In Profile: Longest Mile Records
By: Alex Lee Thomson
"The times, they are a changing", a great man once said and in a way the world of music never stopped changing since people like Dylan, Lennon and Hendrix raised the bar in terms of what you could get away with melodiously. Over the past few decades we've been treated to punk, UK-ska, electro, grunge, dance and what we'll deem the best yet, the sheer delights of indie.
People like Tony Wilson proved that anything goes as long as you believe in it and persuade others that the myth is real. Following in his trailblazing footsteps have been a surge over the past twenty years of independent artists supported by independent labels, some of which fell under umbrellas of bigger corporations, but some retaining that spark that Wilson tried to uphold throughout the life of Factory. As a result, these days you can be a million miles away from anything resembling a brand name label and yet still deliver some of the best received music around.
Modern day types such as iForward, Russia!s' Whiskas or indeed us ourselves believe in the DIY ethic and ideals of 'let the music speak for itself' so much that the wave of unpolluted music coming out of Leeds and London respectively have added yet further substantiation that the laws of 'indie' set down by our musical ancestors still apply in today's download / iPod world. Thanks to sites like Myspace and the internet as a whole, you no longer need massive financial backing to become a household name and with so many people choosing to do it themselves rather than wait for the mainstream to catch up, we've basked in the golden age of indie music where anybody with a voice has an outlet.
This has left the UK with an astonishing tapestry of independent labels, and in the latest line of revolutionists comes Longest Mile Records, a side project started by the highly commended Ross Millard of The Futureheads and some, as we're told, savvy-eared friends. Like the best labels out there, they're not fretful with finding artists that are a sound-a-like of everything else on the record store shelves, but have chosen to open the labels roster with two bands that that both define Longest Mile as a label while giving us, the indulgent public, something new to get excited about.
The first band, justifiably from the North East, is Catweasels, and with their debut single - a rather brilliant sounding tune called 'This Is Just The Night Time, Andy' - the label looks to get some deserved attention. As a track it's a dashing, hard and Arcade Fire-fuelled rebellion with a great British sense of eccentric randomness and top drawer production not too far away from the aforementioned iForward, Russia! but with Maximo Park choruses and South Street verses. As a band they're verging on the cusp of being one of the most extraordinary outfits in the country as heroic and brisk vocals placate a thrashing and demanding barrage of sound and electric haze. 'Sunny Side Up' is also a clap worthy track and has an effortless supremacy and what seems like an intriguing mix of inspirations sledgehammered into a conformist mix leaving its listeners bewildered and stunned, but in no doubt under the bands ruthless spell. It's music to get drunk to, dance to, mosh to and best of all, to sit down and just fecking enjoy for the blasting experience it is, and trust us when we say that there's more than enough room on your CD rack for this band, and if not... well, bloody make room.
On the other side of the Longest Mile offices sits The Paper Cranes, a Canadian band who are doing something entirely different but no less inexplicably astonishing. Like The Fratellis doing The Cure or The Dresden Dolls grappling with Bowie, there's a diverse passion that sets them aside from all the other Rob Smith-wannabes scattered across the land and the reason possibly lays in their lyrics. The agonized and sometimes wittingly casual vocals lend a voice from some of most fascinating groups of the past with flashes of Talking Heads and Roxy Music that manage not to defile these bands, but rather extract from them in a drunkenly surgical way. Their debut single, and the second scheduled release from Longest Mile, 'I'll Love You 'Til My Veins Explode' backed with the similarly as persuasive 'Milkrun' also manages to find a voice from beyond its influences. Running between leaping piano striking and dirtier than dirt guitar tabs there's a quaint aura that this show tune belongs on Brighton peer somewhere in the mid 1920's yet would find its feet beautifully on the Islington Academy or Sugarmill stages with hordes of swaying onlookers and baffled bookies that didn't see this band coming.
Between them, Catweasels and The Paper Cranes give the impression of a promising future for Longest Mile Records, but like all independent companies they're relying on us, yes us the public again, to support them by clicking on the odd (legal!) download, checking out a 7" or at the very least yacking on about their great set of band to our friends. The artists deserve the notice; and as a label Longest Mile looks set to liberate some truly inspiring and column creditable music... so spread the word you lot, spread it wide, and if all goes well it may just find its way to supporting everybody's favourite out of work musicians, The Futureheads.