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THE BLACK ENDS//CHEM TRAILS//THE MANIFESTATION GROUP
April 26, 2023 @ 7:30 pm - 11:30 pm
£6.00
THE BLACK ENDS describe themselves in two words ‘gunk’ and ‘pop’. Meanwhile, the press in their native Seattle (and further afield, have this to say):
Sludgy and magical.
Audiofemme: Black Ends Bring Ground-Breaking “Gunk Pop” to Substation This Saturday
“I feel like there should be more Black bands getting booked in general,” she says. “I feel like there shouldn’t be all-white boy bands anymore, like the shows that are all white boy bands. That’s just over.”
The band’s 30 minutes of distorted “gunk pop” elicited raucous applause after every song. The floor creaked as the crowd hopped, bobbed and danced…
…it makes me so happy to be living in a world where music like this exists.
Swims’ unique talent and ultra-creative style of guitar playing is on fierce display on last year’s Stay Evil […] EP that manages to be both super listenable and super weird at the same time.
…Black Ends produces a biting sound not often heard in today’s scene.
…it’s supposed to be about finally accepting that fate- to release the thanatophobia we all feel at some point and just accepting that life ends and it’s okay.
Swims’ vocal flexibility […] rides atop the band’s thrusty dynamic gutter sprawl.
…Nicolle Swims, an artist with both a unique viewpoint and the ability to successfully express that uniqueness.
Being black in America feels like a death sentence but I refuse to stop fighting.
…front person and principal songwriter, Nicolle Swims, has a voice like imagination incarnate.
This shit is hard, dude.
So that sounds like it’s worth doing, wouldn’t you say?
CHEM TRAILS The garage-punk and acid-corroded new-wave outfit that is Chemtrails first emerged as a 5-piece in 2016, having started life as the lo-fi bedroom recording project of romantic partners Mia Lust and Laura Orlova. They were quickly snapped up and signed by Swedish label PNKSLM Recordings, having only played one gig — at Trans Pride Brighton. Since then, the prolific band has built up a die-hard following and churned out four critically-acclaimed DIY records in two years. Their three 6-song EPs and debut full-length album, all of which were recorded in their living room, have garnered praise from the likes of KEXP, Stereogum, DIY Mag and The Line of Best Fit, with the LP “Calf of the Sacred Cow” appearing in the top 25 of the “best albums of the year” lists of Swedish music magazines Gaffa and Hymn in 2018.
The band cites their biggest influences as the Pixies, Blondie, Oh Sees, Black Lips and sixties psych and garage punk, but holding everything together is Mia Lust’s ear for melody and no shortage of hooks. Served on a bed of fuzzy guitars and polychromatic pop, the lyrics center around alienation, love, the human condition, the impending apocalypse and, occasionally, on Lust’s place in the world as a transgender woman.
2019 saw Chemtrails play a live session for KEXP as part of their International Clash Day celebration in London, after which the band focussed on recording album number two. “The Peculiar Smell of the Inevitable”, to be released in May 2020 on PNKSLM Recordings, will be the band’s heaviest and wildest record yet, with their trademark big melodies and harmonies performed over a frenzied wall of raw guitar noise and glistening synths.
After their bandmates went their separate ways to pursue other projects Lust and Orlova relocated to Manchester from London in late 2019. They’ve now recruited a whole new lineup, bringing a fresh burst of excitement and ideas to the band.
THE MANIFESTATION GROUP are a new music based spiritual science project, revolving around the exhumation of various thought forms and ‘ghosts’ in the form of resonance and music. A thorough exploration of the power of ritualisation and relational beautification, within the context of the contemporary song book. They invite you to join them as openers for the evening.