Jonny Breakwell - Emily EP

You can buy the EP here.

Oh, Brother

As lads across the country sobbed into their chinos as they mourned the split of Viva Brother, for most of us it wasn’t at all surprising. Early on they were dubbed as one of NME’s latest muses alongside The Vaccines, when they shared a cover spread and it was this issue of NME that first drew my attention to the 4 gob shites under this guise.  As I gazed at the cover open mouthed, I didn’t recognise them as the ‘Britpop Revivalists’ as they were so repeatedly named but as former members of Wolf Am I and Kill The Arcade, a band who would often frequent the pages of Kerrang!

Maybe this is exactly why I always found their time as Viva Brother to be totally unbelievable and contrived. Nor did I sense any passion for the style of music they were desperately attempting to emulate, just like a pastiche of bands before them. There wasn’t anything exciting about this new venture. I found their tracks catchy and hummable just as much as the masses but it was palpable that their desires lay with fame and money, which of course being as vocal as they were, is what they got.

Reverting back to my first encounter with the band, as I stood in W H Smith's scanning the pages of their spread, all I felt was a sudden rush of distaste. Not only did they come across as pugnacious and arrogant, it became ever more clear that this was some kind of persona created purely to agitate and rouse a reaction. As they lay into everyone’s favourite flame haired songstress, Florence Welch and everyone's favourite dullards, The XX all I found myself shouting was, ‘Who do they think they are?’

Artists' can change and they can adapt. I have no qualms about that.  It can be refreshing when a band deviates from what you'd expect. Just take the latest offering from Kate Nash as an example.But it’s the way that Viva Brother appear to have flitted so seamlessly from one musical direction to another. I hear you scream, what about Skrillex? Well, he’s actually good at what he does, isn’t he?  

Wearing dark round shades, and clad in long sleeved shirts fastened to the top button, you would never have guessed that it was Lee Newell. Especially not when comparing to his earlier looks, with arms mapped out with vibrant tattoos,tightly hugging jeans and a choppy haircut, you’d have guessed that he was now desperately trying to brush away any remnants of his pop punk past which was probably the best thing he ever did. Even though it was under the guise of Viva Brother that they were most commercially successful.

It was after seeing Wolf Am I perform 5 years ago to an empty Static Gallery in Liverpool that I thought there wouldn’t be any longevity in their musical paths. I was right about Wolf Am I. But I thought no more of them until we come back to that NME cover and how wrong was I?

So if for anyone the split for Viva Brother is still fresh and the devastation still hard to bear, then today offers some fantastic news, well, sort of, or it could be unsettling for others. Ex frontman, Lee Newell has a new project, and he’s not going it alone. Lovelife are a duo formed by Newell and former Mirrors member Ally Young. According to the Brooklyn based duo’s Facebook page they joined on 10^th April – the same month that Viva Brother split so they didn’t wait around. And again, he hasn't got the knack of selecting a relatively competent band name, I came across another Lovelife in my search for them. You’d have thought after their previous name changes they would’ve done a little research!

This new venture will probably be as short lived as Kim Kardashian's second marriage to basketball star, Kris Humphries. But then again, I was wrong about Wolf Am I, so they’ll probably reinvent themselves again embodying something entirely new later in the year. I’m hoping for a bit of Witch House.

The Barr Brothers + Team Me, 03/05/12, Soup Kitchen, Manchester

“Are there many people in there?” isn't a question you’d expect to hear from Brad Barr. Standing outside the Soup Kitchen, a somewhat gloomy space but in essence a dilapidated cellar, he utters this question with a sense of anticipation. He’s met with the reply of’ “I’m not going to lie mate, not really” from one of the venue workers. Although The Barr Brothers may be garnering gushing acclaim in America, thanks to their recent appearance on The David Letterman Show, the 30 or so people here tonight for their first UK show highlights that the same can’t be said this side of the water.

An ornate harp already dominates the cramped stage; the harpist wears an oversized ring that captures the light with every elegant pluck of the strings. But an unperturbed start from the Montreal quartet, fails to stir any response and is steeped with a degree of monotony. It was as they hurtled through ‘Lord I Just Can’t Keep From Cryin’, a track imbued with a gritty, blues rock feel and most strikingly similar to a track The Black Keys would muster up, that their performance quickly became far more potent and a surging wall of sound erupted around the echoing room. It was also at this point that a father and son  placed their drinks to the floor and produced booming claps, as if they were proud parents.

Their stage set up was quite fascinating; a bicycle wheel acted as a cymbal on the drum kit, a guitar was played with a violin bow, and Brad Barr began to pull at a string from his guitar as if he was removing a handkerchief from a magician’s top hat. It was almost hypnotic and it’s witnessing this kind of musicianship, that leaves you with nothing but complete admiration. Even though the music shone and the harpist's ring certainly shone but they didn’t due to a lack of rapport with the audience. It was only afterwards when the front man mingled amongst the sparse crowd that you got a sense of how humble they were.

An act who didn’t have any problem with rapport, were their co headliners – Team Me. As they decorated the stage with an array of pastel shaded bunting, their foreheads with head bands - a look that only teenage girls and Darwin Deez can pull off, and two lines of paint streaked across each cheek. It was as if they were preparing to attack.

The absence of their drummer determines an alternative set, resulting in the drumming duties to fall to the bassist who improvised at the front of the stage. He urged the crowd to, “laugh because we will”. But we weren’t laughing at them, we were laughing with them, as they repeatedly informed us of their impending visit to Japan as they whooped with clenched fists in the air whilst bathed in a celebratory glow. A journey that was only made possible due to their drummer flying back to their native Norway that morning to solve his visa application issues. A cramped setting and lack of drummer didn’t hinder the performance, this was made apparent as one crowd member bellowed, “You don’t need a drummer!”

Tearing through a buoyant set with a hearty vigour, they reached a clear zenith during their current single, “Weathervanes and Chemicals”.  A flute effect rang out intermittently, almost as if we were being summoned to a mystical land. The lure of the music even prompted the lead singer to treat us to an impromptu leap from stage, closing the gaping space between the band and crowd that had remained static since The Barr Brothers graced the stage. The infectious pop melodies paired with their excitable demeanour and their overriding sense of joy forced a smile and an inevitable sing-a-long, even from the most reserved in the crowd. As they continuously sang ‘We’re not as boring as you think we are”, and with the smeared paint still gleaming on their cheeks, they could leave this battle on Mancunian soil victorious.