Indie Music Monthly - July’s Top Choices
I am back with 3 fantastic songs for you today and some forgotten favourites and the end for you as well.
As usual some amazing new local music, and a song that I had been trying to find for years.
If you are making indie/rock/punk music in the local area please do give us a message would love to hear your new releases.
Enjoy.
Lady Garden - drop dead gorgeous
Riot girl inspired band from Cardiff ‘LadyGarden’ are back with a bang. Following their debut single ‘Funny’ their newest release ‘Drop Dead Gorgeous’ is a rock fuelled anthem.
The lyrics are loud and honest, a real ‘F u’ to body standards and the lyric “will I ever win” is something I think resonates with so many people when it comes to body standards and confidence. And confidence is something this band does not lack they’re unapologetically loud, feisty, and in your face, they are a great part of the indie/punk scene in South Wales.
Through this song and their live performances, the bands songwriting is raw and uncut, they clearly use music as a way to communicate their feelings and this is such an important trait for songwriters it really makes their music come alive and you can tell they are extremely passionate about their subjects of their songs.
I had the pleasure to interview Lady Garden a year or two ago and they were a great band to talk to, the band has changed a lot since then, but I think they are really growing fast. The band recently played at Rebelfest and they were fantastic, this 4 piece band are a must see if you have chance, they have amazing stage presence and clearly love preforming their songs live.
Yardbreaker – Fell in Love with the Sun
This band 3 piece from South Wales have a really refreshing but also unique sound, they have a dreamy, folk style to their songwriting. Their most recent release ‘Fell in Love with the Sun’ encapsulates this perfectly.
The band have created a perfect mix of folk and shoegaze with this track, the atmosphere created, even within the first few seconds, is magical, transcendent almost. Within the first few seconds you here this synthy, low whirr of the guitar, that brings you in to then hear the soft vocals paired with the gentle acoustic strums, which creates this sort of vulnerable feeling. Then the electric guitar joins in really adding to this feeling of transcendence or dream like state, and to tie it all together the bass and drums kick in really drawing you into this song. There is something about this song that makes you want to listen to it again and again, not just ion the background, but really listen to it.
The 1:52 mark is impeccable, the breakdown of the lyrics and the guitar solo just make this song so intriguing and addictive.
I must mention the music videos as well, yes there are 2, they are amazing, they fit the song perfectly and I imagine are exactly what the banned envisioned. There is a music video and a lyric visualiser, equally as fascinating and are a great accompaniment to the song itself.
Kim – I Know This Doesn't Matter
Now this is a massive throwback for me, and I was so happy to see this name return on my YouTube feed with a song, although this was released 6 years ago it’s new to me and deserves a spot in the article.
Kim is a youtuber that posted a video called ‘Between Wednesdays’ in 2015 and this video really stuck with me, there was something about the wholesome normality, but raw experience and emotions Kim managed to capture within this week. During the video Kim plays a song on their piano, and I have always wondered what it was, and it turns out it was an original piece by Kim themselves.
Released 5 years after ‘Between Wednesdays’ Kim explains that they started writing this song when they were 17 and spent the next 3 years constantly tweaking and re-writing bits, and during lockdown they had discovered a lot of their old songs and released this one, ‘I Know This Doesn’t Matter’.
The song is beautiful, its raw exceptionally powerful lyrics are so addictive, and unbelievably familiar, "where's the world I thought I saw in childhood?" is such a good lyric, I feel Kim is truly singing from the heart in this song and it is amazingly preformed, I really cannot do it justice in this article you need to go and listen to this song, you can find it on YouTube here.
This song is almost like closing a book I had open for a decade now, I always wondered what that song was in the original video, and I have finally found it, and to know it is an original song is perfect.
Honourable Mentions
Stereophonics – Deadhead: Originally released as ‘Royal Flush’ on the B-side to Madame Helga, this is a massively underrated phonics track.
Manic Street Preachers – You Love Us: Another forgotten favourite in my opinion this is one of the best Manic Street Preachers songs
Yusuf – Farther and Son: This song is beautiful, and I had kind of forgotten about it until listening to it on vinyl recently.