Visit the Brakes Myspace for November UK dates and latest news from the band.

BBC 6 Music, Wed 11th November, 7pm - Marc Riley's homepage Tonight we've got the wonderful Brakes in session promoting the release of their new live album Rock Is Dodelijk. Their live set is notorious for its rambunctious energy and ear-splitting immediacy. Hand-picked by Brakes partly from a hometown (Brighton, UK) show in August 2008, and partly from a May 2009 show in Cologne, Germany: Listen + Buy

thisisfakediy.co.uk: The strength of a Brakes performance comes from the simple 'four guys assaulting their instruments' idea that rock and roll is born of.

thelineofbestfit.com: Brakes charm is that their rough and readiness makes their fiery sets what they are. They’re a tight band who portray the image that these often short, usually ramshackle songs could fall apart at any moment.

thedwarf.com.au: Rock Is Dodelijk is a testament to the stripped- down bare aesthetics of the band and does well to capture the ‘fuck you’ spirit that makes Brakes so goddamn loveable.

popmatters.com: Brakes captures something of a Libertines-esque ramshackle quality with these live cuts. Everybody’s right on queue, but there’s a loose, free-wheeling sense about it all that suggests rocking out in this manner is not only a hell of a good time, but what they were born to do.

Rock Is Dodelijk - visit links for full reviews

thisisfakediy.co.uk

'Dodelijk' translates from Dutch as 'deadly' or 'lethal'... they are one of few bands whose live shows anywhere near live up to such a statement. The strength of a Brakes performance comes from the simple 'four guys assaulting their instruments' idea that rock and roll is born of.

Although it's hard to pick highlights, other than personal favourite songs from Brakes repertoire ('Porcupine or Pineapple' or 'Don't Take Me To Space (Man)' for instance), it is thrilling to hear on record the different takes on familiar material. One song that's worth a mention is the previously acoustic 'Isabel', which is given the full band treatment, swelling to a rock climax, whilst elsewhere passages of songs which are normally quiet are filled with some screeching guitar work.

Of course, this will probably mean all too little to those that are unfamiliar with either the live show or the recorded output of this most brilliant of bands, which is a shame. If you fit into this camp then as soon as possible get out to see Brakes, buy their three albums and then invest in 'Rock is Dodelijk' as the icing on the cake.

thelineofbestfit.com

Brakes charm is that their rough and readiness makes their fiery sets what they are. They’re a tight band who portray the image that these often short, usually ramshackle songs could fall apart at any moment.

The riff of ‘Cease And Desist’ sounds positively monstrous, and if the audience wasn’t mixed so far back you’d be sure to hear them chant along with the mocking ‘Heard About Your Band’ (“…whatever, dude!”) and rock’s most head spinning anti-war song ‘Porcupine Or Pineapple’. Good to have the storming penultimate set regular ‘Huevos Rancheros’ brought out of B-side purgatory.

While CD/mp3 is no substitute for the real thing, which even got a moshpit going at End Of The Road this year, those without any Brakes in their collection could just as comfortably start here. A super non-stop uber-rocking disco party, just like the man says.

aversion.com

Collecting a pair of sets, the 20-track album starts out with an Aug. 2008 show in the band's Brighton, England hometown, dressed up and mixed down with all the graces that a producer (Chem 19 studios' Paul Savage) can give it. The final 10 cuts were put directly to tape after a show in Cologne in May.

The band's wild punk/folk/indie hybrid only gets more energetic as the act takes the stage. With both sets sticking close to the band's greatest-hits selection, drawing heavily off 2005's Give Blood (Rough Trade), Rock is Dodelijk is lean, mean and a reminder of all the power to be had in a Brakes show.

flintshirechronicle.co.uk

This album highlights what an exciting rock band they are. Like an overly-excited Buzzcocks, their energy when playing live is clear to hear on this album. From tracks like Cease And Desist and Don't Take Me To Space Man, the four-piece come across as a live force to be reckoned with.

altsounds.com

The sound is impressive throughout and really manages to capture the essence of the band (guitars are turned up to 11, drums pound with tribal fury and vocals are delivered as though pants are on fire). The set strikes a fine balance between the bands primary material and their short, sharp, sub 1 minute fixes of energy, songs for which the band have become notorious (their first single was only 28 seconds long).

