This Saturday self-proclaimed “yelpcore” trio Oui Legionnaires release their new EP, ‘It’s Not What You Need, It’s What You’ve Got (so shut it)’. The EP sees the trio as DIY as ever, as they display a mix of scrappy emo punk that is reminscent of early Brand New and more recent bands; Modern Baseball and Johnny Foreigner.
Ahead of its release, we’ve teamed up with the Cheltenham three piece to stream the EP in full. On top of that, vocalist/bassist Chris Townsend talked us through the EP track-by-track.
1. Dear Charlie, please write a hilarious title for this song, lots of love Chris.mp3
Okay, firstly, I’ve already mentioned the title, a tongue in cheek, ironic title because I was too lazy to come up with anything. Musically it’s been reviewed as being an unnecessary track for the EP, the point being it’s only 46 seconds long but actually it’s purpose and influence comes from a band called I Kill Giants from Boston, MA. They split up last year 1 day after I first listened to them by sheer coincidence (honestly, it had nothing to do with me) and I loved them from the first note, they released an EP of short songs and it was a sort of homage to them. It’s got all the elements of a standard length song; verse, chorus, middle 8, different time signatures, catchy little riff… there’s everything in there that makes it a structurally sound track, it just happens to be under a minute long… no big deal.
2. F**k You Nottingham
Ahhh Nottingham… my nemesis. I’ll come clean, I don’t have anything against Nottingham as a place, it’s not a bad city, they’ve got a castle and a tram system, that’s pretty rad. It’s just the connections with people and bad things that have happened to me while I’ve been there. I nearly walked under a bus there on our first tour (not on purpose). The song originally started out as a Casio drumbeat acoustic demo me and Charlie did, and the lyrics have been floating around for some time now. It’s just relieving to have it recorded and released so I can finally move on from writing about ill-fated places and people and finally put that ghost to rest.
3. Flat Peaks
Once upon a few years ago our hometown became over-saturated by indie bands, then by nu rave bands, then by folk bands, then by hardcore bands. Not that anything’s wrong with any of those genres but pandering to the aesthetic of a scene because of popularity is just a shitty thing to do. There was an alternate title to this as well; “If I wanted to see twats in flat peaked caps, I’d go to a hardcore show in Cheltenham” (in that kind of half joking Blakfish way of writing song titles) and for a long time it just seemed like there was no progression and all the kids going to shows just seemed to act like arrogant d-bags, it’s about being sick of what’s happening around you by a music scene that will just eventually consume itself by genre based gluttony. I want to point out that I’m not saying I’m any kind of musical jesus by any stretch and it’s just an opinion based on being in and working with bands around that time.
4. Aimee Hooper’s M4 Party Express
Possibly the hardest song title ever to explain to anyone.
A friend of mine got invited to a public Facebook event; a girl’s 18th birthday party at Spatz nightclub in Swansea, he didn’t know her and definitely didn’t know the reason for the invitation, quite a few other people also found themselves in similar circumstances. Eventually he hatched a plan with 4 of his friends to each invite 1,000 people each to this public event. The girl who’s birthday it was, saw these thousands of people apparently “attending” her 18th in Swansea, and she hit the roof, expletives and obscenities flew around that event page and it soon became apparent that she was not a particularly nice person. I foolishly got involved and publicly asked if anybody would be interested in chipping in for a minibus to pick people up along the M4 on the way to the nightclub, she was not happy with this idea. I, of course wasn’t being serious about any of this but the sight of my last post of “PARTY EXPRESS!…” just seemed to perfect to pass up.
5. Million Dollar Shark Punch
Simply, a friend asked me one summer when we were bored if I’d ever punch a dog in the face for a million dollars, obviously I said no. They then said, “how about a shark?” I said yes, naturally, and that also I’d do it for free. I hate sharks, they’re terrifying. I don’t know what it was about that summer but it somehow spawned this song, what we know notably as our (circa 2003) emo summer hit.
‘It’s Not What You Need, It’s What You’ve Got (so shut it)’ EP by Oui Legionnaires is released on Saturday 21st March. You can pick up the EP from Bandcamp and Big Cartel. Oui Legionnaires will also be on tour in June with dates to be announced soon.
Oui Legionnaires links: Facebook|Twitter|Bandcamp|Big Cartel
