Festival Review: The Great Escape 2014 (Day Two - Friday)

The Great Escape Festival (8-10 May, Brighton) // Words: Saam Das

Following our exploits on day one at The Great Escape, we returned to windswept Brighton with renewed vigour. On day two, we took in more of The Alternative Escape, the set of unofficial gigs which runs concurrently with the main festival - providing even more exciting, new bands to catch.

Listen: Fight Like Apes - Carousel [Album Preview]

Words: Saam Das

I'm generally a tad sceptical about crowdfunding but when riotous synth poppers Fight Like Apes opted for the method to fund their forthcoming third album, I threw my money at the computer. I got emailed a brief update the other day about the record but wasn't expecting to hear a track from it so soon. Have a listen to the topsy turvy brilliance of 'Carousel' below.

Listen: Fight Like Apes - Pretty Keen On Centerfolds [New Demo]

Words: Saam Das

Boisterous Irish lot Fight Like Apes are pretty much my favourite live band. And they're more than decent on record too - their debut 'Fight Like Apes And The Mystery Of The Golden Medallion' being a particularly bouncy delight. They're upto album number three now and here's a taster, accompanying a crowdfunding campaign to help finish and market it.

Playlist: Label Love

Words: Saam Das

You'll have heard the news of the destruction of the Sony DADC distribution centre in Enfield by now - we wanted to help support the independent music labels who have lost most of their stock as a result of the rioters in London. (Independent DVD companies have also been affected - see how you can help here.) Below is a 30 minute playlist covering some of our recommendations of tracks/albums that you can purchase to support the labels.

Glastonbury: 2011 Festival Preview

Words: Saam Das

The eager amongst us may already be at Glastonbury Festival but for those who are yet to head to Somerset then these last minute recommendations for bands to see/things to do might come in handy. You may already have seen my guest blog at BBC 6Music and well, this is a variation on that theme. Hopefully with fewer typos....

The Great Escape: 2011 Festival Preview [Thursday]

Words: Saam Das

Back in 2006, not long after this blog started, I ventured down to Brighton for the first ever Great Escape festival. With over 100 bands appearing over three days, I caught acts like The Spinto Band, The Young Knives and Tapes n Tapes all in relatively tiny venues. Now, the festival's much bigger and I'm heading back.

Futuresounds 2009

So I've been away preparing my tips for 2009 (not to be confused with the [futuresounds] blog) and to be honest, I'm still not entirely sure who I'll include. I've also set up a [Twitter] and a [tumblr]. I'm not sure I like tumblr all that much but Twitter is quite cool and I'm quite active on it. Oh and here's an appropriate lolpic that I made for today, a lolbama as my friend Anna noted:


If you have something against "ones to watch" lists then you might want to look away now. I can't be bothered to argue about the merits of such a list, to me it's just another interesting aspect of the music industry.

Anyways, after last year's reasonably successful predictions, I'll be continuing in the same format. This mean that there'll be 12 choices: 4 hyped, 4 KHI faves and 4 newbies that I've never posted about here. I'll be writing about 1 of each category per post so it'll be a four part series. I was tempted to include a longlist but seeing as I'm not quite sure who I'm going to write about, I might put it in the final post. There will be no mention of Florence & The Machine because I think she's a twat.

White Lies
If you haven't noticed the morbidly attired and expressioned trio White Lies lately then clearly you've been staring at Little Boots too long. Can't blame you really. Nonetheless, White Lies have always had a fair bit of buzz around them, read more about that in [my interview] with their drummer, Jack. It's a bit strange for me to see their rise - I saw them as Fear Of Flying multiple times (including their earliest gigs as The Flow) and Charles was in the year below me at school - but I can envisage them playing stadiums by next year. Whether stardom awaits or not may be judged by the sales of their debut long player, 'To Lose My Life', out this week. Listen to it in full on their [MySpace].

WHITE LIES - TO LOSE MY LIFE (BBC RADIO 1 LIVE LOUNGE)
WHITE LIES - LOVE LOCKDOWN (BBC RADIO 1 LIVE LOUNGE KANYE WEST COVER)

Fight Like Apes
I've mentioned Oirish fight-poppers Fight Like Apes on this blog several times but not enough. I like their chutzpah. Hyperactive, bullish and altogether awesome, they're ready to take over the world. But no-one's really noticed yet. Well apart from their native pals with a Choice Music Prize nomination for their debut album. That album will be released next week in the UK and having heard it, I approve greatly. Synth-punk (it's better than it sounds) at its finest, take notice.

FIGHT LIKE APES - SNORE BORE WHORE (SPHERICAL MIX) (with thanks to [Maps Magazine] for the original download)

Red Light Company
To be honest, when I first heard Red Light Company, I thought they were a bit naff (naff is stylish lingo for not very good). But then I kept coming back to one of their tracks, 'With Lights Out'. Comparisons to Arcade Fire and Editors seem a tad over the top, I'm thinking more Snow Patrol at their most epic. Which is no bad thing. Soaring pop hits.

RED LIGHT COMPANY - BE THE ONE (THE TING TINGS LIVE COVER)

George Lamb Versus Fight Like Apes

Fight Like Apes are a bit like Father Jack from cult tv show 'Father Ted' - outspoken, potty mouthed, Oirish and above all, awesome. Seriously, the chorus/refrain/whatever to one of their songs is "shit, shit, shit, shit, bang, bang". Classy.

Arguably another band spearheading the "fight pop" movement along with Dananananaykroyd and Johnny Foreigner, their mental concoction of scuzzy synth pop has not quite enraptured the masses like their aforementioned contemporaries despite actually being significantly poppier. Which is a shame.

Having fallen in love with them after hearing 'Jake Summers' prior to its release sometime last autumn, I finally managed to catch their ace hyperactive live set at Offset. In fact, Offset on the whole was ace but maybe I'll talk about that some other time. But any band responsible for a line like "You're like Kentucky Fried Chicken but without the taste" and references to wrestling moves deserves your attention quite frankly.


They popped into BBC 6Music studios for a quickie back in March with the internet's most hated radio DJ George Lamb. Hence yet another installment of my George Lamb versus music saga was waiting to be unleashed. And despite the fact I have quite clearly been brainwashed to love everything that Fight Like Apes do, I think this is a pretty thrilling session. 2 songs and eight minutes later, if you can't accept that Fight Like Apes are one of the most vibrant pop bands around then you're rubbish.

FIGHT LIKE APES - I'M BEGINNING TO THINK YOU PREFER BEVERLY HILLS 90210 TO ME (BBC 6MUSIC SESSION)//MIRROR

FIGHT LIKE APES - JAKE SUMMERS (BBC 6MUSIC SESSION)//MIRROR

Fight Like Apes will be releasing their debut album, 'Fight Like Apes And The Mystery Of The Golden Medallion' (mouthful or what) on September 26th. Produced by John Goodmason, whose recent work includes Los Campesinos! and Sky Larkin as well as past efforts with Sleater-Kinney etc. You'll be able to stream the album from the 19th on entertainment.ie, which has set up its own dedicated Fight Like Apes mini-site.

p.s mega apologies for lack of posting. I've been flathunting, working from 7.30am-7.30pm most days, just come back from a wedding and still need to sort out my dissertation. I daren't look at my email inbox.