** PLUS **
MASTER PEACE
LIME GARDEN
THE SNUTS
THE BLINDERS
BOMBAY BICYCLE CLUB
DOWN WITH BORING.
86TVS
THE LEMON TWIGS
+ LOADS MORE
ISSUE 85 · MARCH 2024 · READDORK.COM
The
Last Dinner Party a
IDLES iDKHOW
ALL
IS LOVE
FEELING GLOOMY?
prelude
to
ECSTASY
OF MILLENIALS DECIMATED THE FAMILY PC WITH A LIMEWIRE VIRUS
INDEX.
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Issue 85 | March 2024 | readdork.com | Down With Boring
Hiya, Dear Reader.
As the calendar flips to March, we’re buzzing with the kind of excitement that only comes when we’ve got something truly special up our sleeves. And with this month’s cover acts, we really do have something special. Leading the charge are The Last Dinner Party. Making a grand entrance on our 2023 Hype List without so much as a recorded single to their name, they’ve now sky-rocketed to become the UK’s biggest new band. At the time of writing, they’re on the cusp of clinching the top spot on the UK Official Albums Chart with ‘Prelude To Ecstasy’. Their debut is the fastest-selling in recent memory, proving they’re every bit the powerhouse we anticipated. Maybe the haters can get back in their box now, eh? Then there’s IDLES, the Bristol punks who continue to redefine rebellion. With ‘TANGK’, they showcase that love, not anger, is the most potent form of resistance. Evolving with each step forward, they only affirm their status as one of the most vital and interesting bands in the scene. Dallon Weekes, with iDKHOW, takes us on a genre-defying journey with ‘Gloom Division’. Casting aside the constructs of that brilliant debut, Weekes’ latest work is a wild, creative ride that cements his position as a leading talent in today’s music world. But that’s just the beginning. This issue is packed with features that span the spectrum of brilliant new music. From Master Peace’s electrifying buzz to Lime Garden’s refreshing zest, 86TVs’ indie hero status to The Snuts’ undeniable fizz, there’s something from every corner to dip your feet into. In Hype, we’re introducing you to the likes of Elle Coves, Lutalo, and Telenova, while in Incoming we deliver the first verdicts on this month’s new albums, including insights on Yard Act, Crawlers, and Declan McKenna. And for the live music crew, we’re bringing you up close with Bring Me The Horizon and taking you across to Europe for Eurosonic Noorderslag 2024. But seriously. That The Last Dinner Party album. Down with boring indeed.
‘Editor’ @stephenackroyd
readdork.com Editor Stephen Ackroyd Deputy Editor Victoria Sinden Associate Editor Ali Shutler Contributing Editors Jake Hawkes, Jamie Muir, Martyn Young Scribblers Abigail Firth, Alexander Bradley, Ciaran Picker, Dan Harrison, Emma Quin, Jack Press, Finlay Holden, Kelsey McClure, Linsey Teggert, Minty Slater-Mearns, Neive McCarthy, Rebecca Kesteven, Rob Mair, Sam Taylor, Steven Loftin Snappers Darina, Derek Bremner, Frances Beach, Jamie MacMillan, Jennifer McCord, Jonathan Weiner, Jono White, ManicProject, Patrick Gunning, Sal Redpath, Sarah Louise Bennett, Shireen Bahmanizad, Stephanie Pia, Tom Oxley PUBLISHED FROM
Top Ten.
Hype.
Incoming.
04 06 07
EFÉ YOT CLUB MANNEQUIN PUSSY
20 22 23
ELLE COVES LUTALO TELENOVA
66 67 69
YARD ACT CRAWLERS DECLAN MCKENNA
08 12 14
86TVS PARIS PALOMA BOMBAY BICYCLE CLUB ALKALINE TRIO TEENAGE KICKS: ANOTHER SKY A DAY IN THE LIFE OF... TALK SHOW THE LEMON TWIGS
24 34
IDLES THE LAST DINNER PARTY IDKHOW MASTER PEACE LIME GARDEN THE BLINDERS THE SNUTS
72
BRING ME THE HORIZON EUROSONIC GRETEL ROCKAWAY BEACH
Intro. 16 17 17 18
Features. 46 54 58 62 64
Get Out. 73 73 73
Backpage. 74
BENJAMIN FRANCIS LEFTWICH
WELCOMETOTHEBUNKER.COM
UNIT 10, 23 GRANGE ROAD, HASTINGS, TN34 2RL
All material copyright (c). All rights reserved. This publication may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form, in whole or in part, without the express written permission of The Bunker Publishing Ltd. Disclaimer: While every effort is made to ensure the information in this magazine is correct, changes can occur which affect the accuracy of copy, for which The Bunker Publishing Ltd holds no responsibility. The opinions of the contributors do not necessarily bear a relation to those of Dork or its staff and we disclaim liability for those impressions. Distributed nationally.
T INTRO. B THE BEATING HEART OF POP NONSENSE.
