The Breaks, Waiting for Titor & HoneySpider - Sanctuary, Burnley

It's Saturday, Burnley, and we're waiting on watching The Breaks.
A 5 piece band from Burnley / Manchester. The guys just recently signed a new manager, a  friend of mine Jason Wilkinson (who recommended them to us).

Getting to Sanctuary was pretty easy, as long as you park outside and don't try any of the mutli-story car parks around, which were shut #shouldhavecheckedfirst.
Alistair, the guitarist, supporting a broken wrist from what we will call a 'football incident'.

Soundcheck was delayed and the bands started a little later than expected. That wasn't the only sound hitch of the night, but this is live music, so... fuck it.

Starting out with Waiting for Titor, who we'd listen to a couple of times and like the sound of. These guys are tight 4 piece that we later found out were from Italy and made the travel to play tonight! Mega Kudos.
They reek of Angry Teen Rebellion, taking us back to the Angst of our youth. Which Mr Foxon was there to confirm is still a popular sub-culture today.

The influence from Nine Inch Nails and Depeche Mode is evident, you can draw similarities with Linkin Park and Poets of The Fall at time's.  These fellas definitely pack a heavy punch live, more than they do on studio recordings. Wish we got more hard energy and head banging metal through on their EP, so I can relive it.

Chuck in some good old head banging and mic swinging, they really kicked the night off!


Over to The Breaks. The 5 lads took to the stage, their front man, and distortion loving lead singer, Niall has an air of early Simon Niel cross Dave Grohl.
The guys sound much better live than comes across on their EPs. With all amps cranked to 11 and a distorted mic - giving them their signature sound, which at times reminds you of an amalgamation of Slipknot & System of a down with James-esq rifts, coupled with Alex Turner / Brian Molko lyrics.

The guys have a raw talent for writing catchy well rounded tunes, with stick in your head hooks and some sweet guitar rifts.

The Distortion is borderline between Good and too much, I can see why the band use it as it as a sweet distinctness, but I could also empathise with critiques from those who want to know, and sing a long to, everyword - sometimes it makes it difficult to follow. Don't let that put you off though, have a little patience and you're really in for a treat.

They even dropped a cover of Drake - One Dance which was pretty epic TBF!

We're going to catch up with the guys a bit more and find out about the meanings of some of their songs, there is a trail of mystery and story running through their tracks which we're eager to understand.


A little disappointed when it came to HoneySpider, on paper and on Spotify they sounded rather good - but the volume was far too high. When the lead singer of a metal hand has his finger in his ears  you know it's not going well, that coupled with a Distorted mic, distortion maybe carried over from the breaks, or maybe intentional, really damped their performance.

At this point we split for the journey home, HoneySpider sounded better from outside and we managed to appreciate them more.

Check out The Breaks over at
https://thebreaks.bandcamp.com

Or listen to the three bands on this playlist



🤘 Michael & Riche

FULL PICTURES AND VIDEOS HERE

http://blog.alifeofmusic.rocks/p/photos-of-waiting-for-titor.html

ALOMR loves Yonaka

Supporting Andrew WK must be the most difficult job in the world. As a room is filling up with punk rockers and metalheads dressed in white, the mood feels tense, everybody wants to mosh, run around and, well, party. I'll admit, we are massive Yonaka fans here at ALOMR, but I was slightly worried about their placing here, a dark, indie-pop band supporting this iconically happy monster of rock.

What the fuck was I worried about? Yonaka, from Brighton, are one of Britain's best up and coming bands, with an exciting year ahead of them. Not only did they bring it, they stole a bit of it from Andrew WK!!

Hitting the ground running, they started with ‘Bubblegum’, an insanely catchy and deceptively heavy sing-a-long with a thunderous, pounding chorus juxtaposed by edgy vocals that lie somewhere between full operatic vibrato and old school hip hop.

These vocals come from the lungs of Theresa Jarvis, every bit the frontwoman, as she strutted around the stage taking complete control, with stylish dance moves, smiles and plenty of emotion.

Yonaka are completed by George Edwards on the guitar, headbanging and moshing as he booms out heavy riff after heavy riff, Alex Crosby on the bass, crunching away and providing a stable backbone, and Robert Mason, tucked behind the drums and a seemingly endless supply of gadgets to smash and bash, creating some wonderful noises.

As I said before, this blog completely loves this band, they find themselves on every playlist for every road trip or live show expedition, so I may have either gone in a bit biased or with high expectations. This was my first time seeing Yonaka live, and they totally lived up to the hype I had created in my own head. I had also built them up way too much to my wife, saying “Make sure we get there on time. They tweeted me, they're on at 8. This band rock. You'll love them. Go for a wee now, you can”t miss any of it, get me a beer on the way back, I'll be at the front.”

