{"id":6982,"date":"2010-05-05T09:53:53","date_gmt":"2010-05-05T09:53:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thejoycollective.co.uk\/blog\/?p=6982"},"modified":"2010-05-12T11:58:08","modified_gmt":"2010-05-12T11:58:08","slug":"standard-fare-cat-mouse-cat-cardiff-arts-institute-11-05-10","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/preview\/standard-fare-cat-mouse-cat-cardiff-arts-institute-11-05-10\/","title":{"rendered":"Standard Fare \/ Cat Mouse Cat : Cardiff Arts Institute : 11.05.10"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I shouldn’t be going to this gig; I should be sipping a delightfully overpriced lager in London’s noted Brixton Academy venue and eagerly awaiting the first of four Pavement reunion shows I’m due to see this year.\u00a0 HOWEVER.\u00a0 Thanks to my generous employers turning down all leave requests for the week, I will be staying put in Cardiff and consoling myself with the fact that I’ll be watching the makers of the best indie pop album I’ve heard this year.\u00a0 For free.<\/p>\n

Standard Fare are a Sheffield three-piece whose aforementioned debut ‘The Noyelle Beat’ does brilliantly what countless records of its kind routinely balls up; it makes three-minute indie songs about unrequited love and borderline-Aspergers social awkwardness sound affecting, sweet and damn near lovable.\u00a0 They have the smarts to, er, pay homage to Steel City fellows the Long Blondes’ finest moment (on ‘Fifteen’), and the confidence to release a debut single (‘Dancing’) which builds slowly from a Sundays-esque, mid-paced verse into a glowing, glorious chorus knowing that it’s good enough to not lose people’s attention.\u00a0 They also have, in Emma Kupa, a lead singer with a very slightly imperfect voice which is utterly gorgeous for precisely that reason, and a songwriter unafraid to let an open-handed confusion and self-doubt colour her lyrics.\u00a0 If you liked Sky Larkin’s slept-on 2009 album ‘The Golden Spike’, this is one for you.\u00a0 I am excited enough for this gig to ignore the truly rank support band.\u00a0 POSITIVITY, DUDES.<\/p>\n

flux=rad presents STANDARD FARE
\nwith CAT MOUSE CAT<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tuesday 11th May 2010
\nCardiff Arts Institute, Park Place, Cardiff
\n8.00pm-midnight
\nCat Mouse Cat will be onstage 9.00pm
\nStandard Fare will be onstage at 10.00pm
\nfree entry<\/strong><\/p>\n

listen to Standard Fare here http:\/\/www.myspace.com\/standardfare<\/a><\/p>\n

Standard Fare may be named after a sign spotted on a bus, but the effect is anything but pedestrian \u2013 these Sheffield indie poppers are the kind of band whose name you\u2019d happily scrawl on the cover of your school exercise book. A power trio comprising Emma Kupa, Danny How and Andy Beswick, they\u2019re set to release their debut album, The Noyelle Beat, jointly on Melodic and Thee Sheffield Phonographic Corporation.<\/p>\n

Recorded in six days with an indie aesthetic that would have made John Peel proud, the album is named for a formative period in the band\u2019s development when they travelled across the channel to play at a festival in Noyelles Sous Lens, France. \u201cIt was where we felt our sound came together,\u201d says Danny, and the collection of songs they were playing became The Noyelle Beat.<\/p>\n

What does The Noyelle Beat sound like? Packed with lovelorn tunes, youthful energy and Emma and Danny\u2019s brilliantly balanced his \u2018n\u2019 hers vocals, that\u2019s what. The album even displays a uniquely charming approach to world issues: \u201cGlobal warming is getting me down \/ It\u2019s making the sea between us wider and deeper,\u201d sings Emma on Philadelphia. Elsewhere,\u00a0Fifteen tells the story of a strange attraction for a 15 year-old. \u201cNothing happened!,\u201d we\u2019re reassured.<\/p>\n

If that seems like slightly difficult territory, it\u2019s part and parcel for a band whose lyrics put love lives to the fore. \u201cOur main influences are relationships and experiences,\u201d they say. \u201cThese songs are often what we wanted to say to someone at the time but couldn\u2019t articulate. There is often a fine line in the nature of relationships and friendships. And there are many emotions and situations common to both. But since the songs are often based on true experiences it is good to retain some vagueness about who they are about\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Standard Fare met when Danny (from Buxton) and Emma (from York) were playing in other groups as teenagers. When those projects fell apart, the pair resolved to work together, and poached Andy from Danny\u2019s brother\u2019s band. Early practices were held in Andy\u2019s loft in Buxton, \u201cand then in his Nan\u2019s living room when they got too loud.\u201d Music is a family business for Emma too \u2013 her mother was in \u201880s anarcho-punks Poison Girls.<\/p>\n

\u201cA riot of hormones, cut-to-the-chase lyrics, bolshie girl-boy vocals and jingle-jangle propusion\u2026The best and most loveable aspects of indie guitar music.\u201d
\nThe Sunday Times (4 stars)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I shouldn’t be going to this gig; I should be sipping a delightfully overpriced lager in London’s noted Brixton Academy venue and eagerly awaiting the first of four Pavement reunion shows I’m due to see this year.\u00a0 HOWEVER.\u00a0 Thanks to my generous employers turning down all leave requests for the week, I will be staying […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[458],"tags":[971,1083,1241,1240],"class_list":["post-6982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-preview","tag-cardiff-arts-institute","tag-fluxrad","tag-god-help-us-if-theres-a-war","tag-standard-fare"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6982"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6982\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}