Tag: Rob Jones

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EP: Fighting Our Corner – Black Bear Kiss

Black Bear Kiss

Words by Charlie Culverhouse

Fighting Our Corner is the latest EP alt-rock unit Black Bear Kiss, and features 5 new riff-heavy rock songs: ‘Cutting Corners’, ‘Hooks’, ‘Follow Me’, ‘Fighting Our Corner’ and ‘Secret Side’. Throughout the EP it’s as clear as day that the vocalist, Chris Leech, takes hefty inspiration from the likes of Red Hot Chilli Peppers and Kasabian – mixing pronunciations similar to those of Anthony Kiedis with the nasal tone of Tom Meighan to create an interesting and easily recognisable sound.

The third song on the EP, ‘Follow Me’, features rapper Leo Golden Child, but I can’t help and feel he’s misplaced in the song. The collaboration comes across as notably forced, at times almost as if they’ve thrown in a rapper just for the sake of it rather than to add any musical value. Listening to this track makes me cringe; a lot like when Maroon 5 collaborated with Cardi B and created ‘Girls Like You’, this song haunts me.

I listened to Fighting Our Corner for three days straight and I still could not tell you a single lyric that has stuck with me. There is no passion behind the words Leech sings, it doesn’t leave me feeling any kind of emotion and it certainly doesn’t make me think deeply about what he’s saying.

And at the end of the day, isn’t that supposed to be the whole point of music in the first place?

There doesn’t seem to be any kind of sentiment at all, everything sounding ice cold. When I listen to music, I want to hear passion behind every part of the song – what’s the point of playing music if it seems like even you, the musicians, don’t enjoy it?

The stand-out song of the EP is ‘Hooks’, which also happens to be the first single they released as a band. The song teases a more powerful vocal and shows off their writing capabilities. The most fleshed out song on this EP, ‘Hooks’ gives you the sense that this is the song that the band spent the most time perfecting (even though the track is still compiled of relatively simple patterns). Yet it pains me to say that delving deeper into the musical components of ‘Hooks’ just led me to dead ends where I find nothing in particular to comment on; it’s easy to listen to and there’s nothing wrong with that, it’s just not what I’m into.

What the band describes as ‘catchy riffs’ do sometimes come off as a little too repetitive, especially in EP opener ‘Cutting Corners’. But you can tell that all the members of Black Bear Kiss are talented; that’s why I want to hear something more from them. I want to see more imagination in their music and hear them challenge themselves musically, using more intricate and powerful sounds rather than the simple chord patterns that dominate their songs.

‘Hooks’ – Black Bear Kiss

Black Bear Kiss released their Fighting Out Corner EP on 1st March 2019, available online via the usual outlets. For more on Black Bear Kiss, visit www.facebook.com/blackbearkissband

Black Bear Kiss will also be performing on the Fox Stage at Gigfest in Oswestry on Saturday 6th July – for more on Gigfest, including the full festival line up and links to online ticket sales, visit https://www.facebook.com/gigfestmusicfestival/ 

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To learn more about the NOT NORMAL NOT OK campaign, click here. To sign up and join the NOT NORMAL NOT OK campaign, click here.

If you have been affected by any of the issues surrounding sexual violence – or if you want to report an act of sexual aggression, abuse or assault – click here for information via the ‘Help & Support’ page on the NOT NORMAL NOT OK website.

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BREVIEW: Love from Stourbridge – The Wonder Stuff & Ned’s Atomic Dustbin @ O2 Academy 15.04.18

BREVIEW: The Wonder Stuff @ O2 Academy 15.04.18 / Steven Cook - Cook's Eye Photography

Words by Abi Whistance / Pics by Steven Cook

It’s 15th April and the holy trinity of Stourbridge are steadily attracting the masses on a Sunday night, pulling nineties indie veterans out of their local legions and into the doors of the O2 Academy in Birmingham.

Veterans like my own dad, and it didn’t take much more than an invite for him to pull out his Adidas Gazelles and a wad of Ned’s Atomic Dustbin CD’s for the car journey there – and back.

Of course, there are the younger admirers of the West Midlands indie heavyweights like myself, but Love from Stourbridge is ninety-nine percent over forty with a sprinkling of those barely legal that they’ve hauled along with them. Not to bash the nostalgia train though; tonight is the final lap of their grand tour of the UK, ending where things kicked off thirty years ago.

