Its Alive , Its Risen!!

The Rising Souls are our new favourite version of a Maroon 5/John Mayer lovechild. If, indeed, a lovechild made up of those two acts musical DNA was a thing of course. Have a quick listen for yourself and see if you agree with us – you will of course agree with us, because it is a correct observation. We can only hope that their singer is not as much of a complete arse-wipe as Mayer is. 

The video shoot for an Under the Bridge cover was going well. 

One small issue is the ‘The’ in the name, will it be dropped? Will it be kept? What will the future hold for Twitter style debates over whether you’re a “real” fan for calling them just #Souls or #RisingSouls?! Just something to mull over...  

A four piece set-up, The Rising Souls have been around on the internet and the Scottish gigging scene since around 2010, but it was their recent collaboration with Sound Cafe Records which has seen them hone their sound to something a little more sleek; heard here. This is all good, however we just hope they don’t become all tied to what the label thinks will sell/we are never writing or performing catchy pop hooks again, ever. 'Cause we all know how THAT ends don’t we? 

With the current sunny weather streak Edinburgh appears to be having, this band are a perfect BBQ playlist choice; we recommend them for the 5-7pm IPod slot. If, however you have an urge to actually see them play live, then of course we have a suggestion for that too. Their album launch takes place at artist favourite launch style venue The Caves on April 6^th – details HERE. 

So, just to clarify if you enjoy the sounds of Maroon 5/John Mayer/Chris Cornell in a sort of well put together musical mash-up then there is a good chance you will like The Rising Souls. If you like the idea of seeing this mash-up in a live situation there is also a good chance you will like paying money out of your wallet/purse/billfold to watch them make a jolly good bash at doing such an activity. We are also presuming that you will be able to purchase a PHYSICAL copy of the album at said launch. It might look like THIS or even THIS for the “old skool” music fan in your life. 

Meet The Martellos

You might be at home thinking quietly to yourself: ‘Know what? I am missing some nice wee harmonies, guitars and lyrical content from a male fronted indie group.’ We realise that this is a pretty specific thought, but a thought none the less. We also happen to have the answer to meet your demands, this answer comes in the form of Edinburgh three piece The Martellos.

In keeping with our running theme of bands which feature members with nice hair, please see above ^^^. 

Funnily enough, our theme of bands with nice tunes is also still running; listen to some HERE for yourselves. Unlike most Edinburgh artists out there, they appear to have zero band creation info/potted history/general music opinions written anywhere which makes our job slightly harder but to keep the biography fans happy here is the Feed the Fish story of The Martellos...

Once upon a time three lads met at school/college/uni/The Hive (delete as appropriate – or to your preference, this is a chance to create your very own Martellos story, readers.) They bonded over their shared love of skiving/boy-racing/Jeremy Kyle/£1 vodkas and decided to swap numbers/bebo usernames/e-mails/spit and form a band. Following many massive decisions such as does Martello have one or two L’s and who looks best playing an acoustic guitar the boys then got round to getting some songs written, performed and recorded. ‘Hey guys! One of the boys said, we should maybe get ourselves out there on the internet, it is important we reach as many people as possible.’ And so, their online presence was born: Reverb Nation/Facebook/Unsigned.com. This enabled them to upload their music for the entire world to hear and meant they could play gigs to serenade the ladies.

That ^^ ladies and gentlemen is what happens when all we have to go on is ‘started in late 2011’.

Aside from the fact they’re from Edinburgh and sound a bit like The Kooks, each member also has an incredibly Scottish sounding name, which when we become independent we are sure THIS MAN will appreciate. Anyway, if you have ever been a keen fan of Paolo Nutini, The Kooks or Razorlight and did what we told you (listened to the music on the link provided.) then you should be enjoying ménage a trio of tracks at the moment. Considering their recent birth, they are currently doing pretty well music scene wise – a Fresh Air feature, over 400 Facebook fans (and counting) and persistent PR; we reckon they’ll do alright. 

