It’s been a long time since we had a substantial release from, Manchester ‘party-emo’ pioneers, Well Wisher. Two tracks on a split with Polina, and a plethora of live shows, was just enough to tide fans over in 2011, but now we have Summer Gangs. The band’s second EP raises the bar set by their debut – their, catchy, upbeat tunes sounding more refined and polished than ever before. In short, this might well be the best thing Well Wisher have ever done.

Starting out understated with ‘Are You Crazy To Come To The Crazy Beach Party?’ (what a gem of a song title!), Summer Gangs builds into this erratic crescendo of sound by the beginning of the second track, before repeating the whole process all over again. It’s like having a massive indie-pop/emo monster stumble out of the bushes, look at you, and start to charge, arms and legs flailing. The EP is capped off with a fantastic cover of Braid’s ‘Breathe In’ – a track originally intended for a tribute to the, no longer late, 90′s emo outfit – which the band have made their own, whilst making their influences abundantly clear.

Summer Gangs shows a clear progression in Well Wisher as a band. Their older material remains fantastic, but everything here – the lyrics, the musicianship, the everything – is a step up. Not only that, but it’s the closest they’ve come to capturing the band’s intense, captivating, live experience and I couldn’t ask for more than that.

You can stream the entire EP over on their Bandcamp.

‘Songs For Teenagers’ might well be my favourite track from Real Ghosts Caught On Tape. Fake Problems’ third record was easily my record of last year, and it’s nice to see those guys finally getting a bit of that mainstream love. This video has been a long time coming, but it’s great and you should all watch it. It might not have John Berna dressed in a nurse’s uniform, but it does have mermaids. And despite what anyone might say, wicker hat’s are super cool.

Check out the video below.

Be sure to pick up Real Ghosts Caught On Tape (or any other Fake Problems releases) here.

The latest Under The Bridge has everything you could possibly want from a podcast. Well maybe not everything, but it’s pretty much all there. We’ve attempted to be funny, we dragged Emma Hallows in to be our guest again and we’re playing new tunes from the likes of theHell, Sharks and Above Them. As per usual it’s not for the faint hearted, but I doubt there’s many out there that can resist the charms of Moon & Back’s dynamic duo.

Alongside the new music and general offensiveness, we also answer some questions from the community and have really ‘deep’ discussions on a number of topics including predicting how punk rock will end! Do you know what you’re looking forward to in 2012? Neither do we! We had a go at trying to hype some stuff up though. Tell us if it worked by emailing us at utbcast [at] gmail [dot] com, or by messaging us on Facebook and Twitter.

Go on, have a listen:

Under The Bridge #33: Check My Kurt Cobain Cover

Of all the Alkaline Trio boys, Matt Skiba has been the most prolific when it comes to side-projects – he’s gone solo, released a post-punk record, and has got a new album with The Sekrets on the horizon – but he’s always managed to do something interesting with every new creative outlet. This time Skiba has teamed up with, drummer, Atom Willard (Angels & Airwaves, Rocket From The Crypt, The Offspring) to form theHell.

At it’s core Sauves Les Requins is a collection of four great punk rock songs, but did you expect anything less? The duo is showcasing what they do best, changing it up enough to make it interesting without leaving ‘die-hard’ fans of their past work disappointed. The result actually feels more like a straight up pop-punk record than a lot of the guys’ recent releases, and I for one welcome that. The polish applied to Angels And Airwaves (and the later Alkaline Trio) records is replaced by something much more raw, and yet it doesn’t feel shoddy or underproduced. Combine that with Skiba’s signature dark lyrical style and fantastic vocal, and you have something special. Something that, for me anyway, harkens back to the early days of the Trio with a little of that post-punk sound that has permeated through Matt’s previous musical efforts.

It’s that link to early Trio that makes me start this up again as soon as it’s finished and, despite not knowing what to expect coming in, I’m longing to hear more. Though there’s been nothing announced regarding a full length I, like many others, will be sorely disappointed if that doesn’t come to pass. This is exactly what I want to hear from a side project, and is sure to excite anyone looking for a fresh but familiar pop-punk sound.

We’re back from our Christmas break with an awesome show all about last year. Emma Hallows, Andy Greenland, and our friend Barry (who you might remember from episode 30) all joined us to talk about all the good stuff that happened last year, and to look forward to the year ahead. We talked about everything from Chuck Ragan to Southsea Fest and handed out the not at all coveted ‘Under The Bridge Awards’.

In between our ranting and raving we also played some awesome music from the likes of The Menzingers, Jim Lockey & The Solemn Sun and even Amy Winehouse. We hope you enjoyed the show. If you didn’t, email us at – utbcast [at] gmail [dot] com and tell us how utterly shit we are.

