Feature Leeds' Best New Bands

Our music editor, Camille Ainsworth picks eight of the best new bands coming out of our city

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It’s as if music is in the water around Leeds – there’s a relentlessly healthy DIY scene that continues to grow, an array of independent record labels and a host of nurturing venues fertilising news bands day in, day out. From this environment, some large names have sprung up – the Kaiser Chiefs, Pigeon Detectives, The Cribs and, more recently, Corinne Bailey Rae and Wild Beasts have both received Mercury Music Prize nominations; Sky Larkin have their second album in the bag; and both Pulled Apart By Horses and Dinosaur Pile Up have spent the summer rupturing the Radio 1 play list.

On the other hand, there are literally thousands of bands messing around in practice rooms and furnishing stages, and it’s hard to know where to find something new and improved. Here we present to you some of the latest new faces that we think are worth checking out.

TRAITORS
Formed at the back end of last year out of one half of the now-legendry Leeds band Wintermute, Chris Newbould (bass) and Ben Johnson (drums, but who has since departed to sunnier climates), and friends Pete Devine (drums), Martin Harris (synths and keys), Dave Lister (guitar), and Billy Watts (vocals). This band have been long waiting in the wings, writing, practicing and generally rocking out until this summer, unleashing a brand new genre of music for Leeds, that they’re describing as ‘stoner dance’ music.

There’s rawness to Traitors, the hooks are crammed into the basslines as well as the guitar riffs, which at times can be scathing and heavy. This is punctuated by the synths and keyboards that are at times fat and other times ambient without turning into a frightening mess, and despite all this, it’s incredibly dancey too. All the shouts and vocals are improvised, adding to the raw appeal with something new emerging each time they perform. As you can imagine, influences are tough to pin down – one minute it’s Battles and the next it’s Gang Gang Dance or Nine Inch Nails.

Traitors were selected for the finals of the Futuresound Competition, competing to play at Leeds and Reading Festivals, despite have only played a handful of gigs and having nothing set down on record (everything on their MySpace is recorded live). This, they say, they are planning to rectify. Which is good news, as their collection of decent support shows continues to expand alongside their fan base.
Catch them live: Supporting Twilight Sad, The Cockpit, 11^th October
Take a listen: www.myspace.com/traitorsband

EAGULLS
Since their inception in late 2009 and their first ever gig in March, Eagulls have crafted some decent tunes. “I think we have a harsh yet poppy kind of sound, nothing obviously original nor generic either,” says Mark Goldsworthy (guitar). They’ve certainly got a ballsy modern dirt rock thing going on. The lyrics are suitably macho, “we never wanted to sing about lasses, I doubt George [Mitchell, vocalist] is capable of that anyway,” says Goldsworthy, and the songs are driven by metallic sounding guitars with ringing riffs, meshed in with subtle baselines all popped up and draped over the shoulder of static and reverb effects.

There are so many rumours and speculations about which hip labels are sniffing around this band at the moment that it’s hard to know what to believe. For now at least, let’s ignore all that hype and acknowledge that either way, Eagulls are starting to take flight (any excuse for a pun) and developing into one of the best Leeds acts for a long time.

One release you can be sure of is a double A side with 60s influenced, static friends Bhurgeist on Tye Die Tapes later this year. And with some love and hope, the same release will emerge on a more accessible medium (for the more pedestrian amongst us) with Tough Love Records too. Definitely a group to keep your eyes and ears on into 2011.
Catch them live: Supporting Crocodiles, Brudenell Social Club, 3^rd October
Take a listen: www.myspace.com/eagulls

 

RUNNERS
Familiar faces surface in a new group, Runners. Made up of a group of long time friends from brilliant Leeds underground bands including Chops and Cowtown, it’s probably no surprise they won music blog Quietus’ competition to play London’s trendy one day festival Field Day, with only 3 gigs under their belts.

