much praised Kingsdown Sundown and a sold out show at London’s Union Chapel, ‘Spirit Of Minnie’ marks a distinct change of direction for the singer songwriter, being the first time he has recorded with a full backing band. Produced by Cameron McVey (Massive Attack, Portishead, Neneh Cherry), the new album expands on the pared back musical palette of Varley’s previous sound, all the while retaining his gift for painterly, affirming and immediate lyric writing.
 
After a run of UK shows the album will come out on the same day he plays his biggest headline show to date at the iconic 02 Shepherds Bush Empire. See all dates on our Gigs page.

UK HEADLINE TOUR 2018

JANUARY 2018
30 Birmingham @ 02 Institute 3  
31 Nottingham @ Rescue Rooms

FEBRUARY 2018
01 Leeds @ Brudenell Social Club
02 Edinburgh @ La Belle Angele
03 Manchester @ Club Academy
06 Southampton @ 1865
07 Cardiff @ The Globe
08 Bristol @ Trinity Centre
09 London @ O2 Shepherds Bush Empire

facebook.com/willvarleymusic / Twitter: @WillVarleyMusic / http://www.willvarley.com/

DUCKING PUNCHES NEW VIDEO 'SMOKING SPOT' // FROM NEW ALBUM 'ALAMORT' OUT 16 FEBRUARY 2018 // PREORDER NOW

Ducking Punches have released their latest video for 'Smoking Spot', another new song taken from forthcoming album Alamort. The new album is out 16 February 2018. Preorder here.

'Smoking Spot' is a dizzying thrill-a-second rush of splintered guitars, cascading percussion and chest-pounding vocals. With a tangible yearning to break free rippling through the track, the song has its head and heart possessed with notions of escapism. As filmed at one of the band's own old haunts and headspace hideaways, the accompanying music video offers an intimate reflection of the song's lyrical themes. Watch 'Smoking Spot' below:

Opening up about the new single, plus the touching tribute to a close friend of the band's hidden within the video, Dan Allen of Ducking Punches said:

"This is a song about a private place I have with my buddies, where we've made some of the brightest memories. We'd often drive out there if someone was having a bad time and take in the expansive world around us, realising how small we all are, which in turn would alleviate the pain of our problems. It's humbling and grounding at the same time. We shot the video and let off a bunch of fireworks at one of these spaces. The fireworks that grace tons of our videos act as a tribute to my closest friend that we lost. Smoking spot is for friendship, for love and for those shared burdens on tired shoulders."
 
Around the release of the album, the band will also be playing a series of live dates including a launch party at London’s The Lexington (16 Feb) and an un-missable hometown show at The Arts Centre in Norwich (17 Feb). 

Catch Ducking Punches at the following dates:

FEBRUARY 2018
16 London @ The Lexington
17 Norwich @ The Arts Centre

APRIL 2018
27 Bolton @ The Alma
28 Shelby @ Pop Punk Pile UpFestival.
 
MAY 2018
05 D-Deutzen, Germany @ Rock am Kuhteich
25 Hamburg, Germany @ Gängeviertel festival
26 Braunschweig, Germany @ B58

JUNE 2018
16 Bavaria, Germany @ Indie Festival

JULY 2018
13-15 Tábor, Czech Republic @ Mighty Sounds

With more to be added.

Ducking Punches are: 
 
Dan Allen  // Pete Wright // Marcus Gooda // Ryan Hillier

facebook.com/duckingpunchesuk / Twitter: @duckingpunches / duckingpunches.bandcamp.com
 

DUCKING PUNCHES NEW ALBUM 'ALAMORT' OUT 16 FEBRUARY 2018 // LISTEN TO NEW SINGLE 'SOBRIETY' NOW // 2018 ALBUM RELEASE & LIVE DATES

East Anglian alt-rockers Ducking Punches release their fourth studio album Alamort on 16 February 2018. 

Preorder on CD, vinyl and download.

Fresh from its stripped down live version for the XMROB1 Truck session, the full-band studio version of 'Sobriety' is here for you to hear right now. 

Speaking about close-to-the-bone subject matter that inspired the track, Dan Allen said:

"Sobriety is a song that outlines a lot of my addictive personalities, something myself and a bunch of my friends have struggled with over the years."

