NoNewWaveNoFun

Submission Hold Vol 1 The building of this blog has been a slow and deliberate process. I'm not the most patient of people, perhaps why I've never been able to train myself to play a musical instrument - I always wanted to be Johnny Marr straight away when I picked up a guitar. So when I decided to take the blog onto Social Media I started with the big boys; Twitter and Facebook seemed the most logical places to start. It was only when I went on Instagram with the blog however that submissions started to go through the roof. They've been coming in from all over the world in the last week or so, which of course, is incredibly gratifying and humbling. The quality of some of the submissions has been incredibly high too, so it felt only right that I should tell you about some of the artists that have been contacting me. Submission Hold is my nod to the tracks that were sent through the contacts section at the home page and I've selected 4 of the best that I've received

' The Avenue' artwork The second new single release from Mai 68 Records in the last week - following The Shipbuilders ' ' Hanging Me At Dawn ' - is the sublime new single from Mondegreen . ' The Avenue' is the band's second single of the year following March's release ' Winter'   and sees a band beginning to reach for the middle of the Venn diagram of their influences and find their own voice. Widnes'  Mondegreen  are a band as inspired by the girl group pop music of their youth as they are the  alt-folk of  Laura Marling  and  First Aid Kit . Comprising of sisters  Laura  and  Leanne Griffiths  and completed by childhood friend  Claire Smith  - the band have been making dreamy and harmonious guitar pop for several years now. Previous E.Ps have been played by BBC Introducing and on BBC 6 Music and it's difficult to envisage a way this won't generate more attention. Starting with the kind of guitar tone that would make

Often, it's easy to forget that good pop music can be pretty much whatever the songwriters want it to be. It doesn't have to be a rigorous exercise in following the rules and conforming to formulaic genres, in the vain hope someone will take notice. In fact, in an age where playful guitar music struggles to get the recognition it deserves - it's a strength to be willing to cross pollinate influences. Liverpool's The Shipbuilders are a band that revel in such playful behaviour, the nucleus of which is the lyrical nous of lead songwriter Matthew Loughlin-Day . They've been a big part of the live scene for several years now; building a fan base by playing raucous and memorable gigs around the City. It wasn't long until the lovely folks at Mai 68 Records snapped them up. The Chester based label has a burgeoning track record of finding acts around the North West crammed full of creativity.  The Shipbuilders look set to release their debut album in 2021

                                                                                          ' In Tune ' artwork Ahhhh...North Wales - A place where I've spent the majority of my 40 years on this planet and that still sucks me back into it's gravitational pull. A place so unique it inspires creativity from Caernarfon to Caergwrle, from Bangor to Buckley; a sparse and desolate muse to many an artist.  One such artist is Meilir Tomos , who grew up in Flintshire. A classically trained pianist as a child, Meilir soon grew frustrated with the conventions and artistic limitations of the classical world. After moving on to Cardiff, he co-founded critically acclaimed duo Manchuko before going it solo. It's been a decade or so since Meilir made that step and despite a couple of E.Ps and singles - the arrival of this album, by his own admission, has been long overdue. With the help of producer Charlie Francis ( R.E.M , The High Llamas , Sweet Baboo ) Meilir has created a

                                                                                                           Cross Wires Creating a new song in a day, recording it and then releasing said single as your first new material in a year is some undertaking and certainly not the done thing in the current musical climate - but that's exactly what East London post punks Cross Wires have done with new single ' Hall of Mirrors '.  The track is part of a selection of tracks that will all be completed in that limited timeframe with a view to being on a new E.P in 2021. Last years album ' A Life Extinct'  was intriguing enough to prick up some ears with 6 Music , Radio X and former Black Flag legend Henry Rollins playing tracks from it. Cross Wires are Jonathan Chapman (Vocals), Peter Muller (Guitar/Vocals), Pete Letch (Bass) and Ian Clarke (Drums) and have been slowly building up a fanbase around London over the last few years with their energetic live shows at the core o

                                                                                                     Happy Hollows         Cast your minds back to 2005. Some of you would have been downloading a different polyphonic ringtone each week, some trawling P2P sites trying to get a decent rip of Bloc Party's ' Silent Alarm ' and others would have been looking for new bands on MySpace - I was probably guilty of all of those things. For those of you young enough to be unaware of MySpace and it's effect in the post- Napster filesharing landscape, it was a game changer for a few years. Bands could create their own profile, share MP3s and could be easily searched on an accessible database. In the UK, Bands like The Arctic Monkeys went on to huge global fame on the back of their pre-fame E.P trending on the site. Another band who formed and utilised this platform to forge a modest career were L.A's Happy Hollows ; who continue to produce new material after all

Welcome to my new blog - No New Wave No Fun. My name is Stephen Birch and I've been writing about and reviewing music, both new and old, for several years. I've written for various websites and blogs including Evilsponge , Middleboopmag , Getintothis and most recently, Popped Music . I'm a big fan of music of all genres, but being a child of the 90s - my real passion lies in the alternative realm. Britpop was formative to my musical understanding - bands like Blur , Pulp and Supergrass were the first bands that really got me excited. From there came some very obsessive years as a devotee of The Smiths. Morrissey became the antihero I craved with his lyrics cutting through like a knife. The gorgeous and sometimes incredibly sad melodies of Johnny Marr fitted any mood.  As any music fan will be aware, obsessions come and go as quickly as the seasons - but the next was to take me further into any intense fanship than I had previously ventured. I f