A FESTIVAL, A PARADE

If you put a gun to my head (please don’t) and said ‘who’s your favourite band?’, I think I’d have to say The National. I love Matt Berninger and co and think they’ve created some wonderful albums, so I was very excited to see a new group taking one of their lyrics (it’s from ‘All The Wine’, put the gun down) as their name.

It might be a lazy comparison to make, but there are shades of The National in A Festival, A Parade. But there’s also a resemblance to fellow New York brooders Interpol and some of the pulsating guitar wouldn’t sound out of place in a Placebo song. And yet you certainly can’t call them a rip-off of anyone – ‘If Dogs Could Talk’… has its own angular, atmospheric sound.

This is A Festival, A Parade’s debut single but you wouldn’t know it – it’s mature and interesting and sounds like it comes from a band who have been at this for years. The single comes out today and if you’re lucky enough to be up in the North East they’re playing a few gigs in their hometown of Newcastle over the next few months.

Words by Tom Worley

Tipped by Charlotte Holroyd