| CD REVIEW The Subways |
 |
|
Band : The Subways Although the members of this band (lead singer/ guitarist Billy Lunn, backing singer/ bassist Charlotte Cooper, and drummer Josh Morgan) only average an age of 24, The Subways have already released two official releases before the current one, and have been favourites at the Glastonbury and Reading And Leeds festivals for five consecutive years. The story of the band starts in in 2003, in the Welwyn Garden City (situated some 35 km North of the center of London) homes of Billy and Josh (who are brothers in spite of having different surnames), playing Nirvana and Green Day covers under the name of Mustardseed. After changing their name to Platypus the band started to play small local venues. During a show at The Square in Harlow, Essex, the band recorded an early CD which was sold at gigs. Lunn was adamant about recording their songs every time they had a new writing session, but as the band didn't have the money needed to record in a proper studio, they settled by getting themselves a cheap recording system at home. This way, the band recorded quite a few EPs in their early days (for a fairly complete list, consult the band's page at Wikipedia, from which this article is partially culled, by the way), which were used as a means of promotion to get gigs by being sent towards the Greater London area venues. Around that time Billy started the band's website, which he maintained himself, and from which fans could download the band's music. Pretty soon the band decided they would let other local acts benefit from their cheap recording facility. One of those bands he felt was pretty good, and so he asked whether they were gonna send the recordings out to venues (because he knew some who would like like it), and that's how he got to know that the organizer of the Glastonbury festival was inviting young bands to send in demos for a competition, the first price of which would be to get an opening spot at the festival's 2004 Other Stage. The Subways decided to record a new EP and sent it out to the competition as well as some 30 other addresses...and to their great surprise won the competition! Following their Glastonbury appearance, the band also played at The Carling Weekend 2004 at both Reading and Leeds and then set forth on their (self-financed) first tour of the UK, with no less than 35 shows. Around that time legendary radio person John Peel became the first to air the band's music on national radio, playing the band's single “1AM” (released on 7-inch through Transgressive Records on a limited 500 copy rotation). The band signed to City Pavement and Infectuous Records in late 2004, and released their debut official full-length Young For Eternity (produced by Lightning Seeds frontman Ian Broudie) in July 2005. Pre-album release single “Oh Yeah” went to #25 in the UK Singles Chart in its late March release week (the album itself would climb to #32 in the album charts). Among the successes generated by the album's material count the band's appearance (performing their songs “Oh Yeah” and “Rock 'n' Roll Queen” ) in episode “The Anger Management” of popular television series The OC (the episode was also closed with the band's song “I Want To Hear What You Have Got To Say”playing). “She Sun” and “Rock 'n' Roll Queen” were used in television adverts (featuring top model Kate Moss) by Rimmelcosmetics, and the latter appeared in Live Free Or Die Hard as well as in Guy Ritchie's RocknRolla(that, in 2008 though). “Oh Yeah” was eventually also featured in the 2008 comedy Charlie Bartlett. In April 2006 the band had to postpone touring because Billy was suffering from nodules on his vocal chords. With his vocal chords intact again, the band toured North America in the 2006 Summer (which included opening for the co-headlining tour of Taking Back Sunday and Angels & Airwaves and playing at the prestigious Lolapaloozafestival) and did several prime time television appearances on talk shows Late Show With David Letterman, Late Show With Conan O' Brien and Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson. The band was back on UK soil in late August, in time to play at the Reading And Leeds festivals, this time on the main stage. The band recorded their sophomore album All Or Nothing (for which they'd demoed a total of 25 songs over a period of several months) in Los Angeles with famed producer Butch Vig (of Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, and Sonic Youth fame, among others) during Summer 2007 in two sessions (returning to the UK in between to sound off some of the album's material against the audiences of a series of small warm-up shows and the public at Reading And Leeds. The album (with material which saw a slight switch from more the Pop Punk geared stuff of the band's early days towards a more Power Rock-ing style) was released in June 2008, preceded by the free online release of the album's first single “Girls & Boys” on March 25 (the song would later be featured as the backing