The Skinner Brothers

The Skinner Brothers – Soul Boy

The Skinner Brothers are the hardest-working band around. Fact. This year they released a breakthrough album, an eclectic EP and now, they have followed it up with a new single ‘Soul Boy’.

To date, The Skinner Brothers have been cultivating a sound that, caressed the edges of true originality but, hadn’t quite made the leap. On their new single ‘Soul Boy’ they’ve lept head first off a cliff and reinvented the game.

The drama of The Streets and the venom of Jamie T unite to forge a spiteful and vengeful piece of brilliance. This is the sound of 2am erupting into sweat-filled mayhem. Feelings of isolation and imprisonment bubble up with bile before exploding into a Fatboy Slim fuelled rage. Then, just when you can’t take the visceral assault anymore, Danni Burton Is introduced with superb homage to rave-era vocals to blow all your troubles away in a moment of sheer ecstasy.

Frontman Zac Skinner has hit the headlines of late. To dreary pop fans, bands who take shortcuts, and the ill-informed at the NME, he has done so for the wrong reasons. No matter which way you look at it, they’re wrong. Music is art, it should test the soul within an inch of its existence. If you can look us in the eye and say Louis Tomlison and NME do that, that they don’t take shortcuts for financial gain then so be it, leave use alone, we’re better than you!

‘Soul Boy II’ felt like a breakthrough album for the band. It took them to the main stages of festivals, major support slots for Kasabian. The Libertines, The Streets, and The Music and a sold-out tour. The single ‘Soul Boy’ however, is ground-breaking. It’s the kick up the arse the scene needed. Zac told us so and delivered it with interest.

Image courtesy of Fear PR

The Skinner Brothers: Chinnerys, Southend

Back in June, The Skinner Brothers opened for The Music’s all-dayer comeback at Temple Newsum in Leeds. Much like The Coral did in 2002 at Finsbury Park, they announced themselves to many as pretenders to the throne. They blew the Snuts off stage and edged The Coral and The Cribs off too. Nothing that day was stopping The Music from being triumphant though.

Fast forward to this past Thursday and they were headlining Chinnerys in Southend. With home county support from The Lucettas and hometown support from San Quentin, you’d have been forgiven for thinking the same could have happened to them.

Not a chance!

In support of their latest EP ‘Lonedom’, they played the title track and ‘Mellow’. ‘Lonedom’, ironically ignores its message and unites a crowd in a sweat-ridden singalong. Meanwhile, the guitar hooks of ‘Mellow’ resound out like Carl Barat playing lead for the Arctic Monkeys

The acclaimed ‘Soul Boy II’ album makes up the bulk of the set. ‘Culture Non-Stop’ and ‘Iconic’ see Zachary Skinner’s laconic drawl drift through the seaside air to remind everyone who the mortal ones are. Whereas on record, the band often gets into a soulful groove, here, they are harder and faster. It takes their soulful sound towards The Reytons but with far more depth.

In 2002, The Libertines launched their good ship Albion. Not many fellow bands got it. The Skinner brothers did. Their rapport, free beers, and demanding people on their shoulders (and fuck the consequences) brought rock ‘n’ roll closer to the punters for the first time in a long time.

 

The Skinner Brothers - Lonedon EP

Not resting on the laurels of ‘Soul Boy II’, London’s The Skinner Brothers have returned with their new EP ‘Lonedom’.

Images & artwork courtesy of Fear PR

here is our track-by-track review:

Lonedon

Frontman Zac Skinner’s vocals should be iconic by now. On this latest offing, he has the gruffness of beans on Toast, the insolence of Jamie T but, crucially it’s his soul-boy persona that shines brightest. Theirs an air of the 80s wide boy donning the finest Fila jacket sipping G&T’s surveying the chancers who know better to cross him.

Despite the coolness of the record, their anxiety permeates throughout as our protagonist struggles to belong in London. The big smoke is a vibrant joyous place full of choices if you can afford it. For anyone slipping financially, mentally, or emotionally, it can be a pressure cooker waiting to blow. The Skinner brothers take those infectious laid-back licks of The Astors and the chilled bombast of Eddie Floyd for a walk along desolation row. The solo that blasts out twice takes the band to another level altogether. The Coral’s ‘Magic and Medicine’ unites with Miles Kane’s dreams of rock star status to conjure a perfect blend of isolation and toxicity.

The Mellow

It may lack the 100 overdubs but, it embodies Ashcroft’s sense of freedom on ‘Urban Hymns’. Spikey lyrics, stoner melodies, and escapist guitars unite to create bugged-out rock ‘n’ roll for the 4am finishers.

Loaded Gun

Jamie T’s guttural glory combines with a Fatboy Slim–esque riff. This is gloriously unhinged debauchery set to unite groups of mates on both triumphant and failed nights out for a generation. It has a raw sense of adventure destined to be a catalyst for another wave of bands.

Make It Count

The effortlessness of Peter Bjorn & John and Foster The People flirting with the lo-fi magic of Ian Brown’s unfinished Monkey Business.

The Skinner Brothers - Lonedon

The Skinner Brothers are wasting no time after the success of their latest album ‘Soul Boy II’. Their new single ‘Lonedom’ will be released on August 19th ahead of their new EP of the same name on September 23rd.

Images courtesy of Fear PR

Frontman Zac Skinner’s vocals should be iconic by now. On this latest offing, he has the gruffness of beans on Toast, the insolence of Jamie T but, crucially it’s his soul-boy persona that shines brightest. Theirs an air of the 80s wide boy donning the finest Fila jacket sipping G&T’s surveying the chancers who know better to cross him.

Despite the coolness of the record, their anxiety permeates throughout as our protagonist struggles to belong in London. The big smoke is a vibrant joyous place full of choice if you can afford it. For anyone slipping financially, mentally or emotionally, it can be a pressure cooker waiting to blow. The Skinner brothers take those infectious laid-back licks of The Astors and the chilled bombast of Eddie Floyd for a walk along desolation row. The solo that blasts out twice takes the band to another level altogether. The Coral’s ‘Magic and Medicine’ unites with Miles Kane’s dreams of rock star status to conjure a perfect blend of isolation and toxicity.

I wanted the EP to have a mixtape kind of feel” says Skinner, on this showing, it’s shaping up to be of a very high calibre.

Tour Dates

OCTOBER 

1st - Manchester, Neighbourhood Festival 

2nd - Blackpool, Bootleg Social 

4th - Southampton, Joiners 

5th - Southend, Chinnery’s 

6th - London, O2 Academy Islington 

8th - Cambridge, Mash 

9th - Guildford, The Boiler Room 

10th - Oxford, Bullingdon Arms 

12th - Edinburgh. The Caves 

14th - Stockton, KU 

15th - Live At Leeds