Apologies for the lack of band links at the end... Blogspot decided it was going to have one or two issues...
Previously published on mINtSOUTH.com in January 2010
Words - Suzy Sims
(c) mINtSOUTH
HAUNTED STEREO CURATES @ HAMPTONS 16/01/2010 - MONEYTREE, THE MOPES, SO SAY SO, THE LITTLE PHILISTINES, NOT MADE IN CHINA
Haunted Stereo are looking nervous. It’s Saturday night in Southampton. They’ve put together a splendid gig line up, but now the sky is emptying bucketloads. It’s not the sort of weather you really want to go out in, unless perhaps your shower is broken. “I’m hoping all our friends turn up and the weather won’t have put people off,” frets Haunted Stereo’s Andy Harris, shortly before the first band take the stage.
The opening act of the night is Not Made In China. This name sounds a little more exotic than Made In Bournemouth, where the band have kindly travelled all the way from tonight. It wasn’t too much trouble to come all this way. Nothing seems too much trouble for them and they look eager to please. The band themselves don’t sound very exotic, just terribly, terribly nice, or “about as edgy as a muffin,” as mINtSOUTH’s snapper remarks. Not Made In China are full of goodness and jangly Rickenbacker rhythms. They’re very chirpy and keen and keep grinning. Charming as it is to begin, the flat pleasantries are a little wearing.
Things perk up a bit as The Little Philistines cram onto the stage with guitars, drums, violin and trumpet. They’re louder and brisker with tales of ‘complications when communicating in relationships’ and muggings, with some warmly amusing banter and onstage personality shining through. Love Explodes is a highlight of the set, bursting out with brash guitars and a lovely melody. What I particularly enjoy about the band is that they haven’t forgotten that a memorable tune is a fairly important thing, and they do their best to pop it up but without taking themselves too seriously. A joy to catch.
Trendy types So Say So also feature a girl with a violin. I feel a bit left out, as I failed to bring one with me tonight. The mood gets a bit darker as they flood Hamptons with the cool sound of electronic angst, tipped with a dash of optimism and hidden beneath some very Eighties t shirts. The male keyboardist plays with a twisted and focused expression, like he is trapped in his very own glass case of emotion. “Please buy a t shirt – we need to cover the petrol back to London!” they beg. (I almost do, but there’s only so many white-band-t-shirts-with-black-writing that a person can have. If there had been a tipping bowl, I would have left enough money for them to have a service station Ginsters between them). So Say So were something a bit different, and my favourite band of the night.
I was slightly disappointed by The Mopes. They’re a motley crew but they impressed everyone with their lively set, although my ‘scary instrument radar’ started bleeping when some miniature maracas and an accordion were pulled out. I was half fearing some bagpipes would be foisted on us as well, but luckily the band play a lot of blues and foot-stamping country folk, which doesn’t often call for the pipes. It looks like most of the crowd have seen them before and are pleased to welcome them back – there’s a handful at the front dancing. The band can sense the love in the air. “Can anyone buy seven people a drink?” they ask hopefully. The Mopes seemed very experienced and professional, but struggled to capture and hold my full attention.
Moneytree look familiar, probably because half the band had been stood next to me, energetically throwing shapes to the electro music that was pounding out the speaker between acts. “This band are so good, they literally shit music!” enthuse an over-excited Haunted Stereo as the headliners take to the stage and cheerfully power out a set including singles, b-sides and a ‘three-quarters finished draft’, where they appear to repeat a large chunk because everyone is enjoying it so much. Moneytree are currently one of the top acts in Southampton, mainly owing to likeable frontman Campbell Austin, who is in fine voice tonight. I don’t quite agree with the curators’ opinion – Moneytree are a good band, but not life-changing - but their polished indie rock is a big step above the quality of your average local music scene. It doesn’t matter that they get everyone’s names wrong when trying to thank them (“The Small Philisteens! Sorry, the Little Philistines... Say So Say! Oh wait, no, So Say So...”) because tonight they are amongst friends.
Moneytree
The Mopes
So Say So
The Little Philistines
Not Made In China
Showing posts with label haunted stereo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label haunted stereo. Show all posts
Thursday, 6 May 2010
Monday, 11 January 2010
Interview - Haunted Stereo
Always a pleasant surprise to bump into a vague acquaintance (or to question them) - young Andy from Haunted Stereo was in my history class at college many moons ago.
