Tour Dates

02/10/10 Flower Pot – Camden/Kentish Town London
02/26/10 Molotow* Hamburg, Germany
02/27/10 Postbahnhof * Trap Berlin, Germany
02/28/10 Gloria * Cologne, Germany
03/02/10 Atomic* Trap Munich, Germany
03/03/10 Nachtleben* Frankfurt, Germ
03/14/10 Ruby lounge Manchester
03/15/10 Korova Liverpool
03/16/10 Bodega Nottingham
03/17/10 Cockpit Leeds
03/19/10 Portland Arms — Cambridge
03/20/10 Academy 2 Birminghan
03/21/10 Academy 2 Oxford
03/22/10 Audio Brighton
03/24/10 Electric Ballroom London
03/25/10 Joiners Southampton
03/26/10 Start the Bus Bristol
03/27/10 Barfly Cardiff
03/29/10 Roadmender Northampton
03/30/10 Academy 2 Sheffield
03/31/10 Academy 2 Newcastle
04/01/10 Central Station Wrexham
04/03/10 King Tuts Glasgow
04/04/10 Madhatters Invereness
04/05/10 Snafu Aberdeen
04/06/10 Fat Sams Dundee
04/17/10 Loop Festival Granada
05/01/10 Mercury Lounge New York City

* w/ The Temper Trap

You do know that Sally and I geeked out on Welsh Britpop Bands, right? And you know I have been following this Welsh trio called The Joy Formidable since their first single, back in July 2008. I’m happy to report that they are about to set on a headliner tour through the UK for 2010, including a much anticipated sold-out show in Cambridge on March 19^th.

I finally got a hold of their debut album, A Balloon Called Moaning, for review and it’s very indie fuzzy rock. The album is quite short too, about 30 minutes. I had to listen to it five times to just get the understanding of it (lastfm is logging me at 40 listens).

Their debut single, “Austere”, certain stood out for me with that chorus and chaotic rock, combined with the beautiful voice of singer Ritzy Bryan. Their latest single, “Whirring”, also found on the album is more or less uses the same blueprint.

The one that that didn’t seem to belong on this loud rock album was “9669”, featuring dueling male/female vocals (possibly from bassist Rhydian Dafydd?). Though that was quite different, the rest of the album remains on track.

My favorite song is actually their second single “Cradle”. It sounds like a really good live track because of the flood of lyrics at the intro: “I can’t see what he says what he means, I can’t say what he means when he says that I pretend that I’m pretend that when all I want to see is the end of this.”

Although the 8-track “mini-album” is really short, I think the best part about it is that the album was re-released on a special “A3 Sheet”. That’s what the British are calling it, but to me it’s just a big fold-out poster with the CD inserted on one of the square. I think it’s cool, and I’m pretty sure everyone that’s seen it thinks so too. I’ve included a photograph of this really interesting package. The best part is, if you’ve bought the original release, you can get the poster sent to you for free – details on bigcartel.com.

Fans of melodic loud indie rock music should want to see them on tour and pick up the poster/CD packaging for A Balloon Called Moaning.