PCC06 - Year of Birds - Black Pines and Fun In The Fog

Week 6 of the Postcard Club and for the first time we’re returning to one of our Pizza Club acts. Year of Birds are the recording project of DIY hero Oli Heffernan.

Last year we described YOB as noisy discordant punk with the bark of Mark E. Smith and thankfully that’s still the perfect way to label them. If you’re unfamiliar with Year of Birds, Black Pines and Fun In The Fog (yep a two track, one track single) is the perfect introduction. They know when to cut things short, when to bludgeon you with a repetitive riff and, most of all, how to put together some excellent Postcard art.

Buy single (£1.10) | Buy 16 part subscription (£15)

summer o flove

We’re lucky enough to be friends with some of our favourite bands and fully intend to spend our summer running about in fields trying to find them. Here is a festival plan to help you identify which of these friends will be playing things and where. I expect more dates will come in so we’ll try our best to keep this updated!

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The Great Escape - Brighton (16th - 18th May)
Mazes and Kinnie The Explorer (plus Playlounge, Joey Fourr, Splashh and Tyrannosaurus Dead at the Alt Escape!) join Parquet Courts, Eagulls and Mac Demarco.

Independent Record Fayre - Brighton (17th May)
Come buy records from us, some good friends and amazing labels! Organised by Dan of Faux Discx, also selling things will be Alcopop, Italian Beach Babes, Marshall Teller, Fat Cat, Gringo and so many more! 

Dot To Dot - Manchester/Bristol/Nottingham (24th - 26th May)
Best Friends join Wolf Alice, Bo Ningen and PINS.

Lemonfest - Newton Abbot (1st June)
Big Wave join Tall Ships, Lucy Rose and Towns.

Latitude - Southwold (18th - 21st July)
Flamingods and Joanna Gruesome join Hookworms, Yo La Tengo and Modest Mouse.

Tramlines - Sheffield (19th - 21st July)
Best Friends join Menace Beach, Cheatahs and Sky Larkin.

Knee Deep Festival - Cornwall (9th - 10th August)
Flamingods join a still TBA line up.

Green Man - Glanusk (15th - 18th August)
Flamingods join Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Veronica Falls and Band Of Horses.

Beacons - Yorkshire (16th - 18th August)
Best Friends and Splashh join Menace Beach, Gold Panda and Solange.

Reading and Leeds - duh (23rd - 25th August)
Splashh join California X, Johnny Marr and British Sea Power.

SECRET EVENT PUT IT IN YOUR DIARIES (31st August)
??? join ???

Bestival - Isle Of Wight (5th - 8th September)
Gum (performing a special live score to 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea!) join Parquet Courts, Elton John and Drenge. 

Southsea Fest - Portsmouth (14th September)
The Black Tambourines, Cycle Schmeichel, Slowcoaches and Yoofs join another TBA lineup.

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Things we wish we’d released #1 - Rad Stewart

If time and money were unfamiliar concepts, we’d be a DIY empire.

This demo EP (this is underselling it) dropped into my inbox in the early hours of Friday morning. I’d been familiar with Radstewart’s fuzzy demo’s for a while, having repeatedly bumped into one of them at SWN festival.

Their latest collection of demos is of such a different caliber to anything else they’ve recorded thus far. I feel like the description “sounds like Pavement” gets thrown at any band who sounds a bit 90’s and like they only just got out of bed. Radstewart however, really do a good job of paying homage to Malkmus and co. The other thing you can immediately tell from this short collection of three songs is the influence of the most-excellent Parquet Courts album - and we’re not just talking about putting the track list on the front cover. Discordant melodies rumble along whilst slightly nonsensical lyrics are barked over the top.

There will be those who choose to ignore Radstewart based on name alone, to those people, you are most missing out on a promising introduction. The EP is available to download for free from Bandcamp.

RELEASE ANNOUNCEMENT: Big Wave - Goldmine (aih019)

It feels like quite a long time since we’ve shared news of a new release with you, but today we’re extremely excited to share news of aih019 - the second single from Torquay’s Big Wave. Having previously featured on both our Dry Route to Devon compilation as well as last year’s Pizza Club, it was starting to feel like a full release was well overdue. 

stream and download B side ‘GW Bridge’ below

In ‘GW Bridge’ and the A side ‘Goldmine’, Big Wave have nailed the art of crafting jangly, female-fronted guitar pop that manages to tread the line between heartbreak and jubilance. Take ‘GW Bridge’ a song about one of New York’s most popular suicide spots. Despite it’s macabre subject matter, the melodies still shine through as the Torquay 5 piece showcase the sort of influence you’d expect to gain from growing up in the ‘English Riviera’. 

The single is set to be released on Monday 20th May on gold cassette in gold embossed artwork. Take a look at how lovely they are and bag your copy from our shop, as well as downloading GW Bridge for free above.

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