a gently maturing fierce panda one sheet

The Act: THE KABEEDIES

The Release: 'SOAP'

The Format: CD / DOWNLOAD ALBUM

The Label: FIERCE PANDA

The Catalogue Number: NONG 72CD

The Release Date: JANUARY 23RD 2012

The Tracklisting:
1 ‘Hang Ups Of The West’.
2 ‘Elizabeth’.
3 ‘The Boy With The Bad Mouth’.
4 ‘Bones’.
5 ‘Drowning Doll’.
6 ‘Santiago’.
7 ‘Come Out Of The Blue’.
8 ‘Eyes’.
9 ‘Underfloor Lover’.
10 ‘L.T.’

The Truth: THE KABEEDIES live in Norwich. They consist of Rory (microphone / bass), Fab (drummings), Katie (microphone) and Evan (microphone / guitar). They each contribute songs to the collective Kabeedies cause, describe themselves as “a suspicious gathering of some boys and a girl” and fling out influences as wired and varied as Blondie to Bombay Bicycle Club via Buddy Holly, Black Flag and Chuck Berry. And those are just the ‘B’s. With their childhood roots in both Norfolk and Suffolk they are the biggest thing to come out of East Anglia since Stephen Fry’s colossal brain.

** ‘Soap’ is their second album, and their first release on fierce panda (although seven inch spotters may care to remember that their ‘Treasure Hunting’ single was released on panda spin-off label Cool For Cats in 2008). Speaking of 2008, this was very same year The Kabeedies debut single ‘Lovers Ought To’ was released on Cherryade Records, backed by a wee tune called ‘Come On’, which was subsequently picked up by those groovy cats at Microsoft for their Xbox Kinect televisual campaign. Such is life in the casually evolving Kabeedies world.

. ** In 2009 they released their debut album ‘Rumpus’ which, as the title may suggest, was a fizzbanging collage of yelps and twangs and jumpy artrocking angles which – to some sage old ears anyway - came across not entirely unlike Claire Grogan fronting The Futureheads. It was generally described as being ‘insanely life-affirming’, got voted number 9 in Artrocker’s top albums of the year and kick started a touring schedule which saw near riots at Latitude and Hamburg’s Dockville Festivals and hectic live shows with Everything Everything, Darwin Deez, Hurts and CSS.

** That was then. And this, as they say, is now. “We’re not writing songs as fifteen year olds anymore,” says Roary. True, there are still moments of twitchy fun to be had (cf previous singles ‘Come Out Of The Blue’ and ‘Santiago’) but elsewhere ‘Soap’ is the relative calm after the bubblegum storm of ‘Rumpus’. There are touches of Paul Simon’s more sombre moods, a flourish of grown up brass here, a soupcon of morose strings there and some songs with titles like ‘Bones’ and ‘Drowning Doll’. Oh, and then it gets really introspective and weird in ‘Underfloor Lover’.

** “I originally thought of ‘Soap’ based around the idea that the second album was a catharsis for all of us, effectively washing-off what we had done with ‘Rumpus’ and starting again,” explains drummer Fab. “And with this catharsis we were able to express ourselves properly and in a slightly more sophisticated way through songs like ‘Bones’ and ‘L.T.’ I could also go into some bollocks about soap being explosive (a la ‘Fight Club’) but I think that maaay be pushing it…”

** Come feel the froth with The Kabeedies when they tour the UK in the New Year, like this…
25th JAN: CHELMSFORD Bitterscene
26th JAN: IPSWICH Swan (FREE)
27th JAN: BLACKBURN Live Lounge (FREE)
28th JAN: BRADFORD Delius
02nd FEB: HULL Adelphi
04th FEB: MIDDLESBROUGH Bandstand @ The Crown
09th FEB: CARDIFF 10 Feet Tall
10th FEB: PORTH The Factory
11th FEB: READING South Street Arts Centre
15th FEB: LONDON Camden Barfly
16th FEB: BRIGHTON The Hope
17th FEB: LEICESTER Soundhouse
18th FEB: BURY ST EDMUNDS LP
23rd FEB: NOTTINGHAM Rescue Rooms
24th FEB: NORWICH Waterfront
25th FEB: LEAMINGTON SPA Bread Club
29th FEB: LEEDS Nation Of Shopkeepers
01st MAR: LIVERPOOL Mojo (FREE)
02nd MAR: MANCHESTER Deaf Institute
03rd MAR: WAKEFIELD Black Flag
www.myspace.com/thekabeedies