We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

The Biweekly 5" Pizza Club

by Art Is Hard Records

/
  • Streaming + Download

    Purchasable with gift card

     

1.
Bos Angeles are currently recording their debut EP, this is something they put together in the time that they weren't recording future pop hits. It sees a departure from their standard tropical beach jams into something a lot more grungy as they take on something written by prolific Winchester songstress KEEL HER.
2.
Firstly let’s just get this straight, the pizza club is not specifically for covers but when one as blindingly good as this turns up, it’s hard to let it pass. There’s just something about one person reimagining another’s work that really hooks me in, particularly when it’s a rainy Thursday morning and the cover comes in the form of an anon covering The Black Tambourines ‘Youth’. Nothing against the original ‘Youth’, but this cover by Fruschian Void and Thee Headfolks is completely beautiful. Whereas the original almost risked drowning in its own sea of fuzz the cover almost verges over into shoegaze territory with haunting girl/boy vocals that wouldn’t be out of place on a Slumberland release. Having spent a couple of days getting madly excited over the prospects of this new band, Thomas Crang of Gorgeous Bully revealed it was just him and his girl ‘messing around’. Good gag Thom.
3.
Perfect Hair Forever are a band located as far away from our hometown of Plymouth as you can possibly get; Auckland, NZ. 'My Teen Idol' invokes a bedroom Buddy Holly, particularly appropriate given that today marks the 50th anniversary of his death. Perfect pop that despite its candid lofi nature conjures up a colourful kaleidoscope of ice cream vans, water sprinklers and listening to beat-up Beat Happening cassettes on lazy evenings. We asked Perfect Hair Forever what they thought this weeks pizza should be, their answer "a burrito, except a pizza". At least if the whole band thing doesn't work out they've got a future in pizza development labatories. We've heard Buddy Holly loved pizza, so in tribute to the late great we have named this weeks pizza Burrito Holly.
4.
This week's free download/pizza combo comes from Falmouth four piece Little Leagues, originally from Barnstaple in North Devon. Last year I somehow ended up living with a man from Barnstaple, he cooked Sainsburys Basics Drumsticks 7 days a week and left skid marks in the toilet. Thankfully these guys are a bit more legit and make the sort of memorable math-pop that has been distinctly vacant in recent months. 'A Problem Solved' is a four minute burst of handclaps, trumpets and lyrics about parachutes that manages to transport me right back to the summer of '08. // They actually released their EP last week so I'm really pleased they're allowing us to exclusively give away 'A Problem Solved' as a free download. The EP artwork is lovely and is being released in handcrafted/numbered cases, so go take a look.
5.
From what we can work out, Splashh are a two piece from London and as I excitedly remarked on Twitter yesterday 'All I Wanna Do' is the best song I've heard in almost a whole year, the kind of song you play until your sick of its sugar-sweet vibes, but just when you think you're over it...it hooks you right back in. I'm not surely exactly how to describe it other than the sweetest garage pop you've never heard. A guitar/bass riff that would put Malkmus to shame, swirls in a sea of fuzziness with effeminate vocals and off kilter keys all combined with the most bittersweet lyrics "well I wonder if the secret lies beneath your simple smile".I can see this song soundtracking my spring, summer, autumn and beyond. Credit has to go to Mike of Yoofs for the tip off on this one! N.B. We have had to remove this track as it is now being released by Kissability
6.
7.
8.
Something I really miss when down in Plymouth, is the train journeys me and Rich share between Weymouth and London. Many of aih’s biggest decisions are made on these journeys, whether its the colour of the latest cassette release or whether we should include temporary tattoo’s with our releases. This Wednesday’s journey was no different, as I played Rich todays’ exclusive Pizza Club track looking for the Ric(Hard) seal of approval. 1 mins 42 later it arrived with a firm “this sounds like The Fall, lets put it out”. It comes from Middlesbrough’s Year of Birds, who fully embrace the DIY punk spirit with the mantra “Write some songs with 2 parts. (The shorter the better, it makes learning them easier). Rehearse a few times (No more than 2 hours a time). Record via yr mate with a 4 track. Put out stuff on various formats.)” As if this wasn’t enough, frontman Oli also owns a record shop and a record label (both named Ack! Ack! Ack! Records). Although I differ from Rich’s assesment, we’re both agreed on the fact this is the best piece of noisy discordant punk we’ve heard in a long time. Imagine Flipper were forced to condense their songs into minute and a half bursts and you’d pretty much have this. Free download as always and congratulations has to go to frontman Oli for coming up with the most intriguing (also see disgusting) sounding pizza yet.
