DOWN WITH BORING.
ISSUE 65 · MAY 2022 · READDORK.COM
. s m o s s o l B
The New Album INcludes The sINgles cAre For, rIbboN ArouNd The bomb ANd The sulkINg PoeT
29.04.22
Index. Issue 65 | May 2022 | readdork.com | Down With Boring
WHAT'S ON THE STEREO?
ALFIE TEMPLEMAN
Mellow Moon Our indie prince has delivered his debut album, and awwwww, aren’t we proud? Well done Alfie, you legend.
MAGGIE ROGERS
That’s Where I Am The first single from Maggie’s new album should be dropping the same day this issue hits the streets, so we’re almost certainly now allowed to tell you it’s mindblowing brilliant and well worth all the teasing that’s been going on.
ARCADE FIRE
WE We’re not allowed to tell you about the new album from the Canadian indie titans until ‘a later date’ - but we can confirm we have heard it, and there are things to say.
MUNA
MUNA It’s too early for us to give real indications about MUNA’s self-titled third album, given it’s not out until June. But you can probably guess. Warraband.
PAYDAY
Big Boy The funnest and sassiest of bops, teen rapper-singer Payday’s 2021 single ‘Big Boy’ is one of those songs where every time you hear it, it somehow then gets stuck on repeat for at least two weeks?! Magic. It’s far from her only must-listen tune, too - ‘Beam’, ‘Vampire’ and ‘Cry’ are also top class.
EDITOR'S LETTER
TURNS OUT THAT Blossoms have been waiting to get their first Dork cover. That’s the news that reaches ‘ver bunker’ from this month’s cover interview with Stockport’s finest. Should have just told us you wanted one yourselves, lads. Still, making a record as good as latest full-length ‘Ribbon Around The Bomb’ is probably a smarter way to go about things when all is said and done. The sound of a band maturing into their own skin, it’s their most fully realised statement to date, more than earning themselves that slot on the front of this month’s mag. Even if they did trash the studio on the shoot - check their TikTok and see if you can work out what we’re on about. Box responsibly, lads. This month, we’re blessed with some truly special album releases. Last month’s cover stars Fontaines D.C. deliver their best yet, ‘Skinty Fia’, while Dork’s adopted weirdo buzz merchants Wet Leg drop a five-star debut that proves we all love a bit of filth and a good, long scream. But it’s Let’s Eat Grandma’s third album ‘Two Ribbons’ that’s setting all the early running for my personal album of the year so far. Remarkable, special, bewitching - pick your adjectives freely. So long as they’re ultra-positive, you’ll be on the money. That it comes out of a period of such turmoil for the duo only makes its achievement all the greater. Truly, a band to cherish. And if we’re looking for bands to treasure, there’s a whole bunch of them in this month’s edition. From MUNA to Sunflower Bean, Hatchie to Honeyglaze, The Linda Lindas to PUP, Lizzy McAlpine, Daisy Brain and more, there’s a bit of something of every flavour. Dive in!
Ryan Beatty
Boy In Jeans Ryan Beatty’s 2018 debut album ‘Boy In Jeans’ was proper good, wasn’t it? A statement of intent from an artist still brimming with pop potential a decade in.
BAND INDEX. Alfie Templeman
10, 52
The Amazons
11 Love You Later
19
Amyl & The Sniffers
8 Lucius
52
Anorak Patch Arcade Fire Artemas Baby Dave BANKS Beabadoobee Beach Bunny Big Image
50 Lynks 21 Maisie Peters 55 Mitski
Bob Vylan
23 19
8 MUNA
3, 6
21 Muse 23 mxmtoon
11, 18, 64 27
32, 52 Nick Mono
31
19 NiNE8 Collective
26
26, 50 NOAHFINNCE
24
30 Omar Apollo
55
Charles Watson
50 Orville Peck
50
6, 18, 49 Panic Shack
50
Chloe Moriondo
49 Porij
27
CHVRCHES
60 Priestgate
56
Coach Party
49 Psychedelic Porn Crumpets
54
Congee
30 PUP
14
Daisy Brain
28, 55 RAYE
18
Dama Scout
50 The Regrettes
55
Denzel Curry
50 renforshort
18
Disclosure
18 Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever 52
Dora Jar
24 Sad Night Dynamite
ELIO
21 Saya Gray
19
English Teacher
54 Self Esteem
58
Father John Misty
54 SIPHO
26
FLO
30 Sky Ferreira
flowerovflove
21 Soccer Mommy
Foals
18 SPIDER
Fontaines D.C.
