Mountain Jam

Ralph's featuring Lemon And Lime the latest release by Midlands band Mountain Jam on his Radio KC Indie Show this Sunday. 

It's psychedelic, 'Madchester-esque' guitar driven sound is quietly addictive and sure to be a firm favourite with their fans at gigs, the next of which is in Hinckley on March 25th.

No surprises Mountain Jam cite The Who, Small Faces, Stone Roses, and The Charlatans as influences as there are shades of them all woven into this offering.

Mountain Jam are, Dean Dovey on vocals & rhythm guitar, Andy Varden on lead guitar, Nick Robert on Bass and Pez on drums. 

Despite only having formed in March of 2015 they've quickly developed a tight, well-crafted sound. 

Last year saw the release of a Double A-side single, Jeleaous Of Me and the flip side, Lust, which was followed by the critically acclaimed EP. This year should see them increase their fan-base as they seek out not only festival appearances but also gigs country-wide. Get on it!

Welcome Pariah

The name of the band may be a bit of an oxymoron but Southampton band Welcome Pariah play music you certainly wont want to cast out.  You can even use an oxymoron to describe their music as as contemporary psychedelic.  

There's an obvious 60's influence and it comes to the fore in their new single 'Neither Here Nor There' released on the 26th April in tandem with a video launch party at The Macbeth in Shoreditch, London.  From the intro its a psychedelic trip with hints of The Beatles if Paul Weller had joined them to write 'Norweigan Wood'.

The debut release marks an exciting time for Southampton based Welcome Pariah who currently have a number of top gigs and established festival slots lined up for the summer months ahead in 2013 and who have also recently been interviewed and featured in none other than The Huffington Post.

Citing their influences as The Verve, The La’s, Paul Weller, Doves, The Stone Roses, The Who and The Beatles to name a few, Welcome Pariah have shared the stage with the likes of Steve Cradock, Chris Helme, Mark Morris and British indie rock outfit The Moons, as well as performed at a number of mainstream festivals.

Welcome Pariah are John Waghorn - vocals/lead guitar, Josh Butcher - vocals/guitar, Daniel Manuel - bass guitar and John Martin - drummer. C

urrently working on new material for upcoming shows they're shortly due to head back into the studio to record more tracks. Those who have seen Welcome Pariah live find it hard to pinpoint their exact sound, so be sure to check them out in the coming months and get hold of their debut track too! Here's a list of their upcoming dates.

Upcoming Gigs

25th April – RMA Tavern, Portsmouth

26th April – This Feeling Club Night, The Macbeth, London

27th April - The Essex Arms, Brentwood

10th May – This Feeling Club Night, Cellar, Southampton

11th May – Pulse Festival, Sunnyfields Farm, Hampshire

17th May- Lennons, Supporting Catfish and the Bottlemen, Southampton

24th May – Coburgs, Ryde, Isle of Wight

25th May – The Tap, Sandown, Isle of Wight

8th June –  The Adam & Eve, Scooterists For Heroes, Birmingham

14/15th June – March Of The Mods Festival, Santa Pod Raceway, Wellingborough

21st June- The Fiddlers Elbow, Cool Britannia, Camden, London

29th June – The Good Ship, Kilburn, London

19/20/21st July – Tonefest, Dorset

26th July -Gabefest 5, Hampshire

2nd August – Frolic Fest, Kent

Culann

Culann have made no secret of the fact that they want to make 2013 their year and they made a great start by winning the 'Best Rock/Alternative' category of The Scottish Alternative Music Award earlier this month.  Comprised of PJ Kelly - Vocals/Guitar, Sean Kelly - Drums/Vocals, Greg Irish- Guitar, Ross McCluskie- Keys and Calum Davis-Bass, Culann are making rousing folk/rock anthems (sometimes with a hint of prog rock like - 'Beat Your Chest') with almost alarming regularity.








Like their namesake from Irish mythology they forge their music with rousing guitars, swooping keyboards, crashing drums and well crafted lyrics.  





They've brought together elements of some of the great 70's prog rock super-groups like ELP and Yes together with the modern folk stylings of Frightened Rabbit and Admiral Fallow.  They're almost creating their own genre within the current Scottish music scene and you only have to look at their growing fan-base to know they've got the mixture just right.  That's very evident in one of their more powerful and anthemic tracks, the masterful 'Salvation' which builds throughout to a vocal crescendo.










The album 'Culann' is superbly put together and mastered by none other than Jon Astley who has worked with artists as diverse as Abba to The Who and Nora Jones to Led Zeppelin.  It's a debut album and a coming of age in one mighty fell swoop.  Needless to say I'm not going through the whole album...you're going to have to go and find out for yourself, but take my word for it, you'll be buying one of the albums of the year.

After their SAMA win Ralph's roving reporter in Scotland, Malcolm Parry took a chance to ask them a 
few questions.....

Malc: An obvious question to start: So how did you feel when your name was announced as the winners?

Culann: We were genuinely surprised.  We had put a lot of hard work in promoting the event & voting system but it was still very unexpected
.

To have your bands name announced as 'Best Rock' at an event like the Sama's is special, an unforgettable moment for all of us.  We have spent nearly two years on our first album so it feels great to have achieved something like this.

                    

Malc: If you could support one band who would it be?

Culann: This is a tricky question.  All of us have really different influences so It would maybe be 5 different bands!  Being from Ayrshire, I think we would all love an Ayrshire show supporting Biffy Clyro though.

