(SXSW 2019 flavoured!) Bands to Watch #416: Seazoo
Yes, Wales may be a small country, but it has produced some massive, internationally-known bands: Manic Street Preachers, Stereophonics, Los Campesinos!, The Joy Formidable, Catfish and the Bottlemen. Like Van McCann and co., the band I want to bring to your attention today are also from North Wales. Conveniently, Seazoo hail from Wrexham, which most British UK industry people know as the city that hosts the annual Focus Wales music festival in May. At first glance at their name, they sound like a surf rock band. While I was doing my usual listen-through of the UK bands given a shout to SXSW this year, I was surprised to hear that in fact, Seazoo are much more of a pop band than I ever would have guessed. They are a guitar-driven band, yes, but two major parts of their music make them much more endearing than most.
2018 saw the self-described “psych indie pop” group self-release their debut album ‘Trunks’. Appearing far less threatening than the Rolling Stones’ big red mouth and tongue, mouths flashing blinding-white smiles repeat on the album cover. The smiles are a good harbinger of what’s inside: feel good guitars and instrumentation accompanied by wry lyrics. They’ve named Grandaddy as one of their influences, and I can clearly hear that. The winsome vocal delivery of Ben Trow also has that wonderfully wistful, disarming quality associated with the twinkling tunes of Scottish pop architect Stuart Murdoch and his band Belle and Sebastian. Listen to ‘St Hilary Says’ to see – and hear – what I mean. Seazoo will be the opening band at the Focus Wales showcase Wednesday night at 7:45 PM at Swan Dive (indoor stage) at SXSW 2019. I’ll be there: I don’t know any Welsh (except for ‘diolch’) so I’m hoping I learn some through osmosis.
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26th March 2019
[…] for as long as I could to see Wrexham, North Wales band Seazoo play as the showcase’s opener. In my Bands to Watch on them at the end of last month, I wrote about discovering their self-described “psych indie pop”. But […]