The Electric Soft Parade
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The Electric Soft Parade are a Brighton based indie rock band comprising siblings Alex and Tom White, who are the creative core of the band, as well as a number of other musicians who they record and perform live with; Matthew Twaites from Restlesslist on bass and Mathew Priest from Dodgy on drums.
Alex and Tom formed Fixed Ascent, which became The Feltro Media (with bassist Alistair Gavan, now of Diomedes), before renaming themselves The Soft Parade and signing to indie label DB in early 2001 (without Gavan). They added the 'Electric' part of their name shortly after their early singles began getting some attention in the rock press - they were threatened with legal action by a Doors tribute band if they did not change it. This did not halt their rise to (relative) fame at all, however, and their debut album, Holes In The Wall, was issued in February 2002. It was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize later that year, although they did not win the award.
Their second album, The American Adventure appeared in October 2003, now on BMG records.
Alex and Tom have since started a side project in the form of Brakes with British Sea Power's ex keyboardist Eamon Hamilton and Marc Beatty of The Tenderfoot. The White brothers have also been assisting up-and-coming Brighton acts such as The Pipettes and Actress Hands.
The band released the 6 track The Human Body EP on Truck Records in December 2005, with more than enough ideas for a 3rd full-length LP due early 2007 (possibly titled No Need To Be Down-Hearted, a lyric from a song called 15 Ways by The Fall from the Middle Class Revolt album)
The U.S. Human Body EP out May 2006 includes bonus track The Captain released on Better Looking Records The Electric Soft Parade made their first U.S. appearance at the South by Southwest Festival in March and played at The Great Escape Festival, Brighton in May.
Following their appearance at the Truck Festival, Oxford in July 2006 they have a track on the Festival Compilation, titled The Friday Before Christmas. They played Europa Music Festival, Rotterdam and End Of The Road Festival, Dorset in September, followed by a UK Tour in September/October.
They next released a 7" single, Life In The Back-Seat, in November 2006, backed with Actress Hands Why The Sale (part of a limited series to mark the 10th anniversary of Truck Festival in 2007) and appear on the It's Not Like Christmas compilation in aid of Shelter (charity)
The Electric Soft Parade's Silent To The Dark features on the Isle Of Wight Festival 2004 DVD.
[edit] Discography
- Holes in the Wall (February 2002)
- The American Adventure (October 2003)
- The Human Body EP (December 2005)
[edit] External links
- electricsoftparade.com – official fan-run website
- Tom White's personal blog and music collection at MOG.com
- ESP on MySpace – hear the "Misunderstanding" demo
- Truck Records – UK record label
- Better Looking Records – US record label
- Twisted Ear ESP Feature – Story of the band from an interview in 2006