9.
Incase you didn't see us joking on Twitter about todays' Pizza, it's starting to make us consider whether we should just rename our weekly pizza giveaway the 'KEEL HER club'. You see, we kicked off the project with Bos Angeles covering KEEL HER. Then the star of PIZZAIH03 - Perfect Hair Forever went and covered her too (not released by us) and not to forget Rose's own contribution (PIZZAIH06) a tribute to Weezer on their 20th anniversary. So we were wondering how we could possibly top all that....when our favourite noise-pop two piece told us they'd recorded a KEEL HER cover that they'd been playing live for a couple of months. They are of course Playlounge, recently announced to feature on our latest split 7" (their tracks for that to be unveiled soon). In the meantime here is them giving 'Boner Hit' a new coat of fuzz, whilst not losing any of the boorish charm of the original. I dare you not to whistle that melody all day long (even if it's still raining, you're sitting at a bus stop, the bus is late and your plans for this Friday involve nothing more than sitting at home, waiting until its late enough to go to sleep). KEEL HER is queen, long live Playlounge.
10.
If you're one of the only people I know who isn't waking up this morning with a giant hangover somewhere in Brighton, we have a cracking pizza club for you. Hehfu is the moniker of Caerphilly (Wales) based Bradley Clarke and sounds like pretty much every Slumberland release, we wish we'd heard but never had the time. This weeks pizza/name isn't intended to make light of the situation, let's just get this straight 'Two More Years' is heart wrenching. Although the song flaunts it's fuzzy limbs like Japandroids and Pains of Being Pure at Heart at a party; the lyrics paint a much more sobering picture "two and a half years thrown away, we'll never be friends, you're just a girl who broke my heart". In normal circumstances, this would probably be a little too much for us, but Hehfu nails the break up song like only Bonnie Tyler knows how. Apparently he's just got a band together, so hopefully you'll be able to catch Hehfu somewhere in Wales soon.
11.
Another Friday, another great addition to the Pizza Club. This week we are pleased to unveil and giveaway a track from Welsh 4 piece Mowbird. 'Thank You, You are Revolting' kicks and punches it way through 1 minute 35 of 'ahhhh-wooo's' and grungey noise like only Times New Viking know how. If I had no neighbours, Mowbird are the sort of band I'd invite to play in my garden, pogo on the spot whilst pouring beer on my head; they just sound that fun. This track is from their latest EP 'We Buy Maternity Swimwear', so we're feeling pretty stoked to be able to give it away for free. It's kind of funny that the song's called 'Thank You, You Are Revolting' because Mowbird's choice of pizza sounds like the worst one yet!
12.
Whenever I tell people I keep a note of every band I’ve ever watched, it’s normally met with a smirk or a bemused look. It’s not like I rate the bands on a decimal scale; but apparently it’s a little sad to attempt to remember bands you’ve seen live. Appearing near the top of the list are Tubelord - a band I seem to have grown up with over the last four years, seeing them in four different towns (Southampton x2, Exeter, Plymouth and Weymouth). Not only are they consistently great live, but with each recorded output they seem to shift their sound in new and interesting directions. On that note, I am extremely excited to announce that today’s free Pizza Club comes from JOEY FOURR, the new meanderings of Tubelord frontman Joseph Prendergast. ‘CROSS†DRESSER’ is many things; it’s a little warped, a tiny bit lofi and slightly psychedelic, however above all it’s completely infectious. Each listen seems to result in a half hour cooling off period where I’m able to think of nothing other than the hypnotic whistle-like riff. ‘CROSS†DRESSER’ forms one forth of JOEY FOURR’s forthcoming EP ‘How To Buy Happiness’. The EP is set to be released as a Zine, xerox print with gold paper covers and fleuro paper insides and can be ordered from the Crumb Cabin big cartel.