8. DORK
TELIVISION BROMANCE I INTRO
From legitimate indie icons to new thrilling upstarts all over again, 86TVs might be a fresh concern, but they bring a whole lotta history with them, too. by CIARAN PICKER. photography by SHIREEN BAHMANIZAD.
n the summer of 2007, Bloc Party toured around the USA, taking young indie-rock upstarts The Maccabees and Noisettes with them for the ride. Unbeknownst to anyone, this would prove a formative experience and ultimately lead to the inception of 86TVs, whose debut EP ‘You Don’t Have To Be Yourself Right Now’ is out now via Parlophone. To the outside world, 86TVs came out of the blue, with each band member having carved out their own paths over the last fifteen years, whether in the form of a cricket podcast, creating Yala! Records, or collaborating and producing with artists like Jamie T and Stereophonics. For the boys in the band, namely strikingly resemblant brothers Felix, Hugo, and Will White, and brotherin-arms Jamie Morrison, it was a long time coming. “It’s been about seven years in the making,” Hugo explains. “It just feels incredible to have a body of work out finally.” The word to describe 86TVs is organic, both with regard to the band’s formation and music they produce, but also the way they’ve worked their way back onto the scene. “We never had a conversation where we went, ‘Should we make a band?’ It was just a really natural force that brought us together,” Hugo recalls. Felix agrees, adding, “Because it’s what we’ve grown up doing, it’s kind of an instinct to start a band. Dynamically, though, we’re in a better place than last time.” Their younger years saw Felix and Hugo be a part of guitar-rock heavyweights The Maccabees, who called it quits at the pinnacle of their career, having secured their first Number 1 album with their swan song LP ‘Marks To Prove It’ in 2015, and signing off with a farewell at Alexandra Palace two years later. Thinking back to those days, Hugo
“IT’S A MIRACLE TO HAVE A BAND WORK ONCE; TO BE ABLE TO FIND IT AGAIN IS SO RARE” HUGO
WHITE
remembers their gruelling schedule that probably contributed to the band’s split. “We’d have eight-hour long, really intense rehearsals, and by the end, you inevitably came out of the room absolutely hating each other.” Felix applies this same feeling to live performances, “If ever you came off stage [in The Maccabees] and you made a mistake, it would feel like the end of the world. Now it’s like, ‘Oh, did that sound shit out the front? That’s hilarious!’” The band is drenched in a positivity that none of the boys have experienced in music before, with the addition of Jamie being a key piece of the puzzle. A renowned session drummer, as well as a founding
READDORK.COM 9.
IDLES’ ascent from underground rebels to chart-bothering provocateurs hasn’t dulled their edge. With ‘TANGK’, they’re redefining the punk ethos for a new era, proving that love, honesty, and a relentless work ethic can coexist with success. by JAKE HAWKES. photography by SARAH LOUISE BENNETT.
24. DORK
S
IDLES
even years is a long time in the world of music. In seven years, Bristol’s favourite sons, IDLES, have released four albums and are gearing up for their fifth. They’ve also gone from a snarling punk-laced band playing in sweaty basements to a critically lauded group who can comfortably sell ten thousand tickets to an Ally Pally show. It’s a rise that was at first meteoric. Debut album ‘Brutalism’ may have been released eight years into IDLES’ existence as a band, but it was a complete bolt out of the blue for most listeners. Whether their debut kick-started the now ubiquitous post-punk resurgence or just managed to pre-empt it by a couple of months is up for debate, but at the very least, it was a case of ‘right place, right time’. Widespread and well-deserved critical acclaim was thrown at the band from all quarters, perfectly teeing up their explosion into the mainstream with follow-up ‘Joy As An Act Of Resistance’, which peaked at Number 5 in the Official Albums Chart and led to a year or two where there were so many IDLES t-shirts at festivals that it felt like they were handing them out for free at the gate. Third album ‘Ultra Mono’ saw the band’s first Number 1, but also a critical backlash against the group in some
READDORK.COM 25.
COVER STORY
a prelud 34. DORK
de.
THE LAST DINNER PARTY
They’re the band everyone is talking about, they’ve scored the biggest debut album in years, and they’re just getting started. THE LAST DINNER PARTY really are that band. by ALI SHUTLER. photography by JENNIFER MCCORD.
READDORK.COM 35.
