Mutineers: Music Review

I could very easily have created a post by purely adding a list of links to all the reviews that are out there about this band - but this is my take on what they have to offer. I know, I know, its all me me me!

So...let's start at the beginning!

I was alerted to their existence via twitter and I am so glad I was. This is a band that, as soon as I heard their music, I was instantly hooked on. There are four members in the band;

1. Nicholas James Mallins on Vocals
2. Iwan Gronow on Bass
3. Michael Reed on Guitar &
4. Jack Mitchell on Drums - at least for the debut album/ Charles Salt & joining them live Thomas Twemlow.

All have been in other bands before coming together to form the Mutineers (If you check out this link it gives you the bands official bio) and they have been working hard to make it in a notoriously difficult industry. Having formed in 2008, their debut album 'Lovers, Friends, Rivals' was released in 2010 - why am I only hearing of them now?- and they are currently working on/recording? their follow up album.

http://www.tri-tone.co.uk/mutineers/ 

The first thing that you notice when listening to them is definitely the vocals. The lead singer Nicholas James Mallins (damn, that's a long name, so I will refer to him as NJM from here on) has a distinctive sound, with his accent coming through strongly he is often compared to Brett Anderson in his Suede days.

Having read an interview with NJM, as the song writer he seems to have that arty, self-reflective, philosophical vibe down pat. I like singers who have a distinctive sound but sing with total conviction and I believe that he does this. The album is easy to listen to and I think all the songs have something good about them. But the songs that I enjoy the most are:

You Used to be OK

A favourite line is 'What if you paid more attention, during sex education ', mainly because when NJM sings this, sex sounds like sext, which makes me thinking of sexting and the thought of kids having lessons on sexting is just too funny for words - or wrong, or funny and wrong!

My words desert you

I like the music more than the lyrics on this track, and as soon as I hear the start of the chorus I bust out some head swaying and bobbing. Lovely melodies too.

Landlords Daughter

Initially the landlords daughter was just ok, but now when I hear the intro, I inwardly smile - its like an old friend - quite odd seeing as the lyrics are quite dark. A lyrical highlight for me in this song;

He said “listen up son, I won’t sit on the fence

You’re a hideous pig of no consequence

Inside your head lies a cloud of dust

And your vile face offends the both of us”

Are any of them love songs? Are they all love songs? You will have to decide for yourself, but one line I find romantic is from the following track and is;

'But only I would die for your cause' 

Stick Together

Of all the songs, the lyrics to 'Alone in our ideas' are my favourite, as a stand alone poem and as a song (Check out the lyrics here).

 Alone in our ideas

Having been so taken with them, I was quite pleased to see that they were going to be playing a gig in August. It is in Manchester, which is about 150 miles from where I live and a City that I have never been too. So I have decided to combine a weekend away with my BFF (Lol) with seeing this gig. The added benefit is that Amida will be playing too. The tickets haven't gone on sale yet (have they?) which worries me because everything else is booked! I hate planning so far in advance for things and this is stressing me out. What if I don't get tickets?! I am going to have to draw up a Plan B - what do you mean, you already know what Plan B is? Huh?! Cocktails? Well, OK then, if you say so.

Anyway...

I checked them out on YouTube to see how they were live and they sounded better than good - which isn't always the case with YouTube clips, have a listen. I was going to post a clip of them performing Foolish Endeavours (YouTube is so temperamental - more than me! - and wouldn't let me), so follow the link instead (I really like this one, but I am assuming it never made the final cut, fingers crossed it squeezes onto the second album) or check out the live version of probably their biggest track from the album, bear in mind that this recording was done in 2009 though.

Hyde Road

Most of the reviews I found are made up of interview questions - and yes, I have read them all! So did I really need to ask the boys any questions? Hadn't they been asked everything already? Maybe, but I had some different questions of my own, and do you think they answered? Sure, they love their fans.

