New Music: Anteros - Bonnie

Last week I caught up with the ever effervescent Anteros live on the Brighton leg of the Hopscotch tour, a fantastic value (free) 3 band affair that also featured Stereo Honey and Yonaka. What was clear was that despite their indie pop songs being rather old fashioned sounding (in a good way - I can imagine them having fitted in quite nicely around the time of mid 90's Britpop) the Anteros fans, who were bouncing up and down at the front in a sweaty smiling mass, were full of youthfulness.

The kids are right of course; Anteros is a great band. This four piece know how to write a bouncy, life affirming pop tune. New addition Bonnie is another one of those and is a call to the ideals of acceptance of what you have in life rather than comparing yourselves to others all the time. With the narcissistic environment that social media creates these days where only the most positive, charming, funny and succesful aspects of peoples lives are publicized and the less interesting stuff is ignored, it can be harder and harder for some people to find that ideal. 

There's just a couple of dates on the Hopscotch tour remaining, so if you're in Leeds tomorrow (30th Oct) or London on Tuesday (31st Oct) do try and get along to see three great bands playing - you can grab free tickets from this link.

Bonnie - Anteros

My Favourite 5 Singles Of 2016

You’re not a proper music obsessive unless you do some end of year lists – right? Well, I certainly have plenty of them, and the big one, my end of year album list, will be published here right at the end of the year with 25 albums, one posted each hour from midnight to midnight on New Year’s Eve, each one with a few accompanying thoughts.

For now, here are my 5 favourite singles of 2016. There’s no messing here, no written commentary, just the music. This is my final post of the year until everything related to the 25 post marathon on New Year's eve. Have a good Christmas.

1. Maggie Rogers – Alaska



2. She Drew The Gun – Poem



3. Sofi Tukker – Drinkee



4. The XX- On Hold



5. Anteros – Breakfast

New Music: Anteros - Ring Ring (Video)

Over the last year Anteros have definitely edged up my league table of favourite new credible pop bands and so tonight, for the second time, I’m very pleased to be catching them live. If you’re in the south coast region, then come, Southampton Joiners is your destination. (Tickets here)

And what better way to prepare for the gig than one of those ‘classic’ band on tour videos, for Ring Ring, from the truly excellent Breakfast EP. So, what debauched activity can we expect from the band in this video? Obscene drug use, maybe something similar to the dreaded Cocainus chapter in the Tim Burgess book Telling Stories? Or maybe rampant alcohol fuelled sex orgies that would make the likes of Keith Richards blush? No, it seems not. Today’s modern band has to take a somewhat more low-key approach; so expect a bit of larking around in a service station, quite a lot of sleeping and various puzzled faces whilst putting up tents at festivals. 

Call me boring, but frankly I’m all for this less exuberant approach – at my age all I want from a gig is some good music and to be home by midnight for a nice cup of tea. Please take note all touring bands that I go to see. It’s not much fun for the punter if the artist is busy shagging a stranger backstage*, high on illegal substances before arriving an hour late to give a shit-faced useless performance.

*Unless perhaps, in certain circumstances, you are that stranger.

Anteros - Ring Ring (Video)

New Music: Anteros - Ring Ring

Back in ye olde days of pop music, when the UK singles chart was genuinely exciting because it was based on what people were buying rather than what they were playing, it was possible for a relatively new indie band that had written a half decent pop song and had a few fans to get their tune in the UK Top 50 without having to either sound like everything else or have an association with a big American star. 

For example, pop saviours Saint Etienne could notch up a string of minor hit singles (17 of them between 1991 and 2003), each one sitting in the charts for around a month before diving away without people screaming 'flop'. The charts allowed space for bands to develop a longer term career without ever troubling the wider mainstream. This was because of the one-off nature of sales (where fans could have more immediate impact by buying in the first week), compared with multiple plays (a very different thing) which are responsible for this week’s UK singles Top 100 containing Mr Brightside by The Killers (a record released 12 years ago, but because of streaming, still in the charts) and Sorry by Justin Bieber which has taken up a near year long residency in the charts. All the UK charts demonstrate these days is that the public at large is incredibly conservative in its music listening habits.

