THE B OF THE BANG – Beginning. Middle. End.

Those of you who keep up with events at Call Upon The Author will have already come to the conclusion that we’re big fans of Jelly Maid music artists The B Of The Bang. So it’s with excitement and just a hint of trepidation (when you’re really into a band, new material is always best approached with caution lest it be a huge disappointment – ask anyone who used to like the Killers and bought their latest effort) that I slip this disc into the CD player. There are old favourites here, ‘Alfred Light The Fires’ with it’s jaunty jazz beats, the trippy minimalism of ‘Alaska’ and the heart rending beauty of ‘Lung’ are all well known to fans of Wit and his collective of like minded minstrels. The album is punctuated by snippets of music, the titular ‘Beginning’, ‘Middle’ and ‘End’, but we’ll breeze past them and get to the meat of the new tracks, there are some great new tunes, from ‘Dolores’ with it’s almost upbeat feel and some great backing vocals courtesy of the lovely Roberta from Hold Fast, to ‘The Making Of The Making Of’, another minimalist effort that has echoes of a stripped back Divine Comedy. Pick of the new material though is the haunting ‘(We Used To Draw) Treasure Maps’. This song feels, in mood at least, like a companion piece to ‘Lung’, both of them propelled along by Christopher Whitear’s powerful but soothing baritone. There used to be a charmingly shambolic feel to The B Of The Bang, but on this evidence they’ve got their act together and, that being the case, they’ll be a force to be reckoned with.

check out The B Of The Bang at: www.myspace.com/thebofthebang

MELODRAMAS – EP One

We here at call Upon The Author have a fondness for the lads at Jelly Maid Music. They put out CDs we like from bands we really admire. So it comes as no surprise that when Melodramas announced the release of their debut EP, I snapped up a copy pretty sharpish. I’m glad I did too, as there are only a hundred of them to go round. This is quite a lovely little disc too, full of quirky indie pop tunes that are immediately gripping and stand ready to be blasted out of speakers on a summer day. Opener ‘Albert Rd’, about the street at the heart of Portsmouth’s thriving music community is a loving tribute to one of the bands regular haunts and invokes the spirit of the place perfectly, from it’s small gig venues to the numerous Indian restaurants and fish & chip shops. ‘Kids Get Killed’ has been compared to The Enemy, rather harshly I feel, as it’s a good little tune and free of any relentless pandering to specific markets. ‘Jessica’ may have the feel of something we’ve heard before, but there are plenty of bands with hugely derivative songs out there, so we’ll let that one slide. All in all, this is a good little snapshot of a band on the cusp of stepping up to the next level and it leaves all of us at CUTA waiting for EP Two!

check out Melodramas at: www.myspace.com/melodramastheband

THE DAWN CHORUS AND FRIENDS – Live @ The Cellars At Eastney 17/04/09

We at Call Upon The Author have a great deal of time for Stiff Promotions, not only do they consistently put on top gigs, but they have a great reputation for looking after their performers too, so it was with utmost anticipation that we trekked to The Cellars At Eastney. Tonight’s bill sees The Dawn Chorus return from their short tour around the UK with The B Of The Bang in tow. they’ve invited some friends too, Holdfast and CM Arnold and the Delta Breaks, who are first on stage tonight. It’s front man Clym’s birthday and this seems to have fortified him with enough strength to bellow his vocals at the audience as his band play punchy blues rock and propel their vocalist to levels of energy not seen since the days of The Deads. This is good stuff indeed and a great way to start the night. Holdfast are next up, winners of The News’ Guide Award, they showed their quality with a truly beautiful set. Singer Roberta’s vocals wafted over some superbly crafted songs, this girl is the complete package, a talented musician with a truly haunting voice and enough charisma to spare. Bassist Ben and Toby on drums kept the tracks pumping with an often frenzied beat whilst guitarist Adam, the previously missing piece of the jigsaw puzzle, provided the lynchpin to their sound. These guys (and gal) were previously a band I really admired, but after tonight they’ve leapt into my absolute favourites! The B Of The Bang, old friends to this site already, were up next. It was a different set from these guys tonight, almost subdued by their standards, but in no way lacking the emotional punch they always pack. ‘Lung’ was particularly haunting with the slightly more sparse arrangement, and when Roberta joined Wit to sing ‘Dolores’ the hairs stood up on the back of this writer’s neck! Finally the returning Dawn Chorus took to the stage. I was a little apprehensive after seeing them at the Jelly Maid showcase, but tonight they showed just how foolish I can be! This was a superb set, bright and bubbly and sounding utterly lovely. In fact, on tonight’s evidence the band should  go down an absolute treat on their forthcoming festival appearances! Track after track from their brilliant debut album soared through the venue, leaving the audiences beaming and toes everywhere tapping. Vocalist Kyle Evans sounded like he was having the time of his life and judging by the way the band were playing he wasn’t the only one. With the chiming trumpet of ‘The Big Adventure (Part Two)’ filling this listener’s head and sound tracking the whole of the weekend, I have spent the last couple of days wondering if this is the best line-up I’ll see on stage this year? It’ll certainly be tough to stop it!

