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Joyzine
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New Independent Music & Culture: Doing it for the love since 2003
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Advent Calendar Extra: Exclusive free track from Electric Pets via Reckless Yes Records
Dec 27, 2024Tap to summarizeAs the last Christmas plate is washed up and the scraps of wrapping paper are sorted and carted off to the recycling bin for another year, we’re all looking for something to keep our festive flame alight, and we’ve got just the thing. Sadly this year’s Joyzine Advent Calendar was cut short (as explained here) but that means we have loads of brilliant songs still to share with you over the coming days to lighten the trudge towards the new year. As with all of out songs this year, if you enjoy them we’d love you to consider supporting the excellent work of First Timers Fest in creating opportunities for people from under-represented backgrounds to learn an instrument, form a band, write some songs and get onstage, by making a donation here. Today’s exclusive free download comes via the ever brilliant Reckless Yes Records, the home (past and present) to a swathe of Joyzine favourites – Chorusgirl, Nervous Twitch, Piney Gir, Fightmilk, Breakup Haircut, Feral Five, Charley Stone and more, including vintage loving garage rock dark-pop four-piece Electric Pets, who have provided today’s tune in the form of a cover of a 1978 duet between Suzi Quattro and Smokie’s Chris Norman. We caught up with Pete Darrington, who is both one of the label heads and a member of the band, to find out more: Tell us a little about your trackThe track we’ve chosen to specially record for your Advent Calendar this year is “Stumblin’ In’ – a 1978 duet between Suzi Quatro and Chris Norman from Smokie. We’re huge fans of Suzi and everyone knows all the bangers, so we thought we’d go for one of her lesser known ballady hits. It’s not a Christmas song per se, but we’ve made it one with obligatory sleigh and tubular bells. Our version is also very evocative of the glam rock Chinn and Chapman era, complete with hand claps and glam rock drums. We recorded it specially in our little demo cabin where we write and demo all our songs, at the bottom of Phil Wagg’s (guitar and vocals) garden. What was 2024 like for you?2024 was a reasonably busy year for us – we didn’t quite do as much as we did last year as Emma (vocals, guitar) has become a mum, so we were working around that while she got into her parenting stride – but we still got a lot done! We released a couple of singles, which received fantastic support from BBC Introducing, we spent the earlier part of the year in the studio recording some new material – 6 new songs that are due for release in 2025, including the two singles I mentioned earlier. The summer saw us playing at a few festivals – our favourite being a brand new one in Burton On Trent – called ‘Sonic Boom’ – that was great and the audience were fantastic. We also smashed the 100k plays mark on Spotify, which we were super pleased about. What do you have planned for the next 12 months?Next year we plan to be back gigging as much as we did in 2023 and we’ve got a total of 3 singles and another EP pencilled in for release throughout the year – we are mixing and mastering the next two singles right now and then early in the new year we will be finishing off the other 4 songs that we did the tracking for earlier this year. Hopefully more festival appearances in the Summer too – we’ve been so lucky to have had prominent places on the bill for events like Y-Not and Splendour and Sonic Boom so we hope that trend will continue! Christmas songs – love them or hate them? Why?Christmas songs? We love them! Of course you get sick of them by the end of December, but that’s part of the fun, right? We all slap on a christmas play list when we start to get the decorations out and put the tree up – it’s essential for getting into the spirit of things – if you disagree, you’re dead inside. Or Scrooge! Download ‘Stumblin’ In‘Make a donation to First Timers Electric Pets: Facebook / Instagram / Bandcamp / TikTok Catch up on all of this year’s Advent Calendar Tracks so far:1: Piney Gir – Reindeer2: Gabriel Minnikin – Said Information3: LOUD WOMEN ft. Smallways, Butterknife, Daddy Issues, Witch Spit, R.U.B, Vipersnatch, Worm Girlz, Lady Lazarus and Stabbitha & The Knifey Wifeys4: First Timers Fest ft. Gay Skeleton Club and Skutterfly5: Goo Records ft. Jopy, The Stanford Family Band, Owners Club and The Roebucks6: Dead Horse – Historic7: Gemma Rogers – Never Have I Ever8: Umarells – Closer<a href="https://joyzine.org/2024/12/09/the-joyzine-advent-calendar-2024-2...
