Usually I just write what I think, but if I had a point-scoring system this new single from Bristol-based indie-pop outfit Chandra would tick every box. It’s called Heaven on Earth; if Belinda Carlise made it, Chandra rocked it!
Punchy, tick. Find that perfect hook, tick. Subtly righteous narrative, tick. Balance pithy narrative with equal amount of carefree fun, tick. Rock out, double-tick! It’s got the no worries in the face of adversity attitude of Three Little Birds, the youthful carefree tenet of Supergrass’s Alright, the drive of Crash by The Primitives, and the punch of The Beastie Boys fighting for their right to party. Yet, it’s august, styled, and definitively Chandra.
We’ve not heard from Chandra since 2024 when we fondly reviewed his debut EP Lifted, so it’s great to feature him again, as there’s nothing to criticise about this cracking single, which means my work here is done! It’s raining outside, who cares, plug this blast of indie-punk-pop onto your playlist and cease your worrying!
Friday evening in the liveliest of Devizes pubs, The Three Crowns, with Devizes best upcoming band, Nothing Rhymes With Orange pulling a two hour set out of the hat like a magician pulls a rabbit out of theirs. Surely a perfect match and an unmissable occasion; but, ah, shoot, did I do a cidered-up speech? There’s vague recollections of it this morning. Please accept my apologies!!
Something of a homecoming for the boys, with recent gigs at Bristol’s Louisiana, Bath’s Komedia, and the Gunners in London, and forthcoming dates ranging from the New Forest Rag-City Festival to Trowbridge Festival, only returning here for FullTone. They’re getting the bookings, gig bunnies of Devizes know why.
Changing from Saturday’s usual live music slot for the Three Crowns to a Friday may’ve reduced footfall a smidgen, but just as my arm was twisted, many sought the rare opportunity to see how they’re fairing in the fame, for free. Their devoted Gen Z fan base front and centre, millennial regulars taking up the support trench and anyone older in reserve, save for a few breaking rank, illustrating to those younger how it was done in their day; it was a mixed bunch but plentiful and hospitable, there only to enjoy themselves, and you know NRWO will deliver this.
The date change was to fit in an audition gig on Saturday for the Pilton Stage, a subsidiary of Glastonbury Festival, of which we wish them the very best of luck. In fact, I did wish them such while they were tuning, whereupon frontman Elijah Easton acknowledged precautions to preserve his voice for tomorrow’s big day, and I looked doubtful at him replying, “yeah, right, that’s not going to happen, is it?!” This contest today is one tough cookie, crossing fingers and toes may not be enough, but come what may, as I believe I said in my slobbering speech, this hometown loves and supports these lads, ergo, they wouldn’t halfheartedly perform to them least anyone.
Because, and here’s the deal breaker; with over a year on a pedestal, this youthful quartet of indie-punk-pop still revels in the spotlight and this jubilant enthusiasm reflects onto an audience and reverberates throughout. It makes for a positive atmosphere, a benchmark for a memorable gig. And that is exactly what happened last night at the Three Crowns, a pub usually encouraging acts to perform covers but needn’t for this gig, as the passion these boys deliver has their fans here singing back their originals to them as if they were classic covers. Especially when the Greggs steak bake falls apart.
It was a glorious occasion, the tremendous night I never doubted. Nothing Rhymes With Orange open a two-hour set, time was on their hands to play through every single they’ve produced to date, maybe try some new ones, and covers made the remainder. Blink 182, Kings of Leon, and particularly Arctic Monkeys got the Orange makeover, and there were some especially interesting smooth ambient breaks teetering on prog-rock. Yet it is rare even with a two hour set, for these boys to lower the bpm; it’s uptempo yet paced, but nonchalant rather than all out fury, therefore of universal appeal.
A telltale sign of said passion for their labour came at the finale, when the band didn’t want it to end anymore than the fans screaming for more. It was lead guitarist Fin Anderson-Farquhar who looked at me as I tried to fanboy my way to the microphone, that they had run out of songs to play. Therefore it was up the band to, tongue-in-cheek, knock up the archetypal Oasis cover.
I don’t know what I needed to say so desperately, but I felt I needed to say something about wishing them the best of luck for today’s audition, to rouse the crowd and let them hear how the local fans support them, because they thoroughly deserve it in my book. Then, probably due to fatigue at an exhausting show of epic proportions, they idiotically left me alone on the microphone!! It was there where I thought I’d convey my compassion to local blues heroes the Hoax over thirty years ago, because I believe that was a Devizes phenomenon then, and we are witnessing the next right now.
Elijah, Fin, bassist Sam Briggs, drummer Lui Venables, are tighter as a band than ever before, as they journey to college together, they take with them a comradeship, and they take a shared passion for their music, and it is something which continues to improve; last night proved that on their hometurf, superbly.
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I’m not wrong, though, am I? Never without that euphoric retrospective tinge, Atari Pilot I liken to Talk in Code, for swinging indie poptastic hooks and unrivalled energy, yet with undertones of sonic soundscapes akin to post-rave dance music, of the Chemical Brothers and Daft Punk et al.