I mention St Etienne because for me a current band like Anteros would have been the sort of act that would have been “doing a St Etienne” a few years ago. Their songs like Breakfast and The Beat are eminently hummable bona fide quality pop tunes, not the turgid formulaic sh*te that current chart toppers like The Chainsmokers, Calvin Harris, Drake etc are inflicting on the masses. Anteros would have probably gone to number 34 with Breakfast and The Beat would have made the top 30 for a couple of weeks. Then they’d have released an album that might have dented the top 20 for just one week but it would have been enough to sustain them to make more records. 

Unfortunately, times have now changed (yes I'm being a grumpy old man again) and whilst the British public continues to listen to Mr Brightside over and over (a brilliant pop record, but to listen to it so many times that it’s still in the charts is a bit like having sex in the same position every day – reasonably satisfying but ultimately bringing less impact every single time) Anteros keep pushing out tunes for the few of us who care enough about pop to listen. Their latest Ring Ring, bizarrely, in terms of its instrumentation, could actually be a Saint Etienne song, capturing the casual sixties spirit of You’re In A Bad Way with some panache. So there you have it: Anteros – a band making stylish pop for those in the know. Join their club.

Their Breakfast EP is out now. Hear it all on Spotify by clicking here. Give The Killers a break, stop doing it in the missionary position and try something new. You might actually enjoy it.

Anteros - Ring Ring

New Music: Anteros - The Beat

Every now and then a song doesn’t so much as sneak up on you and slowly burn its way into your brain, but bounce up with gleeful exuberance, punch you hard in the face and make it feel like one of the most beautiful and exhilarating things you've ever experienced. That is the power of the best pop music. 

Such is the new one from Anteros. It’s called The Beat and frankly it’s a bloody brilliant recipe of indie, pop and even some funky-disco vibes. It has one of those choruses that is more hooky than anything a fisherman could ever have on the end of his line. Massive earworm alert. If this doesn’t get played on the radio there’s something very wrong with our broadcasting services ears. 

In even better news, Anteros are playing a few live dates in September, including for those near to Breaking More Waves, a date at Southampton Joiners. See you for a mad dance-off at that one, if you’re not too cool for school?

Drink this song up. One listen and to paraphrase Kylie Minogue, you can't / won't be able to get this one out of your head.

Anteros - The Beat

New Music: Anteros - Blue (Video)

Today the 11th edition of the Great Escape, the festival for new music, gets underway in Brighton with over 450 bands, 3,500 music industry professionals and thousands of regular punters swarming into the seaside town to get their fix of bands, booze and the beach. Unofficially it kicked off last night with a couple of pre-parties; I managed to catch indie fuzz rockers Yuck at a fairly raucous Sticky Mike’s Frog Bar where, despite the low basement ceiling height, several members of the audience managed some pretty determined and effective attempts to crowd surf.

One of the acts playing today that (queues and venue capacity permitting) I’m planning to catch is Anteros, who last impressed with the snap crackle and pop of Breakfast, the video of which found lead singer Laura Hayden joining the rapidly expanding list of musicians who promote their music by jumping in the bath (I still have no answer to why musicians do this except that either they’re bonkers or attention seeking whores – probably both). Timed nicely to coincide with their Great Escape show comes another new tune from the band. Blue has one of those ‘we don’t really have any money or time, so let’s just shoot a tour footage video which involves us driving around and playing some shows and then larking around a bit and that'll do’ videos whilst their easily digestible pop music provides the soundtrack.

If you want to see what I’m up to at Great Escape, follow me on Twitter (here) – I’ll be tweeting throughout the event. If you want to see what Anteros are up to you can follow them by using this link here - let's hope their tweets are a bit more exciting than 'driving to another gig'.

Anteros - Blue (Video)

The Great Escape 2016 - Preview / Recommendations (Thursday)

‘Festival season’ in the UK doesn’t really exist now – with the exception of Christmas week it’s possible to go to a music festival, be it in a field camping in the summer or a multi-venue event in a city centres or holiday camp, all year round. It seems like every Tom, Dick and Harry is organising a music festival. Hell, in the last year even I’ve been part of a small team that has organised two of the things - Dials, a multi-venue event in Portsmouth replacing Southsea Fest whilst it took a year out and the follow up Dials Days, a two room-one venue bargain bucket festival which charged just £10 to see the likes of Fear Of Men, Champs, Femme, Avec Sans, Estrons and about ten more.

However, probably the most established and popular of the multi-venue festivals is Brighton’s Great Escape. Why? Because, whilst many festivals fill their bills with new music, Great Escape does it on a colossal scale. Over 3 days around 30 venues in Brighton pay host to 450 emerging artists from all over the world. On top of that there’s the Alt. Escape, the festival’s sister event which puts on many more showcases, free to Great Escape wristband holders and most of which admit the general public for free or a small fee.