Transcribe →Advent Calendar Extra: Exclusive free track from Prismatiqk
Dec 26, 2024Tap to summarizeAs the last Christmas plate is washed up and the scraps of wrapping paper are sorted and carted off to the recycling bin for another year, we’re all looking for something to keep our festive flame alight, and we’ve got just the thing. Sadly this year’s Joyzine Advent Calendar was cut short (as explained here) but that means we have loads of brilliant songs still to share with you over the coming days to lighten the trudge towards the new year. As with all of out songs this year, if you enjoy them we’d love you to consider supporting the excellent work of First Timers Fest in creating opportunities for people from under-represented backgrounds to learn an instrument, form a band, write some songs and get onstage, by making a donation here. First up we have an exclusive track from Kent-based synthpop duo Prismatiqk, and their wintery cover of The Lemonheads’ ‘Hannah & Gabi’. Featuring friend of Joyzine Steve Horry (formerly of 586, The 18 Carat Love Affair and Subliminal Girls, as well as contributing the occasional article to these pages) and vocalist Monaz Parry, the two-piece contributed another excellent cover (Kylie, this time) to our 20 Years of Joy compilation earlier this year, as well as several sparkly pop nuggets via their own Bandcamp. We caught up with Prismatiqk to find out a bit more: Tell us a little about your track pleaseWhen we started messing around with making music together, we bonded over our mutual love of The Lemonheads, specifically this song, which is one of Steve’s go-to tracks any time an acoustic finds its way into his hands. We’ve only ever played this cover to ourselves in that way, for fun, but Steve had the amazing idea to turn it into an icy, Christmas synthpop instrumental, to which Monaz then added some vocals to match. What have you been up to in 2024?This year we’ve done a lot of recording and writing and released a couple of singles (‘Worst of Me’ and ‘Heart’) that we’re really proud of. We also contributed a cover of the unreleased Kylie banger ‘White Diamond’ to Joyzine’s 20 Years of Joy compilation, which was a LOT of fun to do! We played some epic gigs in London and in our adopted hometown of Tunbridge Wells, and have worn a lot of equally epic shoes. We’ve also done odd bits of production and writing here and there with others, which leads nicely into your next question, which is… And what do you have planned for the next 12 months?We’re finally releasing the EP we’ve been sat on for aaaages, those collaborative tracks should see the light of day, and we’ve got a couple of local shows lined up. Steve’s next graphic novel – Sleepytime Village – is finally finished, so plans are in motion for that. There’s also a point & click adventure game version in collaboration with James from Joyzine faves The Fades – amongst others – that is due out on Halloween. Christmas songs – love them or hate them? Why?LOVE THEM! Christmas songs are a huge part of what makes the season JOYFUL, and we love the fact that they span the spectrum of happiness to heartbreak and everything in between. Steve usually gets obsessed with a different specific Christmas song every December and plays it to death. Monaz insists on hearing the She & Him version of ‘The Christmas Waltz’ pretty much every evening until the big day. We’re both convinced we’ll pen an Xmas banger sooner or later. In the meantime, please enjoy our festive electronic twist on a heartbreaking alt-country classic. Download ‘Hannah & Gabi‘Make a donation to First Timers Prismatiqk: Instagram / Bandcamp Catch up on all of this year’s Advent Calendar Tracks so far:1: Piney Gir – Reindeer2: Gabriel Minnikin – Said Information3: LOUD WOMEN ft. Smallways, Butterknife, Daddy Issues, Witch Spit, R.U.B, Vipersnatch, Worm Girlz, Lady Lazarus and Stabbitha & The Knifey Wifeys4: First Timers Fest ft. Gay Skeleton Club and Skutterfly5: Goo Records ft. Jopy, The Stanford Family Band, Owners Club and The Roebucks6: Dead Horse – Historic7: Gemma Rogers – Never Have I Ever8: Umarells – Closer9: MJ Hibbett – Moshi Twistmas10: The Indelicates – Mom Is Waking Up (acoustic)<a href="https://joyzine.org/2024/12/11/the-joyzine-advent-calendar-24-days-of-free-music-downloads-11-the-fades-exclusive/" target="_blank"...
