A Seven Year Itch With Mourning Birds.

Planet Earth has lost two years in the career development of new artists. Day Zero is when safety to gig is back. A key income stream for struggling musicians. Until then, keep listening and finding…

This springtime will be the seventh year since TheZineUK uploaded the first picture book story and in the mean time, new artists have released music from the lowest profiles but of the highest calibre.

Because we’ve woven a parallel dimension from attending many art punky rock moments, courtesy of access via artists and events, a unique glimpse into another side of Britain and Ireland than the current international image.

TheZineUK doc is invested, physically and mentally in our soundtrack. There are personal back stories woven into some of the albums that the cast and crew of this theatre create. The eponymous ‘Mourning Birds’ album (self released in July 2020) being a case in point.

It’s an essential, punked up, simultaneously raw and polished, bluesy genre clash of heated beats iced with melancholic tones.

Racing into existence with ‘Exile’ before ‘Eve Of The Isle’, ‘Oh Yeh’ and ‘Breathe’ crash into brash anthems mode. Absolutely banger after biting riffs and rhythms banger as ‘The Last Thing (I Need)’ kicks more arse. Only TUNES here. ‘I’m Sick’ emotionally takes the pace down in tempo, ‘Down!’ takes the baton and builds the dynamics back up with an expanse of primal emotion.

‘Come Back’ is blistering, showy and layered. ‘You Can Kill What You Want’ is probably the song I’d pick if I was a music supervisor soundtracking a movie about the last days of the pre-pandemic rock music movements. ‘Leave Me Alone’ jumps outta the speakers like a motorbike stunt rider and stomps like a monster in platforms. THis album makes me miss being at a Mourning Birds gig (they were short sharp shocks, too!). Anyway, this release is something to discover and decide for yourself, if you can trust this woman’s ears.

https://facebook.com/mourningbirds/

Further reading: Mourning Birds are part of this tale’s charismatic cast.

January 2014

TheZineUK staged an evening of punk (with poetry from The Freewheelin’ Troubadour) on Tin Pan Alley (Denmark Street, Soho, Central London). It’s a very “us” kinda way to launch the first chapter that would be uploaded mid March.

No posh awards style gift bags but there were supermarket sandwich bags of sweeties, badges, stickers, flyers from friends etc). Thank you to the creative crowd who spark the story for bringing their stage style.

Jean Genie DJs, Dizzy Spell comperes, Joyzine reviews and because we had another gig at New Cross Inn a month later, as TheZineUK’s Events Department, I called it the first date of a road show. Rock n roll daydreaming as ever…

That night, the vibrations were buzzy n fuzzy. Mourning Birds are raucously wowing, with an ambitious musicality in their rootsy jams that I can’t ignore. In this clip ‘Oh Yeh!’ and ‘Eve Of The Isle’; you can see photographer, Rupert Hitchcox down the front of the stage.

Mourning Birds’s set wins us an official stage at the Camden Crawl Festival finale (thanks Lisa). We also got another at The Great Escape Festival - the situationist road show grew into a real thing by Summer.

Not long before this night, the band had travelled from Medway/Madway (Kent), arriving on a Saturday morning at my place (off the Old Kent Road) for the interview that started #TheZineUK content. I wasn’t all that awake, fucked up my recording so it was lucky Ru was filming!

“No money, no gigs, no venues, no nothing”

…but they definitely have something.

Birds tweet.

I’d become aware of them in Autumn 2013, bassist, Bill, contacted various music lovers via twitter, myself included. Within the 106 trashy garage rock seconds of ‘Oh Yeh!’ I was very much on side, oh yeh! - and chuffed that the band would come to Deptford - it began a roller coaster of ups, downs and madness. Along the way, Mourning Birds songs have earned a ridiculous amount of awed feedback from listeners. The first single released from the album:

Time Travel: January 2021

London becoming Blandon: Tin Pan Alley and Soho, have been sacrificed to crapitalism, losing even more of Britain’s personality and cultural heritage to 51st State style identikit consumer bollocks that’s seen us lose iconic venues nationwide.

On the positive side, Jean Genie has recently released her first song, ‘Vaccine’, to growing wonderment. Dizzy Spell is now the inspiring editor of TheZineUK, creating more near future behind the scenes. Rupert Hitchcox is part of the established Joyzine posse (which we collaborated with for the Balcony Festival streams last Spring and Summer). They reviewed Kick Out The Jams’ social, The Camden Mix-Up in January 2020 and Rupert kindly let TheZineUK use the images over a dozen pages of the picture diary. He has been up to so much more over the years, too.

In the first week of 2021, COVIDIOTS have extended the nation’s virtual house arrest. The music industry is in free fall, bottom first with skint artists and grassroots venues at the most financial peril. In #SaveOurVenues days there really is no money, no gigs, no venues, no nothing. FFS. I’ll do whatever it takes to end this.

