Read No Musical Evil: cheltenham

Monday, 7 March 2011

The Echoes Exes and Whys

From the off it’s not hard to see why this Cheltenham pop punk quartet are so hotly tipped. The combination of emotional pop melodies and driving punkrock guitars create something special.
The band are certainly a pop punk act with the development of the genre in mind, and sound nothing like the late nineties definitions of the genre. There seems to be an influence from the Scandinavian specialty melodic hardcore, particularly throughout the instrumentation, and the vocal peaks and troughs which have served so many bands so well as a formula.

This debut single feels like a statement of intent and shows a band who know their way around a catchy hook and a powerful riff, combining both into an accomplished individual style.

With Cheltenham being such a melting pot of musical talent it will be interesting to hear more from these four gents and see how their sound develops. It would be completely unfair and unbalanced to make a full judgment on one single alone, but if the next one sounds like this I think Cheltenham could have found themselves someone to challenge the 4ft Fingers for their pop punk crown.

Tuesday, 1 February 2011

Thirsty and Miserable Launch

Thursday 27th of Jan saw the launch of a new night in Cheltenham built on a new set of ideas with a strong DIY attitude and a little help from our friends and the nice folk at istartedthefire records. The launch had a very strong local line up with Gareth Harper, Falcons and Men Diamler all playing their hearts out in an intimate setting in front of a receptive audience.

After the three acts had wowed the crowd Men Diamler joined the Thirsty and Miserable DJ's behind the decks as we both played contrasting tracks with no attention payed to genres. Bellow are a selection of images from the night if you want to read a full review you will have to wit until the second issue of the Thirsty and Miserable zine.