THERAPY?
Beeinflusst von Bands wie Big Black, Snuff oder Hüster Dü (deren Song „Diane“ sie auf „Infernal Love“ covern), gründen Sänger/Gitarrist Andy Cairns, Bassist Michael McKeegan und Schlagzeuger Fyfe Ewing 1990 in Nordirland die Band Therapy?. Schon mit ihrer ersten Single „Meat Abstract“ finden sie bei irischen Radiostationen und auch bei John Peel von Radio 1 große Befürworter in England, die nicht ganz unbeteiligt daran sind, dass die erste EP „Babyteeth“ gleich mal auf Platz 1 der Indiecharts geht. Nach der zweiten EP „Pleasure Death“ debütieren sie im Rest Europas nach einer ersten Tour mit Babes In Toyland über A&M Records mit „Nurse“. Damit machen sie noch keinen großen Stich, aber mit dem anschließend veröffentlichten Album „Troublegum“ gehen sie dafür international durch die Decke…
Album ‘A Brief Crack Of Light’ released 6 February 2012 on Blast Records
„The success of this album won’t be measured in sales but in the knowledge that we’ll be happy with it for years to come,“ says Andy Cairns confidently. „It’s important to us to keep moving forward and keep challenging ourselves and the audience. I can put on albums like Babyteeth and Suicide Pact… and Crooked Timber and feel totally proud to have been involved in making them and at the risk of sounding pretentious, we wanted to make an album that stands up strong within our canon. And we’ve done that. With A Brief Crack Of Light we’ve never sounded more like us, slightly odd and slightly apart as always. We can’t wait for people to hear it.“
Paul Brannigan Jan 2012
GOD DAMN Info
Thom Edward – guitar/vocals
Ash Weaver – drums
Dropped like a pipe-bomb into the British rock scene, Wolverhampton band God Damn have spent the last three years nailing audiences to the walls with their sonic blasts of glorious noise. Yet their debut album Vultures offers more than just machismo, bombast and bluster. There is nuance and melody. Purpose and meaning. Heartfelt intent.A dizzying blend of barbed wire guitars, lung-shredding vocals and drums that run away like wild horses. It’s all the more effective when you learn God Damn are a stripped-down two-piece.They began life as a three-piece of Thom Edward (guitar/vocals), Dave Copson (guitar) and Ash Weaver (drums) in and around Wolverhampton. They came of age surfing that sonic wave of American noise that perhaps collectively represented the pinnacle of alternative rock music – The Jesus Lizard, The Pixies, early Nirvana – whilst also name-checking the textured diversity and unique atmospherics of Portishead, Tom Waits, The Mars Volta and Neutral Milk Hotel as less obvious influences. Stylistically they take cues from those whose surnames alone when mentioned immediately bring a distinct, epoch-making sound to mind: Cash, Hendrix, Page, Bonham, Homme.After a clutch of singles they embarked upon much roadwork with the likes of Slaves, Funeral For A Friend, Eagulls, The Wytches, Hawk Eyes, Turbowolf and others. It was while on tour in summer 2013 that bassist and founder member Dave Copson suffered a breakdown that resulted in life-threatening injuries. His recovery paramount, he never returned to the band.Not knowing what the future held Ash and Thom had commitments to fulfil and so this duo was born, just as God Damn were arriving on the wider radar. They signed to One Little Indian shortly afterwards and embarked upon making Vultures, a debut which, sound-wise, they say “is everything we hoped for – and so much more.”Their set-up has naturally drawn comparisons to fellow rising bands such as Slaves and Royal Blood (we’re inclined to name-check Winnnebago Deal and Wet Nuns at this juncture too) but really that is where comparisons to duos end. God Damn always call themselves “a band.”Vultures presents a universe of sound, from the low-end melodic boom of sneering anthem ‘Silver Spooned’ through the sub-dark psychedelic breakdown of ‘We Don’t Like You’ to the unexpected lo-fi strummed opening of the throbbing and utterly tumescent nine-minute sludge epic ‘Skeletons’. As debuts go God Damn have nailed their colours to the flagpole and torched the fucker.