Based around Staffordshire, we're looking to promote the local scene and specifically to review live concerts or recordings from bands around the area. If you want to be on the blog just get in touch and if we like what we hear we'll write about it.
Perhaps one of Stoke-on-Trent's longest serving young bands, Friends Of Ken have been around for over 10 years now, delivering their own light-hearted brand of punk/pop and entertaining audiences locally, with trademark party atmospheres at many Halloween and Christmas extravaganzas down the years, FOK have now released their first full length LP - 'Il Tempo Gigante'. The album combines sheer thrasing punk energy with some seriously catchy melodies. The stand-out single 'Backwards' starts off reminiscent of My Vitriol but displaces their indie roots in favour of an explosive chorus reminscent of 'Bleed American' era Jimmy Eat World. The album is full of musical ebbs and flows, stop/start structures puncuate the record, without loosing its sense of flow. Playful back and forth vocal parts are present throughout and a mark of a band with an ear for radio and a smart attitude and some poptastic structuring, with their other single 'Pockets' and the previously unreleased 'Dance Like No One's Watching' and 'Wilhelm Scream' being stand out highlights. With the likes of the extremely influential and credible Steve Lamacq championing the band (in particularly the lead single 'Backwards') there is a feeling that perhaps after all this time and effort Friends Of Ken might finally be creeping their heads above the Stoke-on-Trent parapet and expanding out into the British punk scene and beyond. For fans of Lagwagon, Weezer and Three Colours Red this album is a must have, listeners less interested in pop-punk may not find many reasons to be converted, but there are moments here for fans of all styles of rock music, a powerful, assertive effort from a band who have had time to really hone and master their sound.