51 Spill Tab
The Gaslight Anthem
11 Sports Team
26
16 30 18, 24 8, 16, 20, 55
19 Stand Atlantic
49
Griff
26 Stormzy
62
16, 18 Sunflower Bean
40, 54
Hatchie
44, 50 Swim Deep
56
Honeyglaze
46, 55 Swim School
23
iamkyami
50 Tate McRae
Kae Tempest
50 Thomas Headon
49
Kamal.
24 Toro Y Moi
49
KennyHoopla
20 Unschooling
23
Kid Kapichi
27 Vlure
23
Kill Birds
22 Wallows
49
Kynsy Lauran Hibberd Let’s Eat Grandma Liam Payne Lime Garden The Linda Lindas
7 Walt Disco 27 Warpaint 18 Wax Works 55, 66 Wet Leg 16 Willow 27, 56 Willow Kayne 12 Working Men’s Club
Associate Editor Ali Shutler Contributing Editors Jamie Muir, Martyn Young Scribblers Abigail Firth, Alex Bradley, Andrew Wescott, Blaise Radley, Chris Taylor, Connor Fenton, Dan Harrison, Dillon Eastoe, Finlay Holden, Jake Hawkes, Jessica Goodman, Melissa Darragh, Neive McCarthy, Sam Taylor, Steven Loftin Snappers Andrew O’Connor, Caity Krone, Cheryl Georgette, Driely S., Eva Pentel, Frances Beach, Frank Ockenfels, Haley Appell, Harvey Williams-Fairley, Hattie Neate, Holly Whitaker, Indy Brewer, Jamie MacMillan, Jamie Mourn, Lissyelle, Patrick Gunning, Rory Barnes, Sarah Louise Bennett
PUBLISHED FROM
11, 18
Gemini Aaliyah Harry Styles
Deputy Editor Victoria Sinden
7
Chanel Loren Charli XCX
Editor Stephen Ackroyd
21 22
11, 20, 55 Mollie Coddled
50 The Mysterines
Blu DeTiger
3, 8, 55
16, 55 Malady
Bloc Party Blossoms
20
3, 7, 18 Maggie Rogers
Black Country, New Road
King Princess
‘Editor’ @stephenackroyd
readdork.com
3, 21, 55,58 Lizzy McAlpine
8
49 40 21
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.
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This Month. #65. MAY 2022.
Intro. 06 MUNA
Not content with dropping one of 2021’s best songs, MUNA return with yet another landmark bop and news of a third album. We catch up on what to expect from one of the most anticipated albums of the year.
10
12
14
16
LIZZY MCALPINE
Flexing both indie-folk subtlety and alt-rock grandeur, Lizzy McAlpine’s second record ‘five seconds flat’ offers a graphic insight into recent heartbreak.
THE LINDA LINDAS
They might have found viral fame with impossibly brilliant bash at racist, sexist boys in a library, but - as they drop their Really Very Good debut album ‘Growing Up’ - there’s so much more to teen punks The Linda Lindas than that.
PUP
Not just a great band but one with something to say for themselves. PUP’s new album demands attention.
A DAY IN THE LIFE OF... BABY DAVE
You know what’s easier than following around your fave pop stars, day in, day out, to see what they’re up to right that minute? Asking them. Here’s what Slaves’ Isaac Holman - aka Baby Dave‘s day looks like.
18
The best of the latest new tracks, featuring Blu DeTiger, Lynks and an incoming chaos bop from Maisie Peters that’s less a song and more a cry for help.
Festivals. 22
THE GREAT ESCAPE
This May, Dork is off to get rid of the boring by the sea as we gather some of the best new bands on the planet and charge directly for Brighton Pier. And that’s not all...
26 STANDON CALLING
Introducing The Dive Bar - the new home of the most exciting and emerging acts at this summer’s Standon Calling
27
Dork has a tent, and we know what to do with it. By which we mean stuff it with two back-to-back stages and some of our fave bands.
DAISY BRAIN
With nods to grunge, punk-rock and Britpop, Daisy Brain takes inspiration from all the biggest and best sounds of the 90s and channels them into huge-sounding hits that are all his own.
30 CHANEL LOREN
It’s both super early days for South- East London born, Sydney-based artist Chanel Loren, and also not at all. She’s always been creative, so much so she’s already spent years putting in the work - refining her sound, picking up new skills and studying at BRIT School. Now, though, after a trip halfway around the world to live in Australia, she’s dropped her promise-packed debut single, ‘Playlist’.
31
NICK MONO
Londoner Nick Mono is a genre-splicing prodigy on a stratospheric rise.
Features. 32
Sunflower Bean have never been slouches, but their latest full-length ‘Headful of Sugar’ is something altogether different.