Previously published on mINtSOUTH.com in October 2009
Words - Suzy Sims
Editor - Rob Ball
(c) mINtSOUTH.com
HAUNTED STEREO - SOUTHSEA FEST 2009
mINtSOUTH: Tell me a bit about yourselves.
Lewis: “I think we have been going about a year and a half. Me and Andy got together musically but it was all slow, we met at his stag do and then didn’t talk for about two months.”
Andy: “And then we said we were going to get together but we didn’t actually do it for three months.”
Ben: “It was a really long drawn out and boring affair!”
Andy: “Lewis had been in a couple of rock bands up to that point, I had been in more arty bands up in London before I met Anja. It just took a while to find exactly what we wanted to do. We pestered Anja for ages to be part of it – after our last band she was like ‘Oh, I don’t want to do a band again’ but then she started listening in and going ‘Oh, actually you know I’ll play a couple of songs,’ and before we knew it she took over! It’s a very typical phrase, but it was ‘an organic process’ of how it came together.”
Ben: “We keep losing members.”
Andy: “We’re like The Fall with our previous members list.”
mINtSOUTH: Southsea Fest – have you played yet today?
Anja: “We have actually, yeah.”
Ben: “It was really early and really short but people turned up, I don’t know where from, but they came. They seemed to quite enjoy it. It was our violinist Joanna’s last gig today so it was quite nice that everyone came to watch.”
Anja: “I did a solo set at the Magic Bean Café. I got distracted.”
Ben: “…by The Little Philistines. They’re better than we are.”
mINtSOUTH: Any bands you’re looking forward to seeing?
Haunted Stereo: “We’ve been running around doing bits and bobs and we got a tiny bite to eat so we haven’t actually got to see a lot, but we’re going to go and see Hold Fast, the Strange Death of Liberal England, definitely going to go and see Thomas Tantrum, and Peggy Sue.”
mINtSOUTH: Which band member would you eat first on a desert island?
Haunted Stereo: “Three of us are vegetarians… Dave! Dave’s not here. He eats the most beef and chicken. He looks rugged. I’m sure he’ll be a great burger.”
mINtSOUTH: How did you choose the name of your band?
Andy: “It was a birthday a few years ago and I wanted the music I had on my stereo to be in the kitchen as well, so bought one of those things where you plug in and then you just tune in on the radio. I was listening to records and tuning it through to the right frequency and someone said ‘Wow, it’s a bit like a haunted stereo.’”
Ben: “’Your stereo’s haunted.’ Get it right.”
Andy: “All right! Someone came running in and said ‘You can call yourselves Haunted Stereo!’ and I was like [slightly worried] yeah, ok then…”
Ben: “We were a bit drunk at the time. It seemed like a great idea at the time.”
mINtSOUTH: Do you support any charities?
Anja: “We did a gig last month at the Amnesty bookshop in Brighton which went really well. They’ve started a new site called Tracks for Amnesty, http://amnestybrighton.bandcamp.com/ they upload tracks for bands and sell them and all proceeds go to Amnesty International. We released our EP ‘In Bars’ on Tracks for Amnesty just a few weeks ago. You can go there and download our track, it’s called ‘Across The Sea’.”
Ben: “There’s loads of other bands in there as well, I think there’s 10 songs to choice from. Any anyone who gets a chance to play the bookshop, should. Really good fun. There’s an off licence opposite so you can have a beer outside. And if you’re not into the bands, you can have a look at the bookshelves.”
mINtSOUTH: Gorilla versus bear – who would win in a fight?
Andy: “I think bears have probably got slightly sharper teeth and generally a little bit more raw animal power.”
Ben: “I thought that bears, if you act like a bear at them, they get a bit scared and timid.”
Andy: “Would a gorilla know that though?”
Ben: “Gorillas are probably more intelligent than the bear.”
Andy: “Yeah, but I don’t think they would have read any National Geographic!”
Ben: “My vote is gorilla.”
Lewis: “I say bear. Bears are pretty cool.”
Shoutbox –
Haunted Stereo: “In November we’re releasing our new EP - we’re doing a big launch at the Joiners. We’ve got Thomas Tantrum supporting us, and the Moulettes. It’s going to be our first release on Sotones as well. Should be a riot!”
