Hey Gigantic Gang,
It’s countdown to the bank holiday and what better way to start the summer than with our #NewMusicFriday blog & playlist? Packed full of bangers, anthems and tunes for you to enjoy under sunny skies, we get you ready for the return of gigs and festivals with the best selection of scorching hot singles and essential albums – plus tickets to see all your favs play live!
We are SO excited that live music is back! Keep looking after each other, and we will see you at the front xx
SINGLES
THE ACADEMIC – “Kids (Don’t End Up Like Me)”
Indie pop hopefuls The Academic have just unleased THE anthem if the summer! “Kids (Don’t End Up Like Me)” has the timeless quality and joyous feel which is going to get stuck in your head for a very long time!
“Kids (Don’t End Up Like Me) is one of the first songs I remember writing back when I was a teenager. It was the first time that lyrics had come very easy to me. It’s written about the fear of not getting out of your hometown and amounting to anything. Thanks to the lockdown, I had plenty of time on my hands, but nothing to write about, so I started looking through all my old notebooks and found this song fully written. I had a gut feeling that it might come to life now with a few more years of living behind me since it was originally written.” – Craig Fitzgerald
“Kids (Don’t End Up Like Me)” is taken from the forthcoming Community Spirit EP, which is scheduled for release on July 9th ahead of The Academic 2022 tour which is on sale with Gigantic right now!
The Academic tickets are currently available.
SOCIAL HAUL – “This Is All I Need”
Bursting onto the scene with blistering hot singles “Wet Eyes” and “The Ease”; brand new band Social Haul made an immediate impression with their raucous entry to the airwaves. Now, having announced a self-titled album is on the way, they drop third single “This Is All I Need” which continues their campaign to become your new favourite band.
The trio combines the talents of singer/guitarist Leigh Padley, which many will recognise as the bassist of TRAAMS, with bassist Daniel William Daws and drummer Richard Trust who have quickly found fans with the likes of Steve Lamacq, Gemma Bradley and Jack Saunders.
Punchy yet thought provoking; their latest offering is the latest snapshot of a drunken descent into morose defeatism as first illustrated in their previous singles.
“Here our protagonist recognises that others will only open up to new ideas if initially they are rewarded sympathy for their current standpoint. Is it therefore fake or even wrong to hold malleable ideals to reach out to others? At the risk of an identity crisis our protagonist finds a good vantage point by sitting on a few fences. Observing everyone just plodding along towards oblivion as that is the destination of all available routes. Sort of like those films Green Street and Donnie Brasco” – Leigh Padley
Social Haul’s eponymously titled debut album is produced by Daniel Fox from Girl Band and is released by FatCat Records on June 11th – CLICK HERE to pre-order.
Social Haul tickets are currently available.
TORA – "When Will I Learn"
Drawing on trip-hop and R&B, the stirring sound of Australian band Tora is reverberating around the world. Having previously impressed with earlier albums Take A Rest and Can’t Buy The Mood, they now drop epic new single "When Will I Learn" which is as evocative as it is thrilling.
"When Will I Learn" is a deeply personal look inside a conflicted mind set to stirring keys and big beats, and the powerful song is the first taste of their next LP A Force Majeure, set for release on September 3rd.
“’When Will I Learn’ is about the harsh realities that we all have to face at times in our lives, it’s about going inwards and engaging in self-reflection, which becomes the catalyst for rapid growth and expansion, and how sometimes you just need to face problems head on to solve them."
See Tora smash it at Lafayette, London on Tuesday 23rd of November!
Tora tickets are currently available.
ALBUMS
BLACK MIDI – Cavalcade
Perhaps the most hyped name of the new generation of post punk; London based quartet black midi could have easily buckled under the pressure following their Mercury Prize nominated debut album Schlagenheim. Fortunately, they are back with successor Cavalcade – and it’s the frenetic masterpiece we all hoped it would be!
Abandoning the erratic freeform nature of their earlier material, Cavalcade takes a more direct and controlled approach which reveals the sheer power of their jazz inspired tight riffs and pneumatic rhythm, perfected whilst on the road.
“The best thing about improvising is the risk of it sounding rubbish versus the reward of it sounding really good. But when you want to put on a good show for people, most of the time you know what is going to sound good. And if you want that risk versus reward then you need to let it go wrong sometimes, which I think we'd stopped doing and were just getting into a routine and settling for the same six or seven riffs and playing them in different order without the stress of it sounding shit.” – Cameron Picton