                    

Malc: Do you think the Sama award will help you gain a wider audience & get bigger venue gigs?

Definitely, I think we have already started to get a wider audience & since Friday the feedback has been incredible.  It will help us cast the net further for sure, its a very good platform to build from.

                    

Malc: Briefly, can you tell me any plans for the band that are happening this year?

Culann: We are currently promoting our first album (on Itunes / Bigcartel) and we will be touring Scotland next month, the dates are available on Facebook.  After that we will be playing as many shows as possible over the next few months, and hopefully be appearing at a few festivals over the summer.  Having won the 'Best Rock' prize at the Sama's we really want to capitalise on the achievement and really push on. 

If you think their fans aren't hardcore.....check out these bad boys that @youaremoo did for the guys..... 

The Dons

Ralph's always got one ear to the ground when it comes to up and coming young bands, especially from Scotland.  So when the word on the street was that The Dons were doing a gig he sent his intrepid reporter Malcolm 'Anorak' Parry along to review and have a chat with the band.

The Dons are Chris Karpacz, Lewis Inglis, Jack Miller, Lee Anderson and Luke Paxton.  They're relatively new editions to the Edinburgh music scene but are already making a big impact with some quality gigs including Cabaret Voltaire, Ralph's favourite Electric Circus and the Studio 24 gig in the review.  They've got another couple of gigs in the pipeline for next month too.....

Edinburgh, Electric Circus - 12th April

Glasgow, The Garage - 19th April

Ralph played their track 'Home' on his Radio KC show with it's punchy almost Ramones-like guitar riff and an anthemic chant of a chorus.  If they can build on this kind of crowd pleasing track then their following will spread well beyond Edinburgh's city limits!  More like this and less covers will see them come of age as rock 'n' rollers. I'll let Malc take up the story..... 

   

The Dons- Studio 24, Edinburgh, 16/03/13

Walking into the venue a few songs in to The Dons set, I witness an aftermath of a musical explosion, screaming teenagers, bodies flying everywhere, all caught in the mosh pit struggling to breath while hanging on to every word from young indie star in the making Chris Karpacz.  He makes good use of the stage, mic in hand, sometimes one foot on the monitor to lean into the crowd.  

I move closer to take pictures, just avoiding lose limbs.  Welcome to a live gig with one of Edinburgh's 'mad for it' young indie bands, working hard to gain an ever increasing fan base, which shows tonight, mainly due to the power of Facebook and Twitter (I’ll get back to that later).  I miss their future anthem 'Home' which the lad's chose to play first, and a new track 'Renee'.  They're half way through a cover of 'Don't Look Back Into The Sun' when I join the carnage.  Followed by another cover 'Always Where I Need To Be', we get another new tune 'Two Ways' which I enjoy. 

Lead guitarist Lewis Inglis could easily be mistaken for a Noel Gallagher love child, trademark eyebrows and Beatles haircut, kitted out Retro cool sty-lee in 60's black polo neck and 80's white jeans (bought from Kelso, he tells me later) shaking his head in a 'you guys are mental' half nod/disapproval to the stampede of youth in front of him.  Bassist Lee Anderson and Rhythm player Jack miller remain cool and static, whilst the drummer keeps things tight.  

The boys announce their last tune, another new one 'Wasteland' a nod to one of their favorite bands, The Who maybe. We get punchy punk tinged indie, which sends the crowd even wilder and wanting more.  This reviewer is now nodding along in approval and tempted to throw himself into the pit, but decides to leave it to the teenagers.

I go backstage for a quick chat with the young hopefuls who are all happy to oblige.....

“So guys what are your plans for this year” Chris “ We would like to push The Dons further, hopefully gaining a bigger fan-base through constant touring, giving away new tracks, which are better tunes than our others on our reverberation and social networking sites”.   Exciting! 

The Band cleverly came to me on Twitter last December by following me, intriguing me with their 60's mod influence tag, but having no music to hear their sound or gigs at that time, but obviously building fans on the mystery alone.  Forward thinking.

Chris continues - “We have more promoter’s coming to us now, and have a support slot at The Electric Circus upcoming with The 23's and one at The Garage over in Glasgow“ (both new venue's for them).  This one they tell me they're really excited about.  The lads have hired a 50 seater bus to take their Edinburgh massive over with them, which is dedication.  Chris - “We're also hoping to get gigs over the border, hopefully in London as well“.  I'm confident they'll go down as well in England shire as they do on their home turf.  I get the band all in on some messing around questions, mainly to do with their heroes and influences.

 

Question: If you could support any bands, who would it be? Answer: Jack Bugg, Kasabian or new young Irish band The Strypes.

Question: Give me your dream 3 day festival Headliners,  living or dead? Answer: Beatles, Oasis and The Rolling Stones.

Question: If Doc Brown pulled up in his time machine and offered to take you to either The Stone Roses - Spike Island 1990 or Oasis - Knebworth 1996, which would you chose? Answer: Oasis.

Question: Liam or Noel ? Answer: Noel, definitely!

Question: John Squire or Pete Townsend? Answer: Pete Townsend.

Question: Manchester or Liverpool? Answer: Liverpool in the 60's and Manchester in the 90's (all the band agree )

Well it's obvious the boys have good taste in British music and are very aware of their music heritage., may it carry on shining through in their music.