Go on, have a listen:

Under The Bridge #32: “Bill Murray Gets More Snatch Than Me”

You can also subscribe to the show on iTunes

The side project can be a wonderful thing. They’re often a chance for an artist to diversify and, when they’re done right, can turn out to be awesome. Back in 2004, Brendan Kelly formed The Falcon – a punk ‘supergroup’ containing members of Alkaline Trio, Rise Against and, Kelly’s own, Lawrence Arms – and whilst The Falcon’s sound was dissimilar to any of the aforementioned bands, the apple hadn’t fallen too far from the tree. With this latest project, the raspy-voiced Chicagoan, has endeavored to do something completely different. Not only has he succeeded in doing so, but he’s created something that’ll surprise many a listener.

A Man With The Passion Of Tennessee Williams is a perfect three-track tease of what’s to come from Kelly and his Wandering Birds. Though the lyrical content remains relatively similar to his previous work, it appears we’ll be getting something completely different from a musical standpoint. The opening track demonstrates this perfectly; A simple drum beat permeates throughout, broken up by the effect laden sound of an electric guitar and lead vocal. The end result is a very techno/Euro-dance sounding track, with Kelly’s vocals coming across very Marilyn Manson-esque. So yeah, this isn’t The Lawrence Arms or one of those ‘one man and a guitar’ kind of deals. Surprisingly, this isn’t a bad thing and I’m excited for what’s to come when the full length is released in February.

As for the EP’s two other tracks, the first has a very Lawrence Arms sound about it. Whilst it has been infused with a little of the techno style heard on the previous track, it’s a ‘safer’ song than what came before. Given how different the previous track was, it definitely didn’t strike me in the same way. Not that it wasn’t enjoyable in it’s own right. In an even safer move, the EP closes with an acoustic song. ‘Suffer The Children, Come Unto Me’ shows that Kelly’s basic songwriting process has remained very similar, and so I urge you to give this a try.

This is Brendan getting creative, and trying new things. It’s certainly not what I expected coming in, but I’m excited to see what he can do having lost the constraints of a traditional punk rock record.

Earlier this month, Chris T-T embarked on a tour of the UK with Franz Nicolay. Whilst in York, we caught up with him and he played us a couple of songs for a Moon & Back Session. A stalwart of the UK folk scene, T-T recently released an album comprised of A.A. Milne poetry having had a fantastic reception at this year’s Edinburgh festival. For his session he performed ‘Halfway Down’ – a song from the Milne record – and a cover of Sebadoh’s ‘Willing To Wait’.

Chris’ session is the final session of 2011, but we’ll be back in the new year and are hoping to continue where we left off. If there’s anyone you’d like to see us have ‘in session’, please leave a comment below, message us on Twitter or post on our Facebook.

Enjoy!

‘Halfway Down’

‘Willing To Wait’ (Sebadoh Cover)

© 2011 Greg Nolan

“…he’d stand stock still, with a single tear rolling down his face, as all these eight year olds punched him, repeatedly, in the balls.” – Frank Turner

Ahead of his sold out show at Manchester’s O2 Apollo, we had another chat with Frank Turner. It’s been quite the year for the singer/songwriter: He and The Sleeping Souls completed their first headline tour of America, he’s scored a show at Wembley Arena and his latest album, England Keep My Bones, is bound to be cracking a few ‘Album Of The Year’ lists.

We talked to Frank about what it’s like taking to the road with a folk band and a punk band, who’s going to support him at the Wembley show, and he reveals a few details about his forthcoming hardcore band.

Watching a mariachi band isn’t something I’ve often done. Alright, before this I’d never seen a mariachi band. Where does one even go to watch a mariachi band? Manchester…apparently. Alright this wasn’t any old mariachi band, this was Mariachi El Bronx – side project of Los Angeles hardcore band The Bronx – and they were as off the wall and awesome as I expected.

There was a real vaudevillian atmosphere about the whole show. I don’t know what it was, but everything seemed so theatrical, something that’s probably down to all the ‘banter’ between songs. I like to see artists interacting with the crowd, but this was too much. Lead singer, Matt Caughthran stopped to explain each song and talk about how much he loved being in Manchester. That’s all well and good, but it broke up the flow of the show a bit too much, and I left feeling a lot of that time might have been best served playing more songs. Granted, a lot of this could be down to the complex nature of the band and them having to set up, but it just seemed a little too much.

Aside from this, the show was fantastic. The band kicked the night off perfectly with ’48 Roses’ and continued to impress with every song that followed. The setlist had everything an El Bronx fan could want, playing an abundance of songs from both records, recognizing the fact that they hadn’t really toured in this form before. By the end of the set, Matt has gotten the crowd into a frenzy and everyone was singing and dancing along.

The band left the stage and, surprisingly, didn’t return for an encore. It was unusual, but I left contented. I’d gotten exactly what I wanted out of an El Bronx show, and it seemed like everyone else had too. Matt could’ve definitely cut down on that banter though. We might have had a few more chances to sing and dance with one of the most interesting bands of the past few years.