44 HATCHIE
The euphoria of dance-pop and the introspection of a global pandemic meet on Hatchie’s new album ‘Giving The World Away’. Turns out, it works.
48 HONEYGLAZE
With their debut album about to land, something’s smelling good for Honeyglaze - and it’s not the bins.
Incoming. 50 REVIEWS
The new releases you need to hear - and some you definitely don’t.
51
LIVE AT LEEDS IN THE PARK
Hype. 28
40 SUNFLOWER BEAN
BANGERS
BLOSSOMS
Already firmly established at indie’s top table, Blossoms’ fourth album ‘Ribbon Around The Bomb’ is their defining statement.
4. DORK
ARTIST’S GUIDE: COACH PARTY
Isle of Wight foursome Coach Party are gearing up for a big year - here, they talk us through their brand new EP, ‘Nothing Is Real’.
54 ARTIST’S GUIDE: ENGLISH TEACHER
Leeds up-and-comers English Teacher have penned an EP all about anxiety.
Get Out. 56 SWIM DEEP
100 Club, London, 10th March 2022
58 SELF ESTEEM
O2 Kentish Town Forum, London, 24th March 2022
59 ALFIE TEMPLEMAN
O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire, London, 16th March 2022
58 CHVRCHES
O2 Brixton Academy, London, 16th March 2022
58 DECENT EXPOSURE
The best live photography from Stormzy and mxmtoon.
Backpage. 62
ANY OTHER QUESTIONS... LET’S EAT GRANDMA
Yes, Dear Reader. We enjoy those ‘in depth’ interviews as much as anyone else. But - BUT - we also enjoy the lighter side of music, too. We simply cannot go on any longer without knowing that Jenny Hollingworth from Let’s Eat Grandma wants to be mates with Lil Nas X.
“A band that just don’t stand out in the here and now - they’d have stood tall amongst the Smash Hits pop icons of the 80s too” - Dork
the debut album - out now WALTDISCO.COM
THE BEATING HEART OF POP.
Pony up. THE BI G STORY
WORDS: STEPHEN ACKROYD. PHOTOS: FRANK OCKENFELS.
There’s a better than decent chance that MUNA are currently the BBOTP right now. That’s Best Band On The Planet, in case you were wondering. If you need convincing, their new single ‘Anything But Me’ should sort you out. Just make sure you’re atop of an appropriately sized horse first. We dropped the t’riffic trio a line to find out more about their stellar selftitled third album, due this June. 6. DORK
→ THINGS ARE FEELING big in the world of MUNA right now. Gigantic, even. Though they’ve always been filed firmly under brilliant - they’re former Dork cover stars, dontchaknow - the last few months haven’t felt simply like a band in good form. If anything, MUNA feel like a full-on cultural reset. “I think it’s a really exciting time to be us,” enthuses guitarist Naomi McPherson, “and also a scary time! Quite frankly, the more attention we get, the more I feel my own insecurities are coming to the fore.” That’s the thing about realising undoubted stellar potential. The plaudits mean the beady eyes of the musical zeitgeist snap into focus, and the expectations head through the roof. “I’d like to try to be really present and enjoy this new phase we’ve entered because it does feel so hard-earned,” they continue, as open and honest as you’d expect from a band that connects so strongly with so many. “I’m trying not to be too hard on myself. Katie [Gavin], Jo [Maskin] and I have worked so fucking hard for damn near a decade in the hope that people would eventually see the potential we saw in ourselves. Weirdly, it feels like it’s finally kinda happening, which is a trip. I’m grateful to everyone who helped us get here, including all the fans who’ve believed in us and our music since day one.” If those people were waiting for a payoff, they certainly saw the dividends last year. Signing to Phoebe Bridgers’ Saddest Factory Records, the trio enlisted their new boss to guest on ‘Silk
Chiffon’, a song so brilliant it became a genuine contender for the best track of the whole damn year. “It was a song we felt was such a shift from our previous work, tonally speaking - which was a good thing,” Naomi offers. “We make such deeply emotional and, at times, very sad music. ‘Silk Chiffon’ was just purely joyful and not too overthought. It felt like an end credits song from an early 2000s rom-com. People’s reception to it has been really fun and funny. We like all the ironic “Life’s So Fun” memes and TikToks because bitch, we’re depressed too! And sometimes life isn’t so fun! But sometimes it is, you know?” Not only was it a significant point in MUNA’s musical evolution, but it also turns out it was the first music we heard
“It just felt right. Self-titled, fuck it” NAO M I M CP HE R SO N
‘FYI’ THE MUSIC NEWS YOU NEED TO KNOW.
ARCADE FIRE ARE BACK!
