There are always more bands – the biggest question is who do you listen to when it comes to recommendations? Obviously Dork, your new music bible, should be your first port of call, but there are others too. This month we ask Sam from Bad Sounds.
All five members of the band discover new artists through different mediums, in both the physical and digital sense, from random streaming service playlists to 7” singles clubs (like Flying Vinyl), compilation cassettes and Soundcloud / Bandcamp mixtapes. The latter is how I stumbled upon Sorry, my favourite new band. Upon the first listen, I had the exact same surging feeling to when Nirvana’s ‘Bleach’ finally clicked in my head. It’s just natural and all them and no pressure. All their recordings are real and close, and you can hear the cracks and breaths, it’s honest. I love Sorry so much that I spent a whole van journey on Audacity cutting both Demo/ns mixtapes into separate songs and naming the files in iTunes etc. Long boy.
Charlie [Pitt, guitar] is mega into the local musical wealth of the Bristol community. He’s particularly loving the output of Breakfast Records; Slonk, Langkamer, Nugget and Kate Stapley to name a few. Charles is real into the indie, DIY folky kinda stuff.
Myself and Ewan [Merrett, co-frontman] are digging Donny Benét; his first record came out recently. That whole community arising from Australasia is so fascinating for me, especially Alex Cameron, Kirin J. Callinan and Connan Mockasin. That kinda sound/vibe also stretches to Paris, where Infinite Bisous is creating the most wonderful washy slumber numbers. Callum [Merrett, co-frontman] and I supported him recently on one of his UK tour dates with a sultry Bad Sounds DJ set. He bloody loved it when I spun an obscure Haruomi Hosono instrumental.
We’ve gotta mention Stoke’s Dylan Cartlidge, he’s only got a few tracks out so far, but they are cranked up, dirt-slick beaty bangerz. ’Love Spoons’ and ‘Scratch Sniff’ are jumping. He’s actually coming on the road with us in October – Dylan and his bandmates Matt and Jordan are the loveliest guys we’ve ever met.
We’re also touring with another new band, which again, are one of the most kindhearted bunch of fellas we’ve had the pleasure of hanging with – Indoor Pets. We first saw them a little while back while they were performing under a different name, they’ve just got signed now, and are recording stuff which we can’t wait for. Their fey energy and jolty gnar-shredding set blows any live performance we’ve done outta the water. Witnessing the shrieking and poetic clamour of ‘Barbiturates’ is purified elation, you gotta hear/see it. They’re unlike any new band around; we’re too lucky to have them and Dylan touring with us.
Taken from the October issue of Dork. Bad Sounds tour the UK from 24th October.
Taken from the October issue of Dork. Bad Sounds tour the UK from 24th October.
