Words: Tom Willmott

Codex Leicester are exactly the sort of the band that we need in what seems like a bleak period of history Britain is going through. Based in Leicester (no suprises there), the four piece have only been in existence for the past couple of years, so this EP will hopefully be the start of brighter prospects.

Those who may have been disappointed with Dananananaykroyd calling it a day last year, will find that the band do tend to have some very bouncy and colourful sounds that the former were very well known for, as seen in “Strong In Bull” and “Hey Hey Hot Legs”. Yet there are also a range of harsher elements to add to the palette, in the same vein that Biffy Clyro demonstrated so well on their first three albums. A combination of these can be found in what has to be the standout track and closer, “Supersleeper”, with plenty a riff to be heard.

This EP definitely is a sign that the band are on the right track as far as creativity goes, and deservedly should be heard in the wider music scene. A great start to potentially one of the more exciting discoveries of the year.

PLUS: Modestep
Corn Exchange, Cambridge
1st May 2012

Words and Photos: Emma Bowdidge

Lostprophets are back once again touring their new album ‘Weapons’ with support from dub/rock band Modestep. They’re both in Cambridge tonight playing the Corn Exchange in which Lostprophets included on their 2010 tour when they toured their last album ‘The Betrayed’ – Noise Addiction also had the pleasure to review them at that gig too.

Opening the evening up are London dubstep rockers Modestep. From the start the band are there to purely entertain and get the crowd pumped for the headliners. The first quarter of the venue from the stage were the most enthusiastic, bopping up and down and throwing their arms in the air in time with the bass of the songs. Stand out tracks from their set were remixes like ‘Levels [Skrillex Remix]‘, Cee Lo Green’s ‘Fuck You (Modestep Remix)’ and ever popular Rage Against The Machine ‘Killing In The Name Of’ cover. Modestep bring many of their own extremely catchy songs to the stage including ‘To The Stars’, new single ‘Show Me A Sign’ which saw the majority of the crowd holding up lighters and mobile phones as instructed by front man Josh Modestep and finished up with ‘Sunlight’, leaving the crowd some what exhausted and thrilled to hear a new style of band out there as one girl discussed with her friend- ‘I wouldn’t think about going to a dubstep show but I really enjoyed them and would watch again’.

Modestep

The anticipation steps up a gear in the Corn Exchange as the crowd fall slightly impaitent to Lostprophets kick starting their set tonight. The band soon approach the stage with drummer Luke Johnson taking his place first – The crowd by now are in a state of screams and cheers as vocalist Ian Watkins walks on stage lit up only by little green lasers attached to his waist band. He grabs the mic and starts off with ‘Weapons’ album opener ‘Bring ‘Em Down’. As mentioned earlier this is the second time Noise Addiction has had the pleasure of seeing the welsh 6-piece live and they’ve made a big step up with their light show tonight compared to the last time – They pretty much played in darkness. Every song is so clearly sung by Mr Watkins you can not fault their live performance one bit. The rest of the band are on top form as well! The majority of the songs are favourites with the crowd singing back every word or chorus of the song. They throw all the old favourite Lostprophet songs on to their set list ranging from their first album to their very new one ‘Weapons’. Stand out tracks for this reviewer are ‘Make A Move’, ‘Rooftops’, ‘Shinobi Vs. Dragon Ninja’ (Which is always a big favourite for me) and ‘We Bring An Aresnal’. The band end on ‘Burn Burn’ and head off stage..

Lostprophets

For an encore of course! The Corn Exchange by now are stamping their feet in the seated area above and the standing crowd are clapping and chanting for Lostprophets to do more. It takes a few different loud chants before they come back out for ‘Everyday Combat’ and ending the evenings events with ‘Sway’. It’s been one hell of a night in Cambridge tonight and Lostprophets have won the crowd over again with their astounding live performance.

[Show as slideshow]

Words: Gaz Martinez

Rewind back to 2006, and Tenacious D have dropped their sophomore effort The Pick of Destiny to coincide with the release of their film of the same name. Unfortunately, the film bombed because it’s primary target audience was sat at home, doing a lot of drugs, so the D went into hibernation for six years. Now the icy reception of their motion picture has thawed and the D are back, flying on the wings of a phallic fenix. God knows I’ve been waiting for this.

