ABOUT: MONEY

The Money shot, as it were.

Shadow of Heaven album art.

Hailing from Manchester, MONEY are a four-piece band consisting of frontman Jamie Lee, guitarist/keyboardist Charlie Cocksedge, bassist/keyboardist Scott Beaman and drummer Billy Byron. Lee's poetic nature is his music personified; with Wu Lyf style euphoria coated in pained vocals that sound like they want to sing to the entire world, their album Shadow of Heaven is a masterpiece. Just looking at the artwork (my personal favourite album art ever) gives you a rough idea of their sound - an oxymoron in itself, melancholic happiness runs through the record - so much so that if you went to one of their gigs, you'd expect to walk into the room and be immediately transformed into black and white. 

Single Hold Me Forever is their most played song on Spotify by quite a way. It consists of layers of carefully chosen sighs of sound on top of twinkling guitar and incredibly emotion-soaked vocals exclaiming "and it's true that I love everybody, as it's true I love no-one". The song finishes with cries of "heaven is real", an example of the continuous religious motif throughout the album (see tracks entitled So Long (God is Dead) and Cruelty of Godliness for proof). 

If there was ever a band you'd want to listen to in the event of being stood atop a high building, wearing denim and outstretching your arms to the world (like Lee on the album artwork), then MONEY is it. Before listening to them, I had never heard so much emotion being put into not only the vocals, but every inch of every song they've created. They are wonderful, and frankly deserve more attention than they currently get. 

Listen for yourself, and see:



Written by Molly McGrath

Secret EP // Boys

Boys – Secrets EP

A relatively new band on the music scene are Boys, a 3 piece band from West London their second EP – Secrets only came out a matter of days ago but is already building in popularity.

The first song shares the same name as the EP, Secrets:

It starts off with a synth intro almost reminding me of King City // Swim Deep but the song starts to have some prominent drums and Splashh – esque  vocals with a very mysterious feel with the repeated lyrics such as ‘you’re the only one that I want’. Soon enough the guitar takes over the vocals and really stands out for me in this track, the song keeps this same pattern throughout but does not get boring or repetitive.

Heartbreaker:

This track really reminds me of the strongly acclaimed Peace it has the same mix of uplifting guitar but once again the vocals add a real Splashh sense to it.  This song has a really catchy element within it and will be stuck in your head for days on end. The guitar riffs really stand out against the dark vocals therefore making this song a very weird mix of both uplifting and dark elements.

Bad Intentions:

This song has a completely different vibe to the previous tracks it starts off with a very distorted guitar sound and whereas with this one some early vocals coming in adding to the distorted unique sound of this song, the drums and guitar mix really reminds me of the duo Drenge. This slowly fades into a much more uplifting song and for me this is the best on the EP.

I managed to get a word in with Boys via twitter to get some idea on the inspiration for their EP:

1.     What or who were your main inspirations for the EP?                                                                            ‘The ep is mainly about love and friendships about us all in the band. Was good to write lyrics that meant a lot to us’

2.     How would you describe your sound?

‘For this ep we ditched the lofi sound of previous recordings. We wanted to take more time with it and come out with a clearer sound, we like to call our sound bedroom pop as we record in our bedroom.’

3.     Who are some of your favorite current artists?

‘At the moment were loving bands like diiv smith westerns pains of being pure at heart. They are big influences on us, also loving king krule at the min.’

4.     Where do you get your inspiration for your songs from (lyrics and music wise)?

‘We tend to write lyrics about how were feeling and what's happening in our lives. We also tend to try and create a sound which matches our mood. With this ep being quite dark compared to the summer vibes of our first ep’

Listen to Boys new Ep – Secrets here: http://boysuk.bandcamp.com/album/secrets-epBoys 

- Nina (s0utrippin)

tribes breakup

Tribes were the sort of band that remind you of endless summer days, of teenage late nights and falling asleep during double physics the next grey morning. Their songs burned with hazy guitar lines reminiscent of mid-nineties Oasis, combined with almost Ryan Jarman-esque vocals. They were the essential laid-back dreary summer soundtrack; dripping with laziness, messy hair and simple scrubby guitar riffs. Distorted vocals accompany some of their later songs, touching towards a more Tame Impala branch of the alternative rock spectrum. 

The band formed in 2010, rising out of the smog and cheap takeaways of Camden Town. In the four short years they were together, they released two studio albums and multiple singles. For me, they were a collection of all the things to look forward to in life - music for the future, not for the past. These are not songs made to cry over lovers, or to mourn lost friendships - they're songs for coming summers, for laughing and enjoying the life that you are living now. 

But this band was never going to be for eternity. All good things must come to an end - and last week Tribes made this very clear. On the 7th of November, the official Tribes twitter page tweeted 'We are sad to announce that we will no longer be writing and performing together as Tribes.' followed by 'Thank you to everyone who supported us along the way. We are proud of what we achieved together.', 'You gave us the best four years of our lives so far.', and a youtube link to 'We Were Children', their first bittersweet single.

- written by avalon x x