Erudite, lush & expressive (JJ Records) "cultish indie musicians on their day off" - manchesteronline - Their soft acoustic songs are as pretty as the pictures their lyrics paint, and their screaming rock songs are nothing but pure fire (music.for-robots.com)
Beautiful photos of Alex at the drums (scroll down to find them)
Brakes - Paradiso, Amsterdam - 2/07/05 Review @ incendiarymag.com: "Tom and Alex White uniting the guitar and drum parts into a shifting, explosive collage of noise"
Truck review @ NME.com If Truck really is the new Glastonbury, then Sunday’s got the weather in the bag. Rain sends the lily-livered packing, but the hardened Truckers party on in the barn. This gives Winnebago Deal twice their usual crowd, though their thrash-grunge is oddly muted. Brakes have no such trouble, with the Tenderfoot/Electric Soft Parade/British Sea Power love-in drawing the dancing types. All Night Disco Party might explain why the organisers are feeling hazy today. “We were in the acoustic tent until late and the sound kept going off” says Robin. “It was the same generator as the tea urn, so every time someone made a brew, the PA cut out”. See a scan of the review
Truck @ Joyzine.co.uk: Next up were one of the most hotly anticipated bands of the weekend. Being made up of members of existing Truck favourites British Sea Power, Electric Soft Parade and Absentee (should be Tenderfoot) and with a fair deal of positive press behind them, Brakes were onto a winner even before the first chord was struck. The Trailerpark tent was heaving, and exploded as the band launched into a set of short but sweet thrashy indie punk anthems.
Seemingly taking inspiration from Guided By Voices method of throwing in just about every idea you have, regardless of how short (some songs don't even make it to the minute mark), most of the time it works, and when it doesn't, usually when Eamon puts on a bizarre comedy voice that sounds like a fraggle, you don't have to wait long for it to be over.
In some ways Brakes are ideal for this kind of event - they provide short, sharp bursts of adrenaline that you don't need to have heard in advance to jump around to, while holding up the indie cred side of things with obscure cover versions and their connections with other bands; and they go down a treat today. There's a picture of Tom + Eamon
Give Blood @ fasterlouder.com.au Extracts: When these guys get together it's pure males-in-their-early-twenties debauchery... The album is fuelled largely by a desire for the following things: cocaine, alcohol and an anything-goes party attitude. Subsequently the album is also holding two firm fingers up to those who spend their time excessing mindlessly on the following things: cocaine, alcohol and an anything-goes party attitude... The guitars throughout the album are filthy and dissonent... Every second is worthy of another listen. It's crazed, wild and uncompromising, and a gem as a result.
Brakes live review @ drownedinsound.com (part of a BSP review)
Brakes Live @ Concorde 2, Brighton at new-noise.net. They also have a Give Blood review
Give Blood @ indigoflow.co.uk "Brakes have not always impressed me in the past; Give Blood has proved me wrong" (click link to read it all)
Give Blood @ Crud Magazine "Somewhere, possibly right now, there will be a scientist scooping Brakes into a Petri dish for cataloguing and posterity. Truly a bit unique" (click link for review)
Give Blood @ thisisfakediy.co.uk "Brief and cutting - or beautifully fluttering..." (click to read)
Metropolis @ incendiarymag.com "Just a quick whetter of the appetite with a mainly visual piece covering Metropolis". Also Give Blood "Heard About Your Band is a riot, a veritable feast of vocal spleen-venting, nicely complemented by some dizzy guitar riffery from the old school"
They have a GALLERY and lots of pics of Tom
Manchester Music - Manchester Online - highvoltage.org.uk
Brakes @ music.for-robots.com Their soft acoustic songs are as pretty as the pictures their lyrics paint, and their screaming rock songs are nothing but pure fire (click link for more)
Album Of the Week: "rootin' tootin' punkified indie sound"
Give Blood @ speakerspushtheair.com Opening with 'Ring A Ding Ding', the album might give a first impression of being a kind of post-9/11, acoustic Happy Mondays, all strange lyrics and weird accents over breezy, 50s pop-esque guitars. Track one is just that – reminiscent of The Beatles and Weezer at their strangest. It’s fun, it’s bouncy, and it’s very very summery.