“WE ARE FUCKING FUCKED”
Arcade Fire have returned with news of a new album, Titled ‘WE’, it’s out on 6th May, and follows a whole heap of typically cryptic teasing. There’s also a new song, ‘The Lightning I,II’, streaming now. The band have been playing surprise live shows in New Orleans and New York - with founding member Will Butler leaving for ‘new things’.
Muse have announced their ninth studio album, ‘Will of the People’. Set to arrive on 26th August, it comes alongside a new track, ‘Compliance’, streaming now. Typically quite something, the album closes with a track titled ‘We Are Fucking Fucked’. Obviously a low key affair, then.
HOLD ON FOR KING PRINCESS King Princess is set to return later this year with a second album. There’s no firm release date set yet for ‘Hold On Baby’, but there is a first single from it streaming now. Titled ‘For My Friends’, it’s about King Princess’ “two best friends from high school”, ‘FYI’.
readdork.com 7.
COVER STORY
t i r W o t indie’s a d e h s um establi y l m rth alb r u fi o y f d ’ a s Alre lossom omb’ is their B , e l b a The B top t d n u o r nA mentE.NNETT. e t a t ‘Ribbo s g EB definin G. PHOTOS: SARAH LOUIS N YN YOU : MART WORDS
32. DORK
BLOSSOMS
e t ... n o readdork.com 33.
FEATURES
Roll
th 40. DORK
SUNFLOWER BEAN
Sunflower Bean have never been slouches, but their latest full-length ‘Headful of Sugar’ is something altogether different. WORDS: NEIVE MCCARTHY. PHOTOS: DRIELY S.
he dice. readdork.com 41.
ALL THE RELEASES YOU NEED TO KNOW (AND SOME YOU DEFINITELY DON'T)
WHAT DO THE SCORES MEAN? ★ Rubbish ★★ Not Great ★★★ Fair ★★★★ Good ★★★★★ Amazing
Wet Leg
WET LEG ★★★★★
Out: 8th April 2022. → There’s nothing as exciting as potential. It’s a refrain you’ll find repeated often around these parts, but Wet Leg are the proof in pop’s plentiful pudding. When the Isle of Wight duo first burst through with debut single ‘Chaise Longue’, it was impossible not to go a little OTT. And if there’s ridiculousness going around, you can bet Dork will be head of the queue. Instantly crowning them The Most Exciting New Band on The Planet after twenty-four pre-release hours where they remained on solid loop in ‘ver bunker’, can anyone really say we were wrong? Still, it’s easy to make an impact with one whipsmart, saucy banger. To do so over a whole record is something else entirely. As each new track from their self-titled debut emerged, any suggestion Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers were the owners of one impressive but lonely trick pony soon flew out the window. Quite how far it’s been flung, though, is something only their first fulllength statement can prove. It’s definitely gone way past Portsmouth, put it that way. Opener ‘Being In Love’ proves that, even when dealing with the more traditional topics, Wet Leg still feel a little weird and wonderful. Confirmation that what we all needed was a little bit of odd, Rhian’s razor-sharp tongue remains the star of the show. Never more than a quick hop, skip and jump from another brilliantly delivered, eminently quotable line, Wet Leg manage to take the bits of indie and alt-rock still fit for purpose and forge them into a cultish, ramshackle chaos engine. From the Pavement slacker charm of ‘Supermarket’ to the electric scream of ‘Ur Mum’, that nagging worry that they were just too strange to ever be really massive is condemned firmly to the scrapheap of bad takes. Believe the hype - Wet Leg really are everything we said they were. STEPHEN ACKROYD
48. DORK
Chloe Moriondo
PUPPY LUV EP
★★★★ Out now.
RECOMMENDED RELEASES
ARTIST'S GUIDE.
COACH PARTY
MAKE SURE YOU CHECK OUT THESE ALBUMS AND EPS.
NOTHING IS REAL EP
Isle of Wight foursome Coach Party are gearing up for a big year - here, they talk us through their brand new EP, ‘Nothing Is Real’.
FLAG (Feel Like A Girl)
When we wrote and recorded ‘FLAG’, not one of us thought of it as a single. It does a thing that we’ve never done before, so even when all the people close to us were saying, “that’s the single, right?” we were thinking, “no, of course not, what’s wrong with you?” But maybe in retrospect, that’s why it stands out and was a good single: it came as a surprise.
