Ed O’Brien (Radiohead) ‘Great Stuff, and very Manchester, too’ , 

 

Clint Boon (Inspiral Carpets / XFM) ‘Daystar are a band I’ve been listening to a lot lately’

‘Don’t Need This’, the latest Daystar single, is set for release on February 27^th. Captured by legendary Liverpool producer Ronnie Stone, the raking, shimmering guitars, cascading bass-lines, laidback somersaulting drums and the sweet, soaring melodies of front man Simon Monaghan demonstrate unflinching feeling and belief. In his own words; “This song is about the pretension and conformity of the murky underbelly of the Manchester club scene and the social whores who frequent it”. There’s evidence aplenty of the band’s respect and admiration for the work of Syd Barrett from Pink Floyd and perhaps more than a passing nod to the classic harmonies of Brit-pop heroes Mansun and The Charlatans.

Daystar’s rise over recent months has been impressive to say the least. With a sound drawing expertly from contemporary influences whilst effortlessly tapping into the feel-good aspect of sixties mod culture, the band have rapidly developed a reputation as one of the UK’s most exciting up-and-coming indie acts.

Daystar songs charm through the noble art of storytelling whilst creating eclectic soundscapes that conjure fond recollections of classic tunes by The Smiths, The Stone Roses and The La’s, along with song craft reminiscent of legendary groups like R.E.M. This has earned the band many high profile fans, including Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien , Radio 2’s Janice Long (‘They said I’d like this. They were right.’), Terry Christian and BBC London/6 Music’s Gary Crowley (‘I’m absolutely loving this, I can certainly hear the Syd Barrett and Brian Wilson influences’).

To mark the release of ‘Don’t Need This’, Daystar will be playing live shows at:

Manchester’s Dry Bar (18^th February)

Manchester, FAC251 (16^th March).

London TBC

 

Daystar – Don’t Need This by Ask Me PR

Picture this: Four twenty-something guys from various parts of the UK meet at a Ryan Adams gig in Manchester and decide to start a band. City Reign were born (did the Ryan Adams fans among you notice the reference to his track ‘City Rain, City Streets’ there)? Next, BBC 6Music’s Steve Lamacq picks up on and plays ‘Making Plans’, noticing the Idlewild influences. He then invites the band on air for an interview and hails them as a band to look out for, along with The Heartbreaks and Driver Drive Faster. Not a bad start for a DIY single.

Another previous single ‘Out In The Cold’ is included on the ‘Numbers For Street Names’ EP, which received a raving recommendation from The Independent (see quote below and the video on www.cityreign.net).

To complete the EP, there are three brand new tracks recorded at Blueprint studios. As singer Chris Bull says, “We’re extremely proud of these 5 songs. It’s a good mix of the punchier pop songs like the singles Making Plans and Out In the Cold, alongside bigger sounding songs like ‘The Line’. It closes nicely with a new song called ‘Anywhere Anyway’ recorded at the 11^th hour, that we knew instantly where had to close the record. Although the song is stripped back, the vocal layers give it depth and it shows the attention to detail we put into everything we do.”

‘Numbers For Street Names’ will be released on the bands own label Car Boot Records on CD and digital download. It will be available to pre-order via the band’s brand new website www.cityreign.net from 1^st  October.

Track listing

1 Making Plans (GBK6T1000001)

2 Sleep Easy (GBK6T1000004)

3 The Line (GBK6T1000005)

4 Out In The Cold (GBK6T1000002)

5 Anywhere Anyway (GBK6T1000006)

Quotes

“Fans of Yuck and Dinosaur Jr will approve of City Reign’s anthemic, grunge. A million failing garage bands will ask why.”

The Independent

“‘Making Plans’, I do like that.”

                                                                                                                                                                 Steve Lamacq BBC 6 Music

“I’m really digging the wistful lyrics, powerful guitars and pounding drums. It couldn’t be a better slice of English city life if it tried…it all makes for something very atmospheric”

                                                                                                                                                                               There Goes The Fear

Murky guitar atmospherics, emote an almighty passion and power.

  Manchester Evening News

 This independence of mind can be heard in their driving guitar rock sound, unphased by suggestions that the guitar band is destined for the musical scrap heap.

    Music Week

The Manchester-based band’s third single manages to hit all the right notes.

One’s to watch. 9/10

                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Shout4Music

                                                                                                           

Tour Dates

Oct  26^th – The Ruby Lounge – Manchester supporting The Birthday Suit (former Idlewild Rod Jones)

Nov 5^th – CC Muziekcafe – Amsterdam

Nov 7th – Ram +Shackle – Manchester

Nov 12^th – The Bay – Glasgow

Nov 15^th - West Street Live – Sheffield

Nov 19^th – Bull & Gate  – Camden, London

Nov 26^th – Gullivers – Manchester

Dec 3^rd – The Live Lounge - Blackburn

 

The Narrows’ second single, Able Danger has already garnered rave reviews from the likes of Tom Robinson, who had the guys in for an interview on his BBC 6 Music Introducing show. This was on the back of their T in The Park performance in August (25:08:11) where they completely wowed the audience, as you can see in the video footage below, which outstripped the views of White Lies and Everything Everything‘s performances.

Utilising a laptop and guitars (and no live drummer), the track is pulsing with 80s electro-pop or, ‘dark futuristic electro pop’, as the band describe their music. “It’s a three and a half minute frenzy of loud guitars; synths that sound like broken computers; and snake-like drum-loops that keep threatening to go mad and eat someone! It is about fear, government, panic, terror and secrets. A mix between the electronic side of Radiohead, Kraftwerk and Queens of the Stone Age – a real pop song for right now.”

Radio 1′s Huw Stephens and Zane Lowe both tweeted about The Narrows: Zane saying he liked the video to their last single, ‘Initials MM’. Let’s hope he tweets the same about their new video too!