ROARING back into spiky guitar contention from their adopted North London fastness with a lithe new tune that has all the stop-start passion of Elastica or Menswe@r, FEET have announced a new EP, Walking Machine, due for release on August 6th on their new home, Nice Swan Records; and it comes fanfared with a first single, “Peace & Quiet”, which you can hear below.
Now sharing a flat together after their move from Coventry and eager to kick on from 2019’s debut album, What’s Inside Is More Than Just Ham, the lads reckon they’re now living “like a hive mind”, spending endless days making music.
Their journey forward from that long-player however has not been without its glitches; a whole new crop of songs was scrapped after a sobering practice room realisation that, far from sounding like a cohesive second record, “one song sounded like a covers pub band, and another sounded like Eminem could throw some bars over it,” notes the band’s Callum Parker.
Back to the drawing board, then; they sat and wrote a manifesto for the FEET aesthetic. “No wanky guitar solos, no sailor outfits, no bringing a broom onstage,” jokes George Haverson. They focused, focused some more, and took an taking a bigger interest in production and atmosphere.
And lo! Comeback single “Peace & Quiet” has a nicely mod-meets-postpunk declamatory thing, maybe a target on a Harrington faded and scrubbed with Gang of Four and Shame patches; it’s gloriously up and in your grill, hooks scattering everywhere with abandon.
“It’s about demanding more from the current music scene,” say the band. “2021 is the year for new and exciting groups supported by a rejuvenated industry.
“Now’s the time to start small, grassroots scenes and DIY shows at your local village halls. What comes after this peace and quiet? That’s what excites us the most”.
“We’re not a post-punk band, we don’t sound like a ‘London band’ whatever that is, but the indie reference in our shared hive mind is related to a major label, squeaky clean sound which isn’t what we want from our band,” explains George.
“You either go the mainstream route or the sleazy South London route and we’re slap bang in the middle, so we’re trying to state our spot.
“We’re pretty comfortable where we are and this is the direction we wanna take it in”.
FEET will be hitting the road around the UK during August in support of the EP, playing seven dates as follows – tickets are on sale now via the band website, for which see below.
Thursday, August 12th, Sheffield, Record Junkee;
Friday, August 13th, Manchester, The Deaf Institute;
Saturday, August 14th, Nottingham, The Bodega;
Thursday, August 19th, Birmingham, Mama Roux’s;
Friday, August 20th, Bristol, Thekla;
Saturday, August 21st, London Hackney, Oslo, and
Sunday, August 22nd, Brighton, Hope & Ruin.
Connect with FEET at their website, and on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