Such songs include titles such as 'Pick Up The Phone,' 'Porcupine or Pineapple' and 'Comma Comma Comma Comma Full Stop' and more often than not consist of little more than the songs title over a cacophony of guitar noise. It's a gimmick that would wear thin if it were over-used but it's employed sparingly enough as as to never truly grate.

The songs which last longer than 2 minutes (we'll call them the 'main' songs for arguments sake) generally veer comfortably between quietly menacing verses and chaotic chorus's where guitars and drums meld into one almighty, deafening whole.

The nature of the music makes it inherently difficult to pick stand-out tracks but there are moments of pop clarity amidst the chaos with 'What's In It For Me,' 'Spring Chicken' and the surprising funk-rock of 'All Night Disco Party' in particular delivering some impressive hooks.

The band even manage to include a few left turns with the country stomp of 'Why Tell The Truth' and the plaintive, yearning 'Isabel' slotting into the band repertoire without sounding in any way forced or contrived. There's also a surprisingly adept cover of the Johnny cash duet 'Jackson' and 'Don't Take Me To Space (Man)' which shows a slightly more psychedelic slant to the band that suits them well.

incendiarymag.com

Live, Brakes are loose, playful and a little bit more psychotic than any listen to their insightful "country punk" studio LP’s would suggest.

The chosen “set” has captured pretty well on the nail how good and confident a live act they’ve become. They were always extremely competent musicians from the word go, but now, with a few strenuous years of gigging under their belts, they really sound phenomenal, especially as they approach re-creating their material as a fresh challenge each night, (check out both versions of Hey, Hey as proof). The thunder and elasticity of the rhythm section is perfectly captured on here, as are Tom’s pedal-tastic heroics; as heard on a brilliant Isabel and Disco Party.

themusicfix.co.uk

This collection of 20 live tracks captures them at their hyperactive finest... They clearly thrive in the live setting. Each song hums with a nervous energy that is often absent from their studio material.

thedwarf.com.au

The word Dodelijk is Dutch for 'lethal' and the band sure have nailed it with Rock Is Dodelijk capturing the raw energy of their live performances, leaning toward their heavier punk rock sounds.

Brakes power through twenty songs in just over forty minutes... It’s a heady rock trip, that barely gives the listener time to breathe as they are hit with track after track of propulsive guitar explosions.

All the big singles are included, with ripper versions of All Night Disco Party and their break- out single Pick Up The Phone, and two different recordings of Hey Hey. The album ends with a cover of the Johnny Cash classic Jackson that works surprisingly well. Rock Is Dodelijk is a testament to the stripped- down bare aesthetics of the band and does well to capture the ‘fuck you’ spirit that makes Brakes so goddamn loveable.

popmatters.com

There’s a hell of a lot of spirit captured here as they race through 20 songs in 43 minutes, many of which are between the one- and two-minute mark.

Brakes captures something of a Libertines-esque ramshackle quality with these live cuts. Everybody’s right on queue, but there’s a loose, free-wheeling sense about it all that suggests rocking out in this manner is not only a hell of a good time, but what they were born to do.

Vocalist Eamon Hamilton sounds positively vivacious amidst the propulsive, ever-present guitar-riffs that are the true focal point here. They are the vehicle through which these numbers arrive, searing the ears and then bailing out with admirable aplomb.

The album’s only true ballad, “Isabel” offers a welcome respite from the hyperactive volume surrounding it, though the slow-burning guitar that enters towards the end reminds us where we are, especially when a driving bass line seamlessly launches into the stellar single “Don’t Take Me to Space (Man)” shortly thereafter.

