The Joy Formidable: Quite a surpise... where did these guys come from?

Once people take you half ass serious as a blogger you get boat loads of emails from, well truthfully people like you and I, saying...

"Listen to my track please! It's like Babyshambles/Kraftwerk/Can/Velvet Underground/Underworld/Rick James sort of mix and it'll only take you 10 seconds to listen to! Thanks again, The Squad Of Flying Cats" or some shit...

And no doubt some of it is good. But I also understand now why I didn't/don't get responses from people I admired... because there's too many fucking musicians out there!

But I'm trying to keep my ears open because a few young bands who made debuts on this page have gone quite a ways since... and we don't want to miss out on more of them.

The Joy Formidable have to, I assume, have made in to the NME at some point now... because this song "Austere" is a fucking bonkers good 4/4 rock song... hell for all I know they're megastars... I've stopped reading British music magazines. Too much hype.

I also wanna say, I know up to this point I've always takled about how I dislike the Welsh, and well, I've just decided that I need to let people know I'm joking. They are capable for amazing things lol... just listen for yourself... below...

Here's the bio...
"Growing up in rural North Wales it's hard not to get itchy feet; and after years of playing pranks on each other, school friends Ritzy and Rhydian decided to musically join forces and share their escapist vision with the rest of the world. A chance meeting with Devon-born drummer Justin on a stroll through cyberspace and a few ensuing rants about their shared love of Costello, Eels and Bowie and an instant friendship was formed. A move to London sealed their fate and the melting pot of ideas and energy that is The Joy Formidable was born.

With the intricate darkness of Aubrey Beardsley and the brash naivety of Cable and Granddaddy, The Joy Formidable write whirling, monstrous pop songs, that leave you unsettled but smiling.

I never say things like this but I think they could probably sing children's songs in braile and they would still be popular given how good looking the singer is. I say that from a music critism angle.


Don't you just want to listen to that over and over again? Here's to them making a nice big indie splash... Here's some info that's worth you reading... starting with tour info typed out by the band themselves...

21 Sep Clwb Ifor Bach (Cardiff)
22 Sep Night & Day Cafe (Manchester)
24 Sep Little Civic (Wolverhampton)
25 Sep Bodega at The Social (Nottingham)
26 Sep Leadmill (Sheffield)
28 Sep Thekla (Bristol)
29 Sep Komedia (Brighton)
1 Oct Arts Centre (Norwich)
2 Oct The Cluny (Newcastle)
3 Oct King Tuts Wah Wah (Glasgow)
4 Oct Faversham (Leeds)
6 Oct Academy (Oxford)
7 Oct ICA (London)

If you're planning to attend any of these shows, be sure to say hello and buy our merchandise!! We look forward to meeting you

For those of you who aren't able to browse our merchandise table on the road, we are currently selling 2 limited edition designed T shirts on our myspace page http://www.thejoyformidable.bigcartel.com a snip at £7 and the soon to be sold-out 7" of Austere is still available from Pure Groove and Rough Trade stores.

Flogging aside, you can now listen back to our live Reading Festival performance of Cradle via Radio 1 on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYuTRMk8X3s and see some live pictures. Thanks to all who have contributed, keep sending us those shots.

Talking of live, we have some new dates through October and November to mention.
8th Oct Babyboom@ Lennons (Southampton)
15th Oct Eject.Rewind@ The Royal (Derby)
22nd Oct Now Wave with Those Dancing Days (Manchester)
13th Nov We are so Electric @ The Wilmington Arms (London) (remember those of you who pre-ordered the 7" get in free) and finally...
30th Nov The After Dark Club (Reading)

And the big news til last : we're delighted to announce that we'll be releasing a Japanese album at the end of the year through the fantastic indie label Rallye. http://www.myspace.com/rallyelabel
The release date is set for December 6th with tracklisting to follow. We are so looking forward to this.

Ok here's the meat... I'll post up that song... but in turn I want you go to to here and download the rest of their songs for free. Not a bad trade huh?

The Joy Formidable- "Austere" YSI

The Joy Formidable- "Austere" Rapidshare

Ok, I'll be back soon. Keep it locked!