BREVIEW: Ned's Atomic Dustbin @ O2 Academy 15.04.18 / Steven Cook - Cook's Eye PhotographyFirst of the gang is Pop Will Eat Itself’s very own Graham Crabb with his eclectic DJ set, hopping from The Prodigy to Arctic Monkeys at a pace that requires rapid auditory adjustment. But hey, leave the kid alone. “Let’s fucking have it!” he shouts over a questionable dubstep tune, one hand punching the air to the fast-paced rhythm and the other firmly planted on his headphones. Crabb’s having the time of his life, and although no heads are turning away from the direction of the bar it’s pretty clear that he probably won’t notice.

BREVIEW: Ned's Atomic Dustbin @ O2 Academy 15.04.18 / Steven Cook - Cook's Eye PhotographyThrashing like a six-foot fish out of water, Jonn Penney flings himself onto the stage accompanied by the rest of the cohort as they begin their set – 100% Ned’s Atomic Dustbin style. With no signs of age other than the loss of Penney’s mane (rest in peace, you’ll be sorely missed) Ned’s storm through tunes like ‘Suave and Suffocated’ and ‘Until You Find Out’ leaving barely any time for this crowd to rise for air.

BREVIEW: Ned's Atomic Dustbin @ O2 Academy 15.04.18 / Steven Cook - Cook's Eye PhotographyLike a Pogo stick on a shed load of coke (if such a thing were possible) eyes can’t help but to follow Penney as he goes up and down, up and down… and then up and down again. “So, here’s the prediction, you get an affliction” he belts, dangling his lanky torso over the audience and finishing fan favourite ‘Walking Through Syrup’ with a menacing smirk spread across his face. “You’re all very old, to remind you all of that.” He smiles even wider, but despite a middle-aged crowd this clearly isn’t a softly-gently warm up, this is a powerhouse.

BREVIEW: The Wonder Stuff @ O2 Academy 15.04.18 / Steven Cook - Cook's Eye PhotographyThere’s not much time to gather yourself when ‘Terminally Groovy’ isn’t far behind, anticipation generating before the line we’ve all been dying to hear since we got here. “So, come on…” is all it takes to set us off, a thumping bassline carrying the crowd right through till the very end.

Six minutes of dancing, shouting and cavorting is all we have left of Ned’s for tonight. An encore consisting of iconic tracks ‘Kill Your Television’ and ‘Selfish’ is deemed necessary to rejuvenate an exhausted crowd, somehow breathing life back into those gasping for air and gagging for another beer and a fag before the final power chord rings out.

BREVIEW: The Wonder Stuff @ O2 Academy 15.04.18 / Steven Cook - Cook's Eye PhotographyHard to beat? Sure. Impossible to beat? Not according to The Wonder Stuff on a Sunday night. Frontman Miles Hunt is on top form, and the rest of the gang follow suit with the addition of violinist Erica Nockalls as a rather attention-grabbing counterpart. An interesting addition at that, with tunes like ‘Red Berry Joy Town’ and ‘Don’t You Ever’ getting the barnyard treatment thanks to her country-esque style.

BREVIEW: The Wonder Stuff @ O2 Academy 15.04.18 / Steven Cook - Cook's Eye Photography

It doesn’t take long before beers are flying, shirts are removed and tossed above heads, and Hunt has something to say about it. “Are you the guy who didn’t get the selfie in the pub earlier? Bit pissed off are we?” he jeers at the crowd, but essentially just prodding the bear who’ll more than likely just chuck another beer and a middle finger your way, sorry Miles.

Blasting through the next handful of hits, The Stuffies manage to cram ‘Circlesquare’, ‘The Size of a Cow’ and ‘Cartoon Boyfriend’ into about nine minutes and thirty seconds; an impressive achievement and potentially a new record time for them, well done lads and lass.

BREVIEW: The Wonder Stuff @ O2 Academy 15.04.18 / Steven Cook - Cook's Eye PhotographySocial media paves the way for a much-anticipated poll result regarding the next track. Will it be ‘Radio Ass Kiss’ or ‘It’s Yer Money I’m After Baby’? Trick question, the answer is both. The result of the poll did mean that it should have only been the latter, but this wasn’t what The Stuffies wanted and, after all, they’re clearly the ones in charge here.

After a solid eighteen track set, a conclusion in the form of ‘Unbearable’ seems inevitable for the majority, but the rest are happy following up with ‘Ten Trenches Deep’ to say adieu. It’s been as wild of a night as possible for a Sunday, reminiscent of most of the crowd’s teenage years back in 1988 when Ned’s were still normal and the Eight-Legged Groove Machine was still grooving without the responsibility of a mortgage.