Shit TV
On most days, we’d all agree that ‘Shit TV’ is our favourite track on the EP. The guitar riff had been hanging around for ages, and we must have written
NOTHING IS REAL EP
★★★★
Out: 29th April. → Three EPs in, and Coach Party have definitely graduated from their indie-rock apprenticeship with flying colours. ‘Nothing Is Real’ is five tracks of driven, direct hits - from the raw frustration and righteous anger of ‘FLAG (Feel Like A Girl) to the slightly stalkerish salted saccharine of ‘3 Kisses’. It’s closing title-track ‘Nothing Is Real’ that really stands out, though. Shining through hazy, shimmering fog, it’s a scuzzy, shoegazey twist on Coach Party’s chosen formula. As that debut album approaches, it promises exciting things still to come. STEPHEN ACKROYD
3 Kisses
For our first two EPs, we’d been rehearsing and even gigging most of the songs before we thought about recording them. But for this record, the only song that follows that suit is ‘3 Kisses’ (if you saw us on tour last year, you’d have heard it). Jess [Eastwood] brought these sinister but also pretty funny verses into the studio, and we just kept playing it for a couple
of days while it gradually turned into a song. Not sure exactly how many times it says “I wanna be your girlfriend” from start to finish, but it’s gotta be enough to make a decent drinking game.
Weird Me Out
This song wasn’t part of the plan for this EP. We had all the songs decided on and were halfway through making the record, but whilst on tour in December, we wrote a few songs, including this one, and knew that it had to be on the EP. Turned out it also had to be a single ahead of the EP release, so we ended up with a mad sprint to refine & record that track, which with hindsight was a
CRASH → Tight, focused and moving with dangerous intent, ‘Crash’ is Charli XCX’s main character moment.
great thing for the feel of that recording. It has the same non-stop energy we needed to get it finished (more or less) to schedule.
Nothing Is Real
It’s more than four minutes long, which for us basically makes it our ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’. We were really particular about how we put this song together we’re totally aware of who we are as a band and that we kind of have a thing which makes us us, but sometimes a song like this one comes along that challenges those things and it can be really rewarding to see it through. We’re really proud that this one names and finishes off our third EP.
Thomas Headon
VICTORIA EP → Fast pushing through the pack of main alt-pop boys, Thomas Headon’s new EP ‘Victoria’ is a lesson in how to play the game to perfection. Catchy, immediate and packed with joyful abandon, its youthful exuberance spills out.
PHOTO: HATTIE NEATE.
Coach Party
Toro Y Moi Charli XCX
about four songs around that riff before we figured out what direction we wanted to take it in. But once we did finally figure it out, it must have taken us about five minutes to write the lyrics and even longer to record it.
→ Everyone loves dogs, don’t they? Chloe Moriondo does - especially her best canine bud ‘sammy’. The opening track to new fourlegged EP ‘puppy love’, her ode to her little chum is packed with saccharine charm. Elsewhere, ‘nice pup’ mixes clipped guitar tones with a more traditional dogbased metaphor for relationships that deserves its own day in the sun, while ‘my dog won’t miss u (dead 2 me)’ is the kind of bratty blast to an ex that should be celebrated. ‘Puppy Luv’ might be more side-dish than full bowl of Pedigree Chum, but there’s enough there to keep us going until it’s time for dinner. STEPHEN ACKROYD
MAHAL
★★★
Out: 29th April. → With many of his peers having long since put their feet up, uncontested chillwave king Toro Y Moi has kept the torch going, albeit held at a distance. His latest, ‘Mahal’, sees him bringing together the carefree garage rock of Weezer with the woozy melancholia of Tame Impala and the basslines of something like Funkadelic. It’s endearingly experimental, with spaces that you can sink into or groove through, and strong, funky production, here elevated by a larger live accompaniment. Sadly, it’s let down some by songwriting that can feel a bit basic. CHRIS TAYLOR
Stand Atlantic Wallows
TELL ME THAT IT’S OVER → Wallows have an innate ability to make any day that little bit sunnier just for hearing one of their songs, and it’s a trait that runs right through the centre of their second album.
Walt Disco
UNLEARNING → With their debut album ‘UNLEARNING‘, Walt Disco prove they always go big. Lavished with pomp and bombast, there’s no chance of slipping past quietly.
F.E.A.R.
★★★★
Out: 6th May. → Unable to tour their excellent 2020 record ‘Pink Elephant’, Stand Atlantic poured all their pent-up energy and frustration into a thrilling follow-up. ‘F.E.A.R’ (aka, Fuck Everything And Run) is an idiosyncratic, frenetic mixtape that bounces across genres, hosts a number of features and shows a band who are supremely confident exploring whatever rabbit hole a song sends them down. With all the recent talk of early-00s pop-punk being “back”, Stand Atlantic don’t need to look to the past: they’re too busy writing the future. DILLON
EASTOE
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