With the album's title taken from an archaic term meaning 'half dead from exhaustion', Alamort offers a solemn pretext to the nerve-shattering lifestyle and backbreaking work ethic that formed the backdrop of this often brutally honest record. Allen said:

"Alamort seemed a fitting title for what myself and the band had been through recently. Some of these songs are frighteningly honest but it has been really therapeutic to write. Themes of the album range from crippling self-doubt to death, friendship, love, witch-hunters, addiction and hope."

Given the intense circumstances and frenzied emotions that occupied the writing process, it is perhaps unsurprising that the sound of this record finds the band meddling with musically darker arts. Casting off any former folk associations, on Alamort Ducking Punches veer wildly into post-punk and hardcore territories with a resultant sound more daredevil than anything that they've produced before.

Alamort was tracked and mixed at Crooked Rain Studio in Leeds by Bob Cooper (Nai Harvest / Citizen / The Orielles) and further mastered at Sonic Iguana Studio by punk-rock guru Mass Giorgini (Anti-Flag / Rise Against).

Tracklisting

1. With Unfounded Hope
2. Smoking Spot
3. Distant Shadows
4. Missing You Is Killing Me
5. The Club With No Name
6. Witches of Valais
7. Sobriety
8. Face the Faxe
9. I Ruin Everything
10. I Was Uncomfortable

Around the release of the album, the band will also be playing a series of live dates including a launch party at London's Lexington on 16 February and an unmissable hometown show at The Arts Centre in Norwich on 17 February.

Catch Ducking Punches at the following dates in 2018 with plenty more to come. Keep checking our Gigs page:

FEBRUARY

16 London @ The Lexington
17 Norwich @ The Arts Centre

APRIL

27 Bolton @ The Alma
28 Shelby @ Pop Punk Pile-Up Festival

MAY

05 Bergisch, Germany @ Rock am Kuhteich
25 Hamburg, Germany @ Gängeviertel Festival
26 Braunschweig @ B58

JUNE

16 Bavaria, Germany @ Indie Festival

JULY
13–15 Tábor, Czech Republic @ Mighty Sounds

facebook.com/duckingpunchesuk / Twitter: @duckingpunches

THE RPMS RETURN WITH NEW SINGLE 'YOUR GHOST' OUT NOW // EXPANDED LINEUP - BIGGER SOUND // UK 2017 TOUR DATES

Straight off the back of a string of summer gigs and festivals up and down the country, The RPMs are back and all revved up with a bigger sound on latest single 'Your Ghost'. It's an upbeat keyboard-driven number fusing widescreen melancholia against a classic backdrop of modern indie pop. Buy the single here.

The RPMs released their second EP Agents Of Change in June 2017 through Xtra Mile Recordings. The release revealed a band getting to grips with coming of age in an increasingly volatile world with the band offering their take on the hold of social media upon modern life.

Fuelled by the support they have received from national radio on singles from the EP 'Oh My God' and 'Things I Forgot To Do’, the band is continuing to evolve their sound. They have always been about writing very hooky pop songs wrapped up in an indie package, but they are more and more about making you dance too. They've never been afraid to embrace pop music. They wanted to create a sound that was the sum of all their influences, old and contemporary, mixing electronic music with live instruments. With that they decided to bring keyboards and lead guitar in to liberate the songwriting as well as Gethin Pearson (Mallory Knox / Charli XCX / JAWS), a talented and creative producer from Wales, onboard to open up new possibilities with the aim to create something with a polished production and huge melodies and choruses.

With a fresh single out the band are gearing up to hit the road running with new tour dates, so keep your eyes and ears peeled as the band road test new material at a venue near you…

Catch them live at the following dates (or look at our Gigs page):

NOVEMBER 2017
25 Leeds @ Kazoopa Festival
30 London @ Sebright Arms - Abbie McCarthy's Good Karma Club

DECEMBER 2017
01 Manchester @ The Castle Hotel
02 Birmingham @ Sunflower Lounge
03 Glasgow @ Garage (Attic Bar)
07 Brighton @ The Hope and Ruin
09 Southampton @ Heartbreakers
10 Guildford @ The Boileroom

The RPMs are:
Jack Valero - guitar, vocals
Miguel Cosme - bass guitar, vocals
Callum James - drums, vocals
Ollie Summers - lead guitar
Chris Bowden -  keyboards  
 
facebook.com/TheRPMsOfficial / Twitter: @The_RPMs / www.the-rpms.co.uk