This is the first time the D has released original material completely independent of any projects the duo is involved in. Their debut was made up of songs and skits from their HBO show, their second title was an accompanying soundtrack, so the pressure’s on for the D to stand out as a ‘credible’ musical force, with only their wits and guitars about them. JB is on top form vocally and lyrically, while KG’s fingers of silver combine to create some of the best music Tenacious D has ever produced. Even from the first track, Rize of the Fenix, which flexes tempos and progressions like a great musical bicep, through to the radio friendly unit shifter, They Fucked Our Asses, JB/KG demonstrate time and time again that they are musicians and comedians in equal measure. And most music that Dave Grohl lays down drums to tend to be amazing anyway.

They even have enough time to throw in a few skits here and there, Classical Teacher and Flutes and Trombones break the album up nicely and frankly, they are hilarious. That said the songs themselves are crammed with plenty of comedic value, Senorita for example. Throughout all these, the title track and The Ballad of Hollywood Jack and Rage Kage are great highlights, not only are they great songs unto themselves, but they are both tongue in cheek chronicles of what the two have been through, the latter is a softer, ballady take on things, and I’m a sucker for flute tracks.

The future used to look clouded and uncertain for Tenacious D but I think everybody knew in their hearts that a new album would happen at some point or another. I don’t think anybody would anticipate just how great it would be. Rize of the Fenix is by far their most accomplished work. The penultimate song To Be The Best states that they’ve got to be the best…correction, they already are.

What’s been your favourite city/venue to play on this tour so far?

Josh: Ahh can’t really say a favourite.. Yeah we can! Might have been last night for me.
Band: Really?!
Tony: I thought Leeds was pretty amazing.
Nick: Cardiff for me I’d say.
Josh: Last night was Nottingham mate. It’s different because I like the shows for different reasons. Some of them I like because we have better bass in some of the sound systems. Nottingham last night started off really quite tame and we had to win them over and that’s quite nice when you win over a crowd. Sometimes you go out there and they’re mental from the start and you love them because of that.
Matt: I can’t really put a finger on a favourite city, tricky one – Maybe tonight?! Who knows!

How have fans responded to you on this tour?

Band: Really good.
Josh: They’re so welcoming. Lostprophets fans are so amazing. Lostprophets are so lucky to have them.
Tony: They’re nice loyal people. We usually hang out after the shows, we’re very accessible meeting other people.
Matt: Getting pissed with the fans! We’re never one of those don’t look at us type people.

So there’s been a delay with releasing your brand new single ‘Show Me A Sign’ – Still how’s it gone down with the press and fans so far?

Josh: It’s gone down really well. The crowd seems to go more mad to that than any song we play in our set so far. Big thanks to UKF for that because the video helps a lot and UKF helped a lot with that. Yeah we’ll see how well it does next week. We never really saw it as a chart song so if it does well in the charts, it does well! If it doesn’t, it doesn’t! Support us, help us, if you can.
Matt: Just come and see us play live, that’s all we care about. Don’t judge us by just what we sound like on the radio to be honest.
Nick: I think the crowd can relate to that song more because it’s pretty heavy rock based and there’s Rage Against The Machine rifts at the end.

What inspired the music video for ‘Show Me A Sign’?

Tony: Mine and Josh’s warped brains.
Josh: It’s kind of ironic.
Tony: I don’t know what was it – We wanted a video with sexy girls, weapons, guns, violence and we wanted the execution of a bieber, that is definitely not Justin Bieber.
Matt: Definitely not, definitely not.
Tony: And it’s a bit ironic because we say destroy all commercial music, but we’ve been labelled as commercial music so we thought it would be a bit funny and ironic.
Josh: It’s basically a dig at X Factor, a big old dig at X Factor.

So there’s a full length album in the pipeline.. What can we expect from it and when?

Josh: It’s finished. Whenever the label decide to get up off their er..
Matt: Shoes..
Josh: Yeah whenever they decide to release it. Hopefully this quarter of the year. What should you expect – A combination of everything really.
Tony: Very a collective mix.
Josh: It’s got a lot of rock stuff on there, a lot of influences from Pink Floyd to some big Dubstep guys and drum and bass guys. So it’s a kind of.. mix of everything!

At this point in the interview their tour manager interupts us to share out Vodka between the band. Matt – “It’s impossible to do an interview without this”. Josh – “Nah, just give me the bottle” and we carry on..

Who do you draw influences from?

Tony: All different. Mine is kind of early electronic, UK garage kind of people – Tough Jam, big Daft Punk fan.
Josh: All Mowtown kind of things. Also Pink Floyd and I like modern electronic productions like Chasing Shadows.
Matt: Also quite heavily influenced by scat jazz from the 1930′s – Nah that’s a lie, obviously.
Nick: I’m more influenced by more of the old school 60′s rock and roll. Zepplin, Hendrix and obviously playing guitar all the guitar music. Quite similar to Matt I’d say.
Matt: Very similar yes and Pantera just for the power metal element.

