For editor Mary's coverage of SXSW 2013, go here.
Don't forget to like There Goes the Fear on Facebook and follow us on Twitter! ~TGTF HQ xFYI our fearless editor Mary is currently on holiday (sort of, she says, since she'll be working on blog-y things for most of it) in Britain and the site won't be as updated as frequently until she returns stateside after the 23rd of May. Don't worry though, we'll be busy this month going to festivals (Liverpool Sound City, the Great Escape) and loads of great content is on its way!
Coastal Cities will be releasing a double A-sided single, ‘Entropic’ / ‘Nothing Ever Changes’ on the 3rd of June on Once Upon a Time Records. They want you to have a remix of ‘Entropic’ by Crash and the Coots for absolutely free. And if you want to hear the original version, we’ve embedded the video below of the song too.
Coastal Cities, whose promo video for ‘Relief’ we posted late last month, are now offering up the b-side to ‘Relief’ as a free download. Called ‘The Voyage’, it’s got that herky-jerky guitar action we’ve come to know as the Coastal Cities sound. Listen to and download the track below.
Coastal Cities have a new video out for ‘Relief’, their new single out on the 30th of July on Once Upon a Time. Watch it below. You can grab the radio edit of the song for free for a limited time from their Facebook.
Coastal Cities just played their first show in France, at Parisian venue La Fleche d’Or, Saturday night. They’ve also released two new songs, ‘The Ocean’ and ‘Relief’. ‘The Ocean’ just makes me feel mournful about the great summer that has just passed! It brings back a lot of great memories too. You can grab ‘Relief’ for free from the band’s Facebook page. But before you do that, have a read on frontman Declan Cullen’s answers to the TGTF Quickfire Questions. In particular, you might be interested to find out which TGTF favourite has meant a lot to him…
1. What song is your earliest musical memory?
RUN-DMC ‘It’s Like That’ (and That’s the Way It Is). I used to break dance to it in my living room. In my underwear. I was 6.
2. What was your favourite song as a child?
Probably Spaced (featuring Cerys Matthews of Catatonia) – ‘The Ballad of Tom Jones’, my parents used to play it a lot. They’re like a more risque’ 90′s band. Very good.
3. What song makes you laugh?
Songs don’t usually make me laugh but a song that does it every time would have to be ‘Funky Town’ by Lipps Inc.
4. What song makes you cry?
A song that has made me cry for memories sake would probably be Los Campesinos! – ‘Death to Los Campesinos!’. It is probably so upbeat that it’s just utterly hopeless, but there are plenty others.
5. What song reminds you of the first time you fell in love? (It’s up to you if you want this to be sweet, naughty, etc.)
‘Forever and Ever Amen’ by the Drums. It’s just so bittersweet and naive in an ironic way. Definitely reminds me of a few things.
6. What song makes you think of being upset / angry? (Example: maybe you heard it when you were angry with someone and it’s still with you, and/or something that calms you down when you’re upset, etc.)
Good question! Definitely ‘The Future’ by the Drums (again). That song says to me quite a few things about my relations with certain people.
7. Which song (any song written in the last century) do you wish you’d written yourself?
A song that I love and that I wished I had written myself would have to be ‘Disorder’ by Joy Division. It’s so edgy and thought-provoking but sadly would only work with someone like Ian Curtis.
8. Who is your favourite writer? (This can be a songwriter or ANY kind of writer.)
My favourite songwriter (as in on his own) would probably be Connan Mockasin. He writes some of the most beautiful and forward thinking music yet it holds a sort of playfulness too, like you can still play it at parties.
9. If you hadn’t become a singer/musician/songwriter/etc., what job do you think you’d be doing right now?
Probably nothing. I literally don’t know. That question actually worries me. Maybe something with history.
10. If God said you were allowed to bring only one album with you to Heaven, which would it be and why?
Probably ‘Antidotes’ by Foals. That was the first album I truly engaged with as a whole and it’s one of my all time favourites.
Coastal Cities is a five-piece – Declan Cullen, Will Clark, Lewis Slade, Sean Semmens and Dan Hardy – from High Wycombe, and they are all around 16 or 17, self-described as “snotty boys”. Heh. They met each other at school and were determined to make some lighter music in contrast to what they’ve been hearing locally, which they consider too heavy. In the case of ‘Thinktank’, their debut single, it’s mission accomplished. Very upbeat and fun, ‘Thinktank’ is definitely shows the youthful and endless energy coming out the pores of this band.
Not only it has really catchy lyrics (“This is a thinktank, this is a thinktank!”), it also has really distinct guitar lines with an intense beat throughout the song. The sweet music is accompanied with some sad, sobering lyrics – not all that uncommon in the world of pop. And if people can relate to the words and dance to the song at the same time, why not?
Coastal Cities was previously featured on a ‘BBC Introducing…’ programme and it’s not hard to see why: ‘Thinktank’ is a promising single from such a young band. The band will release their second EP, entitled ‘Transgression’, on 6th April and a tour will accompany the release.
7.5/10
‘Thinktank’ is out now.
There Goes The Fear is where we tell you about the latest tours, gigs, and music we love and think you should too.
We love music that has its heart on its sleeve, tells a story, swims around our head all day or makes us dance like idiots.
The blog is edited by Mary Chang, who is based in Washington DC. She is joined by writers in the UK and America. It was started up by Phil Singer in Bristol, UK.
All MP3s are posted with the permission of the artists or their representatives and are for sampling only. Like the music? Buy it. If you want a track removed, email us and we'll sort it ASAP.
