(((O))) : Echoes of the Future: WE KEEP THE CITY RUNNING

WE KEEP THE CITY RUNNING from UK: Find Us

In 50 words or less, tell us what you sound like?

We combine elements of post-rock, electronica, shoegaze and indie. The result is an expansive wall-of-sound interwoven with lots of hooks and plenty of melody.

In 100 words or less, tell us why we should listen to you?

Because we don’t sound like anything else out there right now. Essentially we’re part of the ATP generation but who were also brought up on a steady diet of alternative pop music in the 90s and early 00s. So despite taking much of our inspiration from the weirder end of the musical spectrum we always try to keep it accessible and above all fun.

There is no cynical master plan and no dedicated songwriter. We get in a room and we make the music we want to hear for ourselves. We take our cues from the most diverse of places and write about the things we see around us staying true to ourselves in the process. The result is something we hope is both original and interesting.

If you had to pick one of your tracks for our readers to listen to, which would it be?

Relics

Give us 3 bands you’d recommend we listen to?

From the archives… American Football
A classic… Russian Circles
Hot off the presses… Moon Hooch

What inspires your music?

With so many billions and billions of people on the planet, most of us can’t be unique or important in any meaningful way. We go to sleep, we wake up, we go to work, we eat, we spend time with friends, we watch TV, maybe we even fall in love, but we don’t have any magical powers and we don’t have any great battles to fight, no evil forces to defeat, and no mysterious men in suits chasing after us. We just have reality – and believing anything else is just… well, believing anything else is just crazy, isn’t it?

What we say:

Rising from the ashes of the marvellous Eaststrikewest, We Keep The City Running combine uplifting post rock with a catchy indie sensibility; think something between Arcade Fire and Explosions In The Sky.

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By Writer Name

The Pulmonic

Bandcamp | Facebook | Soundcloud | Twitter

 The Pulmonic are a new experimental rock band from London. We spoke to drummer Niall Brennan to get the lowdown...

 

(((o))): So, first and foremost, who are Pulmonic and what are your musical backgrounds?

All three of us have very diverse backgrounds and cultures.  We have all played a variety of different music and styles, and are very open to new ideas. I come from London, by way of Northern Ireland. Filipe from Portugal and Graham is from Australia.

We all have different tastes in music which makes it fantastic to play as everyone is throwing lots of ideas in the pot. Our common ground seems to be playing loud.

 

(((o))): How did the band come together?

Graham and I met through a mutual friend at a Slint gig, had a jam and then Filipe joined a little later.

 

(((o))): Please describe your sound in poetic form. (Haiku, rhyming couplets, acrostic, etc - take your pick)

How about a quote?

“I would like our act to be like a thunderstorm” (John Bonham)

 

(((o))): Has your local music scene had any impact on you as a band?

As far as I can see, the music scene in London is really bad. Most promoters don’t do anything to help (i.e. by actually promoting their gigs) and other bands see you as competition. In one sense its good because out of the fray there will be bands who will fight it to the top, which means there will always be good bands coming out of the country. On the other hand a lot of good bands will get lost because of the lack of a real scene.

 

(((o))): I believe you’re in the planning stages for an EP. Can you tell us a little bit about your plans? Any songs that are definitely going to make the cut, etc?

‘Headlights’ and maybe the new one we jammed out in the last rehearsal. The writing process for structure and tunes tends to be very fast and then we refine, refine, refine.

 

(((o))): What do you think is the most difficult challenge facing new bands starting out in the music industry today?

There is no industry or the industry doesn’t know what it is yet. Most bands in the future will be doing it themselves or using music in different ways to make a living. The internet is a double edged sword (easy to share and promote but hard to sell your tunes), but at the moment I think we’re in a transitional phase.

 

 

(((o))): Every band has different aims. What would have to happen for you to make you feel that you’d “made it”, so to speak?

Being able to make enough revenue from merch that would allow us to release our own records and tour Europe and the States. Having one of our songs associated to a defining moment in history, and in the end just being a well respected band.

 

(((o))): We have another column called Echoes of the Past in which we get people to write about albums that have particularly influenced them. What would you guys choose to write about in that column?

Led Zeppelin - ‘Led Zeppelin BBC Sessions’

It’s a live album, gives you a real idea of how amazing they could be. Obviously being a hard hitting drummer like me listening to a track like ‘Thank You’ where the drums grabs the rest of the band by the scruff of neck and says “fuck it I want to go to this place”, still makes me smile.

 

Billy Cobham – ‘Spectrum’

When I first heard this I didn’t know what the hell was going on, blew my tiny mind as a kid. Still listen to it today, do the dishes to it, play along to it…don’t have sex to it though, girls don’t seem to like jazz fusion crazy drumming whilst you’re getting your freak on.

 

Christian Scott – ‘Yesterday you said tomorrow’

Listen to it, that’s all I’m going to say.

 

Glenn Branca - ‘The Ascension’

Dissonance is bliss. Leans more towards classical then rock music.

 

(((o))): This is ostensibly a column for introducing new bands. Any suggestions as to who we ought to include in the near future?

I am very impressed with a black metal band called Leucosis. They are unsigned, only have around 400 likes in their FB page and sound amazing. Also Written in Waters and Silver Arm.

 

(((o))): What are the band’s plans for the near future?

We would like to mature our song-writing skills and release and EP this year. We are also looking to do a small tour of the UK as playing in London is becoming a drag and there are loads of people we would like to get out and play to. We are also getting a little promo video together.

 

 

By Benjamin Bland

Big Naturals

Bandcamp | Facebook

Greasy Trucker website

(((o))): So, first and foremost, who are Big Naturals and what are your musical backgrounds? 
Gareth is from the Bristol area and has been playing bass from an early age. He was in a band known as Lillydamwhite who were a notable Bristol band back in the day. Gareth also has been good friends with cult Bristol band The Heads for many years. In fact he engineered their 'Under the Stress of a Headlong Dive' LP. Lillydamwhite actually shared a couple of seven inch records with the band, one of which in 1997 was the very first release from Rocket Recordings, who have recently released the wildly successful Goat album. In more recent times Gareth has worked for various bands on the road such as High on Fire, Boredoms and also Melvins who Gareth has booked to play at Bristol venues the Croft and the Exchange several times over the past two or three years. A live recording of one of these shows is upcoming on limited vinyl on our Greasy Trucker label sometime soon.
Big Naturals was started by Gareth in 2005 or 6 I think and it's kept going ever since in one form or another. I joined the band in 2009. My musical background was formed partly through my family, as my dad and uncle have both toured as backing musicians for the blues guitarist Freddie King. Christine Perfect (later McVie of Fleetwood Mac fame), first started out playing in a group with the two of them. I suppose the music thing rubbed off on me through them. There was always cool music on in the house growing up. My stepdad was always playing blues and jazz and my Mum was always into music like Cream, The Who, Donovan and James Brown, stuff like that. I was in a band called Episonic for many years, from 1996 to about 2005. By the time that came to an end I'd already met Gareth through being at the same  work house together and had been to see both the Big Naturals and The Heads perform several times, for me they were the best bands going at the time, so when Gareth offered me the gig I was straight in there.
 
(((o))): Has your local music scene had any impact on you as a band?
Well, the Bristol scene certainly had an impact on me in terms of me getting into what Gareth was doing with Big Naturals and stuff, but as a band now in 2013 I wouldn't say that we were impacted upon as such by anything happening in the local music scene. There are bands that we like and are friends with. Gareth runs some rehearsal spaces known as FAG in the Stokes Croft area and also had a hand in running The Croft before it closed which was just nearby and very DIY, so both of those elements have provided a continuous link between us and other Bristol bands. There's Thought Forms, Turbowolf, Pohl, The Naturals, Caves, Atonsk, Spectres, all of whom at one time or another we've played with or they've used the rehearsal spaces and all of them are super cool and just really nice people to know. There is the
 
Young Echo collective who have run nights out of the rehearsal space which they've live streamed and there's also Eloise and Olmo who are Zam Zam Recs. They have put on a couple of very interesting nights down at FAG too. Big Naturals have performed in some incarnation or other as part of both of these nights so at least socially there probably is some subconscious influence there, but I think musically speaking we try to make sure that we don't follow any of our peers even though we dig what they're doing. 

(((o))): Your debut full-length came out last year. Tell us a little bit about it...

I can tell you that it drove us mad recording it and I think that you can hear that! The record was a long time coming and was a big chunk of material to get through. We weren't sure whether or not we could get away with recording as a two piece so the pressure was on at some stages. We self recorded and mixed which also added to the intensity at times, mixing it until we went green! We certainly poured everything into it. The record itself is the material we'd been playing live up to that point with a few embellishments and little interludes here and there. I suppose it's like a hybrid of punk, white noise, psychedelic rock and krautrock influences. At the time we started doing the recording we were listening to a lot of Crass, Miles Davis fusion period and Hendrix actually, I'm not sure how much if any of that we harnessed but that was what was floating our boat at that particular point in time.
 

 

(((o))): You also play live with Paul Allen from The Heads as Anthroprophh I believe. How did that come about? How does your approach differ for those gigs?
Big Naturals were originally a three piece with Prof (Paul Allen) on guitar and electronics, for almost a year I think, so he's played with the band before and he'd been holed up doing his solo album and I think he wanted to get out and play, so he started getting up with us at gigs and doing the last few minutes of the set with us which would be a huge blow out and then he had a couple of launch gigs booked for his album launch and he asked us to back him up. That meant adapting his album material for a three piece which was quite tricky because Paul's record is actually quite introspective in some ways, but when the three of us play it's actually quite frenzied so the songs changed a bit and I think that we all had to adapt. In the Big Naturals Gareth and I had got used to playing as if we're at gunpoint, playing for our lives and Prof would get on that vibe, so the first few gigs must have sounded a bit schizophrenic or something. Gradually over the last six months we've started to level some of the dynamics out and I think we're starting to learn how to let it breathe a bit, the material has changed a bit too so it's more like the three of us as opposed to us trying to adapt Prof's solo album.

(((o))): What do you think is the most difficult challenge facing new bands starting out in the music industry today?

Getting your music heard. There's so much out there now.

(((o))): Every band has different aims. What would have to happen for Big Naturals to make you feel that you’d “made it”, so to speak?

More records, touring abroad, champagne bidet, sponsorship from Durex....

(((o))): Yours has to be one of the worst band names to google in the world. Have there ever been any unfortunate misunderstandings that have arisen as a result of it? 

Not really, a band in Leeds apparently refused to play with us at our recent Brudenell Social Club booking because of our name, but neither of us think that censorship is cool either.

(((o))): We have another column called Echoes of the Past in which we get people to write about albums that have particularly influenced them. What would you guys choose to write about in that column?

Gareth would choose that first ROIR cassette by Bad Brains. I'd probably go for 'Bitches Brew' by Miles Davis.

(((o))): This is ostensibly a column for introducing new bands. Any suggestions as to who we ought to include in the near future?

Pohl, City Yelps and Unwave.

(((o))): What are the band’s plans for the near future?

We are about to embark on a new album which we're both looking forward to. We are hoping to get it done a bit quicker than the last one. We already have one pretty epic track written with lots of sections which will account for about half of the LP so it's definitely ambitious and will probably push us to the max again. We're hoping to retain a lot of the elements of the first record but also we're aiming to have a bit more space in there and stretch some of the ideas out a little more. There are gigs here and there over the summer as a two piece and with Anthroprophh: 29th July at the Bristol Exchange and 2nd August at the Blade Factory in Liverpool as Anthroprophh with Anta. 3rd August as Big Naturals with the mighty Gnod and Shit and Shine at the Crypt in Bristol and rounding off the summer there will be another Anthroprophh gig at Bristols Arc Tangent Festival 0n Friday 30th August.

By Benjamin Bland

Beard of Wolves

Bandcamp | Facebook

We're always on the look out for top quality new noise rock here at Echoes and Dust. Beard of Wolves are of a breed rarely heard and so it was decided that they HAD to be featured in Echoes of the Future before too long, and so Benjamin Bland got the Welsh duo to answer the usual tough questions...

(((o))): So, first and foremost, who are Beard of Wolves and what are your musical backgrounds?

Me, Adam Hughes (Bass, vocals) & David Mitchell (Drums,vocals)

 

(((o))): How did the band come together?

We've both played in bands in the local scene for a couple of years. Our bands then split up so we gave the two piece thing a go.

 

(((o))): Please describe your sound in poetic form. (Haiku, rhyming couplets, acrostic, etc - take your pick)

Sex / Bash

 

(((o))): Has your local music scene had any impact on you as a band?

The local scene round here is really good, and yeah that has had an impact on us as a band. The local bands are the ones we get to see most weeks so we've definitely taken little bits of inspiration here and there!

 

(((o))): Your new EP came out recently. Tell us a little bit about it...

It's called 'Wolf Skulls'. We booked the studio time before we had any actual material, so we had something like a month and a bit to come up with some. We find that we need to set deadlines for ourselves otherwise nothing gets done at all. We wanted the songs to have plenty of energy behind them, a vibe that would come across in a live performance. All the tracks are recorded live so what you hear on the recordings is what you get live.Saying that, we've dropped two of the songs in the live set, so you won't be hearing them...

 

 

(((o))): What do you think is the most difficult challenge facing new bands starting out in the music industry today?

Getting in contact with the right people we suppose. You can fire off hundreds of emails to promoters, labels, etc, but the best things we have achieved have just come through talking to people at gigs. Get talking and they'll be mates with so you can contact them whenever you need.

 

(((o))): Every band has different aims. What would have to happen for Beard of Wolves to make you feel that you’d “made it”, so to speak?

I've always just wanted to play at Leeds Festival to be honest. Any stage will do and I'll be happy. Saying that, you always want more when you've had a taste. playing festival after festival would be ace, just playing and recording all the time and not having to get top early for work.

 

(((o))): What would be a worse beard material than wolves? 

Bigfoots dick

 

(((o))): We have another column called Echoes of the Past in which we get people to write about albums that have particularly influenced them. What would you guys choose to write about in that column?

'Horse of the Dog' by The Eighties Matchbox B line Disaster. I hadn't heard what the band sounded like, I just like the name and thought it was gonna be cool... and it was! It's got everything I like about music. The vocals are unique but not annoying vocals, there are tons of riffs, ace lyrics and top artwork too!

 

(((o))): This is ostensibly a column for introducing new bands. Any suggestions as to who we ought to include in the near future?

Horesfight

Doppelgänger

Secateurs

Falls

 

(((o))): What are the band’s plans for the near future?

We're in the writing process at the moment for our debut album. We start recording in September so it'll be released next year at some point.

By Benjamin Bland

Drunk Dad

Bandcamp | Facebook

Jose and Dane from E&D Metal Editor approved Drunk Dad are the latest promising up and comers to get the Echoes of the Future grilling...

 (((o))): So, first and foremost, who are Drunk Dad and what are your musical backgrounds?

Dane Herrin - Vocals & Guitar / Jose De Lara - Guitar / Adam Garcia - Bass / Joseph Naylor - Drums.

Dane Herrin: My musical background is basically punk records and speed. Adam Garcia is Satan's perfect vision of a Bass Player. Joseph's been playing drums in some of my favorite Portland bands for years, including Stag Bitten and Mustaphamond.

Jose De Lara: I went to 4 years of music college but I forgot everything I learned because of alcoholism. I've been touring with and recording bands since the early 2000's. I recently found out that 3 out of four of us were in jazz band in high school.

 

(((o))): How did the band come together?

DH: I was playing drums in a pop band that is going to remain anonymous and was sick of the music I was hearing in Portland at the time.  There was a lot of garage and watered down punk that wasn't really ringing my bells, so I decided to put together a more intense and aggressive group.  Something cathartic.  My roommate at the time played drums and we started writing songs in our basement.  I went to a show in a feminist bookstore and ended up drinking beers and bitching about the bands to Adam Garcia.  He said he played bass and showed me his KARP tattoo, so we started writing songs together.  Jose was there from the start, as none of us had licenses.  He recorded our first demo and was our all around dude.  After a while, and some drugs, I asked him to play guitar.  After that, we kicked the old drummer out and took a break from the band.  Joseph was between bands, so we put Drunk Dad back together and just started playing.

JD: I got tired of driving these bozos around and getting none of the infamy, so I said “Hell yeah, I'll play second guitar!” I'm still the only one with a license, by the way. Adam and I were in a punk band called Batmen together, so we were already accustomed to playing music with each other.

 

(((o))): Please describe your sound in poetic form. (Haiku, rhyming couplets, acrostic, etc - take your pick)

DH:

Every Review;

Heavy things falling down stairs,

My War side two, dicks.

JD:

NEVER compromising

GONNA explode skulls

GIVE zero fucks

YOU will not survive this

UP is where the volume goes

NEVER predictable

GONNA steal your liquor

LET the bad times roll

YOU think this is a game?

DOWN is where the tuning goes

 

(((o))): Has your local music scene had any impact on you as a band?

DH: Portland, I don't think, is really known as a heavy, punk rock city.  Sure, there have been lots of really good rock'n'roll bands from here, but it seems to be known in the national press as a city that stupid indie rock bands move to.  I guess some of the motivations to starting this band came from being dissatisfied with the music I was seeing around town.  When I saw Rabbits play for the first time I was completely blown away.  They were the only people I could find, at the time, that were playing really different, aggressive music.  This was about four or five years ago.  After seeing them, I started finding a lot more weird, interesting music.  Since then, we've been introduced to so many amazing, talented bands that we had no idea were in this city.  Josh and Seth from Rabbits have been doing an amazing job organizing and supporting these groups.  Just look at the new Eeolian compilation, ‘Keep Our Heads’.  It's completely astounding that all of these bands come from the same place.  There isn't a bad song on it.  It really is a fantastic document of what is happening in this place at this time. Buy it.  Now.

 

(((o))): Your new EP came out recently. Tell us a little bit about it...

JD: We recorded it in our practice space with pretty minimal gear in early 2013. After seeing us live Josh from Eolian Empire Records approached us about doing a record for them. They were still in the process of rebooting the label, and wanted us to be one of the first releases. They basically gave us free reign to do whatever we wanted, and have been incredibly supportive and helpful in getting this record done through all of the steps, from artwork to mastering. We decided to do a 4 song EP on 12” vinyl, on one fateful drinking excursion at Sassy's Strip Club and a few months later we had our successful record release show.

DH: I think it was our third or fourth show back, with Joseph on drums, that we played  with Rabbits and they told us about resurrecting Eolian.  We totally jumped at the opportunity.  Jose and I had been working on a weird drone thing, which became Ritual, and we were all tearing through songs after not making music for six or so months.  Our buddies over at Stankhouse put out a demo tape for us, which turned out really well, but we wanted something a little less straight forward and something more artsy and shit.  Jose and I spent a lot of time in his basement, working on overdubs and artwork, bumming each other out.  It turned out to be pretty challenging and different, I think.

 

 

(((o))): What do you think is the most difficult challenge facing new bands starting out in the music industry today?

JD: I think the music industry is totally fucked and flipped on its head because of the internet. In a way that's a really good thing, but there's a lot of noise to signal, and it might be harder to get noticed as a new band because there is just so much out there. Gas prices are going up which makes touring harder, but I guess on the positive side people still come out to shows and buy merch. There is still a really tight network of bands all around that are doing similar things, it is really just a matter of bands getting their asses out there and taking risks.

DH: Not sucking.

 

(((o))): Every band has different aims. What would have to happen for Drunk Dad to make you feel that you’d “made it”, so to speak?

JD: I feel like we've already made it in a sense, we're out there playing shows, putting out records, touring, and having a blast, everything else is just ego feed. The important part is there, so fuck it.

DH: I agree with Jose a lot on this one.  The building blocks are all in place, we all get along and the response has been way beyond our expectations at this point.  We just want to keep doing what we're doing and have fun while doing it.  AND WE WANT THAT SCION MONEY! COME ON SCION! GIVE IT UP! YOU CAN PAY THE BODY BUT NOT US?!?! WHAT THE FUCK?!

 

(((o))): Why are dads so prone to drunken escapades?

DH: Because sometimes your kids grow up to be assholes.

JD: We've all fathered this fucked up musical baby called Drunk Dad, it's enough to drive a man to drink.

 

(((o))): We have another column called Echoes of the Past in which we get people to write about albums that have particularly influenced them. What would you guys choose to write about in that column?

DH:  Pretty much any Dead Moon record.  They are an example of a perfect rock band.  It's kind of weird, because a lot of people that influenced my early development as a musician are still relevant today.  The Melvins, Mudhoney, these are bands that still put out great records and tour despite pushing fifty.  Being able to be a long term career musician in this climate of change is really inspiring.  I'm not sure it's still possible, though.

JD: Flipper is a huge influence on me, particularly the ‘Generic’ album. When everyone else at the time was macho posturing, these guys were just totally weird and whacked out. They pushed buttons, challenged norms, and were totally misanthropic, yet they still had a sense of humor about all of it. Early Swans is also something I'd write about, they had this really filthy, disgusting, and ugly sound and aesthetic that is highly influential on us as a band.

DH: Wow, I guess we really are a grunge band!

(((o))): This is ostensibly a column for introducing new bands. Any suggestions as to who we ought to include in the near future?

DH: Rohit played with us recently and they are absolutely amazing.  Prizehog is one of my favorite bands of all time.  Elephant Rifle, despite living in Reno, are doing amazing things.  Sioux is a band we're looking forward to playing more shows with.  All buddies, all great music. Oh, and also Gaytheist, and Same Sex-Dictator.

 JD: Pretty much all of the Eolian Bands (for example Big Black Cloud, Honduran, Rabbits of course), the band Tiny Knives, and the bands on Eolian's Seattle based buddy label Good to Die (ex: Monogamy Party, Fist Fite) would be on my list.

 

(((o))): What are the band’s plans for the near future?

DH: We are touring the western states with Big Black Cloud, who will have a record out soon, in July and doing an east coast tour in November.  After that, we're going to hole up for the winter and hopefully have a full length out by spring.  We are really into staying busy and staying on top of this work.  The momentum we have just writing and playing feels amazing and I don't see it stopping any time soon.

JD: We also want to do some collaborating with the harsh noise artist Redneck, who also has a tape and DVD coming out on Eolian. We're just one huge family really!

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