For more on The Wonder Stuff, visit www.thewonderstuff.co.uk

For more on Ned’s Atomic Dustbin, visit www.nedsatomicdustbin.com

For more on Pop Will Eat Itself, visit www.popwilleatitself.net/pwei 

For more from the O2 Academy Birmingham, including further event listings and online ticket sales, visit www.academymusicgroup.com/o2academybirmingham

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BPREVIEW: Love from Stourbridge – The Wonder Stuff & Ned’s Atomic Dustbin @ O2 Academy 14/15.04.18

BPREVIEW: Love from Stourbridge – The Wonder Stuff & Ned’s Atomic Dustbin @ O2 Academy 14/15.04.18

Words by Ed King

On Saturday 14th and Sunday 15th April, the Love from Stourbridge Tour comes to the O2 Academy Birmingham – with The Wonder Stuff and Ned’s Atomic Dustbin both playing live, alongside a DJ set from Graham Crabb of Pop Will Eat Itself.

Doors open at the O2 Academy from 7pm, with tickets priced at £34.25 – as presented by Academy Events. For direct gig information, including venue details and online ticket sales, click here.

Back in the hey days of the late 80’s and early 90s – when Indie meant independent, the NME was still credible, and a singles chart position meant you’d actually sold some records (that were actual records), Britain’s alternative music scene was a pretty awesome place. And whilst Seattle was spewing out Cobain and Cornell (R.I.P. gents xx) slap bang in the middle of it all on this side of the pond was The Midlands, with The Wonder Stuff and Ned’s Atomic Dustbin packing out shows at the Aston Villa Leisure Centre, The Hummingbird, and other 3k capacity venues before they became a haven for jungle and knife crime.

Both hailing from Stourbridge, a place God apparently created one wet Tuesday afternoon, Ned’s Atomic Dustbin and The Wonder Stuff ran somewhat parallel to each other – with the former getting their ‘big break’ as the support band on the latter’s tours in 1989 and 1990. And aside from having the best name/t-shirts in music at the time (and possibly for some years afterwards, we’re open to suggestions here) Ned’s Atomic Dustbin are the edgier of the two, with notorious mosh pits, ferocious live shows, and overt murderous intent towards the nation’s goggle-boxes.

The Wonder Stuff, on the other hand, were the top rung of the Indie ladder back in ‘the day’ with consistent chart success, an international fanbase, and headline slots at leading UK music festivals – releasing four albums in five years, until the band’s split in 1994, with three of those LPs breaking the Top 5 in the official UK Album Charts. Their debut, Eight Legged Groove Machine, reached No.18. The Wonder Stuff may not be as angst ridden as Ned’s Atomic Dustbin (may I present Exhibit A, ‘Dizzy’, your honour) but they achieved phenomenal success and stayed rock and roll to the core, even when sharing the mic with Vic Reeves. They dressed a little better than Ned’s back then too.

But the best thing about these two bands is that if you stumble over their music today – regardless of age or naivety/cynicism – it still stands up, nearly 30 years after the first people upturned these Stourbridge stones. But I guess that’s what the Love from Stourbridge Tour is all about, dragging out the old fans for a night of nostalgia whilst gaining new fans by just being solid musicians performing on stage.

And whist there is new/newish material out there on-shelf and on iTunes, it wouldn’t be a bad show if we just sat in the least expensive part of the room and smashed a few Samsung flat screens… don’t worry, the reference points are below.

‘Welcome to the Cheap Seats’ – The Wonder Stuff 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCMCvzPEsFc

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‘Kill Your Television’ – Ned’s Atomic Dustbin 

On Saturday 14th and Sunday 15th, the Love from Stourbridge Tour comes to the O2 Academy Birmingham – with The Wonder Stuff and Ned’s Atomic Dustbin. For direct gig information, including venue details and online ticket sales, visit https://bit.ly/2IMaduJ 

For more on The Wonder Stuff, visit www.thewonderstuff.co.uk

For more on Ned’s Atomic Dustbin, visit www.nedsatomicdustbin.com

For more on Pop Will Eat Itself, visit www.popwilleatitself.net

For more from the O2 Academy Birmingham, including further event listings and online ticket sales, visit www.academymusicgroup.com/o2academybirmingham