soundCHECK 283 – January 22nd 2015

Mirrors, eh? Can’t live with them, can’t live without them.

For younger readers, mirrors are like selfies – except they work in real-time and play back mackle-free footage of you living and moving and checking your phone. Like a video. The downside is there’s no social share function, though I’d wager it won’t be long until mirrors come with a button stationed on the frame that paps snaps of you and uploads them to Instagram. Narcissism is a profitable market.

The thing about mirrors is that they are unforgiving, particularly at this time of year, when they ruthlessly portray you as a podgy, post-Christmas splodge with one hell of a paunch. In fact mirrors should come with some sort of warning or ARE YOU SURE? pre-screening function. With that in mind, thank God for Oh Captive having the good grace to forewarn us of their upcoming EP: Two Mirrors. Two!

Regular readers will be well-versed in soundCHECK’s tenuous links, but to avoid confusion I should probably make it clear that North Devon’s finest post-punkers aren’t about to release their own collection of reflective furniture, but a clutch of brand new songs that together reside under the moniker Two Mirrors. That said if you buy the record on CD then you could use the underside of the disk as a mirror, so perhaps we should all just settle the hell down and compromise here.

Two Mirrors (and a mirror) drops on Monday 23rd March.

From mirrors to quivers, namely those that bands will be generating for you if you buy tickets to Goff Fest. The festival from the chaps behind riotous North Devon synth-punkers The Dead Betas takes place across two nights at The Palladium in Bideford next weekend (30th-31st January) and will play host to some of the best bands in the region. Like Pretend Happy. And The Tuesday Syndicate. And The Dead Betas. And lots more too. Like One Man Boycott and Captal and Chapters Of Eden and Scud.

Goff Fest also brings some of the hottest underground national talent to North Devon and 2015’s first helping sees Dead, Novella, Allusondrugs and Max Raptor stepping stagewards at The Palladium. In Goff Fest’s own words: “Goff Fest is a grass roots festival that aims to bring some of the UK’s best touring bands to your doorstep. This is a festival for local bands as well as music fans.”

Weekend tickets are a steal at £10. One day tickets for either Saturday or Sunday are £6 each. All tickets are available from gofffest.bigcartel.com or from Beatsworkin in Barnstaple.

Plenty to reflect on.

CONTACT: Hoik your local music news over to: jharper[at]northdevonjournal.co.uk | @testforpulse

soundCHECK 261 – August 7th 2014

Searching for a decent band name incites a deep and unforgiving cognitive trauma. (Been there.) The worst afflicted bands get their imaginations completely obliterated by this mental storm. That’s why history has given us band names like The Band, Yes and The The. It can go the other way too. Sometimes the rush of blood to the head leads to names that are hopelessly over-thought: And So I Watch You From Afar; The T.S. Eliot Appreciation Society; They Came From The Stars, I Saw Them.

Yep, choosing a moniker that represents your sonic output is tough. So it’s nice when artists end up with something half-decent. One such artist is One Man Boycott: nom de guerre for Joe Brewer and his acoustic punk-rock solo project. A rousing name for rousing music. A name that reflects Brewer’s solo crusade. A name that…wait, what the hell is this?

Oh right. Brewer has recruited three members and One Man Boycott is now a full band. Bang goes the relevance of the band name. Up in smoke. One Man Boycott? They may as well change their name to Geoffrey Boycott. Why ruin it all? WHY?

“To be honest with you it’s always been the plan,” assures a floppy-fringed Brewer. “I only started OMB to tour and keep singing after Severe Zero [now defunct local post-punkers in which Brewer provided bass guitar and vocal harmonies], but as soon as I started writing I took a look at the songs and like 90% of them are unintentionally band songs. So from that first writing session I had one eye on making a band – it was just a case of when. With my album out next year, now is the time.”

Okay, forget the band name hang-up. It’s probably more enjoyable to have a name that cajoles and misleads and riles the pedants. And that rousing, intoxicatingly persuasive spirit that resides in their effervescent pop-punk ensures One Man Boycott will always be a decent fit. But there’s one more knot to tie. Who are these new members?

For now that’s a saucy secret; the identities of the new band known only to the walls of the rehearsal room. But you can witness the veil of secrecy being torn off and thrown in the nearest skip at the full band’s debut show, which unfurls at The Palladium in Bideford on Wednesday 13th August. The teaser? Brewer has unshackled himself from guitar duties, meaning he can concentrate on leaving you to ponder quite how it’s anatomically possible for his voice to execute those note-perfect, helium-high vocal melodies.

Prime your ears on Spotify or onemanboycott.com.

CONTACT: Insert your local music news into a tasty flan and send here: jharper[at]northdevonjournal.co.uk | @testforpulse