Words: Mav

Hello and welcome to Sleeping Giants, the special place where we get nosey about some up and coming bands. Like radar for music! Only far less useful.

This month we find scuttling among the bins the Welsh A59 and the local Grown At Home.

Grown At Home are a youngish band but one with a big following and a strong repertoire of songs. They perform in the sacred sphere of ska punk pop and so if you were expecting an evening without trumpets, I have bad news. There will be brass; but, it’s good brass, the brass of jumpy entertainment and pseudo soulful mini epics, ala <jake.

GAH are a confident band and perform well live too. They have made their sound their own and have some cracking tracks on their myspace, notably ‘Yesterday’ and ‘Three Strikes’ which is reminds of Sonic Boom Six and the catchy, crunchy rock of the early 90s MTV bands. They have played with a great list of bands including the aforementioned SB6, Jimmy Eat World, Motion City Soundtrack, MXPX and many more.

Since then they've headlined the Ska Trek - The Next Generation tour, and joined Sonic Boom Six on their Arcade Perfect album release tour (which we loved at SWM). After the departure of singer Nick and a line up change they have taken on a new image, wrote new material and developed old tracks.They are currently writing and recording for their new record, which is planned to be released summer 2008.

http://www.myspace.com/grownathome 

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A59 are from Wrexham where I learned to shut out the trauma of divorced parents, and have expounded their ballady rock for a few years now.
I say ballads because their tracks have really strong and emotive vocals, not to be confused with emo.

These vocals carry the band and give them a melancholy feel that gives credibility to their music. Check out ‘This Isn’t Goodbye’ on their myspace for a gist of this effect. Their music is heartfelt and refreshingly honest in the current climate of consumer emo bullshit.

This is what they had to say for themselves:
A59 are a new fresh band from north wales, influenced by themselves they want to bring a new kind of live show to audiences. Equipped with snappy energetic verses, they deliver massive powerful choruses that will certainly pull on your heart strings. The self managed band plan on recording an album and touring as much as possible of 2009.

Check out "This isn't goodbye, it's just au reviour" and "The hope" for a good taster of what you can expect from A59.

http://www.myspace.com/a59music