Stars

Choices of the Grasshopper September 2023

Any artist is welcome to send us a track via freshonthenet.co.uk anytime between Monday lunchtime and Wednesday evening (or when we receive 200 submissions, whichever is sooner) - and all our moderators, including Tom Robinson, will listen to every track. This is our full inbox from the week beginning Mon 18th September 2023: from Friday afternoon you'll be able to hear our shortlist and pick your favourites on this week's Listening Post which will appear at freshonthenet.co.uk/batch501

If a track you submitted does not appear in this list, it’s probably because another of your tracks appeared in our Fresh Faves or on the BBC Music Introducing Mixtape during the last three months — we ask that artists featured on either wait three months before resubmitting to give others a chance. 

We also don’t accept short previews or SoundCloud Go tracks that can only be heard as 30 second previews, and tracks made private after submission, which cannot be included in playlists. You will be able to resubmit the track in future. Tracks (and remixes of tracks) that have been previously submitted, and tracks from banned artists will also be removed.

ENTIRE INBOX: Batch 501

Alone Again

hello?

I'm Sure

Swing Lynn

I Don't Feel

Babe & The Devil

Okay

The World Stopped Turning

Gold Spectacles - PseudoFriends

Avalon

Afterlife

RUSHES

Lightweight

Back To The Water Below

There Goes My Cool

Saytr play are an indie-pop outfit known for their electric live shows, in iconic venues (gorilla, broadcast, ebgbs...) And the festival circuit (great escape, ynot, neighbourhood, 110above...) alike. 

Sharing influence with Circa Waves, the strokes, sundara karma and cage the elephant, and recieving playlisting from radio x, Spotify (New Music Friday, Hot New Bands, Indie List) Amazing Radio and bbc introducing, the band have racked up over a million streams on Spotify & a dedicated fanbase. 

Following their hiatus, Saytr Play came back this year with 'The Butterfly Stitches EP', amassing over 150,000 streams, Editorial support on Spotify's Fresh finds and New Music Friday, playlisting on XS Manchester and national radio coverage on Radio X. Off the back of this success, Saytr Play sold out their headline show at Manchester's Deaf Institute a month in advance. 

Saytr play release 'Brother' on 1st September and headline Manchester's Canvas on the 8th September.

Brother (YKTDY)
Is a very nostalgic song for me. Most songs touch on the subject of love, the only difference here is that I wanted to write a song about how much I love my mates. I wanted to share some of the story’s and memories we lived through in our younger years. Growing up in Moston (Manchester). The good times. The bad times. It’s celebrating he family we choose, in our case our brothers. Life is never plain sailing but I like to think that is about who you are with not where you are. In this industry iv met a lot of privileged people but I honestly wouldn’t change our upbringing for the world. I’m proud of where I’m from & I love my mates so I wrote a song about it. Enjoy.

Brother (YKTDY)

Produced by Robert Smyth
Mixed by Ally Jowett
Produced by Paul Winstanly
Music written and performed by Flip Top Head 
Flute by Fran Larkin

Blitzcat Records © 

Follow Flip Top Head:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/flipt0phead
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/flipt0phead
Twitter: https://twitter.com/flipt0phead
Bandcamp: https://fliptophead.bandcamp.com/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@flipt0phead

Lyrics:
You see, in my prefacing background
Prefacing back

And with the lick of a flame you entered my mind,
Like the flickering of Alfred Street
But now it’s red
(Now it’s red)
And we’re all equivalent to the gulls of the night,
The foam rolls- a child in a ball pit
And i’m here and you’re there
And we’re thrown down, deep under so i’ll roll with it
And if you were sat on that box,
Steadfast, the opposite of her waves
I’d be there
I’d
Ankles scuffed, fingertips kissed with cold
Kiss me cold, please unfold

Alfred Street

VERSE I
West End 
I’m on the ceilin’
I’m medicated with the finest buzz a kid could afford
Wide eyes
In walks a heathen
Is it just me, or did the room heat up a hundred degrees?