There is one place for this album – in your stereo-mo-graph this summer. It’s eclectic, sarcastic, strange, punky, melancholy, anarchic, nostalgic and contains some of the best satire in music since the Clash ('Hi How Are You' and 'I Heard About Your Band' made me laugh out loud on a bus, which is a rare thing in modern music). I feel like a vulcan-american with a new season of Star Trek on DVD, or a crack whore with 21 grams in her handbag – hooked, doomed, and loving it.
Give Blood @ nunuworldmusic.co.uk Eamon Hamilton seems to have used this opportunity to rant about some of the people that always surround a successful band (his dayjob). In You'll Always Have A Place To Stay he sings, 'We'll go out drinking. Taking coke and cocaine. Try to forget, get high to forget.' In Heard About Your Band, he seems to directly attack those hangers-on that surrounds any successful scene with lines like 'you met electrelane' and 'you know a lot of people in the industry woohoo' (the review quotes lots of lyrics, this is my kind of thing) Main website is here: nunuworldmusic.co.uk
spinmagazine.com A U.S. release is expected in September.
Give Blood @ fmagazine.com The idea seems to be: if it's good, record it, then release it. If only it was this easy for most bands. But Brakes aren't most bands. They're three well-loved bands mashed into one.
Give Blood @ God Is In the TV You can also talk about Brakes in their forum.
Give Blood @ Excite Listen to this album: it will raise your mood faster than a cup of espresso.
Give Blood @ BBC Collective They suggest if you like this you should try Tenderfoot & BSP.
Give Blood @ indielondon.co.uk Kicking off with the chirpy Ring a Ding Ding, with its tongue-in-cheek lyrics and vibrant guitar riffs, the album then proceeds to deliver a rollercoaster ride of emotions...
Give Blood @ musicomh.com "Perhaps the most bizarre album I've listened to this year, but on repeated listens, it reveals itself as fresh, different, and really rather charming".
Give Blood @ cmumusicnetwork.co.uk Extract: 'Heard About Your Band' has Eamon screeching "you shared a cab with Karen O! Oh oh, oh oh oh!!" over the Electric Soft Parade on ketamine (don't have the link for the full review, it's on the Brakes board)
Give Blood @ thelondonline.co.uk "as much sadness as you can cram into 120-second songs"
Give Blood @ music-news.com (click to read)
Give Blood @ ireland.com The only thing more suspicious than an indie music side project is indie music's sense of humour. Take this knock-about quartet assembled from idle members of British Sea Power, Electric Soft Parade and The Tenderfoot. Each group was eccentric enough to begin with, but together they form a gratingly self-satisfied, "we're mad, us" mix of punk brevity, lackadaisical country and industry gags. The album is marked chiefly by ridiculously short songs - the mouth-foaming Pick Up the Phone spans just 28 seconds, the politically inert Cheney barely eight. It would be easy to dismiss this as a meaningless exercise were it not that talent glimmers through the murk. Ring a Ding Ding, I Can't Stand to Stand Beside You and Jackson (a Johnny Cash cover) rise above pastiche, and hint at better things to come if the Brakes ever apply themselves.
Blog review I've been a big fan of British Sea Power for a while now, so I was pretty happy to hear that BSP's Eamon Hamilton has a new side project. The band is called Brakes, and it also features two members of Electric Soft Parade. The thing I love about this disc is the complete lack of pretension. It really just sounds like four guys (and sometimes a girl) hanging out together and playing the music they like, regardless of genre. There's bouncy indie pop ("Ring a Ding Ding"), Nashville-via-Gloucestershire country stomp ("Jackson"), short punk blasts ("Cheney" and "Pick Up the Phone"), Gang of Four-meets-Devo "dance" music ("All Night Disco Party") and acoustic balladry ("Fell in Love With a Girl" - which is not a cover)
Disco Party @ rockfeedback.com All Night Disco Party continues the merriment (‘uber-rockin’ is uttered in this; say no more), and is a dancefloor classic in the making, as crafted by those from The Tenderfoot, British Sea Power (whose own ‘Please Stand Up’, released on the same label, gains an almighty **** for being one of their most aplomb-ridden and anthemic singles thus far) and Electric Soft Parade. The Brighton Marina Mafia, they’re also known as (to us, anyway). Go buy.
