| CD REVIEW Kids In Glass Houses |
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Band : Kids In Glass Houses Formed during 2004 by frontman Aled Phillips as a mere hobby that grew out of something to ward off the boredom of being a teenager in the little town of Penpedairheol (some 32 kms from Welsh capitol city Cardiff) he lived in, Kids In Glass Houses played about twice a month, and rehearsed half that amount of times. When Aled’s friend and drummer Philip Jenkins joined, things began to grow more seriously, as he infected the rest of the band with ambition. In early 2005, the band recorded a first 2-track demo titled Trust Issues With Magicians on which Aled also played guitar. Living down the road was this young guitarist named Joel Fisher, who releaved Aled from his second guitar role upon taking his place alongside guitarist Aled Rees. Shortly after the band won a online poll to open the Taste Of Choas Festival, which meant the band had to play in front of a 7,000 headed crowd at Cardiff’s International Arena. Bassist and co-founding member Earl Phillips then left the band for academic pursuits, and for a short while the band’s future was threatened. But shortly before this, a band named The Next Nine Years had broken up, and their bassist Andrew Shay had already been looking out for a new outfit to join...so when the opening came with KIGH, he swiftly applied and got the job! Although the quintet had grown up listening to a wide variety of Rock, Punk, Hardcore, Indie, and Metal, had (before their own band days) gone to concerts by such artists as Lostprophets and Glassjaw (both of which they admired for their work ethic and on-stage energy), it was the likes of more Pop oriented artists like Duran Duran, Michael Jackson, Prince, The Police, The Smiths, and The Cure which would influence the guys most in the writing of their new material, which would eventually take fysical shape in the form of their 5-track breakthrough demo-EP E-pocalypse! The material was so different from what they’d done before, that the guys were at first unsure of how the audience would react. But then Lostprophets invited the fivesome to support them at some of their tour dates during July 2006 (the band’s frontman Ian Watkins has been cited to say ‘...relatively unknown bands such as Kids In Glass Houses are a lot better than a lot of known bands out there...”), which again put the band in front of thousands of people at once. Upon return from that stint Rees was fired, and for a while the band borrowed axemen from befriended bands in the neighborhood. One of these was Dopamine’s Iain Mahanty, who would play with the band at the EP’s release party. Over the next couple of months the band took to playin’ each possible gig, which resulted in the EP being sold 1,500 times by the end of the year! Thanks also to getting noticed by record labels and booking agents. A small gig in Cambden’s Bar Monsta would see the band return home with a handful of business cards and Mahanty (who’d played on said show and a couple of others) would soon after leave his former band in favour of KIGH! The EP was then sent off to the media, and got rather positive reviews (most notably 4 Ks in Kerrang!). In what was left of the year, the guys had to travel over to London for 7 shows, and they started 2007 with a manager and a booking agent to help ‘em out! 2007 began with the band’s first proper UK tour in support of Hundred Reasons, followed by an “Introducing” article on the band in Kerrang! magazine, who also declared KIGH one of “The 10 Hottest New bands On The Planet”. Towards the end of Spring, KIGH again toured up and down the UK with 30 Seconds To Mars and The Blackout, headlined Klub Kerrang! at a London venue, and appeared on both the Give It A Name Introduces...tour and Give It A Name festival. Then it was off on tour with Manic Street Preachers and the Goo Goo Dolls, and making appearances at the Full Ponty, Download, and Hyde Park Balling festivals...before beginning their first headline tour of the UK in June to mostly sold out venues. Before ending that tour in October, the band had gotten a Kerrang! award nomination in the “Best New Band” category, and had played the Carling Festival in Reading and Leeds, peforming what NME.com described as “...nothing less than a total early afternoon victory...”. In other words, the hype started by Kerrang! was being positively answered by the public, proving that the band was worth all the publicity they’d been getting in the last 12 months! The day after Halloween the band returned to the studio with Romesh Dodangoda (he’d also produced the EP) to record their debut album. With plenty of interested record labels, they were certain a deal could be struck, but the guys weren’t quite sure whom to make the deal with yet. After finishing recordings in early December the fivesome took off on another UK tour with fellow Welshmen Funeral For A Friend, and the second day on that trip the guys made an end to months of speculations and negociations by putting their names on the dotted line under a contract with Roadrunner Records. March 10 saw the release of Easy Tiger, the first 7-inch single off the album (the picture disc 7-inch, limited to 2,000 copies with signed inserts from the band, featured a cover of Oasis’ “Stay Young” as b-side), and the video for the title track was given considerable airplay on music tv channels. By late March, a one-track Easy Tiger single was also distributed in Belgium for radio airplay...which apparently resorted little positive effect (it was hardly being played). A second single prior to the album release came on May 19 with Give Me What I Want (original title “Me Me Me”, and already issued by the band on June 25, 2007, on 500 numbered and hand-signed 7-inch, featuring the song “Raise Hell” as b-side). Released in three formats [a CD-single with non-album track “Be Nice (Start Now)” as bonus track (was originally intended to be on the album, in stead of “Good Boys Gone Rad”, which was recorded after the completion of the album for b-side posibilities), a limited edition 7-inch with an acoustic version of “Easy Tiger” as b-side, and as exclusive iTunes download with non-album track “Pink Suede” as bonus; the title track was mixed for the single by Chris Lord-Alge), it reached #62 on the UK Singles Chart. In the first week of its release, the album entered the charts at the #29 position. The third single off the album (“Saturday”, in a “Radio Mix”, coupled to a cover of The Jam’s “Town Called Malice” in the CD-single version, and to “No Better” – again a non-album track – in the download version) was released on August 11, and again got airplay from Kerrang! TV and Scuzz TV, going into the top ten songs on both channels. In spite of poor reactions to the Easy Tiger radio single in Belgium (and in spite of poor sales predictions by the local office of the label), Roadrunner International decided on a release of the album in our country as well. To be quite frank, I’m not sure how the Belgian public may respond to the album. On the one side, the above mentioned influences (at the time of the EP) come through quite clearly in some of the songs, but at certain moments “heavier” influences come through as well. In retrospect, it shows a band which is apparently still looking for their own sound. Surf to myspace.com/kidsinglasshouses to make your own acquaintance with the band’s blend of Pop Rock/ Punk (the 6 songs posted there should be more than sufficient). The guys played to a ¾ full but otherwise sold-out Ancienne Belgique in Brussels (the early starrting hour of 19:30 may have had sómething to do with that) on November 3 in support of Simple Plan (to a predominantly teenager audience), and I coùld’ve had this review finished by then, as I got the album three days prior...but that would’ve meant giving it priority to some 10 other jobs for which I was sent the material well in time (which would’ve been unfair, right! Besides, the job was first handed out to another collegue of mine, but the resulting review was so negative our editor-in-chief decided to have me re-do it). At this moment the bands are still on their European tour together, with dates in Czech Republic, Italy, Spain, and France still to go. As for my personal appreciation of the band, I’m afraid that, while I’ll agree to their songs being well written and performed to maximum catchiness and melody content, I fear somewhat for the viability of the band in our country. After all, before you can convince the public at large that they have to go out and buy the album, you need to get singles played on the radio stations like mad...and apparently those latter are still not cooperating, in spite of being sent the Easy Tiger radio single all over again! Pity, but it would seem our country is much more geared towards Metal, then! 82/100 Tony. |