What festivals will you be hitting up this summer?

Tony: Loads! Reading, Global Gathering, Wireless, EDC, Starscape, NASS, Park Life. A load!

What one are you most looking forward to playing?

Josh: EDC for me.
Tony: EDC in Vegas and Reading just for the nostalgia the fact it’s the first festival we ever went to. So we’re excited to be on the poster and actually playing there.
Matt: Last time we were there together was er..Phew..A very messy time.
Tony: Me and Matt woke up in drag.
Matt: That did definitely happen.
Josh: They don’t know how it happened. Took them a while to piece it together piecing together the wristbands.

For someone who hasn’t seen you before, what can they expect from a Modestep live show?

Tony: Frenzied energy.
Matt: Kicked in the nuts so hard that you puke blood for a week.
Nick: No, can’t top that!

Is it easy being two brothers in a band?

Josh: I think it makes it a lot easier with contracts and kind of stuff like that – We trust each other, we’re family. It’s much better than some best friends starting a band together and a couple of years down the line they want to go different ways and ends up being a big problem. But we’re brothers – Stuck with each other for life!

You got any crazy tour stories to share with us?

Matt: We went out drinking in Leeds and did gas chambers which is now illegal in several countries (Where you light the alcohol and you inhale the vapors.) We had about 5 or 6 of those and I swung for an invisible man, fell over, smacked my head off the pavement and was briefly unconscious.
Josh: Not briefly – A good few seconds! I’ve got it on video on Twitter.
Matt: I got 19 missed calls from my mother after she see that. It was on this tour. I also ended up in hospital because of my foot, that was fun.
Josh: Yeah, he had to miss out a show.
Matt: I was on the stage dancing on crouches so I was still there in some spirit.

If you could share the stage with one act, who would it be and why?

Tony: For me it’d be Lauren Hill because I love her.
Matt: And how would we go down with Lauren Hill!
Tony: She’d sound incredible on a dubstep tune. To share a stage with – I don’t know, The Prodigy, Pendulum – Someone like that.
Josh: I’d say Pink Floyd to warm everyone up. The Easy Star All Stars doing their version of ‘Dub Side Of The Moon’ and then we go on afterwards.
Matt: Yeah that’d be pretty cool. Good answer – Well done Josh!

And lastly do you have a message you’d like to leave to your fans and our readers?

Josh: Tony always has a message for the fans!
Tony: I do. I want to say a massive thank you. Obviously without you guys we wouldn’t be here and also massive thanks to Lostprophets fans for being so welcoming and so amazing to all of us. We love all of you, thank you very much – Big up! Genuine love.

Modestep’s brand new single ‘Show Me A Sign’ drops on 6th May via Polydor records. Pre-order from Itunes – http://itunes.apple.com/gb/preorder/show-me-a-sign-ep/id521784149.
And watch the incredible video for it HERE.

April’s Ghost are a four piece alternative rock band hailing from Norwich with a unique sound that’s sure to resound with the UK music scene. Formed in early 2012 out of the ashes of popular Norwich pop punk outfit Rule of Romance. April’s Ghost have developed a decidedly more grown up flavour which really highlights their evolution in music style. Fronted by lead singer Ellen, backed up my Matthew on guitar, Charlie on bass and Tom on drums, April’s Ghost take hook laden melodies backed up by rock fuelled guitars to  create an infectious and emotional sound.

Not wanting to be one of those bands that’s all looks but no content April’s Ghost worked tirelessly for three months before launching themselves with a Facebook page and acoustic music video for their song ‘Carlisle’ to demonstrate just what this band is capable of. The video has been extremely well received, gaining well over a thousand views within a week of release. April’s Ghost played their first gig on 28th April in support of successful local band LOST? at The Waterfront in Norwich and their energetic, impassioned performance went down a storm.

For fans of band such as Futures, Canterbury, You Me At Six and Deaf  Havana, April’s Ghost have a bright future ahead of them and are really going to be ones to watch over the coming months.

Find April’s Ghost on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/AprilsGhost

Follow April’s Ghost on Twitter:
@AprilsGhostUK

See the video for “Carlisle”:
http://youtu.be/OrfyFvwX8qw

April’s Ghost are:
Ellen Faith Hallam: Vocals
Matthew Lake: Guitar
Charlie Crouch: Bass and Vocals
Tom Hindle: Drums and Vocals