There's also a review of Give Blood @ Virgin (click link)
Brakes @ Electrowerks, London 27/06/05 (small mention, scroll down to find the review)
eardrums.blogspot.com, June 16 (scroll down) This is their second single, built around a dance-beat, simple riff of guitars, simple and repetitive lyrics and gang of four style vocals. The video is an eskimo danceparty, - great stuff.
ritcherd.blogspot.com, June 16 (see last paragraph) The band 'Brakes' were djing up there after their gig at one of Bristol's main music venues. Brakes consist of band members from BSP, and ESP, rather cool I think, and I was the one who had to show them how the equipment worked and let them take over from me.
Give Blood was supposed to get a review on 6 Music's Roundtable but they talked about the other music too long. So they didn't get time to say much. Guests: Mark Radliffe, Paul Smith and Phil Nicholl.
6.55pm: You can actually stop right there because we've got to get some tracks in... You have but 1 minute 36 of this track from the Brakes (reviewer: Oh lovely)
- Ring A Ding Ding -
"won't you shut the fuck up" (and review the album) may have been more suitable.
6.57pm: That's from the new Brakes record, which is called Give Blood, we have to be very quick 'cos Tom Robinson's standing by back in London but Paul, what did you think of that?
Paul: Best thing we've heard all night, started with feedback, ended with tambourines, 8 out of 10.
Steve: Excellent. Phil?
Phil: Yeah I liked it too. 8 out of 10 from me.
Steve: And Mark?
Mark: Thought it was alright. 6.
Steve: Excellent. We're going to play out with one more track from that record... The winning track we think was The Features, no, it was that record infact. The Brakes album sneaks in so we'll play one more track from it. This is called N.Y. Pie.
Disco Party review at amnesiac.co.uk Brakes are an "indie supergroup", comprised of various members of BSP, Tenderfoot, and ESP, and this, their debut single, is a superb four-to-the-floor stomper, beamed in direct from Studio 54 and given a fuzzy, scuzzy post-punk makeover in the style of The Rapture's 'House of Jealous Lovers'. A vital addition to every scenester's iPod, 'All Night Disco Party' might even get your über-cool boyfriend dancing in public!
(click link to read) He mentioned it when he interviewed Eamon.
Give Blood @ birmingham101.com (scroll down) Ring A Ding Ding, the opening track of debut album Give Blood (Rough Trade) does tend to suggest they’d not be averse to be tagged as Roxy Music either, what with sounding not a million miles away from Virginia Plain and all.
There’s many other strings to their bow though, second track in with NY Pie and they’re playing lollopping bluegrassed country jogalongs while The Most Fun heads off snorting drugs with They Might Be Giants while the scratchy chugging What’s In It For Me? sounds like a manic Wedding Present with too much speed and All Night Disco Party juggles a Krautrock drone rhythm, Donna Summer and Gang of Four art punk funk.
Yep, it’s art rock all right, several tracks over before you can read the title, Pick Up The Phone getting the Ramones down to 30 seconds while Comma Comma Full Stop manages to knock a further 24 off that! Indeed, there’s barely anything that breaks the two minute mark with the jittery three minute plus I Can’t Stand To Stand Beside You (very Talking Heads) practically an epic.
Never exactly easy to tie down to a benchmark influence they come over all 60s chiming girlie pop with the Jesus & Mary Chain’s Sometimes Always and even turn in a hoedowning Lee & Nancy staple Jackson (featuring Liela Moss from Duke Spirit) with tongue placed firmly in yeehaw cheek. There’s not too much substance (as opposed to substances) here, but you have to agree they put the foot down hard on the fun accelerator.
Disco Party @ dotowen.co.uk How can you not like a song that refers to toasties and has a video with an animation of various arctic animals feeling the music and sometimes getting amorous? A fantastic piece of funky disco brilliance (click link for full review)
Give Blood @ jjrecords.com 16-cuts of stumblebum US back-porch pop – none of which is longer than 3.39 - with more than a dash of Pixies. Erudite, lush & expressive...
I must also thank them for linking to my website.
