SHINIES grew out of the late night jams of Ric, Adam and Tom in a South Manchester basement, fueled by a mutual love of loud noises, discordant chords, catchy melodies and cheap cider. Their sound exudes walls of swirling guitars underscored by poppy hooks, relying heavily on melody, drive and frantic rhythms. Having released two singles in 2012 on London label Dirty Bingo Records (Paradise, Novella, Womans Hour), as well as their debut E.P “Tangle” earlier this year, produced by MJ of Hookworms, their sound has evolved from its DIY beginnings into a well-honed and emotive sonic assault.
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BEST FRIENDS: “If British guitar music really is to drag itself out the gutter, then the North might well lead the way. Sheffield and Leeds are producing a slew of new bands, with the likes of Drenge already making headlines.
A little softer than their garage rock contemporaries, the lilting surf-pop of Sheffield’s Best Friends has much in common with the Birmingham scene. There’s that pop sensibility, that surreal sense of humour but all bound in the Northern grit fostered by the Steel city…
All killer no filler, new single ‘Happy Anniversary’ is a mean, lean pop machine. The opening chords sound like their amps have been thrown into a swimming pool, while the track itself replicates the sound of the slacker generation but with an honest, earnest ethos.” CLASH
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Since forming, MiSTOA POLTSA have been relentless in treading the city’s boards, whether it be propping up support bills, or playing basements, bars, house parties or warehouse units. They’re a true band of addicts in the sense of a Jay Reatard or Ty Segall – not just in making and releasing music as soon as they have it (there have been three EPs and an album in the past year, with a further tape on the way), but also in pulling themselves around the live circuit. Javin is a firm believer in creating in the moment; the group’s viscerally breakneck debut album, When Jesus Glassed God, released in the summer on cassette label Number4Door, was recorded and mixed within three hours at the increasingly infamous Sways Records Bunker in Salford….
Not many will have heard it, but When Jesus Glassed God is one of the most thrilling punk releases to have come out this year – the sort that leaves you breathless just sat by your speakers. The reductionist, lo-fi feel of its production adds an abrasive conflict to the ambition of its spiralling guitar lines, blasted shards of distortion and fibre-tearing drumming; the band tumble through ten tracks scratching and clawing at each other with gloriously aggressive abandon. In its feel of sonic decay, the band unintentionally re-claim ‘lo-fi’ as a true test of creative ambition versus limitation – more in historical keeping with someone like R. Stevie Moore – and take it away from 21st-century grunge dullards…” SIMON JAY CATLING, THE SKINNY
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