“It was pretty nuts to be thrown in at the deep-end, on stage beside Silver Apples, Mouse On Mars, Gruff Rhys, Esben and the Witch… it was really good,” says Dom Clare (synths, effects and vocals). But they’re not especially moved by being presented in the big smoke as a ‘buzz’ band, “we wouldn’t consider that as more fun as playing Chinchillafest, Yes Way Festival, or a house party in Liverpool.”

Here we have an off the cuff, bleeping sound, with analogue synth keys tinkling across and driving beats – both live and electronic – and underlying wurring synth effects, vocals that contrast with the spikey animation of the keys and linger in the phrases, smoothing out the edges.

Runners are playing gleeful noise-pop dance music, just because it’s fun to play, fun to watch and, well, fun to dance to as well.

“Whether your body feels the need to shake to us (or not) is your own conscious or unconscious decision,” says Clare. “No matter where we’ve been, the highlight has undoubtedly been seeing people dance and hearing them whoop whilst we play!” They’ve started to record their songs and “in theory” there will be a 12” out later this year. In the meantime though, they’re releasing Monthly Marathon mp3 mixes via their blog, ready to download. Other future plans include writing a sound track from an art exhibition and playing for the 20^th birthday celebrations of David Lynch’s Twin Peaks at Temple Works.
Catch them live: Twin Peaks Celebration, Temple Works, 18^th September
Take a listen: http://longdistancerunners.wordpress.com/

RUNAROUND KIDS
Hailing from Wakefield, there’s a strong DIY ethic coming through with Runaround Kids, a necessity of living in a town where “there’s nothing else to do” but play in band because “playing gigs and making records is really really fun” says Jack Winn (bassist). Runaround Kids play energetic fuzzed-up punk-influenced rock’n'roll, with scatty and casual yet vulnerable vocals, and guitars that move from nonchalant static, into riffs that skip up and down the frets and stick to the back of your mind, plus drums that are at times crashing and at other times almost militant. Or put simply, in their own words, they play “fast, noisy pop songs”.

The three-piece are known for vibrant lives shows, working hard at making sure the crowd are having as much fun off stage as they’re having on stage. “I’m very proud that we’re known for out gigs,” says Winn. “We rely solely on our songs and how well we play them. We’re serious with it but we still want to make people dance.”

Engaged with the DIY ethic they’re part of Wakefield’s Philophobia Music family, “we work with our label with everything to do with us. Expecting someone to do it for you will get you nowhere, it’s just lazy.” They are currently busying themselves writing their debut album and releasing a single, double-A side No Dreams/Falling Into Better Hands on September 13^th.
Catch them live: Supporting The Kabeedies, A Nation Of Shopkeepers, 7^th October
Take a listen: www.myspace.com/runaroundkids

BLACKLISTERS
There is one thing that Leeds bands succeed in above all others. And that is making music that is as much noise that widens the space between your ears as it is that catalyst for making your body move to the riffs. Blacklisters are a fine example of this. You may have come across their volumously heavy Belt Party EP, released on Leeds DIY label Childhood Sweetheart, and found yourself at the depths of grunge meeting hardcore and metal all mashed into one incredibly noisy assault on your musical bearings. But when asked what they bring to the table of Leeds music, they’re pretty modest.

“I’d say it’s what Leeds music scene brings to us,” says vocalist Billy Mason-Wood, “being around great bands like Chickenhawk, These Monsters or Castrovalva will make you raise your game, try harder and get better.” Regularly supporting acts from the Brew Records family, there’s a reputation to up keep both on and off stage: in general, riotous. So, their most rock‘n’roll moment? “Something starting at booze and ending at partial nudity and a game involving hurting ourselves because someone thought it would be fun,” says Mason-Wood. “It’s more juvenile than rock’n'roll.” This summer saw them tour with Kong and play Leeds and Reading Festivals. In the autumn they have plans to record an album, “listen to Paul Simon and look at pictures of Axl Rose.”
Catch them live: Brainwash Festival this October.
Take a listen: www.myspace.com/blacklisters

KASIUSS
All eyes are on four piece Kasiuss following their resounding victory at the 2010 Futuresound Competition. “There’s a tonne of emotion in our music. All the songs are written about something real,” says Joe Bothamley (drums). “And Biz [Denton, vocalist] really does use his lyrics to tell of his experiences – good and bad. So the feeling when you see people connecting with what you are doing is unbeatable.”