Here's a good album review at siglamag.com 16 songs. 29 minutes. Only 6 songs over 2 minutes. One song is 10 seconds long. This is the most fun I've had with an album in a while. The Brakes are a couple of guys from The Electric Soft Parade, and one guy each from British Sea Power and The Tenderfoot. They start us off with the wonderful 'Ring A Ding Ding'. It sounds like The Pixies bedding Roxy Music. Why didn't anyone think of that before? 'NY Pie' bounces along on a bed at the Hotel Yorba. 'Heard About Your Band' is hilarious, slagging "coke-upped arsehole" music industry and muso types. 'Cheney' is the 10 seconder - the eponymous Cheney being told "Don't be such a dick". 'Hi, How Are You' is a great comment on one of my pet hates - the motherfuckers who talk loudly at gigs. "why don't you shut the fuck up? I'm just trying to watch the band." Exactly - clear off to a pub you gits. This album has it all - pop, country, indie, garage, punk, whatever. And so concentrated. Talented buggers. Oh and '"Fell In Love With A Girl'" is not a White Stripes cover.
We Say: Eclectic, great stuff. And by the way... you should indeed give blood...
Disco Party @ drownedinsound.com After packing a full on punch with their debut single, 'Pick Up The Phone', it’s quite clear from the offset that Brakes are a band who like to shake things up. By this token, 'All Night Disco Party' is no exception, as it's a rollicking bopping anthem without the techno electronics. Galloping away with a thick bass line, feisty chords and Eamon’s manic blurts, “east-west, north-south, left-right,” get ready to be slapped into shape by this intoxicating dance floor grinder.
Disco Party @ playlouder.com 'All Night Disco Party' takes Brakes formula of squashing as many ideas into as short a time as possible and making a very weird, infectious pop song out of it. "It's a non-stop uber-rocking disco party," sings Eamon in his peculiar, elusive voice, and heck he's right. So there's a bouncing, excited bass line that sounds a bit like 'Girlfriend in a Coma' if you were getting ready to pull the plug on her while the nurse isn't looking, a chorus that has vague sniffs of The Rapture to it, and an all-over feel of a jolly good old knees up, what what. Not sure what the bit about "croque-monsieurs, croque-madame" means, mind, but it's bonkersly brilliant all the same and we're leaping like a freshly cured leper (there's also a Pipettes review)
Disco Party @ piccadillyrecords.co.uk "All Night Disco Party" has a catchy chorus (which sticks in your head for ages after!), scratchy guitars and an infectious groove - great stuff!
Video @ Zeitgeist Buck 65, the man, the legend is being supported by Rough Trade's 'Brakes' which makes for a pretty cool combination. They're basically British Sea Power's unruly and less serious cousin...
Disco Party @ comfortcomes.com The Brakes are two parts Electric Soft Parade, one part British Sea Power, and one part Tenderfoot. You may remember the band for their under a minute tunes about Picking up the Phone and Dick Cheney. "All Night Disco Party" just seeps into your mind and you will find yourself singing "all night disco party" all night long. The vocals are a bit rigid and take some time getting used to, but they sound like they had a lot of fun with this record and so should you.
Disco Party @ betweenplanets.co.uk The Brakes latest single is a touch of skuzzed up electro glam that explodes into angular rock for the chorus. While that may make them sound very experimental this is really a pop record that is designed to get a crowd moving, a vibe it succeeds in generating. The slow building from the simple bass and plucked guitar that sets the tempo, before simply constructed lyrics crash into the guitars, will certainly electrify your feet.
Disco Party @ eyeballkid.com Obviously looking for a lighter alternative to their day jobs, Eamon from BSP, Marc from Tenderfoot and Tom and Alex from ESP are back with another short, sharp pop shock in the form of Brakes. 'All Night Disco Party' sounds like a South Coast Miss Kitten with its carefully enunciated lyrics ("East-west, north-south, left-right, croque monsieur, croque madam" being a particular favourite) and robotic rhythms, though there's nary a synth in sight. It's all live man and funny and funky to boot.
Disco Party @ herts-essex-news.co.uk Zis has a very strange und camp German Eurovision vocal but vill no doubt fill ze floors at ze groovy dance clubs, ya? A pounding track from the Electric Six tongue-in-cheek pseudo rock stable which is, believe it or not, a good disco tune.