Check out Stiff Promotions at: www.stiffpromotions.co.uk

Check out The Dawn Chorus at: www.myspace.com/thedawnchorusuk

Check out The B Of The Bang at: www.myspace.com/thebofthebang

Checkout Holdfast at: www.myspace.com/holdfast

Check out CM Arnold and The Delta Breaks at: www.myspace.com/cmarnoldandthedeltabreaks

NEWSFLASH: Top Portsmouth Bands to play Eastney Cellars on Friday 17th April

Fresh off the road from their debut UK tour, Jelly Maid record’s The Dawn Chorus return home to Portsmouth to wrap their heartfelt tunes around the intimate interior of The Cellars at Eastney. Having stockpiled praise from a number of sources in 2008, from the likes of Clash Magazine, who wrote about their “Beautifully Melancholic Songwriting” to Rock Sound lauding the band’s debut release as “A Country-Pop classic waiting to happen” these guys are certainly earning the praise. Indeed just a month ago they headlined their record label’s inaugural showcase event in a packed to the brims Wedgewood Rooms!Their debut release, The Big Adventure, is a disc designed to actually be listened to. Here is a band who crafted an album of songs that actually fit together and flow, rather than throwing eleven random songs onto a disc. In the live arena they have a fearsome reputation for providing heart rending music that envelops the audience and takes it on a journey. Coming on like the UK’s answer to The Shins there really is something unique about these guys.

Support comes from two of Portsmouth’s best loved bands The B of the Bang and Holdfast. The B Of The Bang too, have just returned from tour, supporting their lasbel mates up and down the country, providing audiences with the rare site of the same line up for consecutive gigs. No doubt now that they’re home front man Wit will have some surprises in store as his ever changing collective take to the stage! Holdfast, winners at the 2008 Guide Awards, take to the stage with a set of vice like tightness, centred around the surprisingly powerful vocals of petite vocalist Roberta and built on rock solid rhythms to present a set of post-punk/electro pop exquisiteness! 

The Dawn Chorus are at The Cellars At Eastney on Friday 17^th April 2009. 

FROM THE VAULTS: THE DAWN CHORUS – The Big Adventure

Opening an album with the title track isn’t something most bands like to do, but with the Big Adventure, it’s the perfect way to introduce Portsmouth’s The Dawn Chorus. With its Bright Eyes-esque folksy vibe and sunny disposition the track (or at least the first part of it) ease the listener into this young five piece’s sound, just to throw a curveball when track two, The Big Adventure Part Two kicks in sounding like the first track remixed by Marius De Vries (Rufus Wainwright producer known for his orchestral production) clearly this band have ambitions beyond folksy rock. The album trundles on, like the soundtrack to a lazy summer Sunday, the bands eternally bright outlook and upbeat melodies reminiscent of The Old 97s, certainly no bad thing. These lads are certainly more intelligent than the average band vying for that £10 note in your pocket that you’ve earmarked for a new CD! That they’ve titled a song Marie Antoinette is enough of an indicator, but continually articulate lyrics which capture life in Portsmouth, and especially on its music scene, perfectly, especially in Fractured City’s “I don’t mind playing empty clubs/or bleeding my heart out to football thugs/but I do have a problem when this city screams that you can’t get out/you can never escape me”. If this is the starting point, then it looks like this band really are on a big adventure!

JELLY MAID MUSIC SHOWCASE – Live @ The Wedgewood Rooms, 26/03/09

Here at Call Upon The Author we’ve been keeping tabs on the good folks at Jelly Maid Music for some time. Last year we were dazzled by the debut release by Dawn Chorus and our thoughts on B of The Bang are well documented here. So, when we realised label boss Rich Tamblyn was putting all his acts on the same bill we thought it would be rude not to pop down to The Wedgewood Rooms and see what would unfold.

B of the Bang were first up, and the larger venue seemed to do wonders for the bands sound. Wit and his rabble seemed to expand their outlook with every new song, swamping the audience with dual (sometimes even triple) layers of production and making the most of the crystal clear sound offered to them. Hints of middle eastern rhythms seeped in and out of a set that was pretty much flawless, but the highlight was undoubtedly the haunting rendition of Lung.

Next up were Autons, whose stark electronic rock was undoubtedly well crafted but, sadly, didn’t do much for this writer. Clearly I was in the minority though as the rest of the audience seemed to be loving their tunes.

Melodramas were the enigma on the line up, a band I knew of, but hadn’t heard. I’d certainly been missing out though, as evidenced by the roaring welcome the group got when they hit the stage. Frontman Matt Woolway has the rock star swagger down pat and the band have the tunes to back it up. Undoubtedly local anthem Albert Rd received a great reception (the song is about the street where the venue is located). These guys have potential by the bucket load and I can’t wait to hear more from them!

Last up were The Dawn Chorus and, it has to be said, I was a little disheartened. Their album was one of my favourites of last year, but they seemed to be a little off the pace here. Strangely, after some superb work form the sound technicians on the previous acts, these guys sounded fuzzy and a little unclear, muddying their folk tinged tunes. A shame, they have superb tunes and a great reputation as a live act, but somehow it just didn’t work for me.

Still, it has to be said, Tamblyn has some great acts and Jelly Maid certainly looks to be a label worth watching.

THE B OF THE BANG – Alfred Light The Fires

The B Of The Bang are, perhaps the most enigmatic of Portsmouth’s bands. Their lineup seems to be in constant flux, their sound is near impossible to pigeon hole and their frontman, Wit, is at once both a charismatic frontman and a seemingly reserved songwriter. All of this, of course, makes for a jumbled and ragged outfit and it’s in this dishevelled approach that the charm of  the band lies. With this, their debut single on the Jelly Maid label, we finally see Wit and his myriad bandmatesmake a record that’s every bit as exciting as their live shows. Alfred Light The Firesis a beautiful track that shows a slightly mischievous side of Wit. There’s a hint of LozBridge in here too, fitting as Loz is one of the many musicians to crop up on stage with the band. The shifts in tempo and style seem strange at first, but with each listen the songgrows and spreads to the degree that I’m now very much in love! With a live version of the stunning Lung, recorded for Express FM, and a remixed take on Alaska this is a disc well worth investinga few pounds in. It certainly whets the appetite in anticipation of the forthcoming B Of The Bang album!