Over seven years so far, the songs in our real time rock opera stand up because of the extraordinary talents that magnetise and energise the newer wave of alternative pop music surrealism, streaking dystopia’s dismal canvas with electric tangents of sharpness.

So the tapestry weaves on.

Via Mourning Birds, TheZineUK came across the vivacious Abbie McCarthy of BBC Introducing Kent. It’s not all lorry park insanity in what was once The Garden Of England.

In November 2014 I adventured down to Medway for a Mourning Birds gig. The opener set (noted in our pic diary as “an opener with presence”) is Lori, now fronting the band Weekend Recovery. After Mourning Birds’ packed riot party of a headline, I spent one of the maddest nights at the ‘Young Ones’ tinted madhouse that was then the mourning birds nest on the suitably named Borstal Road. Think I dreamed that night, sometimes. Their unhinged element menaces and charms the album like mischievous veins.

On Valentine’s Day 2015, back on the New Cross Road section of the Old Kent Road, Mourning Birds supported Nova Twins at Amersham Arms (where TheZineUK formed from regulars at ArtBeat shows) then called into the warehouse* along the road in Deptford - where I had an office - for some after show frolics.

I also invited the band back to Amersham Arms for our second ArtBeat expo of 2015

Apeman Spaceman were (amongst many faces) in the house that evening, Mourning Birds’ drummer, Sam, recognised Johnny Cooke from when he was in the band, Dogs. Apeman Spaceman would also play TheZineUK music socials (and their latest single ‘Truth Is A Thing Of The Past’ is in our January 2021 soundtracks).

DR WTF time travel again - at the end of January 2016 hanging with the band at rehearsals in Chatham, for an uplifting break.

Mourning Birds also recommended a new band called Dead Belles to me that I checked out. I really liked what I heard. Early 2016, their guitarist, lead singer, Zakk borrowed my projector to make the video for their single, ‘This Machine’s Electric’ which they launched at The Bunker on Deptford Broadway (also part of the Old Kent Road!).

(I’m heartbroken as 2020 ended, I learned that the venue’s legendary owner, Annie, has just died. Is it just me or are we all just a sad conversation away from tears or a breakdown sometimes now? Not sure what I’d do without the brilliance that’s under the radar, and getting to document it’s three degress of collaboration).

Magical Mystery Tours

Where was I? Oh yes.

When Zakk of Dead Belles was round my house, bringing back the projector, he was raving about a band they’d played with recently, called MOSES. I checked them out, called them straight away after hearing a song called ‘Low’ and somehow persuaded them to join the ArtBeatFest weekend at Amersham Arms of April 2016. Another Mourning Birds intro, then, even if indirectly.

In one of the images from ArtBeatFest in the picture diary, Zakk is down the front for MOSES. A month later, Dead Belles have a brilliant gig at The Great Escape Festival. Without realising, I snapped them after the show (End Of The Trail Stage which TheZineUK were involved with) and the look on Zakk’s face is him realising the band was over, as he told me later.

That summer, MOSES (who I stayed in touch with) need a new member and by the end of the year when they release their self-titled debut EP, Zakk is part of the band and goes on to have multiple adventures on big stages and festivals in 2017. The connection wouldn’t have been made without MB.

Not yet…

Mourning Birds album (produced by Rhys Downing) is first released as an indie smash in Japan but gets lost in Britain. I’m gutted, it’s worth more.

Like the bullshit of income algorithm bot hearts, the music industry sucks the lifeblood of non-privileged artists. Over the last couple of years I’ve got pretty fucked off at the backstabby (and worse) crap that goes on behind the scenes at all levels. Also back then, a long time musician friend cooled towards me about the band’s management of the time. As I didn’t know who that was when I first responded to them, I wasn’t just going to stop liking them because of that. It wasn’t the first entertainment world politics I’d experienced, and won’t ever be the last…

At least Mourning Birds are, at this point, heading towards more live shows.

But by Autumn 2017, TheZineUK are having shouty meetings about what? This ain’t what we started for. We could have stopped then.

This venture is tiny, more Rocking Pebble than Rolling Stone. It’s not even funded or sponsored. Not worth an ego spite drama so, like many of the bands, our line up organically changes.

We ended 2017 as an exhausted but defiant, working class female fronted labour of love. I had felt fragile for so long but am relieved we carried on. The documentary has stood against snake tongued sabotage and gaslighting. It can’t all be love, peace and friends, but we can move on in a time of biggest pictures.

Not only that, as previously mentioned super new involvements have happened for our friends and we continue to be allies of their projects. There are so many On. It. writers and photographers who have made the story of this movement pop. Oh, so many videos and stories that a future BBC 4 TV type schedule could entertain the world with including the promo for ‘Eve Of The Isle’ by Mourning Birds. No longer on line, but I. Can. Not. Unsee.

Onwards, then.

In December 2017, The Music People Party rose from the where ‘TheZineUK Season 1’ left off. The strands of our Zeenagers tapestry started weaving properly in 2018. It boosted our batteries. Mourning Birds are one of the bands that have organically developed in this timeline.