Disco Party @ normanrecords.com That most baffling of "supergroups", The Brakes, return with a new single called 'All Night Disco Party', an amalgam of Krautrock, pulsing disco rock & punk funk. The vocals sound really European & the whole thing reeks a bit of cheese but really. If played loud in a club though I reckon I'd really enjoy it. Just good, energetic pop at the end of the day.
Video @ Virgin It's an all night rave-up round Pingu's place by the looks of this cutesy little animated vid. Moshing penguins, amorous seals - there's no end to the madness...
Disco Party @ Indie London An indie super-group of sorts, Brakes are comprised of Eamon from BSP, Marc from Tenderfoot and Tom and Alex from ESP and they specialise in delivering catchy blasts of dizzy rock-pop that could easily filter over into the dark scene. Their debut album, for instance, claims to feature 16 songs over 29 minutes and aims to provide a rollercoaster ride of an experience that veers through a range of emotions. All Night Disco Party is an edgy, bouncy affair that is sure to generate something of a cult following, particularly as it boasts a video featuring the band members in cartoon penguin uniforms rocking out to the animals of the North Pole! It’s nuts, but designed to keep you dancing all night too!
Disco Party @ outtheother.typepad.com and Brakes @ blog.verbosecoma.com
Steve Lamacq on US radio station KCRW June 2005: The entire album takes 29 minutes to listen to and that has 16 tracks within those 29 minutes. It's one of the freshest, most exciting don't-give-a-darn-about-your-label albums I've heard in ages. One of my favourite records of the year so far.
click here for the Disco Party sleeve
heathenangel.co.uk has a single review and there's a new photo in this article (it's a PDF file) Brakes @ brightonsource.co.uk Brakes, Concorde 2, Tues 14th. Eamon BSP's phenomenal wide-eyed pop project returns home as tour support to Buck 65. It could be said that Brakes define the scene they occupy. They're certainly the key local super-group, taking that bonkers frazzle pop around the UK properly, instead of just playing occasional rammed Freebutt shows. A brave move when the quartet’s BSP, ESP and Tenderfoot day-jobs must already take up so much time. I bet their girlfriends are annoyed. New single All Night Disco Party has more substance than last year’s 45-second debut, but it’s still off-kilter and charming, with a couple more killer B-sides. This show is therefore well worth the effort – if only to check out how Brakes have faired trundling around Ireland supporting a miserable Canadian hip hop act.
Brakes are currently on the front of thestereoeffect.com and you can read the review here Brakes are an entirely different prospect than merely the collision of their respective day jobs. Brakes are a supergroup with charting members, but their aim is true.
They also have a single review (scroll down, they almost got single of the week) A homegrown floor filler - the sort that you couldn't resist dancing to if you tried. Brakes latest single is exactly what it says - "All Night Disco Party" doesn't have the expansiveness of British Sea Power, the pop sensibilities of Electric Soft Parade or the alt.country whimsy of The Tenderfoot - so where did this mania come from? The track is a thumping and gyrating indie disco tune. It starts sounding like the lolloping guitars of The Beatles' "Get Back", but jumps straight into a 4/4 bouncing boogie. Eamon's vocals like a shattered David Byrne (and we think to ourselves - this is what he could have sounded like if he found the right bunch of dance folk to team up with), squawking his lines like a broken record sung by a broken robot. The bassline is so perfectly punctual it could have been programmed. And half way though the chorus - "East West / North South" we can't contain ourselves any longer.
Disco Party @ Crud Magazine You may remember that Brakes are a Brighton supergroup comprising members of British Sea Power, Electric Soft Parade and Tenderfoot. You may also recall that their debut single was a throaty punk soundbyte lasting a matter of seconds and imploring you to pick up the phone. It may or may not suprise you then to discover this follow up is a two and a half minute new-wave disco floor filler of quite succinctly epic proportions. Wonderful.
Brakes @ NME.com Brakes, aka Electric Soft Parade with a new-found edge, mixed in with Eamon British Sea Power, and Marc Tenderfoot release their debut single 'All Night Disco Party' on Rough Trade records on June 13, to be followed by their debut album 'Give Blood' in the summer.
