Pope Francis; The Facts... and Feral Brood

Hello again,

I'm slightly pushed for time and high on stress as I've just had to spend the last hour power-walking to a desolate Royal Mail Sorting Office to pick up a laptop charger and I'm still 8,000 words away from completing a dissertation so thought I'd throw out five fun facts about our new Catholic saviour. Yes, it will be forcibly dry, and yes, it will be forcibly witty.

1. He's from South America, pretty fucking cool, nothing to criticise on that front. It also means...

2. He's not a former member of the Hitler Youth. Anyone who read my blog from about a month ago, the old Pope was actually a child Nazi. Good on Francis for having shaken off those particular shackles.

3. He's the first ever Pope Francis so the hipsters should love him, he don't take shit  from no man. Picking a papal name for yourself must be literally the most fun thing in the world, it would be like being able to pick your own name from birth rather than having one unknowingly forced upon you. I'd love it if we had a British Pope some day and he went for a proper old-school British name... Pope Keith IV, Pope Stanley VII etc.

4. Apparently he's a pretty humble guy. Rather than taking a private car from the Sistine Chapel to the Vatican once he'd been announced the victor, he told his security guards to piss off and got on the bus with the rest of the papal lads. Some call it being humble, I call it being media-savvy (ouch).

5. He actually came second to the previous Pope in 2005. I'm immediately  making comparisons with the Blair/Brown scenario but with this guy being Blair and the old guy being Brown owing to his having all the charisma and charm of a grizzly bear. Francis had obviously been lying away for eight years stewing up a big plan to overthrow Benedict, although his remarkably short reign has made things a hell of a lot easier, it's all a bit 'Angels and Demons'-esque.

That's your lot. For more information, consult someone who actually knows something about the Catholic Church and hasn't had to solely rely on Google searches. Amen.

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When I blogged about Blue Lip Feel about a month ago, they were kind enough to both Re-Tweet me and recommend me some new and fresh up-and-coming bands from Yorkshire. These were Bang Bang Romeo, The Twin Bears and Feral Brood. While the first two will undoubtedly be mentioned in the next few weeks, this week I've been focusing on the Brood.

With a supporting slot at Sheffield's Plug tonight with Downtown Roots (another band to look out for), I thought this would be the best time to promote Feral Brood's dazzling mix of old-school guitar riffs and penchant for exciting vocals and lyrics. 

Forming as late as January 2012, these guys have already made waves in the Yorkshire scene with over 1000 Twitter and FB followers indicative of a growing cult-following. Unfortunately, they have very little released music but this only means there's way more to come and EP Into The Woods, released a few weeks back is already available on iTunes. Into The Woods is one of those records that I like to describe as a breath of fresh air for the music industry. It's widely influenced by a number of high-class outfits, including amongst others The Raconteurs and Zeppelin, and the interchangeable vocals of Phil Goodwin and Dan Williamson give it a consistently fresh feel. First single 'Machine' is the most fast-paced and introduces the Brood with a decent bang, there's also a happy reminder about how to spell Machines in the middle of the chorus if anyone had forgotten or struggles with spelling. 'Cold' is up next and is undoubtedly my favourite. It's a love song reeking of desperation but kind of in a good way if anyone knows what I'm on about and the closing riff is just fantastic, lowering itself to an acoustic ballad before rising back into crescendo and a final chorus, they are 'hiding in the eyes of frost bite' apparently. 'You Are The Sea' is the closer and exhibits a softer side to their sound but with an equally compelling riff.

That's the EP covered, now the important thing is to try and catch a live performance,described on their FB page as leaving crowds, 'discombobulated in a hurricane of inexorable guitars and efficacious vocals'. Whomever wrote this is great with words. Now go forth and enjoy..

Cheers as always for reading,

Max.

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