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Q1: I have been reading that from the end of June, you won't be performing any of the 'Friends, Lovers, Rivals' tracks but will be focusing on your new album. Does this mean that you will be releasing the new album around this time? Will people going to the August gig recognise any of the songs?

Not sure where you heard that but i think it'd be very stupid to not perform the songs that people have bought tickets to go and hear, so of course we'll be playing our best known tracks. The 2nd album has been written but it just needs a little honing in the rehearsal room before we go and record it...we'll be playing 6 or 7 from the 1st album and 3 or 4 from the new album at the show in August.

I may have misinterpreted the answer to question 7 of this cool interview, but glad to hear it.

Q2: There is a studio blog on YouTube from when you made 'Friends, Lovers, Rivals', can we expect one from the making of your follow up album?

It'd be nice to document the process again but nothing has been decided yet in terms of things like that,we're still in planning stages....there's loads of unseen footage from that period in the studio, would be cool to go back and do another edit with some of the other stuff...a lot of it is pretty funny.

Q3: Close your eyes and imagine 12 months from now and you are headlining a huge gig, what 5 things are your must haves on your rider?

We've never really been a picky band in terms of a rider....we're usually happy with a few beers, a bit of food and a kick up the arse from the promoter....but i think if you're going to be having fun with getting riders together, you may as well request stupid things...like socks and underpants....maybe a life size cardboard cutout of our former drummer would be fun to have, he's very handsome.

Q4: I met a band for the first time ever a few weeks ago at a meet and greet before the gig. It was beyond awkward. Do you find these difficult or do you enjoy meeting your fans? Whats your best ice breaker joke?

We're usually drunk by the time we meet any fans and it's usually after a show, so you'll have to ask them whether we're nice people or not. The best ice breaker is usually just to do something rude, maybe break wind....

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OK, so the questions weren't earth shattering or rocket science, but for more serious questions checkout the links below. So what would you have liked to know? Let me know in the comments.

Don't forget to come back and check out (fingers crossed) the gig review in August, or just keep coming back for the music reviews coming up, I promise not to make it all about me...well, sometimes ...ok, occasionally... alright, when I remember. :) If you like what you hear check out some of the links below and share this blog post.

Links...( I stopped after the first 10 google pages!)
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/mutineersofficial
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mutineersofficial
Tumblr (lyrics): http://mutineers.tumblr.com/
Twitter: @Mutineers__
Last.fm: http://www.last.fm/music/Mutineers
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/armstrongthomas

Articles:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/manchester/content/articles/2008/05/21/mutineers_introducing_feature.shtml
http://www.surfgirlmag.com/2012/03/08/bands-to-keep-an-eye-on/
http://www.oneononemusic.co.uk/#/one-on-one-with-mutineers/4559864105
http://nme-europe.blogspot.co.uk/2009/10/myspace-magic-mutineers.html
http://www.lostateminor.com/2011/08/16/the-mutineers-letting-go-live-at-the-aftershow-manchester/
http://www.isthismusic.com/mutineers
http://www.youngacademic.co.uk/entertainment/mutineers-madchesters-next-big-thing-340

Blog reviews:
http://indiedunes.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/being-mutineer-can-lead-you-to-be-bad.html
http://musicgetsmeby.wordpress.com/tag/mutineers-band/
http://michael-barwise.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/mutineers-interview.html
http://andreaperezarduna.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/essays-on-mutineers.html
http://theonlyboleynboy.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/up-and-coming-mutineers-manchester-uk.html
http://www.panicfilms.com/2012/02/new-music-mutineers/
http://paulburns07.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/mutineers-band.html
http://barbiesajunkie.wordpress.com/2012/02/05/manchesters-best-kept-secret-the-mutineers/
http://sundaysmile23.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/discovered-new-bands-mutineers.html
http://michael-barwise.blogspot.co.uk/

Other Links:
http://www.tri-tone.co.uk/mutineers/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iwan_Gronow