Maillist
FOCUS ON: Miss Black America
- Official Website >>
- Label: Ruby Slippers Records >>
- Genre: Alternative & Punk
A&R Magnets
THE FACTS:
5th October 1999 - Mike Smith & Seymour Glass form Miss Black America at a drumnbass night at Cambridge Junction. Neil Baldwin joins shortly after on drums.
17th October 1999 - First gig at Whatever nightclub, Bury St Edmunds.
November 1999 - Neil leaves to concentrate on his other band Mo (fronted by singer/guitarist Mat Anthony) and is replaced by Simon Cooper.
January 2000 - Simon Cooper leaves to concentrate on his metal band, Becky Jago. Neil, tempted by the prospect of playing Cambridge Junction for the forthcoming Cambridge Band Competition, rejoins. 1st recording session at Fat Music Studio, Southwold.
March 2000 - Winners of the audience vote at Cambridge Band Competition.
August 2000 - Support for The Dandy Warhols at Cambridge Junction.
September 2000 - Seymour has the little finger on his left hand ripped off in an industrial accident; it gets sewn back on but stops him playing guitar for nearly a year. His schoolfriend Gish joins as guitarist.
November 2000 - Winners of BurySOUND Band Competition in Bury St Edmunds.
March 2001 - 2nd session at Fat Music Studio, recording debut Adrenaline Junkie Class-A Mentalist EP.
May 2001 - Adrenaline Junkie? EP released on Cambridges R>E>P>E>A>T Records to quiet acclaim from the indie music press, radio and fanzines. John Peel plays lead track Human Punk several times on his Radio One show.
May 2001 - First British tour begins. Between now and October 2002, MBA will play over 350 gigs, covering the length and breadth of mainland Britain. During this period, Seymour alone will consume over 2,100 pints of lager.
June 2001 - First Peel Session recorded.
August 2001 - MBA sign to Integrity Records.
September 2001-January 2002 - Debut album God Bless Miss Black America recorded over 3 trips to Magic Garden Studios in Wolverhampton with Fugees/Jesus and Mary Chain/Bloc Party producer Gavin Monaghan.
October 2001 - Dont Speak My Mind 7" released on Dental Records (actual version released is from first Fat Music session nearly 2 years previously) and sells out immediately. MBA embark on Drowned In Sound tour with Antihero.
December 2001 - Human Punk and Dont Speak My Mind both appear in John Peels Festive Fifty.
March 2002 - Infinite Chinese Box single released on Integrity Records, sells out almost immediately. Reviews and interviews appear in The Fly, Rock Sound and Guitarist magazines.
June 2002 - Talk Hard single released on Integrity. BBC6 and XFM playlist it, and Virgin Radio make it Single Of The Week. Record sessions for XFM, Virgin, and a second session for Peel. First NME photoshoot and On piece. Support The Libertines in Cardiff.
August 2002 - Sonic Mook Experiment tour with Liars, one-off festival in Cambridgeshire supporting Cornershop, Anti Nazi League Carnival in Manchester with Doves and Ms Dynamite.
September 2002 - Miss Black America single precedes debut album God Bless Miss Black America, which is widely acclaimed. Unfortunately, first review to be published, in NME, is unfavourable; HMV and Virgin slash orders based on the NME review and refuse to put the album on display. Integrity Records runs out of money; no adverts are placed in the music press.
October 2002 - MBA part company with Integrity Records, play live on John Peel show from One Live in Nottingham, and then implode. Mike and Neil form My Hi-Fi Sister.
December - All 3 MBA singles released in 2002 are voted into John Peels Festive Fifty; Talk Hard peaks at number 3. Rolling Stone journalists Michael Krugman and Jason Cohen vote God Bless? Album Of The Year in their Well Hung At Dawn column, despite it having never been released in the USA. Simon Cooper rejoins on drums, along with Mat Anthony on guitar and Jonny Steele on bass.
January 2003 - MBA travel to Hollands Eurosonic Norderslag Festival in Groningen at John Peels request; their set is broadcast all over Europe. This is followed by a 4-date tour of the Netherlands.
February 2003 - Sold-out 18-date UK tour with Kinesis and Reuben.
April 2003 - Demos for 2nd album at BMP Studios, Bury St Edmunds, with former East 17/Kylie producer Phil Harding.
May 2003 - 5-date UK tour with rock legends Therapy?
August 2003 - Yellow vinyl 7" single Drowning By Numbers released on R>E>P>E>A>T to coincide with UK tour for Love Music Hate Racism, which ends at Londons 100 Club with Antihero and Special Needs. Single is played by Peel, is The Independents Single of the Week, and quickly sells out.
