NoNewWaveNoFun

Here at NNWNF, we're always looking to give a platform to new writers to express themselves and share their musical passions. Today we welcome new writer Chloe Benfield, who has been to see one of Austrailia's finest imports  Courtney Barnett -  a few days after her triumphant headline set at Glastonbury's Park Stage - at Cardiff's Tramshed. I first had the pleasure of enjoying Courtney Barnett live back in 2018, at Cardiff Uni's Great Hall. A dinky little dive inside the Student's Union, it was rather conveniently across the road from my old flat; not only did I make lifelong friends in the smoking area, but truly cemented my love for the queer Austrailian rockstar. Cut to 2022 and she's on tour to support her new album Things Take Time, Take Time - which I've been listening to on repeat since it's release. Softer and more thoughtful than her previous offering Tell Me How You Really Feel  - which boasted back-to-back angry feminist anthems - it'

  Razorbraids is a Brooklyn-based, queer, female and non-binary identifying rock band that combines a heavy punk energy with an indie rock vulnerability culminating in passionate live shows and a dynamic sound anchored in a 90s alternative ethos . Led by Hollie Bynum - who taught herself to play bass  after being mostly bedridden following an accident in 2017 - the line up is made up of Janie Peacock on guitar, Jilly Karande on rhythm guitar and Hannah Nichols on drums. Ryan Doyle Elward took a listen to new single 'Megachurch' and shared these thoughts. ' Megachurch ' is a return to a brand of softer sounding self-reflection, shadowing the interminably catchy 'I’m A Blackhole (and you’ll never get out)' , which was the first song written for Razorbraids’ powerful I Could Cry Right Now If You Wanted Me To  - an album that made anyone’s Best of 2021 list unless they were oblivious. Blackhole … itself is like La Sera on Sees the Light or from their eponymous

                                                         Comprising of guitarist/vocalist  Elena Buenrostro  and drummer  Travis Newgren,  Chicago duo  Soft and Dumb  combine a gentle and careful lyrical outlook with a sometimes harsher drive, that evokes imagery of  Mitski  experimenting with  Protomartyr.  ' never wanna'   is their new single, the lead from their forthcoming self-titled album.  After meeting at college in Urbana, Illinois, they gained a following by playing as many DIY shows as they could, often in houses.  Ryan Doyle Elward  went to see the band live in their natural habitat and found a band starting to come into their own. Duo Soft and Dumb goes into a set at Chicago’s Golden Dagger that alternates between newer material and tracks off 2020 album Out of Bed . Because of this combination, it’s a bespoke experience. They create a push/pull type of dynamic by bringing the moody, slow blinking, intimate songs together with the raucous songs of double energy and

Some places just don't grip you as being the most obvious breeding ground for Hip Hop; The film is called Straight Outta Compton, not Straight Outta Coventry. It'd be difficult to imagine Eminem coming from  the Falkirk area or Megan Thee Stallion  busting out of the mean streets of Chepstow. So why then does Northern Ireland feel right?  Perhaps it's that complex and troubled history of the place; the division caused by religion and disputed occupation and the violence that erupted for decades. These factors will always inspire rebel music and a defiance from some, but tradionally it doesn't come attached to some 'fly' beats. Maybe I'm missing something, but 'spittin' sick bars' doesn't seem like it happens too often within walking distance of The Giant's Causeway.  The thing is, times change - even if the location has to also. Lauren Hannan - aka Yinyang -  makes a fascinating hybrid of Hip Hop and Electronica with a Punk e

  It's not the first time we've heard from Tel Aviv's post-punk trio SCREENS  here at NNWNF. The band have been active since 2015, led by Avidan Ezra on guitars and vocals, Yuval Rozin on bass and Omri Elazary on drums. Drawing inspiration from the classics of UK punk and post-punk past like The Clash, The Cure and Wire, the band also have a shared love of newer American acts who wander into similar territory, such as Preoccupations, Parquet Courts and Protomartyr. However, there is much more to the band's sonic pallete than that. Ryan Doyle Elward took a deep dive with the band's new Lie Lie Lie  album and gave us these insights.  The previous record from SCREENS  grouped together the high sheen, poppier elements of 90s' and early 00s' punk and rock, giving everything a buoyancy that’s since been weighed down on their latest release. Lie Lie Lie presents an evolving veneer and proves ungovernable by any single category of music. Black Sabbath is mixed

