No Girls Allowed

Last night I went to the Barfly in Camden to see The Maple State, The Attika State, Data.Select.Party and This Love Affair. It was rad. I caught up with a lot of people I haven't seen in a while and some good friends and all four bands impressed me. This Love Affair are a band I haven't heard of before and I was expecting to be bored and a little annoyed that they'd (not intentionally on their point I should add) pushed the bands I wanted to see into later stage times, but they were surprisingly good and were giving out free cds after their set. I haven't given it a listen yet but will report back when I do! I also had a good chat with the drummer and he seemed sound. DATA.SELECT.PARTY are possibly the best unsigned band in the country at the moment. They're fun to watch live and have super catchy melodies - anyone with lyrics like "tonight calls for whores just to talk to" deserves to be checked out. The Attika State aren't a band I've really given much attention to before but they showed me up last night by putting on a great live show. I even bought a copy of their old EP as their last song was sick. They remind me of Tellison in some ways, but I'm sure I'll get slated for that!

The Maple State don't really need any introduction to anyone that knows me. Awesome band, singing awesome songs. The only downside was that I had to leave at 11 to catch my train and they were still on stage.

Good times.

It starts with Dean Moriarty

The Maple State are a band that I have a lot of time for and with every new release they seem to be getting better and better. Say, Scientist is released today on High Voltage Records and is six brilliant tracks - including my favourite "Starts With Dean Moriarty" which reminds me very much of Hot Rod Circuit (which is a very good thing indeed). For me the band are at their best when they up the tempo and launch into songs and "Don't take holidays" is the perfect example of this. Greg is also spot on with his lyrics once more and I wasn't expecting anything less. I always see people on forums saying that their newer material isn't as good as their first demo and EP, but they're definitely progressing and if anything I much prefer the newer tracks they're coming out with.