...you can’t argue with the fiery approach of Brakes’ live act evident on this document· It’s an exhilarating experience, even out of a home stereo, and it’s over before you know it, wasting no time once the job’s been done. A tried-and-true punk rock approach.

Clowns support Brakes at two of their UK shows

Clowns Myspace - Live footage (with Thomas on bass)

Upcoming Clowns shows

26 Oct - The Freebutt, Brighton at 8.15! supporting Portugal The Man
Myspace - tickets

9 Nov - Komedia, Brighton with Brakes
More info + tickets

10 Nov - The Garage, Islington with Brakes
More info + tickets

2 Dec - Albert, Brighton at 8 o'clock Sharp
Myspace

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Brakes Myspace

Brakes also play at:

8 Nov - Clwb Ifor Bach, Cardiff
More info + tickets

12 Nov - The Well, Leeds
Myspace - tickets

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New Restlesslist song

Visit the Restlesslist Myspace to hear Shy Coconut Love Song.

Back in March they had a session on 6Music's Marc Riley show, with Thomas White on drums – listen at this blog post - there's an interview too.

Upcoming Restlesslist shows

19 Nov - The Komedia, Brighton supporting 12 Stone Toddler
More info + tickets

27 Nov - The Freebutt, Brighton supporting DOSH
Myspace - tickets

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New Brakes releases

As announced in the latest Brakes Mailout they have a live album and single out soon.

Album: Rock Is Dodelijk - Listen + Buy

Single: Why Tell The Truth (When It’s Easier To Lie)? Listen + Buy

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Lots of reviews, photos and videos from their USA Tour in the fan blog - here's quotes from various shows...

brooklynvegan.com: "White was the most entertaining of the quartet, thrashing about and raking his guitar violently along the mic stand"

kingofthegigabitches.com: "Tom White the guitarist managed to talk his brother, Alex, into performing a Soca drum solo that segued into the final three songs of their set"

bostonsurvivalguide.net: "Slow pretty tunes with lovely, flowing melodic guitar supplied by Tom White. Who then turned on a dime into a madman, leaping about in search of 'found objects' – a beer bottle, the mic stand – to use as a slide. Seemingly random and erratic, yet amazingly precise... At one point when Tom was especially lost in the moment (along with the rest of us), the cord came unplugged from his guitar. With mild amusement but truly not missing a beat, he waited until just the right moment a few seconds later at the end of the song to plug it back in with dramatic flourish..."

loveshackbaby.net: "Thomas was a master at throwing out just the right note for just the right amount of time and letting it hang there to be looped back around in an infinite circle of sound..."

Photos of Thomas experimenting with his guitar at New York's Bowery Ballroom: Pic 1 - Pic 2

ESP Myspace
electricsoftparade.co.uk

REVIEWS + PHOTOS from Brakes USA tour at Brothers Electric Blog: CLICK HERE

Hi-Dive, Denver, 15th October.



Great Scott, Allston, 7th October.



With both White brothers on breath-taking guitar...

For Brakes USA dates see their Myspace - Facebook - Website

For reviews, photos + videos, see the Fan Blog here

Scroll down for earlier blogs - you can also post comments at the Thomas White Myspace

5th, 6th, 7th October
Washington/New York/Allston

Good news! Our show in Washington, at The Black Cat, has been upgraded to the big room. The room we're playing in is possibly the best so far - a nice big club with a chequered floor and a proper PA and all the other things that make a band smile when they arrive at a venue. Our friends who came to the Philly show (Bill and Chris) have turned up again - with copies of the bootleg they made at that gig. Despite running over a little (and getting all paranoid that we've pushed our luck) we have an amazing show, and I particularly delight in watching Chris wrestle my guitar (it's the hardest guitar in the world to retune, and he tries gamely, poor chap!). A good friend of ours, Aaron, from the west coast, has flown over as well, and after the show we get to catch up properly, discussing various bands and people and things. Very nice indeed.