Commit to... The Seven Deadly Sins

Sometimes it can all go wrong when taking inspiration from music genres such as punk and (the good bits of) grunge. Luckily Edinburgh lot The Seven Deadly Sins (also the name of a song by Irish punk outfit Flogging Molly, fact fans) have managed to avoid this trap. Aside from keeping the Edinburgh based hairspray and black t-shirt vendors in business, they also create and perform a bevy of extremely well made musical output. For an example please click the big side-ways triangle below...

Plus, anyone who can include closed brackets and the words Awoo woo woo is a winner in our books.  Formed in early 2010, the four man band have since supported the likes of The Damned and have headlined well known Scottish venues such as Liquid Room, King Tut’s and Cabaret Voltaire. On top of all the whoring out to multiple live venues they also took it upon themselves to organise and play a monthly jaunt at our very own Cabaret Voltaire in September last year. Their Deadly Night Out effort went as far as sourcing and (more importantly) caring about their support acts; thumbs up to them. Bands actually caring about who they play a gig with is becoming glaringly uncared for when you look at some gig line-ups... (oooh bitchy etcetc.)

We’ve mentioned at LEAST twice before that we like artists who make an effort with not only the audio but the visuals. See above for a video – yes a proper one, the kind that when you type ‘The Seven Deadly Sins, Edinburgh’ into YouTube it doesn’t come up with some shitey back of the crowd mobile phone filmed effort. They also provide excellent photography output...

One guy never got the black t-shirt memo. Answers on a postcard.

There we are, two lovely examples so far as to how we aren’t liars.

Anyway, for people who enjoy artists such as Dinosaur Jr, Lemonheads, a wee bit Elliot Smith, Blind Melon and Teenage Fanclub then we guarantee you will like listening to at least ONE if not ALL of their songs. Coincidently, The Seven Deadly Sins release their EP in June this year and a UK tour is to follow – this is something that as a supposed ‘fan’ of the aforementioned bands you should DEFINATLEY GET INVOLVED IN.

High Standard(s)

We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again. Not only do we enjoy stumbling upon new music we also like artists who make an effort with musician-related activates such as: posing for photographs, recordings and the writing of biographies which they intend to publish online for people such as us here at Feed the Fish. So, let us introduce you to the pictures, sounds and words of The Standard Error.

Comprising of two tall men and tall slightly smaller one’s The Standard Error were created in 2010 and since then have pretty much gigged, written, practised and recorded their arses off.  Sometimes, a group of ‘singers’ decide to get together and form a band, and sometimes this little idea doesn’t seem to pan out because none of them can either play anything or sing very well (See HERE for example.) Thankfully, this isn’t the case with The Standard Error, they appear to be able to both play and sing when needed to a very high standard. No ‘error(s)’ here then hohoho etcetc. Anyway, enough promises, you should probably give them a listen whilst you are here. Why not take a little gaze at these well taken portraits of them ‘larking about’ at the same time...

Have you got to Third Parties yet? Yes? What do you think? We think the Radiohead love-in has gone a bit overboard. However, we have an adverse reaction to Radiohead, what they encompass and the fans they produce. I mean,  its FINE though, it will all be FINE because underneath all the Thom Yorke annoyance we know than Third Parties does sound good it’s just we like the other one’s better because they sound like other artists who we actually like OK?

These artists include Manic Street Preachers, Muse on a good day, Led Zep, Radiohead within reason –meaning about two songs maximum in a short space of time – Pixies, Suede and a bit of shoegazing. Now, if you for any reason have over the years taken a liking to any of the previously mentioned bands and activities then there is an extremely high chance that you will also have taken or are about to take a liking to The Standard Error. We wish you luck with this fantastic new find.

By the way, they play Bannerman’s tomorrow evening if you are free. Details HERE. It will be a good show, we know this because we’ve witnessed them live before and if that isn’t a solid recommendation we don’t know what is.