Transcribe →The Joyzine Advent Calendar 2024 – 24 Days of free music downloads #15: Forming
Dec 15, 2024Tap to summarizeIt’s the most wonderful time of the yeeeeeeear! Yes, the Joyzine Advent Calendar is back once again to bring you 24 days of fantastic free music downloads from a amazing array of our favourite artists. This year marks the 21st edition of our online calendar making it (as far as we’re aware) the longest running on the net (though we’re always happy to be corrected). As always, every track is completely free to download and we don’t require you to sign up for a mailing list (though you can if you want to) or hand over your personal data – it’s our way of saying thank you to everyone who’s visited the site during 2024 and to hopefully bring a few more listeners to some very deserving artists. However, if you do enjoy the tracks we would love you to consider making a donation to our chosen cause, which this year is the wonderful First Timers Fest, a brilliant grassroots DIY organisation helping people take the first step into making music. Alumni include Joyzine faves Big Joanie, Panic Pocket, Charmpit and Breakup Haircut, with many more great bands coming through every year. We asked First Timers for a few words about what they do: First Timers Fest is all about supporting new people into music! Yes that’s right, we mean you! We demystify the music making process through a series of beginners workshops that encourage people to try something new, no pressure to start a band after. The festival is open to everyone, but we particularly want to encourage people from marginalised groups to apply. Next year we will be hosting our workshops at the Cavendish in Stockwell but following a sell out festival at the Victoria in Dalston we have decided to host the festival at a much bigger venue: The Oslo Hackney! This will take place on 4th May 2025. See you there!!! Make a donation to First Timers We’ve got a sleigh-full of fantastic tracks for you again this year, including some festive tunes, plenty of exclusives and some of our favourite songs of 2024. Let’s get crack(er)ing! We’ve heard from many an old friend on this year’s Advent Calendar, but today it’s the turn of a new acquaintance. We sent out the annual festive call to arms back in October for bands to submit their tracks for this year’s calendar and amongst those to respond were Forming, who released their second album Everything’s Brilliant last month – a record that mixes alt country, shoegaze and classic indie to dreamy effect, picking up plaudits from Louder Than War, amongst others, along the way. Today they’ve provided us with non-album track ‘You What’ as today’s Advent Calendar treat. We caught up with the band to find out more. Tell us a little about your track please‘You What’. A jangly pop tune all about trying to walk down the street and not get hassled. What have you been up to for the last twelve months?2024 has been spent playing numerous gigs, playing songs from our 2nd album Everything’s Brilliant, that came out November 2023. We have also been recording some new tracks, including ‘You What’. And what are your plans for 2025?The next 12 months will be spent finishing our 3rd album and playing numerous shows to promote it. Christmas songs – love them or hate them?We do love a good Christmas song, especially the ones from the 1970s. Download ‘You What‘Make a donation to First Timers Forming: Facebook / Instagram / Bluesky / Bandcamp Catch up on all of this year’s Advent Calendar Tracks so far:1: Piney Gir – Reindeer2: Gabriel Minnikin – Said Information3: LOUD WOMEN ft. Smallways, Butterknife, Daddy Issues, Witch Spit, R.U.B, Vipersnatch, Worm Girlz, Lady Lazarus and Stabbitha & The Knifey Wifeys4: First Timers Fest ft. Gay Skeleton Club and Skutterfly5: Goo Records ft. Jopy, The Stanford Family Band, Owners Club and The Roebucks6: Dead Horse – Historic7: Gemma Rogers – Never Have I Ever8: Umarells – Closer9: MJ Hibbett – Moshi Twistmas10: The Indelicates – Mom Is Waking Up (acoustic)11: The Fades – Caca (BBC 6Mu...
