There’s loads of reasons to come to this gig, I’ll name 3:
A) The venue is called Koko Gorrilaz. When will you next get a chance to watch a gig in a venue with this shit a name again?
B) One of the bands contains a Joy Collective founder member.
C) One of the other bands has ex members of Martini Henry Rifles/Space In The 50s and Midasuno.
4 bands 4 quid advance. Fiver on the door. And it’s a Wednesday so you’re bound to be able to get drunk in town until silly o’clock afterwards.
This is the band biography for Baddies. I’m sure you’d like to hear all about the band… how they started, what they’ve done, what people have said about them and what the band have said about themselves. That’s okay. That we can do.
Cast your minds back to January 2007… where were you? What were you doing? Well, if you’re name was Michael Webster (and let’s face it, your name probably isn’t that, but please… work with me okay) you were hatching a scheme, a fiendish plot, a devilish desire… to start DUN-DUN-DUUUUURRRGHHH… A BAND! Yes! A band with guitars and vocals and drums and bass. Holy mother of fucking shitballs! Mike had the guitar and vocals, so far so good… but where do you go from there? Well, if you were Mike you’d go to see your twin brother who just so happens to be a fricking awesome drummer and ask him and guess what? He said yes. Brilliant. But that’s not where the fantastic train stopped… no sirree bob, those Webster twins kept a right on rollin’ and they picked up a Simon Bellamy and a Danny Rowton on guitar and bass respectively. So that was nice.
So there they were. One. Two. Three. Four. And they called themselves Baddies. Not The Baddies, just Baddies. Got it? Good.
After quickly writing a batch of songs, Baddies had discovered that not only were they: (a) pretty darn good thank you very much, but they had (b) discovered their sound. Yep that’s right sound in italics. So what exactly is the sound of Baddies? Hmmm, right okay… well, imagine this… Talking Heads (Good) + Queens of The Stone Age (different, but also good) + being from Britain and all that entails (???) = the Baddies sound (its okay to say ‘the’ there I think?)
The band worked hard. They gigged. They recorded some tracks, “Tiffany, I’m Sorry” and “Battleships” and before long industry types heard them and got all hot and sexy at the very prospect of the band, and industry types love getting hot and sexy, don’t you?
Within months the band were in hot demand, everyone wanted a piece of that Baddies pie. ZOOM! They played Eurosonic in Holland. WHIZZ! They played London Calling in Holland, again! KABLAM! They played In The City in Manchester and shitting crikey they went down a storm! “I love them” said one guy, “Fuck me! That was good” said another. Which was great y’know, that’s what Baddies wanted all along, the diabolical little tinkers.
So what would you do? You’re in this band, everyone’s spaffing in their pants because you’re so damn good, where do you go next? You release a single right? Yeah, a single! On vinyl, limited to 500 copies and then you sell them all. Yeah sold out. Can’t get it any more. Sorry. But that’s not enough for Baddies, no no no. You make a video too right? Not a big expensive thing, just a little performance video. Film it, discretely put it out there… see what happens… get to number 1 on the MTV2 / Myspace chart with like zero promotion. That’s what you do if you’re Baddies anyway.
Now Baddies face the next phase, second single and then the debut album which Mike describes as “an insight into ‘the struggle’ of getting to where we are now”. The album is their autobiography, a collection of songs that tell the tales of the everyday and then dumping them on their heads and laughing at them in a sort of You’ve-been-Framed kind of way.
Just like all the best bands, Baddies are a gang… a group… a gaggle. They are united. They wear uniforms that say this is us, this is what we do, we are here to do a job. Do the job.
“Catch them before they explode” – NME
“On a mission to make The Futureheads look lethargic” – ARTROCKER
with
SCIENCE BASTARD
Out of the ashes of Frommars comes Science Bastard. With a dose of Jim New State Radio on bass and added Vern on keyboards and vocals, this lot sound like a collision between Dananananaykroyd, Fight Like Apes and MGMT. Sort of.
In their short career to date (3 gigs) they already supported Tubelord in Barfly and Future Of The Left in TJs. Catch them now before they either get famous purely accidentally or the two brothers have a massive row and tear each other apart.
Band biographies, not matter how Shakespearian in their efforts to accurately describe an artist’s ‘exciting’ and ‘unusual’ formation and the subsequent ‘sound’ the band have forged for themselves never seem to hit the nail on the head. The following facts about Exit_International are not a revelation in themselves. Formed between workmates Fudge (Ex-Martini Henry Rifles / Space in the 50’s) and Scott (Ex-Midasuno) in Cardiff, September 2008 as a vehicle to become the local support for a Melvins show, (From which the band ironically were removed at the last minute) the band wanted to make a noise taking influence from a shared love of Girls Against Boys, Nirvana, The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster, The Pixies…Utilizing Two basses in the process – essentially forming the loudest / noisiest ‘pop’ band. Add drummer Adam, some filthy synth work and bring to the table a lyrical bent pushing the dirty sex / knee length socks fetish / ‘Chris Morris of Jam / Brass Eye fame’ humor angle. The band’s choice performances have been alongside The 80’s Matchbox B-line Disaster, In Case Of Fire, and The King Blues to name a few…with not a guitar in sight. Having written 30+ songs in as many weeks together as a band, recordings so far haven’t started to touch on capturing the band’s sheer live intensity. On paper, a band like this shouldn’t work…..
BLACK RUSSIAN
“It is a confusion of sound. It is stilified perfection. It is awesome on the ear, mad jumping, calm thinking, vice, venom, love, loss, love, hate, desire, memory, ambition, ambiguity; a wraparound of genious embodied in a rare 5 who will move you in their performance.” – Chris ‘Square’ Dare.
Location:
Koko Gorillaz (used to be The Social)
7-9 Miskin Street, Cathays, CF24 4AP
Cardiff, United Kingdom
doors 7.30pm £5
£4 adv tickets