13.
14.
15.
Ahhh summer, that 8 week period of rainy days, working any old job, angsty evenings and crushes you never took the initiative on. Somehow these sort of experiences still lend themselves to forming the best part of your year. It's a similar sort of vine that this weeks pizza club reaches out with; its hard to work out if it's a fragile ode to a summer of loneliness and regret, or a sombre reminiscence of all things balmy and memories sun stained. Given King of Cats record we'll opt for the former - - - previous tracks have been titled things like 'I stink of human faeces'. 'Summertown' contains all the fragility of Daniel Johnston's finest moments as well as that same sense of boyish naivety but we wouldn't have it any other way. We're all living in a summertown.
16.
We are extremely honoured to unveil a sweet sweet slice of indie pop this week. It comes from Ali Koehler, a very talented young woman who has put in a good amount of time behind the drums for bands such as Vivian Girls and Best Coast. These days you'll find her working on her own recordings; infact 'Not Like Me' was written exclusively for the Pizza Club in Ali's living room and recorded in rehearsal rooms in Echo Park. The song itself is a melodic but all-too-short stroll through tales of not being able to leave the house and doing "stuff to keep you busy whilst you die". Despite all of this bleakness, there's something about 'Not Like Me' that transcends the melancholy and turns it into a joyful lesson of how to do self depreciation properly. The one physical Pizza Box copy of this release will go live at the slightly later time of 3pm, and will be available from this page.
17.
18.
The American invasion continues! The past few weeks we’ve had a handful of artists join the AIH roster - most recently a late summer blast of electronic euphoria in the form of Albuquerque, New Mexico’s Sun Stains. For today’s slice of pizza action I’m proud to introduce Austin, TX’s Literature. Matt of Cycle Schmeichel introduced me to their debut LP a few months back and it’s managed to soundtrack a horrid breakup and a wonderful summer. Swings and roundabouts I guess. The exclusive track that they handed us ‘Tie-Dye’ is a perfect representation of the soft Shins-ean nature of the LP. I highly recommend everyone seek it out - it’s available for free download on the excellent Square Of Opposition Records. Here’s what Kevin and Nate from the band had to say .. Kevin: “for the chorus of ‘Tye-dye”, Nathaniel and I challenged each other on a chord-by-chord basis. I guess the unspoken goal was to play Jenga with Jangle: to author a progression that kept ascending to a point of structural instability, only to land safely.” Nate: “I don’t want to ruin the mystic for anyone but the lyrics were heavily influenced by the first two Bret Easton Ellis novels (Less Than Zero, The Rules of Attraction) as I had read them around the time I wrote the Lyrics and the books really stuck with me!”
19.
Another Friday, another track I've completely fallen in love with. /please/ is a young woman from Bristol and I've been jamming her 2nd album for a while, feels kind of weird saying that. Think she's only like 18 or something! She makes this really cool ambient lofi sample based stuff, that seems to make perfect train journey music. Funnily enough I received this weeks track on the train on the way to work and an immediate download was quickly followed by me conjuring up ridiculous phrases that I could use to describe to you how cool this sounds (i.e. 22nd century ballad). About 30 seconds later I realised this was actually a proper ballad as that familiar refrain of "if you'll only hold me tight, we'll be holding on forever" came eerily drifting in. She's only gone and used lines from my favourite ever guilty pleasure heartbreak song - I wouldn't call it a cover, that wouldn't do it any justice. Download for free and play it on the last night bus home tonight whilst weeping into your tired heavy hands. The one physical CDR Pizza version will go on sale at 3pm on our Bandcamp.
20.