COVER STORY
46. DORK
FEE G
ELING GLOOMY? IDKHOW
I Dont Know How But They Found Me’s Dallon Weekes is casting off the carefully curated concept of previous projects with ‘Gloom Division’, a deeply personal and defiant record that flips genres, challenges expectations and embraces the unexpected. by ALI SHUTLER. photography by MANICPROJECT
“I
’ve always felt like an outsider, but music has allowed me to connect with other people,” says Dallon Weekes. At first, there was his power-pop group, The Brobecks, who existed on the edge of the 00s emo explosion but never had their breakout moment. Then, Dallon joined Panic! At The Disco as a touring guitarist in 2009 before becoming a fully-fledged member for 2013’s ‘Too Weird To Live, Too Rare To Die’ while also working on his own music. At first, I Dont Know How But They Found Me performed in secret, with Dallon not wanting to take advantage of his glitzy connections before he quit Panic! and released his debut EP ‘1981’ in 2018. Debut album ‘Razzmatazz’ followed in 2020, with both the jaunty horror of ‘Choke’ and the flamboyant defiance of ‘Leave Me Alone’ becoming crossover hits. “It was fantastic to be validated in the public arena. I mean, what artist wouldn’t love to have a hit song?” he asks. “That’s been checked off the list, though. Now it’s time to get weird,” he grins. ‘Gloom Division’ does away with the carefully curated concept of previous iDKHOW projects, with the record unfurling to embrace glam, garage and indie rock with flourishes of goth for good measure. It proudly wears influences from The Strokes, Elvis Costello, Phantom Planets, Ben Folds Five and Weezer on its sleeve but never stays on the same path for long. “There’s a lot going on. I hope it’s not overwhelming,” he says. “But I’m a fan of songs more than I am of genres.” Working with Dave Fridmann also helped Dallon embrace these different corners. “Of my ten favourite records, he’s made at least four of them. He’s worked with Tame Impala, MGMT and Flaming Lips, who are artists I’ve idolised forever.
“THERE IS A DEFINITE KID IN A CANDY STORE VIBE TO THIS ALBUM” DALLON
WEEKES
Being in the same studio as those records were made felt almost spiritual. There is a definite kid in a candy store vibe to this album.” ‘Gloom Division’ is also decadently defiant. “After that first record, there was expectation, and expectation is the thing I’ve never had to deal with before,” he says. Because of Dallon’s past with Panic!, people were quick to assume iDKHOW fit under the same banner when they heard vibrant, hook-driven choruses. “I understand the irony, but I was never really into pop-punk,” he admits. “I was always more into Britpop or alternative indie,” so he deliberately pushed that to the forefront with album two. “It’s great that people like what I did, but I’m not going to do it again. Part of my approach for this record was demand avoidance.
READDORK.COM 47.
FEATURES
54. DORK
MASTER PEACE
“I How to make a Master Peace: inside the bold evolution of a new indie-pop maverick. by Martyn Young.
genuinely believe this is probably going to be the best body of work to come out of 2024.” Indie-pop dreamer turned incendiary rabble-rousing party starter Master Peace is bursting with confidence and energy as he prepares to release his whip-smart and cocksure debut album ‘How To Make A Master Peace’. The album is the culmination of three years in which Peace has established himself as a genre-defying maverick capable of bouncing across different sounds, all tied together with his boundless enthusiasm and playful desire to shake things up and rattle a few cages. The album was the logical next step after years of building hype, yet, for Peace himself, things weren’t always going so swimmingly, “I put out three EPs, and in my head, I thought I couldn’t put out another EP. You kind of get bored,” he admits. “I was like, let’s go for the big boys. We don’t have all day in terms of being an artist. You just need to crack on with it and get it out right now. I want to crack on with it and get it out right now. You have artists that drop their debut album when they’re 18/19, and I’m just like, alright, cool, I just want to get it out. Enough time has passed, and I hope people understand what Master Peace is by now.” That sense of fevered impatience and drive is what propels his work, and with this record, it seems that Master Peace himself has finally figured out what he is, or at least what he wants to be. “I understand music a bit more. I came into music a bit blindsided because I knew what I liked, but I didn’t really understand why I liked it,” he ponders. “There was that element of not really understanding why I was drawn to those songs when I was younger or why this or that person influenced me. As I grew into myself, I’d go back and find songs I used to like. Now that I’m older, I understand why I liked those songs. For me, as a person, I’ve seen a lot. More than I had three years ago. Three years ago, I only knew this one thing, and I was only writing about this one thing, and then Covid happened. I hadn’t really experienced life as much. I’m not a baby anymore. I’m not shielded, and there’s no guard. I’ve experienced what I need to experience to write an album.” In conversation with Peace, you can’t help but be carried along with his infectious energy as he talks a mile a minute, eager to just put every last thought and idea out into the world, an impetus mirrored in the melting pot of influences that make up the sound of his debut album that contains more than enough retro nostalgia for the halcyon days of mid-noughties indie sleaze mixed with a fresh electro-pop sound for 2024, with all manner of detours in between. A true student of pop, Peace began looking a bit deeper into what made his favourite music so thrilling. “I feel like it was a lot of early stuff from artists that I’m into,” he explains. “Artists like early Calvin Harris. LCD Soundsystem and a lot of Libertines and Bloc Party. Another part of it was MIA and Phil Collins. There were a lot of
READDORK.COM 55.
SIMPLY ZEST FEATURES
58. DORK
THE LIME GARDEN
Lime Garden have grown into their skin with their debut album, ‘One More Thing’.
by CIARAN PICKER. photography by SAL REDPATH, JONO WHITE.
READDORK.COM 59.
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G L A S G O W ,
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