This one certainly doesn’t skip on it,though its theme reminds me of Don Henly, and is equally as passionately delivered. From Jerry Keller to Taylor Swift, summer may be a common topic, but winter songs only hark on about….whoa there, don’t even say the C-word until late November, I thank you! And anyhoo, all the seasons are given a mention in this breezy pay-what-you-like track, save spring. What have you got against spring, Atari Pilot? Don’t make me get all Zebedee on you, I happen to like spring!
Check this out, before it pisses down! Catch them at the Beehive at Swindon Shuffle!
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Daydream Runaways have released their first single for a while, and it’s got superpowers!
Being a little over four years old, Devizine has grown up with a number of young bands and acts on the local circuit and it’s always nice to hear back from them. I overuse the word “matured” to describe the progression they’ve made since we first met, but it’s not a word I’d use today, as part Swindon-based part Devizes-based indie-pop fourpiece Daydream Runaways, release their first single since their amalgamation EP Dreamlands in November 2020.
Benjamin Heathcote, Nathaniel Heathcote, Cameron Bianchi and Bradley Kinsey promote the new single, Butterflies with images of them head locked into golden age American comics. I spammed the social media post with a selfie of me reading an antique Dandy, one nearly as antique as me!
It’s not the first time the band have used imagery conveying what some might deem nerdy or adolescent pop culture references, from childlike depictions of fairgrounds, cuddly toy mascots etc, and though, in some ways the retrospective nods to the eighties power-pop of a John Hughes soundtrack and youthful themes of unrequited love and romantic obsession might return us to our coming-of-age era, there’s nothing technically in this new song to suggest they’ve matured necessarily, because that air of ripened quality and proficiency in their sound has been there since day-dot.
Akin to Robert Johnson, did they sell their souls to the devil at a crossroads to be, like, automatically this good?! Doubt it, it takes time and dedication, two elements really on show here.
So, I put them on a pedestal and they knock it right over, Butterflies is an absolutely awesome song, I expected nothing less. I’ve called them one of the most underrated bands around these waters, I stick by that. Again, it’s this delicate balance between sounding fresh and replicating a fond era, fused with a sturdy appetite and palpable passion which creates these eternally sublime indie-pop belters, the like I praise Talk in Code, The Dirty Smooth and the Longcoats with too. Ah, it’s like the eighties never ended, just got better, cos, as with their others, perhaps even more so with Butterflies, you could fit these on an eighty’s movie soundtrack, or Now compilation and they’d blend perfectly with the likes of Simple Minds, U2, Echo & the Bunnymen, et al.
I hope you catch my drift, Butterflies certainly is skilfully progressive, the band seem tighter than ever before, the timeless subject of unrequited obsession has been used to full efficiency, and it just works on all levels, but Daydream Runaways always had that in them, ergo it’s not worthy of the term matured. Beguiling via hook-laden layers, building and crashing drums and guitars, it drives with optimistic emotion and screams authority till the point it’s impossible to deem this anything other than anthemic.
It’s also embracingly DIY, sticking with their indie roots, they release Butterflies completely independently. Recording, mixing and mastering was the task of drummer Bradley Kinsey, and the artwork designed by frequent collaborator and friend ‘Ezra Mae Art’.
The band suggest the lonely heart theme, has a twist; the lyrics are written from “the perspective of the titular superhero, Butterfly Boy.” Wanting to write a song fit for a comic book hero, they created their own rather than “going the route of existing meta-humans from the likes of comic giants Marvel & DC.” Maybe I need to align my spidey-senses, or just give it a few more listens to see the connection, but that’s easy to do with a track so invitingly good.
Opps, near-on delayed a month due to the amount of work involved with promoting our Julia’s House album, other stuff going on, and generally slacking off in my garden with my belly hanging over my khaki shorts, I’ve a backlist of music to tell you about, hopefully, before you visualise me slacking off in the garden with my belly hanging over my khaki shorts.
To begin, Bath’s indie-pop favs, Longcoats have an official new bassist, Will Vickery. The band claim he was “a stray man we found on the street and august-rush style he could just hear the music and play it.” Proof in the pudding, I’ll double-bet ya you’ll going to love their new belter, “Get Dancing,” which is, incidentally just what we all need right now.
Will Vickery
Probably why it’s blossoming attention and airtime from the likes of BBC Bristol, Target, Soho Radio, Sheppey FM, New York’s New Visions Radio Network, and even Australia’s Valley FM, and seeing them bookings at Moles, Brighton’s Pipeline, and supporting The Rift at Swindon’s Rolleston.
Just as Pretty in Pink did, which incidentally Longcoats kindly donated to our aforementioned and plugged charity fundraising compilation, (which I’m not going to shut up about until you buy it) Get Dancing is symbolic of the band’s ability to compose such a beguiling and catchy riff it feels like it’s always been in your life after just one listen.
It’s lively, carefree, resides bopping over hopeless romantically conversing, as it says on the tin, encouraging to dance in both sound and theme. And with that, I should take heed, stop writing how great it is and just add the Spotify link so you can hear it for yourself and I can revert back to the building mountain of new music I’ve yet to explore. But rest assured, this one is a keeper, and perhaps true to the word; I should get dancing if I’m ever going to work off this belly hanging over my khaki shorts!
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