  The self titled debut album from Midlands ( Leicester and Newcastle Under Lyme)  based band Gabriel's Dawn  was released on May 30th. Brought together by a shared love of melodic pop, the chime of the Rickenbacker and the power of classic songwriting, the album was recorded throughout 2021 by band member Leon Jones.  Comprising of Gudg on vocals, Fran Feely on bass, Jones on guitar and Stuart Gray on keys, the band had known each other from social events for years and only came together when Gudg and Fran starting writing together and wanted to expand the sound.    Happy to wear their influences on their sleeves, the cultural zeitgeist of the 60s' provided the most inspiration. Fran explained " We're all massive fans of 60s' culture, music, films, art and fashion. That's not to say we are stuck in that time period, but I'd certainly love a time machine for a day or two to experience it. Although we're fans of the UK bands and the psych and freakbeat

If you're a relic like I am, then you'll remember the days before you could talk to someone on the other side of the world at the touch of a button - it's mad really, isn't it?  I wonder how music journalists coped when they actually got to travel all expenses paid - jammy sods.   Emily Perry - no, not that one - has been looking to travel to South America for years, and she would have got away with it a lot earlier too if it wasn't for that pesky Pandemic. The travelling plans seemingly over for another year, it was almost a moment of madness that led her there, she tells me on Zoom call from the wilds of Colombia. I enquire about some of the horrendously-sized insects I'd seen her post on her Instagram that day, " The first day I arrived there was a Tarantula and one of the girls had a snake in her room. I'm not even sure if it was poisonous!" Rather you than me Emily .  My mind is changed later on though as I'm blown away by the

   📷 Jenn Cliff-Wilcox It's been a long time coming but on Friday 6th May, one of the finest bands and scurges of the establishment to come out of Liverpool in recent years, The Shipbuilders  finally released debut album Spring Tide . The album is the culmination of a journey that   the band have been on for five years. A melting pot of urgent Spaghetti Western soundtracks, jazz-inflected odes to drinking absinthe, disco-tinged surf freakouts and much more, The Shipbuilders ’ world is one that implores to be explored.  The ten tracks recorded with Danny Whitewood ( BC Camplight , Ladytron ) are the product of the inner workings of the mind of Matty Loughlin-Day , a Clinical Psychologist by day, backed by  Danny Lee (guitar), Jack McAllister (bass) and Graeme Sullivan (drums), ‘Spring Tide’ is released via Mai 68 Records and sits snugly in any record collection that also has Sea Power , The Coral and The Pogues in it. We talked to the band to get an insight into the album tr

  Having recently toured the U.S with NNWNF favourites Parquet Courts, Retrofuturist motorik pop icons Automatic  have returned with a new album ready to go. Excess is released on June 24th on Stones Throw Records and t he trio of Izzy Glaudini (synth/vocals) , Lola Dompé  (drums/vocals) and Halle Saxon   (bass), gave an indication of the sound of their new record with lead single ' New Beginning'. Never one to be fashionably late to the party, Ryan Doyle Elward took a listen and dissected the details.    Automatic's 2019 release Signal  was from start to finish fantastic. A combintaion of Gary Numan with Tubeway Army ( Are 'Friends' Electric?) plus Warpaint (eponymous) as an Isaac Asimov Sci-fi film score. But the band's recent single ' New Beginning' seems to view any futuristic, vision as impossible unless humanity's current trajectory is checked. Between the machine shrieks and the soft, crooning vocals, there's a kind of dialogue occurring.

  There's an old, dismissive and slightly arrogant saying about those in the teaching profession: Those who can, do..those who can't, teach.  If you try hard enough, you can almost hear Alan Partridge saying it in an ill-conceived attempt to present The East Anglia Teaching Awards. It's often wheeled out by those wishing to look down their noses at someone who has just as much - perhaps even more - influence on the lives of their children than they do.  In a slightly different context, the work of the music journalist is often seen as the work of someone who couldn't do music very well. I'm an example - albeit a small one - as I was in a couple of bands that did naff all and now I write about better bands for scant reward; makes you wonder why really...Anyway, there is a point to this introduction other than perpetuating my own existential angst. Honest.  There are music journalists who can co-exist in their own musical world without the nature of their musi