PRECHORUS I
Cause there you stood with a mind full of felonies  
Oh and now I’m burnin’
baby but I love all the heat 
West End
My fears are peakin’
And you could save me, but you’d rather have me down on the floor

CHORUS
Woah-ooh-wuh-uh-oh-oh-ohh
I need ya like a fever
Fever won’t you be good to me? 
Woah-ooh-wuh-uh-oh-oh-ohh
You’re sayin’ that you’re super 
But you’re no superhero to me

VERSE II
I’m sideways
It’s complicated
I wasn’t lookin’, but the girl is kinda hard to ignore 
Soft eyes (soft eyes)
Cuts like a demon (like a demon)
She’d try to break me, but I’m already as broke as could be

PRECHORUS II
Cause there I stood in your room, feelin’ chemistry 
Oh and now I’m beggin’
Baby you’re so good at deceit 
West End (West End)
She says I’m tweakin’ (I think I’m tweakin’)
And you could save me, but you’d rather make me feel like a whore

CHORUS II
Woah-ooh-wuh-uh-oh-oh-ohh
I need ya like a fever
Fever won’t you be good to me? 
Woah-ooh-wuh-uh-oh-oh-ohh
You’re sayin’ that you’re super 
But you’re no superhero to me

Woah-ooh-wuh-uh-oh-oh-ohh
I need ya like a fever
Fever won’t you be good to me? 
Woah-ooh-wuh-uh-oh-oh-ohh
You’re sayin’ that you’re super 
But you’re no superhero to me

BRIDGE
Ooh-ooh-eee-ooh
Well I know, you know, that no one can resist ya
Ooh-ooh-eee-ooh
Well I know you know, that no one can can’t resist her
Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh
And I’m burnin’ slowly, baby’s gotten under the skin
Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh
If it’s a game we’re playing, baby how come I never win?

CHORUS 3
Woah-ooh-wuh-uh-oh-oh-ohh
I need ya like a fever
Fever won’t you be good to me? 
Woah-ooh-wuh-uh-oh-oh-ohh
You’re sayin’ that you’re super 
But you’re no superhero to me

Woah-ooh-wuh-uh-oh-oh-ohh
I need ya like a fever
Fever won’t you be good to me? 
Woah-ooh-wuh-uh-oh-oh-ohh
You’re sayin’ that you’re super 
But you’re no superhero to me

You Ain't No Superhero

Catchy little tune with most likely way too much reverb.

Lift Me Up

Originally had this phrase: Put your faith in it, but words like "fake" and "fade" came into focus as a modern metaphor for the state of the word we're currently living in. Still, I always try to aim for an upbeat funky song with a drive. From the latest album "Put Your Fake In It" [2023] Spotify: https://shorturl.at/chzGH

Put Your Fake In It

Put Your Fade In It

Love Is The Call

Never Around

DIE FOR MY BITCH

HONEST

On Fye

Blackout the Arcade signifies the uprising of a new revelation within the Indie and Alternative music scene in the North-East of England; introducing a fusion of “no-nonsense” reverberant rock with psychedelic undertones, in a style not too dissimilar from the likes of The Killers and Catfish and the Bottlemen.  

In anticipation of their run of 5 new single releases, Blackout the Arcade “Darlington’s hottest new indie outfit” hope to match the success of their previous "catchy indie bangers” that are “laden with towering guitar hooks and a driving vocal performance, giving you a thrilling treat to wrap your ears around” as well as nostalgic live performances at independent venues in the North-East such as THINK TANK?, The Georgian Theatre and KU Bar  

The North-East is starting to get a reputation for “producing some amazing guitar-based acts, with Blackout the Arcade is the latest alumni to join the roster”. Radiating an infectious and ignitable energy which is impossible to disregard, the group now have their ambitions aimed on smashing through the formidable barricades of 2024.