Hot Damn - Hot Damn CDEP

Hot Damn were a very difficult-to-describe band from Brighton. They played a sort of glitchy, instrumental synth-backed, rocking indie pop...you see what I mean?

I really liked Hot Damn, and coincidentally set up both their first and last shows. Their first show was in a really strange venue in Brighton called Zuma. The building used to be a bank, but had been renovated into a trendy wine bar with us playing shows in what used to be the vault. It was certainly the smallest venue I've ever put a gig on in, probably the size of a family living room, with a wall halfway down the middle. Trapdoor Fucking Exit from Sweden played and we ended up having about 80 people inside. Punx care not for fire regs.

The guys in Hot Damn had all been in other Brighton bands before this, and unfortunately weren't really were able to emulate the popularity of The Steal, Captain Everything, Navajo Code or Scuttle [to name but a few of their former glories]. As well as this CDEP, they released a 7" single on their own At Home record label, which is also well worth checking out.

Thinking of comparisons when describing this band was always pretty hard. I'd end up in some sort of nonsensical diatribe along the lines of "they sort of sound like this, but I guess they don't really sound that much like them, but you know, it's that sort of thing? You know? Oh... I'm pretty sure you'd probably like them anyway."

Hot Damn's last ever show was with Algernon Cadwallader, Teenage Cool Kids and Me+Goliath in October 2009. It was great fun. Members of Hot Damn can now be found playing in weirdo garage punk band Sauna Youth + rocky post-hardcore newcomers Eager Teeth.

Download via Mediafire

Hot Damn on MySpace

MeandGoliath - 10"

Me+Goliath were a band from Kent. They released a split 7" with Grave, Shovel...Let's Go! and this self-titled 10".

I first saw them in a small pub in London, opening for my friends' band, Cutting Class. There appeared to be about 5 people who were into them. That seemed to be the case pretty much every time I saw Me+Goliath, but it never seemed to be something that fazed them. They played a style of chaotic, screamy emo popularised in the USA and Europe by bands like Portraits of Past and La Quiete.

That "skramz revival" scene just hasn't been very popular in the UK over the past few years. I have no doubt that is at least in-part due to Internet message boards being overly cliquey about the genre and their desperation to distinguish it from the more mainstream view of what screamo is.

After seeing them that first time, I endeavored to put them as much as I could. The best time a show they played whilst on tour with Dolcim [a band featuring ex-Cease Upon The Capitol chaps]. Despite the fact that it was a weekday, loads of people travelled to the show, which The Fall of Efrafa and The Plague Sermon also played. Everyone was really into all the bands and there was a really cool sense of community; it was one of my favourite shows that I've been involved in.

As I had seen them so many times, I knew a couple of these songs by the time I picked up the record and it completely lived up to my expectations. The structure of the record is so well thought-out; starting off slow before building and winding into fury and chaos on each side of the disc is just fantastic. The last song on the A-side, Untitled, is my favourite. It encompasses everything that I find so exhilarating about screamo, the winding, building melodies and furious and unassuming endings.

This record was released around the same time as the Battle Of Wolf 359 LP [whom Chris from M+G also plays guitar] and the final Fall of Efrafa record [although not a screamo record by any means., 2009 was a pretty good year for this sort of music in the UK.

I think this record is still in print from Internationale records. Oli who runs the label is a great guy and happens to be one of the only other people in the UK who likes music as unpopular as screamo is to release records. You should check out his site.

Download via Mediafire

Me+Goliath on MySpace

Me+Goliath at Internationale

Gordon Gano's Army - Fifty Hours 7"

Gordon Gano's Army are one of the best bands to have come from the south coast of the UK. They played gritty, sloppy pop punk about girls and books and all the other things all the other gritty sloppy pop punk bands play songs about. But they were different.

I can't remember the first time I saw them, but it was probably about 2004, and it was probably at The Homestead in Southampton. The Homestead was an 8-bedroom house filled with punks. They would often open up their small conservatory and have acoustic shows in there. I saw Gordon Gano's there a number of times; Rich's drums were made out of cooler boxes, tupperware pots and the occasional cymbal, Phil played through a 10 watt bass amp + Russ almost always broke two or three strings on his acoustic.

A couple of years went passed and Gordon Gano's Army had broken up for at least the second time. I bumped into Russ whilst he was driving North Lincoln when I put them on in Brighton. He said that they were getting ready to play again with a new bassist and that they were all playing electric; he asked if I fancied putting out their new 7". I didn't have enough money at the time and politely declined. To this day it is my biggest regret related to my label.

Gordon Gano's Army went on to put out a 7" as part of the Art Of The Underground single series and then released an LP on the same label. Both records are fantastic, but for me, Fifty Hours sums up everything I ever loved about this band. I love this record.

Yeah, Gordon Gano's Army split up and Russ moved to China. Download this 7" and buy the LP from AOTU. It's one of my favourite LP's; the first and last songs will completely destroy you. AOTU is a great label too.

I really hope you enjoy this 7".

Download via Mediafire

Gordon Gano's Army on MySpace

Gordon Gano's Army on Art Of The Underground