The following night we play New Yorks' infamous Bowery Ballroom, which we're all looking forward to, and much as we have a bit of stinker, the reviews are good, and we're happy with that. After the show, we go for pizza at a nearby takeout, and randomly bump into Lou Barlow and Lee Ranaldo getting a midnight slice. I nervously approach Lou, and tell him I'm a big fan - as with every time I've met the fella, he seems more nervous than me, and I promptly leave him to his pepperoni and head back to the bus.

After a five hour drive, we arrive in Allston, a suburb of Boston, where we're playing a place called Great Scott's. It's a sweet little bar, and the promoter, Carl, turns out to be a big ESP fan, telling us he regularly drops one of our tunes into his DJ set. Good man! The show later on is a sell-out, absolutely rammed, and for the first time on this tour I don't break a string. A triumph, in other words.

The next day is a day off, just chilling in Boston. We decide to do something with our day and find a cinema that's showing 'The Invention Of Lying'. To call it a travesty would be a massive understatement. How someone as talented as Ricky Gervais could make such a humdinger of a movie is quite beyond me. I guess if he never made anything again, he's still got 'The Office' and 'Extras', but really, do we need this Hollywood slush? The outline is perfectly reasonable in theory, if fairly pretentious, but each 'gag' is crowbarred in so cack-handedly, strung out so fucking thin, and the characterisation is all but non-existent. Avoid like the plague. After that massive (expensive) disappointment, we return to the bus and console ourselves with guestlist to a Manic Street Preachers show later in the evening. They're playing a relatively tiny show (about 700 people, when they regularly play to thousands in the UK) and I have to say they're on good form, bantering with the crowd and playing a fairly equal set of oldies and newies. I can't say I care for the new stuff one bit, but to hear 'No Surface, All Feeling' in such a small venue is really quite something. Thanks, boys. The bus leaves at 2am, so we walk back through the city, along the river, and get the hell out of town.

2nd - 3rd October
Brooklyn/Philadelphia

After a long, long overnight drive up from North Carolina, we arrive outside Southpaw, our venue in Brooklyn. Just down the road from where Eamon and his family have made their home, the place is a classic. There's even a dressing room. Before soundcheck we head up the road and eat pizza slices and read the local news. A couple of days ago some psycho anti-semite homophobe nuts from Kansas set up shop in the street and started barking about redemption and 'fags' and etc... One of the placards in the accompanying pictures stands out in the memory - 'You Will Eat Your Babies!'. Make of that what you will.

After soundcheck we head up the hill to Eamon's new pad, where his wife Koren has prepared a tasty, wholesome stew. A god-send in these burger-filled days of touring. Their flat is beautiful and, as they're on the top floor, comes with a fantastic view over the Hudson of pretty much the whole of Manhattan in profile.

We arrive back at Southpaw and We Were Promised Jetpacks are already whipping the crowd up. For such a young bunch they really have their shit down, and perfectly warm the room. Thankfully, the show later is what can only be described as a half-cut triumph. All but over our jet-lag, we're back on form, and the venue kindly records the show for us. Bootleg in the pipeline, I think. After the show, people disperse to various local bars, but I decide to stay at the venue and watch the later show, which turns out to be a 12-piece Samba band, complete with bass drum-wielding band-leader. Special. Last one on the bus is a jobby.

We wake the next day in a bus-park just outside of central Philly. It's a short walk to town, where we indulge in the local speciality, Cheese Steak. I've a feeling we perhaps didn't choose quite the right establishment for the job - it's fairly revolting. If you imagine old, shredded beef, mixed with the cheapest processed mozzarella possible, packed into a huge 12-inch sub, with absolutely no seasoning, you're halfway there. Oh, well. Bloated with cheap, bland stodge, we wander through town, past the Liberty Belle, past Benjamin Franklin's gravesite. All very nice, though there's a strong whiff of tastelessness, compounded by a huge, frankly bizarre billboard advertising some hideous touring Princess Diana exhibition. Nasty. We head back to the bus to watch Anvil: The Story Of Anvil. If you've not seen it, see it. I'll say no more.

Around 5-ish, we get taxis to the venue to soundcheck, eat (much better) food, and generally prepare for the gig. The bar, North Star, is a great place, and all three bands have good shows. At the gig, we finally hook up with a couple of guys who Marc's been chatting to online, Bill and Chris. They're both big, BIG Brakes fans, and we spend much of the evening discussing recording techniques, and the possiblity of perhaps coming over and recording with them (Bill is an engineer, and was involved in the recording of Stephen Malkmus' 'Pig Lib' - a stunning record, one of our favourites).

The bus being stuck out of town, there's only time for a drink or two before we have to cab one off back to the bus-park. There we reconvene, dust ourselves down, and prepare for 'the off', as my father would say. Today Philly, tomorrow the Williamsburg. Nice.

30th September - 1st October
Brighton/Chapel Hill

This story starts very early one morning. Marc is first to rendezvous with our driver. From his folks' house, they bomb down to ours in Seven Dials. What with Eamon now living in Brooklyn, there's no Kemptown pick-up, so straight up the motorway. At Heathrow there's no usual sillyness. Instead, a totally personable, reasonable lady. She does her utmost to find us desirable seats - being the knobs we are, there are various requests - window for me, aisle for Marc and as far forward for Alex. As flights go, it's as perfectly still as they get. But for the pricey drinks, and frankly awful food, it's as calm and beautiful as flying gets.

We land in Raleigh five hours in our favour. Eamon came down from New York almost simultaneously, and is already waiting at arrivals. As is the case with long-haul flights, the next day or two start to blur - I can remember a lovely moment where we all meet up, perhaps an hour after arriving at the hotel, in the hotel sports' bar. Warming pints of beer, all of us a little frazzled by travel, sharing tales and generally catching up. On the first night we went all out on a slap-up barbeque, just over the freeway from the Holiday Inn. Disgusting, satisfying and completely neccessary. At this point, 9pm feels like 12, so time for bed. What follows is, at least for me, a fitful night of unrest and vivid, horrid dreams. After the general unease and restlessness of the night, I wake the next morning to a fuller, rejuvenated world - blinding, and suddenly full of possibility. We are a million miles from home, after all.

Our first day proper in the States goes something like this: after waking, me and Alex decide a breakfast is in order. A quick chat with the receptionist in the hotel, and we have our destination - some diner over the freeway from the hotel. Apparently the best Blueberry pancakes in town, and I can't disagree. We scoff, and get back to the hotel to meet Eamon and Marc, who are counting merch in their room. Once at the venue in town, we have an hour or two's wait for the bus (containing The Twilight Sad and We Were Promised Jetpacks) to arrive. The venue's a place called Local 506, and much as I'd love to sing its' praises, I was however many sheets to the wind it is when you're really fucked, and the venue wasn't in much better shape. It'd be safe to say it was a bit of a jet-lagged mess for all of us. A less than brilliant first night of the tour for Brakes, and possibly rather harrowing for The Twilight Sad, too. Best forgotten. Back on the bus as quick as you like.

New cover on the Thomas White Myspace

Thomas on 'Albemarle Station':

Please enjoy. I know I haven't chosen the most cheery Silver Jews song to cover right now, but it's working for me. Wallow, people, wallow. TWX

As previously stated here if anyone would like to make a donation to The Martlets Hospice, it would be greatly appreciated by myself and Alex, and however small or large the donation, it will make a massive difference for them. Thank you.

To make a donation please visit their website and click on Donate: themartlets.org.uk

Thomas White
X

Lowlands Festival, Holland, 22nd August

WATCH THE CONCERT AT 3VOOR12: click here

You can also listen to the audio stream: click here (scroll down)



myspace.com/patrickwolf

People,