Mourning Birds supported False Heads at Modern Age Music’s 229 show in December 2017. Alternative Rock is increasingly making it’s mark on a bustling grassroots music venue scene and we’re living/loving it. When we started, armchair critics were boring on about how guitar bands are over. By 2021, it’s time to support such musical groups after all they’ve achieved against the odds, then!

Mourning Birds begin the following year in the Jack Daniels Hot Rocks picks of 2018.

That Spring, despite starting the year on the official soundtrack of the ‘Tomb Raider’ movie, half of MOSES have “HAD IT” with the music industry’s bullshit. Zakk (and guitarist, Juno) play their last show with the band and head to Vietnam and South Korea.

In Summer and Autumn 2018, Mourning Birds play more shows with our interdependent allies likeKick Out The Jams including another return to The Alternative Escape. They have a monster sized new song complete with wailing guitar motifs, ‘Give Me It All’ - they leave the stage picked up by Benumu, another of our faves, for future gigs.

Consistently documenting; This year’s weekend of stages by Kick Out The Jams and allies is band-wise brilliant (additionally Couples, Berries, Emily Capell, Fontaines DC, False Heads, Sisteray, SONS (first caught live at a Mourning Birds gig) etc.) but authority wise, I would call it rocky at another of this stage’s venues, pulling the plug of an early afternoon! The upside being that it helps to give birth to The Brighton Mix-Up at The Black Lion in May 2019. (45 key new sets over three days).

October 2018 - Mourning Birds on their own terms, from now on.

“New single 'Insatiable' underlines just how far they've travelled, and how far they could yet go. Pounding bassline and caveman drums, it's a preening, punk-edged piece of Brit-rock that recalls everyone from Queens Of The Stone Age to Slaves. Clocking in at that classic 2:57 mark, it's a lethal return, with the needle continually primed in the red.” (Clash Magazine)

There is a celebratory gig with Benumu at Camden Assembly, a few days after the release of ‘Insatiable’ - the band are really on form.

Quite literally a bus load of Mourning Birds madway massive make their way from Medway to cram the Good Mixer in Camden for the show. Imagine the anecdotes they’ve got between them! The night is as good a way as any to wind down 2018.

Benumu include Mourning Birds in their (January) 2019 Spotlight live music events at Camden Assembly.

Their first release of the year is ‘INSANE’, produced by Gavin Monaghan

“In just 1 minute 49 seconds, vivacious act Mourning Birds are set to captivate all with their forthcoming explosive new single ‘Insane’.” (Circuit Sweet)

‘Insane’ was radio premiered by Abby McCarthy on BBC Introducing.

The second of the songs from their session at Magic Garden Studios with Gavin Monaghan was released in Spring 2019. The “main stage rock band” magnificence of ‘In The Evening’ is picked up for airplay by Amazing Radio and added to Spotify’s #HotNewBands playlist

“In The Evening” conjures themes of love and betrayal in an Orwellian dystopia.”
(Mourning Birds)

In Summer 2019, the instantly addictive ‘Transmitter’ (produced by Rhys Downing) hits home, and hits hard.

The above mentioned 2018 and 2019 single releases aren’t on the band’s album. Another favourite song, ‘Masquerade’, hasn’t been released.

The singles stop but respect for this music obviously remains among those who are aware of it. In 2021, there is at least some hope that the music world can rebuild. This must include finding economic potential. The interdependent music industrious are aware of bands like Mourning Birds.

What can momentous potential do, when they have the talent but don’t have the money, connections and hipster cred to market and promote it to the best degree?

In TheZineUK documentary, fortunes and futures vary. There are virtual secret pop stars on the grassroots spaces that Music Venue Trust are trying to save. They need nurturing as much as keeping the circuit and it’s crew going when it’s safe to do so.

A vibrant music industry requires artists like this for the benefits of fresh heritage culture and festival line ups in the future. The current brace of dominating, famous 40-70 year olds can’t last forever. Mourning Birds are a powerful musical performance in the flesh. Imagine these songs live.

They’re not alone though. Our USP is documenting just a fraction of the stories that progress organically while trying not to run out of energy and cash.

2020 Vision

Then the ultra bleakness of mass tragedy, the pandemic hit. A crying world. Without the the soundtracks, multi media creativity and performances these dark days of sadness would be an endless night of horror. At least 2020 vision meant seeing the best and worst of each other clearly.

Released slap bang in the midst of austerity then brexshit then Covid19 inflicted Broken Britain during the climate emergency, ‘Mourning Birds’ is an astonishing and reflective sound of our times.

For posterity, it is available to discover, then escape into. With no fanfare or promotion, a compilation to stand the test of time that I’d recommend to help make the ‘20s roar.

Sometimes it goes beyond “of the year” awards and accolades to opinonated tips for the decade. The beauty of which is that you would need to listen, in order to argue with me. In my humblish opinion, Mourning Birds sounds fresh as fuck - as they don’t say at The Proms.