Sounds on the Ground #4: Pulled Apart By Horses
By: Dan Monsell, Thomas Hannan
What's the deal? The other morning a couple of the Rockfeedback team came in ranting all over RFB towers about how the night before they'd seen, hands down, the best new rock band in Britain. So unsurprisingly we had our own little listen too, and a second live show was attended. Suddenly, we're believers, right there with 'em. Get on the love train right here: introducing one of most exciting new bands we've stumbled across in an age - Pulled Apart By Horses.
These little genii hail from Leeds and play louder than a hundred gramophones on full blast directly to the ear-drum. They also have a penchant for attacking animals, as evidenced by super duper recent single 'I Punched a Lion in the Throat'. Meanies. But most importantly, they're an absolute killer punk-rock dance-fight of a band - full of head-nodding, occasionally disco-rocking great songs. And, in case you hadn't guessed it yet, they've become known as something of a must-see live show - reportedly full of stage invasions, inter-band moshing, and that sort of thing. You know, generally mucking about.
In short, they're one of those bands to make you get nice and excited about new music again, in case you might have fallen off that wagon or whatnot. However, like all of us they ain't without their potential stumbling blocks. As much as we have been waiting to get pumped up on Rage Against the Machine big riffs again since we slid depressingly further from our teenage years, there is always a slightly guilty feeling that calls to mind the words "Speed Metal" inside our internal speech loop. Heavens knows why. Don't get too distracted by this though, they are of course not a derivatively relentless rock band used merely as an excuse for drunk 15 year olds to bash the shit out of each other. Though they are a bit relentless, and such an event with said 15 year olds could well happen of course. No, they're closer to the grown-up pummelling assault of the likes of Future of The Left and Dischord hardcore. Kids and adults love it so. Bottom line, they rule, and listening to them on headphones makes you feel like you could actually punch a lion in the throat, it's that rocking. Get involved.
When can I see them live?
All over the f**king place:
5 Feb 2009 - Brighton, The Freebutt
6 Feb 2009 - Fleche D'or, France, Paris
8 Feb 2009- The Harley, Sheffield
17 Mar 2009 - Madame JoJo's, London
18 Mar 2009 - Glasgow, Stereo
19 Mar 2009 - Newcastle, End Bar
20 Mar 2009 - Manchester, The Islington Mill
21 Mar 2009 - Leeds, The Fenton
22 Mar 2009 - Sheffield, The Harley
23 Mar 2009 - York, Duchess
24 Mar 2009 - Middlesborough, Uncle Alberts
25 Mar 2009 - Nottingham, The Chameleon Arts Cafe
26 Mar 2009 - Oxford, The Cellar
27 Mar 2009 - Kingston, The Fighting Cocks
29 Mar 2009 - Brighton, Engine Rooms
30 Mar 2009 - Southampton, Hamptons
31 Mar 2009 - Bristol, The Lanes
2 May 2009 - Leeds, TBA
14 May 2009 - Great Escape Festival, Brighton
15 May 2009 - Great Escape Festival, Brighton
16 May 2009 - Great Escape Festival, Brighton
What can I listen to? If you head over to http://www.pulledapartbyhorses.com/ you can purchase recent rock-n-roll dancefloor slaying single, 'I Punched A Lion In The Throat" on 7 inch + iTunes, plus previous release 'Meat Balloon', on TooPure and Big Scary Monsters respectively. Another EP is on its way, so keep your ears pricked up and your eyes peeled for it folks. Alternatively, go here www.myspace.com/pulledapartbyhorses sample 6 nuggets of punk-rock majesty. Go on, do it NOW.
We all know music peaked in 1994, so give me a sound-bite about how they could we compare them to some kind of Britpop band - At a pretty hard push, Captain-era Idlewild or Popscene-era Blur if there was a recession on rather than a the champagne cork-popping heady days of New Labour. And then make it a lot louder, and a lot more complex, and you know, just really different. (Apologies- this section's getting a bit more tricky week by week...)