Transcribe →The Joyzine Advent Calendar 2024 – 24 days of free music downloads #14: How To Swim
Dec 14, 2024Tap to summarizeIt’s the most wonderful time of the yeeeeeeear! Yes, the Joyzine Advent Calendar is back once again to bring you 24 days of fantastic free music downloads from a amazing array of our favourite artists. This year marks the 21st edition of our online calendar making it (as far as we’re aware) the longest running on the net (though we’re always happy to be corrected). As always, every track is completely free to download and we don’t require you to sign up for a mailing list (though you can if you want to) or hand over your personal data – it’s our way of saying thank you to everyone who’s visited the site during 2024 and to hopefully bring a few more listeners to some very deserving artists. However, if you do enjoy the tracks we would love you to consider making a donation to our chosen cause, which this year is the wonderful First Timers Fest, a brilliant grassroots DIY organisation helping people take the first step into making music. Alumni include Joyzine faves Big Joanie, Panic Pocket, Charmpit and Breakup Haircut, with many more great bands coming through every year. We asked First Timers for a few words about what they do: First Timers Fest is all about supporting new people into music! Yes that’s right, we mean you! We demystify the music making process through a series of beginners workshops that encourage people to try something new, no pressure to start a band after. The festival is open to everyone, but we particularly want to encourage people from marginalised groups to apply. Next year we will be hosting our workshops at the Cavendish in Stockwell but following a sell out festival at the Victoria in Dalston we have decided to host the festival at a much bigger venue: The Oslo Hackney! This will take place on 4th May 2025. See you there!!! Make a donation to First Timers We’ve got a sleigh-full of fantastic tracks for you again this year, including some festive tunes, plenty of exclusives and some of our favourite songs of 2024. Let’s get crack(er)ing! Glaswegian odd-pop outfit How To Swim are responsible for one of my favourite albums that I have ever reviewed for this long-established publication. Niagarama is an astonishing shapeshifting beast that manages to be both intensely personal and utterly universal at the same time. It’s a brilliant record that you should take a pause from reading this paragraph to go and listen to now. Finished? I hope you enjoyed it as much I have done for the 10 years since it was released. 10 years in which I’ve been waiting for a follow up, but despite some excellent EPs, a compilation of curios and some fine singles, a full-length album has yet to see the light of day. Thankfully though our wait will be over soon with the impending release of Greek Active on 20th December. Impatient as we are for new sounds, we asked for a track for this year’s calendar and the band kindly obliged. We caught up with frontman Gregor Barclay to find out more. Tell us a little about your track please‘Soul One’ is an odd one for us, it’s a sleazy slow jam and then it goes a bit Dexy’s Midnight Runners, and then there’s a kinda gentle outro. It’s an outlier – there’s nothing else like it in our catalogue really. But after doing this for 25 years, Bill Murray’s line from the end of Groundhog Day comes to mind: “Anything different is good.” What have you been up to for the last twelve months?2024 has been pretty busy for us, probably the busiest since we came back from our wee hiatus in the teens. In March, we put out Bars ‘n’ Loners (a compilation of our three Barcelona-recorded EPs), we’re set to drop Greek Active on December 20th, and then there’s another album and a half in the can to come early next year we hope. The couple music videos we’ve put out recently have also been highlights – ‘Magazines‘ in particular was a blast to make. On the live side, we haven’t been doing as many shows as we’d like – a handful of personnel changes have slowed us down a bit on that front, but we’re aiming to remedy that in ’25 now the new lineup is on its feet. Christmas songs – love them or hate them?We love ’em. There’s a real ‘end of term’ energy to your favourite artists’ Christmas tunes – all bets are off, the pursuit of cool gets abandoned for a little bit; there’s something genuine and honest about the best of them. Download ‘Soul One‘Make a donation to First Timers How To Swim: Facebook / Instagram / TikTok / Youtube Catch up on all of this year’s Advent Calendar Tracks so far:1: Piney Gir – Reindeer2: Gabriel Minnikin – Said Information3: LOUD WOMEN ft. Smallways, Butterknife, Daddy Issues, Witch Spit, R.U.B, Vipersnatch, Worm Girlz, Lady Lazarus and Stabbitha & The Knifey Wifeys4: First Timers Fest ft. Gay Skeleton Club and Skutterfly5: Goo Records ft. Jopy, The Stanford Family Band, Owners Club and The Roebucks6: Dead Horse – Historic<a href="https://joyzine.org/2024/12/07/the-joyzine-advent-calendar-2024-24-days-of-free-music-downloads-7-gemma-rog...
