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Brakes formed when Tom and Alex and Eamon were drinking after Eamon had supported The Lonesome Organist at Palmer's Bar in Brighton in August 2002. "We'll play drums and guitar on your tunes," they said. "Rad," said Eamon. They went to Mokinbird studios, a rehearsal/recording space in Kemptown, Brighton run by Marc Beatty, and convinced him to play bass. After half an hour, they looked at each other and said "this sounds freshmode."

Between now and then, they played wherever and whenever they could, but they mostly played at the Freebutt, Brighton's 200 capacity sweat box where bands like Lift To Experience, American Analogue Set, Fuck You Planet Earth and Yeah Yeah Yeahs played. Eamon did a few more acoustic Brakes shows. Georg and Orri from Sigur Ros played as his backing band in Reykjavik. He supported Lach. "I like your anti-folk" said Lach. "I thought it was country-punk" said Eamon. Lach looked away. Tugboat Records offered to put out a single, so the band went to Mokinbird studios on 20th July 2004 and nailed Pick Up, Stand to Stand and Cheney in half a day. It was to be one of the final sessions at Mokinbird, which sadly closed that December.

Sea Power's bassist Hamilton (no relation) directed Brakes' first video, the 30 second long Pick Up The Phone. It was filmed in the basement of the house he rents along with Eamon and Marc, which they named 'The Princess' after a painting of a girl collecting wheat which hangs on one of the basement walls.

"Holy shit, I've just seen our video on MTV" texted Tom to Marc one night in September. "Lush,"said Brakes and went on tour around the UK later that month.

Rough Trade offered to release an album, so Brakes booked Metropolis studio 1 for a week in late January 2005, and put Iain Gore in control. The album was recorded in five days, all live on to 2" tape, and mixed in two days. Not a single computer screen was used in the whole process. They left it for a couple of weeks and then mastered it on the day after Valentines'.

Give Blood is the sound of four friends playing music in a room, recorded onto tape. Brakes have played a few shows since finishing the album, supporting The Others, British Sea Power, Finley Quaye, and Buck 65.


Album Description:

Give Blood is the debut record from UK madcaps, Brakes. Consisting of one part British Sea Power (Eamon Hamilton), two parts Electric Soft Parade (Tom White and Alex White), and one part Tenderfoot (Marc Beatty), Brakes is a heroic endeavor, alive with a vigorous musical heartbeat. Give Blood is born of robust comradery and just enough magnetic tape to capture the incredible interplay between these four lads.

Album out Sept. 13 in the U.S. Anyone heard or know anything about this?

I've heard a couple of songs -- I'm eager to buy the album.

I'm downloading it right now.

Please post a review after you've listened to it, Jon.

I'll try and listen to it tomorrow afternoon.

Nooooo!! You must listen NOW! Ok, tomorrow is good enough.

Maybe if you didn't all completely ignore my Konstantiranks column you would know about this album.

I wrote a short review of Brakes about a month ago.

Link? I want to know.

i posted a track from the album back in July.

it's in my Top Ten at this point. love the punk edge to it.

I thought it was alright. The singers voice sounded really familiar and it took me awhile to figure out that he sounds like the dude from Clinic. I think Jackson and All Night Disco Party are the best tracks.

Thanks, Jon!

Is pitchfork reading Obner now? They gave it a 7.5 today.

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/record-re ... lood.shtml

Dalen has it in his top 10 for 2005, Shiv thought it was OK and Konstantinl thinks it just alright as well. Either way I’m glad I asked and will d/l this or Calla next.

seriously.

I know I love them and still in the middle of getting Oceansize.

I seriously need a new computer.

It's okay. Nice passing curiosity, but Eamon is better served with BSP (who released a merely passable LP this year as well). I didn't realise they had anything to do with Electric Soft Parade .

Somebody there reads us; I'd wager money on it.

Speaking of which, why doesnt one of us write for P-Fork? I think LooGar tried a couple years ago, but seriously...Some of you guys are actually pretty good writers.

gonna listen to it next.

it makes me wanna get an 8 ball.

There was a dude who used to post at the CMJ board and I think he posted at Hipinion too, or rather the board that was originally linked to Pitchfork, that writes for them now and his reviews are decent and free of the annoying writing that Pitchfork is known for. Of course, I can't remember his name and I can't get on their site now either.

I should start a review site.

Not only would I review releases 2 months before Pitchfork does, the reviews would be more to the point and descriptive than Pitchfork, and more importantly, they'd be 300 words less each review.

Fuck yeah.

Why not?

Shit, I respect Ryan from P-Fork because he has basically achieved what he set out to do (and probably more); even if you dont like they write, you gotta respect what they have done.

I'm just sayin'.

i hear ya. while i think their reviews are usually long winded and full of fluff, i do check the site out from time to time, and they've turned me on to some good stuff. usually the click through banners though.

oh, and best lyric from the Brakes album has to be "won't you shut the fuck up, i'm just tryin' to watch the baaaaand!"

yeah that was pretty memorable.