Disco Party @ Manchester Music Featuring assorted members of BSP, Tenderfoot and ESP, this latest release from Brakes is as exciting and punchy as last years “I Can’t Stand To Stand Beside You”. As you may already be anticipating (all you Brakes fans out there) a 4 for the floor dance beat is present, but it’s all bolstered by the simple riff of guitars and the scratchy stabs of Gang Of Four style skitters. But best of all it’s a great, fun tune, which should - if justice prevails - break the charts. Best of all, from just two quick tastes via their singles, I can’t wait to hear the results of their 16 track, 29 minute album. “Give Blood” promises to be something rather special. Let the good times roll... (review originally posted on the Brakes board)
German Brakes article (translation, scroll down) They say Eamon's a great singer. They also say: For a few songs the four got themselves reinforcements - the cover version of Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazelwoods 'Jackson' features for example the role exchange Liela Moss of The Duke Spirit and 'Sometimes Always' presents Rose, Becky & Julia of The Pipettes.
Give Blood @ irishabroad.com IF you like your songs short, political and to the point, with tongue firmly lodged in cheek, then Brakes are the band for you.
Consisting of Tom and Alex White from ESP, Eamon Hamilton from BSP and Marc Beatty from The Tenderfoot this quirky quartet got together for a bit of a laugh.
With songs berating political leaders George Bush and Tony Blair and a 10-second track pleading ‘Cheney stop being such a dick’, Brakes are nothing if not unique.
Eclectic barely begins to describe these four.
With Eamon’s vocals shifting from shrill punk and soft country it’s hard to pin down the band’s sound without doing them a disservice.
Their tracks flit from deep country to sleepy grunge and then surge from raw punk to heavy rock, keeping the listener firmly teetering on their toes waiting expectantly between the short tracks.
And the tracks are short.
The entire debut album is over in 28 minutes with the shortest track just 10 seconds long.
Despite the unusual composition of the album, Give Blood is definitely worth adding to your record collection and is released in Britain by Rough Trade Records.
Disco Party @ joyzine.co.uk Canada has the Broken Social Scene, Glasgow has the Reindeer Section and now Brighton has its first supergroup, the Brakes. With members of BSP, Tenderfoot and ESP this is their first release.
All Night Disco Party is a mix of power punk with a great beat. Crossed between a rocking Moby and the Faint, this is a 2 ½ minute blast of frenetic fun. Their debut album out in June has 16 tracks but still comes in at 29 minutes. Could be the soundtrack of the summer. This song definitely will stay on repeat on my stereo.
Give Blood review @ thesu.com If you read about this band on the internet you might see the words "Supergroup" thrown around. However, look at the line-up and you may just raise your eyebrows at the strong superlative used. Tom & Alex from ESP, Eamon from BSP & Marc from Tenderfoot. Hardly what I would term 'super', although they are undeniably a group.
However, I put the CD in the player and within 5 minutes I stood corrected. British indie is in the accendency and when you listen to this it is easy to see why. Quite simply, this is stunning. 16 tracks covering such different topics from getting pissed off by noisy people at a gig to the uber of all disco parties, all in a rocky Devendra Banhartesque style. It annoys me to read people state in February that they have heard the album of the year, but I will stick my neck out far enough to say that this is the album of the past 5 months for me, and is likely to be the album of the next 7 months too.
Disco Party @ musicomh.com Brakes are something of an indie supergroup. Members of BSP, ESP and The Tenderfoot have come together and have set about making tunes to set the dance floor at your local indie club to fraggle mode.
All Night Disco Party hits the floor running and doesn't stop. Brakes take Gang Of Four's more accessible tunes and turn them into the kind of thing you could get some serious Travolta action from - if you were into making yourself look like a fool, of course. But then that's exactly what All Night Disco Parties are all about.
If your Saturday nights aren't all about being stripped to the waist, twirling your sweat soaked t-shirt around your head while dancing on a plinth in your local club and thrusting your groin at people's ears as they make their way to the bar, then this probably isn't for you. You should put on some Roger Whittaker and have an early evening Horlicks party... on your own.
gigwise.com A side project for Eamon British Sea Power, Marc from Tenderfoot and Alex and Tom Electric Soft Parade, ostensibly free from the shackles and commercial pressures of their main bands, with ‘All Night Disco Party’ Brakes ooze with unorthodox zeal. Angular, crunching riffs, a befuddling tempo and owing a lot to The Pixies, the track wavers between being chaotic and shambolic and really sounds all the better for it. Unadulterated mayhem at its simplest and best then.