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As part of our Independent Venue Week gigs.. When disenchantment runs high, when city life isn’t all it’s cracked up to be — when you’re forking out seven quid for a pint, shivering in a queue for a club night you don’t really care about, getting ripped off by landlords over blu tac stains, and squeezing in studio sessions around a relentless 9-5 schedule, there is only one logical response: fun.
That’s exactly what Home Counties provide on their debut album, Exactly As It Seems. A newly-purchased synthesiser, a fresh outlook, and a steady diet of early 2000s pop kicked open a world of melodic possibility for the band, resulting in an album that’s upbeat from start to finish: swapping wry social commentary for personal experience and big tunes.
Produced in its entirety by the band’s guitarist Conor Kearney, and mixed by the renowned Andy Savours (Black Country New Road, Róisín Murphy, The Kills) – the album dutifully captures the band’s rapturous live performances; a fizzing display of eclecticism all with a focus on melody in its purest form.
Thematically, the album traverses the ups and downs of London life in your late twenties; laments on renting and how rubbish landlords are on the Gang of Four/Devo-indebted "You Break It, You Bought It”, turning 25 and not wanting to go clubbing anymore on the agitated indie-disco of “Uptight", and fear of social isolation in old-age on the shapeshifting art-rock of "Wild Guess”.
Home Counties always manage to balance the duality of lyrical frankness and musical buoyancy
with gusto. With an eye for the day-to-day, all-too-relatable details of crap modern living, yet – coupled with an ear for hook-filled, grin-inducing melodies – the pay-off is one riddled in joy rather than despair.
support from Vincent's Last Sumer:
The newest in indie sleaze, ‘vincent’s last summer hail from Bury and Bolton,two market towns north of Manchester.They provide a fuse of club music and post-punk with lyrics pertaining' to living in a modern Britain.
With a name that sounds like the title of a particularly moody indie film, Vincent’s Last Summer are, bluntly, infectiously brilliant. File alongside Sports Team, Courting and Welly as a band who understand the value of chaos – firing across the spectrum with all the ramshackle joy of an android built entirely out of kitchen sinks” - Dork (https://readdork.com/features/the-agenda/get-out-30th-september-2024/)
“Manchester’s Vincent’s Last Summer took us on a trip back to 2008 where Manchester United had just won the league and Alexandra Burke had come out on top on X-Factor. Their quirky indie punk swagger and playful performance style gave them the charm of teen pop-punk acts of the late 90s and the astute songwriting of modern post-punk revivalists.” - Clash (https://www.clashmusic.com/live/live-report-neighbourhood-festival-2024/)
Tickets £12/£11 members
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
8 Horton Street, HX1 1PU Halifax, United Kingdom, 10 Horton Street, Halifax, HX1 1, United Kingdom,Halifax, West Yorkshire
Tickets