Transcribe →The Joyzine Advent Calendar 2024 – 24 Days of Free Music Downloads #13: Subliminal Girls
Dec 13, 2024Tap to summarizeIt’s the most wonderful time of the yeeeeeeear! Yes, the Joyzine Advent Calendar is back once again to bring you 24 days of fantastic free music downloads from a amazing array of our favourite artists. This year marks the 21st edition of our online calendar making it (as far as we’re aware) the longest running on the net (though we’re always happy to be corrected). As always, every track is completely free to download and we don’t require you to sign up for a mailing list (though you can if you want to) or hand over your personal data – it’s our way of saying thank you to everyone who’s visited the site during 2024 and to hopefully bring a few more listeners to some very deserving artists. However, if you do enjoy the tracks we would love you to consider making a donation to our chosen cause, which this year is the wonderful First Timers Fest, a brilliant grassroots DIY organisation helping people take the first step into making music. Alumni include Joyzine faves Big Joanie, Panic Pocket, Charmpit and Breakup Haircut, with many more great bands coming through every year. We asked First Timers for a few words about what they do: First Timers Fest is all about supporting new people into music! Yes that’s right, we mean you! We demystify the music making process through a series of beginners workshops that encourage people to try something new, no pressure to start a band after. The festival is open to everyone, but we particularly want to encourage people from marginalised groups to apply. Next year we will be hosting our workshops at the Cavendish in Stockwell but following a sell out festival at the Victoria in Dalston we have decided to host the festival at a much bigger venue: The Oslo Hackney! This will take place on 4th May 2025. See you there!!! Make a donation to First Timers We’ve got a sleigh-full of fantastic tracks for you again this year, including some festive tunes, plenty of exclusives and some of our favourite songs of 2024. Let’s get crack(er)ing! What can I say about Subliminal Girls that I’ve not already said in the dozens of articles I’ve written about them in the past decade and a bit? Just when you think you know a band, they pull something unexpected out of the bag. Today’s track is a poignant, piano led beauty, with vocal duties taken on by Danny Le Pelley, who can more usually be found enjoying himself immensely on bass. It promises great things for their upcoming debut album, due next year a mere 17 years since their debut single. We caught up with the band to find out more. Tell us a little about your track pleaseThis special Christmas bonus track was recorded and sung by Danny and tells the true story of Lydia Martin, who tragically died aged 21, 21 years ago in mid December 2003. Christmas is all about remembering the good times, and this song is about remembering a throwaway joke the last time I saw her. What have you been up to in 2024 and what do you have planned for the next 12 months?It has been an interesting year for Subliminal Girls, Jimmy has been fronting Yachts Up, Jim has been playing guitar for Tim Holehouse, jobs have changed, a child has been born to Arran, the next generation has been spawned, it has been stressful and wonderful, Danny has hit a writing peak due to an encounter that he and Jim had with Jason Isbell. That band is no longer conforming to what is expected of them. For 2025 they are back, with a single collaboration with a major recording artist and their first full length album to be recorded. Casting Pearls Before Swine due on Vanity Project records next year with Nicky contributing from exile in Saudi Arabia. Christmas songs – love them or hate them? Why?We loved hearing Slade’s ‘Merry Xmas Everybody’ the first thousand times. Download ‘Mid December‘Make a donation to First Timers Subliminal Girls: Facebook / Instagram Catch up on all of this year’s Advent Calendar Tracks so far:1: Piney Gir – Reindeer2: Gabriel Minnikin – Said Information3: LOUD WOMEN ft. Smallways, Butterknife, Daddy Issues, Witch Spit, R.U.B, Vipersnatch, Worm Girlz, Lady Lazarus and Stabbitha & The Knifey Wifeys4: First Timers Fest ft. Gay Skeleton Club and Skutterfly5: Goo Records ft. Jopy, The Stanford Family Band, Owners Club and The Roebucks6: Dead Horse – Historic7: Gemma Rogers – Never Have I Ever<a href="https:/...
Transcribe →