Great Escape is the must go to event of the year for new music fans; I usually manage to see somewhere between 35 and 40 full performances over 3 full days. Also for those who are interested or part of the music industry side of things there’s a very full conference for which you can buy a delegate ticket, but frankly I’d rather get into the thick of the action and just gulp down as much live music as I possibly can.

Over the years at Great Escape I’ve seen the likes of Adele, Mumford & Sons, Foals, Haim, Chvrches and London Grammar taking their first baby footsteps into the world of popular music, playing sets to small intimate crowds before they became household names. Of course the festival still markets itself partly on ‘discovery’ but with the advent of streaming and playlists (the Great Escape has its own comprehensive playlist on Spotify ) the idea of ‘discovery’ has changed from hearing a band for the first time, to discovering if the artist can actually cut it live.

However, in case you’re going and haven’t had the time to run through all the bands playing, I’ve done the job for you, and so over the course of the next 3 blog posts I’m going to be recommending five acts from the official bill (and a link to 1 bonus act from the Alt Escape) that are, if nothing else, on my list of ‘possibles’ to see.

Let’s start with Thursday:

Vallis Alps (Komedia 12:15) (Also playing at Brighthelm 22:30)

The Komedia is the place to be get your Great Escape off to a fantastic start. A showcase of varied high quality Australian artists kicks off with an act that I first introduced to the blog in January 2015. Parissa Tossif and David Ansari are Vallis Alps and will appeal to those who want to be slowly teased into the weekend with a drowsy blend of pop that tugs on the heartstrings.



Northeast Party House (Komedia 15:35) (Also playing Coalition 00:15 Saturday)

At the other end of the showcase that Vallis Alps open are Northeast Party House. Remember Friendly Fires? Well Northeast Party House bring that same level energy in their songs. This is four-to-the-floor hands in the air celebration music but with a rougher rockier edge. Like Foals going dancing.



Let’s Eat Grandma (The Haunt 20:30) (Also playing Latest Music Bar 01:00-01:45 Saturday)

Already well covered on Breaking More Waves since summer last year, Let’s Eat Grandma are two teenage girls who produce music and a live show that’s like experimental jazz in a scrappy multi-instrumental pop format. Not everything they do works, but even when it doesn’t it’s more than intriguing.



Jones (Paganini Ballroom 22:15) (Also playing Wagner Hall 16.30 and 21:00)

Another act that I first featured some time ago (September 2014). At the time I described Jones' music as ‘breezy electronic soul pop’. Since that time she’s appeared on Later with Jools and has wowed many with her song Hoops.



Anteros (Paganini Ballroom 23:15)

Anteros have at least 2 killer songs in their bag. The first is recent single Breakfast which has a really fun video (including a pop star in the bath moment for all pop star in the bath followers) of fashion), the other is the song from which their name also derives. Already touted as Ones to Watch for 2016 by plenty of tastemakers, Great Escape will be many people's first opportunity to witness what else they have to offer. Here's hoping the rest isn't filler.



Alt Escape Bonus Pick: Wyldest (The Globe 21:05)

New Music: Anteros - Breakfast

Considering how much of our lives we spend eating there's a considerable void of pop songs about the process, compared to say love and relationships. Even worse, there are very few songs about the most important meal of the day; breakfast. Sure Paul Young taught us to 'slip a slice under' with Streetband's Toast, a B-side that became a hit in its own right, and Deep Blue Something became a one hit wonder with their tune Breakfast at Tiffany's, but by and large there haven't been many great songs about the first meal of the day. Thankfully Anteros have changed all that. Well sort of. Because despite the title, this one is still ultimately about a relationship.

This tune, simply titled Breakfast is the ultimate in effortlessly cool indie pop songs. Bright, breezy and mintily refreshing I can imagine it being lined up right now to be the soundtrack to the latest credible summer teen romance film - albeit the part where the girl is sitting on the sofa, late at night, looking bored out of her mind whilst her partner has an outpouring of all of his emotional issues and problems. Then she gets up, walks away, and looks sadly over her shoulder as the lyrics "I'm not the answer and soon you'll see," ring out. 

Does anyone think of The Drums when they hear this? I do. More of this please Anteros. Just next time can you actually sing about croissants and coffee?

Anteros - Breakfast