They more than lived up to expectation, and even spoiled us with a few new songs, 'Waves' was a particular highlight and one I will look out for. But nothing felt as strong as ‘Fucking With The Boss’. The anthem that closed the set and left everyone I spoke to absolutely buzzing for Andrew WK. It will feel as at home in a divey bar as it will on a festival stage. We will be all over this single when it drops. It kicks ass!!!

Make sure you go see Yonaka live when you can. The small venues won't contain them for long. They are aiming big, and they have the weapons at their disposal to do it. If you like Royal Blood, Wolf Alice, modern grime or 90s grunge, there is something here for you. If you like the sound of Gwen Stefani, but you wish she had the intensity of Biffy Clyro, check this band out. I'm so excited to see what's next.

Go look at them on Instagram, go listen to what they have to say on Facebook, and just like me, go pester them on Twitter (I promise I'll stop fanboying you soon, guys).

Most importantly, go listen to them on Spotify and all the other places you can listen to music, they are dead good at it.

Andrew W.K. - You're Not Alone

I fucking love Andrew W.K!! I love everything about him. I love his political ideas, his look, his strange piano album, his voice, his whole attitude to life, and I especially love the fact that he followed me on Twitter last week. Everyone has that somebody that they just enjoy: A comedian that makes you laugh just by walking on stage, and actor that has you interested before they speak a single word, that person, for me, is Andrew WK. So, this review may be a bit biased.

I fucking love this record!! You probably saw that coming.

It's an entire album of uplifting anthems that will make you feel on top of the world. The catchy-ass anthems are broken up nicely with a trio of spoken word sections. I don't want to go into too much detail, because I want you to go and listen to this record. You won't regret it.

I'd been listening to ‘Music Is Worth Living For’ for a week or 2, and it's a perfect opener to the album (after the atmospheric intro) and really sets the tone for what we are about to experience. Yeah, it's a bit cheesy, but it's so much fun. Isn't that the point? We're in for a ride!

The album flips between genres, there is classic rock with ‘Give Up On You’. There's a bit of Rock Opera, ‘The Devil's On Your Side’ wouldn't sound out of place on a Broadway Musical. There is punk rock, ‘I Don't Know Anything’ has the potential to be a dancefloor anthem for years to come. My personal favourite is ‘Ever Again’ with it’s motivational lyrics, pounding percussion and strange little guitar effects. Whatever musical genre this is, it sounds exactly as it should. It sounds like Andrew W.K.

I'm trying to a be a bit subjective, I'm trying to think of negative things to say about it, just so this review is balanced. I've seen other critics saying the album is too long. To that, I say: this the first time in 8 years we have new music from Andrew W.K. and I believe this is his best work since his PHENOMENAL debut album ‘I Get Wet’! So shut up, it's not too long!

The only negative I can think of, is that the vinyl isn't available in the UK just yet. Does that count?

Anyway. We're not music critics here at ALOMR, we're not journalists, we're music fans, and I am fanboying like crazy with this record.

As a race, we are finally starting to accept and deal with Anxiety and Depression. Life is hard, there are many struggles and many obstacles. But there are just as many people willing to help. We are attacking this head on. We have doctors and medicine, we have outlets, therapy. We are all in this together, and we have brilliant minds working hard to beat this. You're Not Alone!

The title of this blog, A Life Of Music Rocks, signifies how we feel. Music helps us through the dark times, music alters our mood instantly, music keeps us moving forward, music cures. Andrew WK is a poster boy for these feelings. That's why I fucking love him, and I fucking love this record!

If, like Me, you cannot wait to scream these songs back at the man himself, he is on tour with his band very soon. Catch him live in April, in Cardiff (13th), London (14th), Birmingham (15th), Norwich  (18th), Portsmouth (19th), Manchester (20th, I'll be there) and Glasgow (21st).

Do yourself a favour, listen to this album. I promise it will make you feel great, it will make you want to go outside and win at sports, achieve things, or at the very least, it will make you smile.

...and isn't that what makes life beautiful?

Thanks Andrew.

(Did anyone notice how I wrote that entire blog without using the word ‘Party’? Mission Accomplished, that was difficult)

Valentine's Day Metal Playlist

It's Valentine's day and it may seem that everywhere you turn this year, all you hear is bloody Ed Sheeran or Rita Ora. We don't like to criticise anybody's taste in music here, but if you are reading this blog, chances are you want something different.

Metal isn't all doom and gloom. So, for a little change today, I thought I'd raid my wife's Spotify, and create a playlist of Valentine's Day Metal!!

So for those of you who wanna "rock 'n romantic", have a listen to what is probably the only Valentine's playlist with Slipknot on it. This playlist is most certainly not safe for work (especially Nine Inch Nails). Have a nice day, guys.