This is precisely why they won the competition, as fans crowded out the venue and sang the words of the songs back to the band. Opening the Festival Republic stage at Leeds Festival this summer meant performing to the highest standard in order to stand out from the bands that followed. Their sound is subtly mainstream with meandering piano parts creating a haunting dimension which is mixed up with a frenzy of riffs and metal work on guitar, resulting in melodic and fairly dramatic ensembles. Bothamley cites “everything between classical music and heavy metal” as their influences and it’s safe to say they hover somewhere around the Muse and Biffy Clyro area.

“There is definitely something there for everyone,” says Bothamley, “whether it’s the slow classical style with floating piano chords or the heavier rock guitar riffs and pounding, inspiring rock drums!” As well as Leeds Festival, Kassius have also toured the UK with Madina Lake and played a 1,000 capacity venue in their hometown. So you can expect to hear more from them soon.
Catch them live: 24^th September, The Cockpit
Take a listen: www.myspace.com/kasiuss

 

INVISIBLE CITIES
Leeds music is well equipped with decent instrumental bands – Quack Quack anyone? Vessels (yes, we know they do have some vocals)? Here though, we have Invisible Cities, a group who are not afraid to throw together opposing, potentially clashing influences. The set up is guitar, bass, drums and, rather pleasingly, a viola. The crux of their sound is the layering of the viola over itself, cutting through some actually quite funky, basslines and subtle tingling beats. Like all good instrumentalist groups, you’re captivated by the intricacies of the arrangements and moved by the swell of each piece.

“We don’t really have a ‘sound’,” says bass player Ben Craggs. “We just try to write tunes that do interesting things without ending up being too overly-complex and inaccessible.” Inaccessibility it often the enemy for bands without the added human connection of vocals, something Invisible Cities are aware of and may develop in the future. “We think it’s important that we try to write songs that we would enjoy listening to ourselves,” says Craggs. “We all have a fairly broad taste in music, so our song writing is influenced by quite a wide range of genres and sounds. At the moment we’re instrumental, but it probably won’t be too long until we write some vocal parts.” As fans of everything from Talking Heads, Four Tet and Flying Lotus we look forward to some no doubt interesting musical developments from this band.
Catch them live: Brainwash Festival this October
Take a listen: www.myspace.com/invisiblecitiesband

PAUL THOMAS SAUNDERS
Here is an artist who presents something wholly charming in music whilst avoiding the jaws of being twee. Formerly in the band Flowe, his solo work is the result of “that insufferable itch of exploring the depth of your own creativity and finding a really honest music identity,” he says. He writes haunting folk-influenced songs, with strong entwined harmonies, wide reverb vocals and ethereal guitars. His songs have a dream like quality, where you half imagine you’re sat on a mountain side at dawn, but then half witnessing a sunset in some far off urban metropolis, in ‘Fruits of the Poisonous Tree’. Some songs have dirty guitars and are more narrative – ‘Walking and Evening Prayer with Rosemary May’ – but most are built around the gentle swell, build and crash of voices and guitar, as Saunders’ arrangements dive in and out of harmonies and hooks.

Leeds indie labels Dance To The Radio and Dead Young Records have both featured Saunders on various releases, adding to the surprise success of his debut EP Four Songs in Twilight. Recalling the recording of the EP Saunders says, “We had no plans whatsoever, I had four new songs, and I loved impromptu recording sessions in the middle of the night”.

He has now returned to his basement to record new material that promises to be a stark, though greatly anticipated, development from his first release.

“What seems great about this project to me, even though it’s got a strong sense of direction, it’s not one thing, there are so many paths it can go down.”
Catch him live: Supporting Forest Fire, Royal Park Cellars, 14^th September
Take a listen: www.myspace.com/paulthomassaunders

Posted on Wednesday 1st September 2010

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