song for Vigin1's television show The Riches). A month earlier, it was revealed that Billy and Charlotte had broken up as a couple during the recording sessions of the new album, but that this would not affect the band, as both were happy with their new partners. March 25 also saw the band start out on their first UK tour of the year. They would go on to perform at Glastonbury, T In The Park, Download Festival, Oxegen Festival, and of course Reading And Leeds. In May the band released the track “This Is The Club” on the Internet as part of a competition for fans to produce its video. Following the album's release (in the US through major label Warner Records) came the usage of “Girls & Boys” on The Riches, the appearance of the band (as themselves) on Guy Richie's movie RocknRolla, and the inclusion of the song “I Won't Let You Down” I the soundtrack of racing game Colin McRae: DiRT 2. The band performed 3 songs in episode 10 of the Series 2 (2008) of Live From Abbey Road, and were featured as themselves in the 2009 episode “Golden Lady” of television series FM. During February and March The Subways toured Australia on the Soundwave festival tour, and in April toured Poland. The band would return there to play at Europe's biggest open-air festival (between 400,000 and 500,000 attendees each year) Przystanek Woodstock, and supported AC/DC at Wembley Stadion on June 26 and at Hampden Park on June 30, 2009. In July tha band headlined the 2000 Trees Festival and the Y – Not Festival. In August they played at Hevy Music Festival, Lithuania's Rocknights, and closed the moth at the Reading And Leeds festivals. In spite of all the positive promotion actions and high profile live appearances, sales for the album remained relatively moderate (as a means of comparison, the album “only” got to #17 in the UK's album charts – but did quite better in Germany, where the debut charted at #65, and the new album at #18 – also, the new album made it to #40 in the Swiss album charts – no info available about US sales). In spite of the “moderate” success however, the band was nót dropped by their major label in the US (which is a small miracle, considering how those manager-type governed institutions deal with their bands these days). A lot of the material written for the new album was from the hand of Billy whom, in the front room of his apartment, would record stuff at any time of the day, picking up and working out ideas from sitting in front of the TV with his acoustic guitar: the circus of celebrity rise and breakdown, love and loneliness, parting hard (sometimes too hard), big money and the impact the financial crisis is having on us all, and more. The band as a whole started working on the new material in late November 2010, and openly admits to having written and rejected at least 50 ideas, before settling on the 12 demoed songs which they presented to producer Stephen Street in late December. Apparently, the producer liked the demo recordings so much, he ended up using 'em as a template for the main recordings, and even incorporated some guitar and vocal parts from the home recordings in the final mixes. Stylistically, there's again a difference, with the new material somewhere in between the sounds on their previous albums. Infectiously melodic stuff with catchy choruses which will see audiences jump up and down and cheering the lyrics along with the band, I'm sure. The lyrics...on the one side you've got your personal things, like inviting listeners to join the band on the live escapades and come party with 'em, to problematic relationship stuff, to slightly socio-politically aware-and-critical things. Nice stuff, and I can tell you that the first 5 or 7 times I listened to the album (while doing all kinds of things in the house, and also going through the info I had gathered as preparation for the article) I actually went into the material all the way, enjoying the great melodies and male-backed-by-female vocal styling...but along the way to further sessions the relatively simple music started getting on my nerves somewhat. Eventually, I hàd to get into synthesizing the band's story for this review, and by the end of it I'm glad I'm able to put a point behind it. I still need to tell you though, that you can listen to some older material by the band at their facebook page, and for material off the new album you're best off surfing to the band's own webspace (http://) thesubways.net, where you can find videos (and audio) for the songs “It's A Party” and “We Don't Need Money To Have Fun”, plus a couple of older videos. During November the band is on a European tour, which will nót come through either Belgium or Holland (you know, maybe they were already through here in October, I'm not sure). As to for what's planned after, I suggest you regularly check back on the band's website...if you're interested at all, that is! I mean, I'm sure this British band knows how to start a party...their previous live success being the best proof for that! 81/100 Tony. |