Wow week 20, a pretty monumental number and it certainly feels like a landmark. Despite this it's a milestone tinged with sadness, there's only a couple of weeks of our free download Pizza Club left until all that remains is a distant feeling of bloated cheesy regret. Back to the present this week sees one of my favourite bands (Gum), doing one of my favourite things (a cover) of one of my favourite releases of 2012 (Evans the Death's self titled LP). For those unable to follow unconventional sentences, this week we have Gum covering the closing track from the debut Evans The Death LP out earlier this year on Fortuna Pop and Slumberland - two of our favourite labels. Unfortunately the wind was taken out of our sails a bit yesterday when someone leaked the new Gum EP on Twitter. As leaks go it was actually a pretty nice one, a link to the full EP was accidentally posted by Pains of Being Pure at Heart! If you haven't heard Gum before, this should give you a pretty good indication of their sound, broody but sometimes uplifting shoegaze. Gum have definitely put their own stamp on the track. Where it was once a sombrely strummed ode to loneliness/kitchen sinks/alcoholism/pizza, they've put together something that despite feeling a lot more frantic still finds time to drop the tempo for the chorus and honour the wonderful melodies from the original song. As always the track is available for free download from our Bandcamp and Soundcloud and the physical CDR Pizza in a 5" Pizza box will go on sale at the slightly earlier time of 1pm.
21.
Three clear signs of aging: getting on with your parents, hair in places you didn’t realise existed, inevitable hatred of camping. It’s two of the above that led me to attend The Great Escape festival this year. A weekend event where you can sleep in your own comfy bed, easily obtain a mirror and not get chuckled at when you do plus (the best part) walk three minutes in any direction and you’ll be able to successfully purchase a packet of custard creams. ZERO CAMPING. For a typically grumpy, aching and aging me – perfect. Problem is that these venue-to-venue festivals are often held in tiny pubs meaning unless you arrive super early, you’re going to miss those bands. One evening after too much street wine it took a while for me to realise that the watch on my arm was actually a drawing and that we were super late for Cloud Nothings. Running through the Brighton lanes we eventually arrived with realisation that the winding queue outside and pumping rock music coming from inside equalled slim chances of catching the band. Oh well, find out what time Aiden Grimshaw is on? Back to street drinking? We nip down the side lane to crack another and find a clever dude had scaled a high window ledge to get the closest seat to watch CN; literally a pane of glass separating him from the band. This gent helped us climb the same ledge and, once the grating fear of falling to my death had evaporated, we had quite the chat. Turns out this guy, Jack, used to be in a band with Nick from New Years Evil (AIH002) – WHAT ARE THE CHANCES exclaimed a drunken and possibly too excited me. Jack mentioned he'd just started working on a new band and that he'd forward some tracks my way. That was May, this is October. Enter BIRDSKULLS. Not to do disservice to their demos, but this is their first properly recorded track and it's everything we hoped and more. It's called 'Ghost World' and is a grunge pop gem with crashing drums, snotty riffs and a mathematical equation that would look something like No Age x Dinosaur Jr divided by pop punk. They're based in Exeter, Bournemouth and Brighton so expect shows in more than a couple of those places soon!
22.
23.
24.
25.

about

In 2012 we plan to release a free download single every other week. As well as being available for free download from our blog, each week there will also be 1 copy of the release available in pizza CD form (encased in a 5" pizza box). The pizza will be available to the first person to buy it from this page, this week's pizza 'HAWAII 666' will go up for sale RIGHT HERE at 3pm on Friday 26th October.

For information about the individual tracks please click "lyrics".

credits

released October 12, 2012

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Art Is Hard Records UK

Small independent record label run by two friends, one of us works in an office and the other doesn't. The label was started by two friends influenced by the attitude and ethics of labels such as Factory, Wichita, Anticon and Dischord.

discography

contact / help

Contact Art Is Hard Records

Streaming and
Download help

Shipping and returns

Redeem code

Report this album or account

If you like Art Is Hard Records, you may also like: