Review: Yr Poetry | Rocket Season EP

We are dogged by an apparently false (or at least presently unconfirmed) recollection of a use of the term "rocket summer" beyond its obvious references within popular fiction and execrable emo. What we recall is a piece of dialogue dubbing "rocket summer" a season in which the lives of a group of young people begin to take off -- you know, like rockets. We thought we'd find the verbiage in the crucial '90s indie-scene film "Half Cocked," whose story features a crash pad called Rocket House, but a repeat screening last week proved fruitless. Instead of continuing to cast about for support for our possibly dreamed-up memory, we're just going to get to these (long-suffering) points: Yr Poetry released last week a thrilling new six-song EP of taut, melodious indie anthems called Rocket Season, and -- as a result -- it is hard not to feel like the project has taken off (slightly adjusted title or no).

Longtime readers will not need the history lesson and can scroll ahead, but neophytes take heed: Yr Poetry is Alexei Berrow and Junior Elvis Washington Laidley of invincible Birmingham, England fight-pop four Johnny Foreigner, although the project is doubly once-removed from that concern via each gentlemen's respective solo endeavor (guitarist Berrow's Yr Friends, f/k/a Yr Dead Friends, and drummer Laidley's Fridge Poetry). Rocket Season, Yr Poetry's second EP, opens on a high with the thunderous basher "Don't Call Me Shirley," a song that tells of a powerful infatuation whose shuddering energy and vivid, desperate vocals echo the electrifying jolt of new, seemingly inescapable love. Given he is endlessly clever, its easy to believe Berrow uses the tune's closing words ("...that boy, still gets you...") as a nod to "Still Got It," the final track of the pair's titanic 2014 debut mini-album No Tribes. Or at least it is easier to believe that than it is to believe that Berrow named a song after a running gag from one of the greatest comedies ever filmed. Either way, the onion-skin layers of yearning and poignancy embedded in the crashing chords and cymbals of "Don't Call Me Shirley" are terrifically affecting.

The EP's 15 minutes transpire rapidly, never presenting a chance to sag, and the tone is generally raw and aggressive: think Johnny Foreigner's thrashing "Who Needs Comment Boxes When You've Got Knives," from the act's triumphant 2010 EP You Thought You Saw A Shooting Star But Yr Eyes Were Blurred With Tears And That Lighthouse Can Be Pretty Deceiving With The Sky So Clear And Sea So Calm [review], and you'll have an idea of Berrow's headspace when writing this short collection. The mid-set charmer "We Are Not The Champions" stands out. The tune condenses the sardonic conceit of Built To Spill's majestic "You Were Right" into a similarly sharp-witted but elegantly architected rocker. It is worth remarking that there seems to be something in the zeitgeist with the sentiment "We Are Not The Champions," as LA's DTCV uses virtually the same title for a completely different rocker on its dazzling LP Confusion Moderne, due next month.

Berrow told Goldflake Paint recently that Yr Poetry is "super proud how [Rocket Season] turned out and vaguely side-eye confident that it stands as a rad piece of music without being propped up by a *side project of.. tag... so who knows, maybe this is our mainstream breakout project." He is an avid reader of sci-fi, so it is very likely the title of the EP was carefully selected, for both its similarity to, and differences from, Ray Bradbury's epochal classic "The Martian Chronicles," whose first chapter is titled "Rocket Summer." Yr Poetry's chosen title if anything is stronger, as it suggests an ability to adapt, and -- importantly -- to return. It underscores the momentum of the project. although that momentum will likely be knocked sidewise with the release of the aforementioned Johnny Foreigner's hotly anticipated next full-length, which may very well street before 2016 burns out.

Rocket Season was recorded over a weekend in Johnny Foreigner's rehearsal space by James and Josh from Mutes; the set was mixed by music-recording-guy extraordinaire Dom James. Yr Poetry self-released Rocket Season as a CD and digital download March 24, and a special pre-order bundle was on offer the week prior to release right here.The bundle included a handmade, numbered and signed CD, an A4 poster, lyric sheet and black t-shirt with a yellow-printed rendering of the collection's ace cover image, but it appears orders are no longer being taken. For those who missed the offer of physical merch, the set should be on Bandcamp soon. For now, stream the entirety of Rocket Season via the embed below.

Yr Poetry: Bandcamp | Soundcloud



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Johnny Foreigner Side Project Tsunami: New Music Pending From Yr Poetry, Yr Friends and Fridge Poetry, Hear Titanic "Still Got It" Now

Remember the mid-summer news, that two Johnny Foreigner-related side-projects were Voltron-ing together to form still another permutation? Well, even if you don't, the fruits of the union of Johnny Foreigner guitarist and singer Alexei Berrow's Yr Friends project and drummer Junior Elvis Washington Laidley's Fridge Poetry project -- which operates under the nomme de guerre Yr Poetry -- are due Oct. 10 in the form of a cracking mini-album titled No Tribes. The raw and ready seven-song set was recorded with long-time engineer Dom James and will be released via the Yr Friends Bandcamp as a digital download and hand-made, limited-edition CD with booklet like it's the year 200x. Given the slack and subdued vibe of Yr Friends, and the burbling emo-tronics of Fridge Poetry, No Tribes is actually a bit of a surprise. Rather than expressing an average of the two side projects' sounds, the short set is, well, a complete face-rocker. Explosive standout "Bae Ruthie" is massive, with crushing distortion in the lead guitar riff (a sort of inside-out rendering of the riff from Johnny Foreigner's titanic 2010 rocker "Who Needs Comment Boxes When You've Got Knives"), breakneck drumming and Mssrs. Berrow and Laidley desperately harmonizing on the ridiculously catchy chorus "is that all you've got to say?" Impossibly powerful and poignant hooks seem to come to Berrow with disturbing ease, or at least ludicrous frequency, and closer "Still Got It" powerfully delivers with the repeated declaration -- delivered over a storming flurry of strumming and thrilling battery of snare and cymbals from Mr. Laidley -- "I survived a pop-punk summer, shiny heartbreak on the radio." The tune is on par with legendary JoFo album closers "The Coast Was Always Clear" and "Absolute Balance," and is definitive proof that Yr Poetry and its music shouldn't be treated as a secondary effort: No Tribes is the real deal. It is unclear whether we can expect to see Yr Poetry performing live again; our recollection (which may be faulty) is there was a single live performance over the summer. Johnny Foreigner are preparing for a short jaunt to South Africa at the end of the month, and there have already been rumblings about making a fifth proper full-band LP, so the band remains busy.

But not too busy to keep Yr Poetry's component parts from releasing even more new music shortly. Yr Friends' Yr Friends Don't Care What You Look Like EP was to have been released earlier this week, according to a recent email blast, although we have as yet not seen the project hit the Interwhatzitz (although, as we note below, Goldflake Paint has a taste). The new EP comes relatively hot on the heels of another EP issued in August called Yr Friends Ruined It For All Of Us, notable not only for being terrific (the tune "Hella Negatives (Version 2)" is dazzling and delicate and so, so pretty), but also for the inclusion of a cover of Hole's "Malibu." The same recent email blast to the JoFo list last week stated Fridge Poetry will release a new EP Oct. 15 titled Omstart Sessions. Given the title, we can only imagine the material contained therein will have been recorded at the aforementioned Dom James' Omstart studio in Birmingham, England, which as we failed to mention supra is the hometown for everyone we've been talking about here. Fridge Poetry's prior efforts -- particularly its collaborations with The Weaks' Evan Bernard -- have rocked most steadfastly, so we are eager to hear these new songs as well.

Stepping back for a moment, we are extremely happy to be getting so much new music from Johnny Foreigner and its related projects these days. The Birmingham fight-pop heroes recently very quietly passed its 10th anniversary as a band, although a 10th anniversary of bassist Kelly Southern joining up is still a couple years off, apparently feels more like something more worth noting, and is slightly more likely to be celebrated by the somewhat anniversary-adverse act. A recent, somewhat viral Twitter bleep noted with awe how much The Smiths accomplished in just five years; as a fan we're grateful that we are still able to see and hear what Johnny Foreigner are doing 10 years on, and hopefully will be able to say the same thing in another five and perhaps even 10 years. We are pleased to be able to offer a stream of the aforementioned Yr Poetry joint "Still Got It" below. We recommend turning it up quite loud. To hear more newness, check out Goldflake Paint's aforementioned triumvirate of exclusives from the three pending releases right here. And because we're totally jazzed by it right now, below "Still Got It" we're posting all of Yr Friends' Yr Friends Ruined It For All Of Us, as it hit the Internerds whilst we were on holiday this summer and as a result we didn't give it the digital ones and zeroes it deserved at the time.

Today's Hotness: Yr Friends, Oupa, Faculties

>> Right, then, where were we...?

>> In the wake of his first solo performance last month under the moniker Yr Friends (shortened from Yr Dead Friends for some reason, as this site evidences, oh, also this), Johnny Foreigner fronter Alexei Berrow has digitally released an EP of Yr Friends material titled Yr Friends Are Lying To You. The EP contains three Berrow originals with characteristically verbose titles, and in true Berrow/JoFo fashion Yr Friends Are Lying To You comes packaged with lyrics, album art and art for the individual tracks as well. A fourth song is a relatively jaunty Irving Berlin composition that sits well with the other material. Uncompressed, airy and spare, Yr Friends' music is lo-fi in the same vein as, say, two of the great Alex Kemp's best, The Godrays' heart-spindling "Carkeys, Ponytail And Gum" or the similarly affecting Small Factory b-side "Movies." Or maybe the breakdown of the Lilys rarity "Excelsior Plainsides." The EP is available for purchase via the Bandcamp widgetini below. The timing may be a little off, as this quiet music may be more suited to the shortening days ahead (although we suppose stale-beer summer dawns will also suit it). But when you're ready to mope your way through your fall semester, this will be the perfect thing for you. And we're hopeful that when Berrow comes up for air after the inevitably lengthy machinations surrounding the release and support of Johnny Foreigner's eagerly anticipated third full-length (which may come packaged as/with a comic book?), that we'll hear more from Yr Friends.



>> Appearing in the lo-fi bin just today is the long-awaited full-length from Oupa, a side project of Yuck fronter Daniel Blumberg that we first wrote about here in April. The new, seven-song collection -- available digitally or on cassette only -- is called Forget and it was recorded by Mr. Blumberg in his apartment this past January. Forget was released today by Fat Possum (also U.S. home to Yuck) in the States and yesterday on Blumberg's own newly commissioned label Boiled Egg in the UK; Forget is also available in France via Atelier Ciseaux, Veeee. A video for the mid-album selection "Physical" was posted to Vimeo last week, and you can watch the thing right here. As for Yuck, the London-based band is already preparing a return United States to continue riding the wave of popularity spawned by its terrific self-titled release that we've mentioned often. The quartet's first domestic date of the fall is at our very own T.T. The Bear's in Cambridge, MA Sept. 22 [TICKETS]; complete tour dates are posted to the band's web yert right here.

>> The self-titled EP from the decidedly -fi and future-present Brooklyn-based electronic duo Faculties was released a few weeks back. You've already heard and loved the teaser track "Weekend Warrior," but the EP has a lot more to offer. We've been grooving as of late on the spooky minimal glitch of "The Paranoid Style," which reminds us a touch of Lali Puna, albeit with big widescreen vocals. While it is more mid-tempo than "Weekend Warrior," the tune is a standout track. Stream the entire jawn via the Soundcloud embed below.

FACULTIES EP by statikluft

Today's Hotness: Algernon Cadwallader, Yr Dead Friends

>> Oxford, England label concern Big Scary Monsters disclosed today it will release Philadelphia-based emo heroes Algernon Cadwallader's absolutely devastating, devastating sophomore set in Europe next month. The new collection, Parrot Flies, will be issued Aug. 22, right after the trio completes a 32-date tour of Europe and the UK that commences tomorrow. Big Scary Monsters' European iteration of Parrot Flies is available for pre-order now on CD or 12" vinyl. The vinyl is in an edition of 500, with 200 transparent blue discs and 300 black discs; BSM also has an exclusive t-shirt offering, and you can see all your merch options right here. More importantly, you can also stream all of Parrot Flies via the Soundcloud embed below. Download the final track "Cruisin'," which showcases well the band's characteristically unbridled energy, noodly and melodic guitar lines and damaged vocals, for free right here. We checked in at Algernon Cadwallader's web dojo a couple days ago and as far as we can tell Parrot Flies as yet has no US label attached to it, although the band was hoping to sell copies on the West Coast leg of its just-wrapped US tour.

Algernon Cadwallader - Parrot Flies by punktastic

>> Johnny Foreigner singer and guitarist Alexei Berrow will make his solo debut at a live gig later this month. Operating under the characteristically cheery name Yr Dead Friends, Berrow will play "a load of depressing songs on his own that you've never heard," which impresses us to no end because it means Lex is even more of a song-writing machine than we had heretofore appreciated. The guy writes a lot of songs; it's amazing. Anyway, the gig is at Trinity in Harrow, which the Internetzez tells us is in North London, and Yr Dead Friends will be supporting Johnny Foreigner's Alcopop! labelmates Ute and Uxbridge-based emo/math-ers I Saved Latin. Someone bootleg this gig for us pretty pretty pretty please? Your brief Johnny Foreigner update then: the band has recorded a tonne of songs for their third full length, which is expected out later this year. So many songs, in fact, that the band is worried the potential length of the record may be more than the average listener can bear. Frankly, we hope they put every damn song on the album. No one is more ready to make a double or even triple record than Johnny Foreigner. We'll keep you posted.