Moderate Rebels - The Rad Trads
Background - London-based collective Moderate Rebels release ‘I Love Today’, streaming from 8th August, from their second album ‘Shared Values’, which will be out 30th November on Everyday Life Recordings.
Unlike previous single ‘Beyond Hidden Words’, which can be heard as a defiant, repetitive yet hopeful chant, ‘I Love Today’ is a shift in style. It has some verses, choruses and even a middle eight section… And Moderate Rebels say they "still don’t know if this song is optimistic or not”.
Moderate Rebels: “Both ‘I Love Today’ and ‘Beyond Hidden Words’ were made without us knowing what musically they exactly are… Or even letting that particular question really get involved in their making. We’re quite comfortable saying that we didn’t know what we were doing.”
“To our ears , ‘I Love Today’ is chaotic, falling apart, off at a tangent and nearly glam. Perhaps set in an old fashioned social club. A faint trace of The Equals, The Foundations, Edison Lighthouse etc… An attempt at a big singalong number, but heard through broken, smudged windows and with a sense of tension. But we’re mostly guessing to be honest – there was no conscious intention of any of that by us.”
“The lyrics could be about appreciating and living in the moment, about not being told what you personally should be worrying about by anybody else, and about how you can just about always find chaos and disaster in the world to look at – if that’s what you are looking for. Or not. We really don’t know whether it’s an optimistic song or not, and that’s interesting enough for us, and hopefully others”.
“Some London gigs and a UK tour in November are being planned. We may play ‘I Love Today’ and other new songs for the whole 45 minutes at some shows. We’ve done it before with [MR’s first single] ‘God Sent Us’ and enjoyed it very much… None of us knew what was going on or what would happen. Once you get a taste for that kind of chaotic night… It’s addictive.” TWITTER.
We featured ‘Beyond Hidden Words’ in early July and now we have our second taster for the bands November album release. With an imposing, marching beat 'I Love Today' arrives in a dramatic manner, the spoken vocals are irresistible (and this time around we get a lot more lyrics), this is hypnotic and contagious material. Ever the optimist I am looking forward (hopefully) to a further glimpse of what's on the album ahead of the release date.
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Background - New York City-based band, The Rad Trads, share the official music video for their new single "Wishing Well." The band just finished up the first leg of their extensive US run, which included select shows with Lake Street Dive, and they'll kick off the next run of national dates, throughout September and early October, with their On Tap LP release show on Friday, September 14th at Mercury Lounge. In mid-October, the band heads to Spain, for a run of 10 dates throughout the country. See below for details on their tour. On Tap LP is due out September 14th (pre-order here).
On Tap serves as the world's introduction to the diverse possibilities The Rad Trads have to offer from the studio. Revered for their live shows, On Tap sees the five songwriters pull back the curtain on their passion for arrangement and orchestration, introducing a sea of horns, harmonies, gritty grooves, and psychedelic guitar textures.
Songs like "Thumbtack" and "The Little Pie Blues" share a nod towards their playful use of acoustic instruments while powerhouses "Good Luck Unto Ya" and "Wishing Well" make for unbridled bookends. "My Place" and "Key Club" highlight the diverse sonic pallet the band has grown to embrace. The band's contagious fun-loving nature shines throughout, a feeling that their fans will find familiar. WEBSITE.
Less than a fortnight since we shared 'Good Luck Unto Ya' from The Rad Trads, they are back with a new music video for 'Wishing Well'. Opening in a slow soulful manner accompanied with some classic blues feeling, the song veers towards southern rock at times, and the magnificent horns, do their stuff in style and even the drummer gets his moment in the spotlight. Two contrasting songs in, and I am very impressed by this band, make that very, very impressed.
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