At the start of 2019 we ran a series of posts reviewing local music. We’ve gathered a few of the reviews to showcase the amazing talent in our city! We’ve had the pleasure of working with a few of these artists and the one’s we haven’t we would certainly love to in the future!
Around this time last year our friends over at Naughty Corner had released the tickets for a show they’d put together called, ’SHEEP’ a show that features this amazing track.
‘Tides’ combines nostalgic noughties indie with a distorted modern vocal. Transporting you to a house party in 2010 with that person you’ve had your eye on, “She makes the water come in and out again… Do you want to come in?” a perfect way to start their 2017 EP, Glare. It’s got a hell of a catchy hook that would easily get you ‘ooohhhing’ at festivals as well as the more intimate gigs!
Featured in The Guardian’s ‘Breaking Bands’ section, they’ll be one to try grab tickets for once they start performing again. Live music is so important these days these lads don’t disappoint.
While seeing, friend of the Arts Bar, Zuzu at the Arts Club last year, we also caught our energetic topless friend Munkey Junkey performing his song and our track of the week- REVERSE
Ok so… New York, Middle East, Switzerland, London, Birkenhead and most recently South Liverpool. Those different cultures certainly add to the music. In a general sense, Munkey Junkey’s music is a mixture of Childish Gambino, Mid-Late Kanye West with 2nd album Frank Ocean thrown in. Reverse starts with low-fi hip hop beats for the first half and transitions into almost an 8-bit video game soundtrack by the end. As always, honest lyrics put together with clever jazz inspired backing really shows off a modern way of producing music.
With this ambitious production style you would expect either a stripped back live set or even just a mellowed version. The opposite could not be truer. Seeing and feeling the energy live is something to experience. He’s got plenty of new music coming up so keep your eyes and ears out!
Further listening includes: Look Out Below, Cut Me Off & Better Things
Have you ever tried the Arts Bar Coffees? MC Nelson certainly has and ironically we know he has milk in his?!? Listen to an old episode of our podcast Noisey Neighbours to find out more about MC Nelsons tweets, lyrics and music videos..
Beams of light come through the window, eyes flutter, getting up seems impossible but you force yourself, ‘ok you can do this’. That feeling is exactly how ‘Black Coffee’ starts. There’s a smooth flow, difficult lyrics accompanied a soft Nujabes style jazz guitar and soft drums to back him up.
“Mulatto, Macchiato, Africano, Americano, I’ve never seen something so dark it could sparkle”
There are so many layers to this song, something different jumps out on every repeated listen. MC Nelson (not one to shy away from attacking lyrics as well as hilarious tweets) has made a song that can be taken at face value – caffeine in the morning. Metaphorically though, maybe it’s about the morning after , skin colour, global 🌍 politics or just simply campa-choo-choos…
“I’ve never seen water to wine but I’ve seen a corpse come alive from coffee all of the time”
Representing in the Size/Adidas collective advert for the Liverpool trainer, his talents don’t just stop at giving you a soundtrack to wake up to.
80s funk meets dial-up internet; Dennis flips the breakup song on it’s head. Distorted beats and playful lyrics showcase how unique Pizzagirl really is. His debut album, ‘first timer’ is perfect music to blast out at summer bbqs in Sefton park!
Stand out lyrics from Dennis include, ‘I’ve got something I really want to confess, Seeing your matte red velvet lips in that dress’ as well as, ‘Well I just really want to play some tennis, But your heart it disagrees’. While ‘Tonsil Tennis’ is something we can all relate to it’s the way the rhythm is matched to the distortion that’s so impressive!
Grab your latest copy of Bido Lito! to find out more! Get following, liking and sharing. Future gigs include a headline slot at Zanzibar, keep an eyes on the socials to find out more!
One of our first tracks of the week – Calexico by Red Rum Club.
Calexico is a small City in California situated on the Mexico-US 🇺🇸 border and that Latin feel is prominent throughout this song. Taken from their debut album “Matador”, this track combines a catchy horn section 🎺 with the Brazilian feel of percussion which transports the listeners from Toxteth to Tijuana.
The absolute stand out lyrics “I need to catch my breath, Smoke from a cigarette, Creates a silhouette, Out walks my Juliet…”.
“We’ve personified Calexico the place, into a person. It is more sinister to what we’ve done before, but we hope that we’ve disguised that by making it as enjoyable as possible too!” – Guitarist, Tom Williams.
To round it off it has a beautiful music video which starts with an almost Capoeira section and gradually the dancers come closer and closer together to finish in a salsa/rumba hip locked routine!
