Planet Indie’s favourite noise merchants of 2018 couldn’t go all year without giving us something new. Not that there was any chance we would forget them. They stole the venue in Camden Town when they played to a tiny 60 capacity crowd in The Boot Room while the winter still had us cowering in the cold. A week later they filled The Electric Ballroom with a couple of thousand. A viral moment of Later… at the end of 2018 has set them up. They had the mainstreams attention.
“Forgive my crippled head, our revolution’s dead, they’ve gambled all our pride, they want money instead, they’ve gone and speared my side, I think they want me dead”
Glastonbury was THE crowning glory. That set stopped the festival in it’s tracks. They made a case for the modern world alongside Stormzy and his headline grabbing Pyramid Stage headline show. Not long after that they announced the Alexandra Palace Christmas Show. Their biggest headline gig to date. As it write this listening to their stand alone double A-Side single Mercedes Marxist/ I Dream Guillotine that show is tomorrow night. The anticipation is palpable.
“Yeah, I think I second what he said, yeah, I think I second what she said, yeah, I think I second what I said, chuck chuck chuck chuck chuck chuck chuck chuck chuck chuck what I said”
Young Scottie at work has spent the last 18 months following Idles, Slaves, Fontaines DC and Frank Carter around in increasingly large venues feeling a ‘scene’ a ‘thing’ growing in strength and numbers. Punk rock in 2019 is about as huge as it ever was. It’s angry but it’s hopeful. It’s beautiful art in the face of a fucked up situation politically, economically. It’s “What’s so funny about peace love and understanding” played on two strings by tattooed youths who genuinely are questioning if they have a tomorrow. It’s terrace chants filtered through post modernism and optimism applied like a salve delivered with a cannon. Joyful (ahem) brutalism.
The magnificently Eurocentric live album A Beautiful Thing dropped today. I’m marveling at the coloured vinyl and fanzine insert while Mercedes Marxist plays. Live At Le Bataclan for Christmas. Live in Ally Pally tomorrow night. It’s CHRIST! MASSSSSSS!
“Suicide’s for cowards he said while sat drinking himself to death, I bow on my knees for you but I’m already wasted“
The seeds sewn by austerity flower in a voice of defiance. Those living in Daniel Blake’s Sorry we missed you world, gig economy, endless Brexit, Jeffrey Epstein Didn’t Kill Himself, food bank Christmas dinner, Cunts are still running the world, shat on by Tories, swept away by Labour, Bollocks to the Liberal Democrats, dead cat on the table, principles face down in a ditch… This is our second referendum. We’re voting Joy.
Happy New Year!
Steve For The Deaf 