September 2003 - Love Music Hate Racism festival in Stoke-on-Trent, with Spooks.
November 2003 - Further bunch of demos recorded at BMP Studios. Jonny, whose by now chronic drug addiction has turned his mind to mush, quits the band after a fight with Seymour. Ryan Banwell is drafted in on bass to help with the forthcoming tour.
December 2003 - UK Christmas tour nearly kills Seymour, who has begun to suffer from blood sugar problems, having now been constantly drunk for over two years. Band decide to take a break from touring to concentrate on recording the 2nd album. Ryan meanwhile loves the touring life so much he joins MBA full-time, quits his job and sells his house.
February 2004 - Support Alabama 3 at Londons Hackney Ocean at a gig organised by the Stop The War Coalition.
March 2004 - MBA play to a sold out London Astoria for a Love Music Hate Racism gig with The Libertines, Buzzcocks, Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster and The Others. Simon Cooper leaves to concentrate (once again) on his new metal band, Methods of Punishment. His replacement is Simon Chapple, ex-drummer from Bury punk legends Chevette, who were the reason Seymour formed a band in the first place.
June 2004 - Recording begins for the second album at Magic Garden Studios with Gavin Monaghan producing.
November 2004 - MBA appear at Joe Strummer Rememberance Sunday, held at Brightons Concorde 2.
THE HYPE:
Its generally best to ignore superlatives when reading, or writing, stuff like this. Miss Black America - in many ways a superlative band - dont lend themselves to the usual crop of vacuum-headed PR platitudes.
They arent the coolest band in the world*. They arent the youngest. Or the sexiest*. Or the buzziest or the hippest or the most outrageous. Yeah, theyre The Best Band in the Fucking World, but isnt everyone these days?
The superlatives that actually matter: Miss Black America are the most belligerent, obstinate, gutsy, resilient, spirited band you will come across. What they do actually matters.
Theyre also contrary buggers. While all and sundry are running up record company tabs on retrocomplacent get-rich-quick schemes, MBA have approached things very much in the old fashioned mode. Whilst being labelled as arrogant, or worse, the new Manics just for having the common decency to care about stuff, theyre also singularly the funniest four men on earth with a sense of responsibility but no sense of unjustified self-importance. When 350 gigs in less than 18 months led to the bands total implosion, they went and toured Holland. When singer/guitarist Seymour near-as-damnit lost a fretting finger in an industrial accident, they went on tour to commiserate. They played to a sold-out Astoria last Spring, and havent played in London since to - ahem - capitalise, although the band have had to rein in their verging-on-the-masochistic touring schedule when Seymour nearly died due to blood sugar problems a year ago.
This has given MBA time to concentrate on writing and recording their second album, Terminal. The follow up to 2002s God Bless Miss Black America (CHOOSE A PRESS QUOTE TO INSERT HERE) was, like its predecessor, recorded with Gavin Monaghan (Bloc Party, Fugees, Jesus and Mary Chain) at the Magic Garden Studios in Wolverhampton Rock City.
And the resultant musics as contrary as their work ethic. Throw away the usual reference points - Joy Division, The Fall, Psychedelia, The Stooges - and think instead of chiming, melodic, agit-rock n roll with big big tunes where none should logically exist. There are moments of shimmering clarity and plaintive introspection amidst the cacophony, and steamroller dynamics scattershot by rhetorical questions, lucid vocal lines, heck, even guitar solos and warm harmonies. Botched, half-cocked manifestos and undirected poseur anger are not part of the programme. Miss Black America are not striving to make the papers. Theyre striving to make something beautiful.
But this doesnt mean that nobody else has noticed. The CV includes a near freehold on the upper echelons of John Peels Festive Fifty; sessions for John Peel, Steve Lamacq, XFM and the like; critical acclaim from the NME to the Guardian via Kerrang!, The Independent, Rolling Stone and huge support from the underground fanzine community; tours with Therapy? and Liars and Antihero and Kinesis and Reuben; support slots with The Libertines, The Dandy Warhols, Buzzcocks, The 80s Matchbox B-Line Disaster, Cornershop and Alabama 3; and recognition from peers, journalists, DJs and, most importantly, Kids Like You And I And Them.
Whilst the music industry has been busy subsiding under a tidal wave of cocaine, egos and fashionista production-line toss, Miss Black America have been slowly, surely, determinedly turning the tide in their direction. And weve never needed them as much as we do now.
Matt Biss, Sonic Midwife
February 2005