Haunted Stereo
Previously published on mINtSOUTH.com in October 2009
Words - Suzy Sims
Editor - Rob Ball
(c) mINtSOUTH.com
HAUNTED STEREO - SOUTHSEA FEST 2009
mINtSOUTH: Tell me a bit about yourselves.
Lewis: “I think we have been going about a year and a half. Me and Andy got together musically but it was all slow, we met at his stag do and then didn’t talk for about two months.”
Andy: “And then we said we were going to get together but we didn’t actually do it for three months.”
Ben: “It was a really long drawn out and boring affair!”
Andy: “Lewis had been in a couple of rock bands up to that point, I had been in more arty bands up in London before I met Anja. It just took a while to find exactly what we wanted to do. We pestered Anja for ages to be part of it – after our last band she was like ‘Oh, I don’t want to do a band again’ but then she started listening in and going ‘Oh, actually you know I’ll play a couple of songs,’ and before we knew it she took over! It’s a very typical phrase, but it was ‘an organic process’ of how it came together.”
Ben: “We keep losing members.”
Andy: “We’re like The Fall with our previous members list.”
mINtSOUTH: Southsea Fest – have you played yet today?
Anja: “We have actually, yeah.”
Ben: “It was really early and really short but people turned up, I don’t know where from, but they came. They seemed to quite enjoy it. It was our violinist Joanna’s last gig today so it was quite nice that everyone came to watch.”
Anja: “I did a solo set at the Magic Bean Café. I got distracted.”
Ben: “…by The Little Philistines. They’re better than we are.”
mINtSOUTH: Any bands you’re looking forward to seeing?
Haunted Stereo: “We’ve been running around doing bits and bobs and we got a tiny bite to eat so we haven’t actually got to see a lot, but we’re going to go and see Hold Fast, the Strange Death of Liberal England, definitely going to go and see Thomas Tantrum, and Peggy Sue.”
mINtSOUTH: Which band member would you eat first on a desert island?
Haunted Stereo: “Three of us are vegetarians… Dave! Dave’s not here. He eats the most beef and chicken. He looks rugged. I’m sure he’ll be a great burger.”
mINtSOUTH: How did you choose the name of your band?
Andy: “It was a birthday a few years ago and I wanted the music I had on my stereo to be in the kitchen as well, so bought one of those things where you plug in and then you just tune in on the radio. I was listening to records and tuning it through to the right frequency and someone said ‘Wow, it’s a bit like a haunted stereo.’”
Ben: “’Your stereo’s haunted.’ Get it right.”
Andy: “All right! Someone came running in and said ‘You can call yourselves Haunted Stereo!’ and I was like [slightly worried] yeah, ok then…”
Ben: “We were a bit drunk at the time. It seemed like a great idea at the time.”
mINtSOUTH: Do you support any charities?
Anja: “We did a gig last month at the Amnesty bookshop in Brighton which went really well. They’ve started a new site called Tracks for Amnesty, http://amnestybrighton.bandcamp.com/ they upload tracks for bands and sell them and all proceeds go to Amnesty International. We released our EP ‘In Bars’ on Tracks for Amnesty just a few weeks ago. You can go there and download our track, it’s called ‘Across The Sea’.”
Ben: “There’s loads of other bands in there as well, I think there’s 10 songs to choice from. Any anyone who gets a chance to play the bookshop, should. Really good fun. There’s an off licence opposite so you can have a beer outside. And if you’re not into the bands, you can have a look at the bookshelves.”
mINtSOUTH: Gorilla versus bear – who would win in a fight?
Andy: “I think bears have probably got slightly sharper teeth and generally a little bit more raw animal power.”
Ben: “I thought that bears, if you act like a bear at them, they get a bit scared and timid.”
Andy: “Would a gorilla know that though?”
Ben: “Gorillas are probably more intelligent than the bear.”
Andy: “Yeah, but I don’t think they would have read any National Geographic!”
Ben: “My vote is gorilla.”
Lewis: “I say bear. Bears are pretty cool.”
Shoutbox –
Haunted Stereo: “In November we’re releasing our new EP - we’re doing a big launch at the Joiners. We’ve got Thomas Tantrum supporting us, and the Moulettes. It’s going to be our first release on Sotones as well. Should be a riot!”
Haunted Stereo
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