Kids in Glass Houses
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| Kids In Glass Houses | |
|---|---|
| Origin |  Cardiff, Wales, UK |
| Genre(s) | Pop Punk Pop Rock Powerpop |
| Years active | 2003–Present |
| Label(s) | Roadrunner Records |
| Website | Kids in Glass Houses |
| Members | |
| Aled Phillips (vocals) Joel Fisher (guitar) Iain Mahanty (guitar) Andrew Shay (bass) Phil Jenkins (drums) |
|
| Former members | |
| Aled Rees (guitar) Earl Phillips (bass) |
|
Kids In Glass Houses are a five-piece rock band from the surrounding valleys of Cardiff, the capital of Wales. Boasting influences ranging from the classic pop of The Police, Michael Jackson, Prince, and The Beach Boys to the British rock of Stereophonics, Blur and Pulp to the hardcore/punk stylings of Glassjaw, Refused and The Movielife. The band's name is inspired by a lyric in Glassjaw song 'Tip Your Bartender'. The line is "not throwing stones at you anymore".
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[edit] History
[edit] Beginnings (2003-2007)
The quintet had a series of support slots during late 2006 and early 2007, playing alongside Lostprophets, Cute Is What We Aim For, 30 Seconds to Mars, Hundred Reasons, Manic Street Preachers and The Goo Goo Dolls. In the bands early stages, they also shared the stage with the likes of Funeral for a Friend and The Used on the Taste of Chaos 2005 UK tour in Cardiff. They also supported Funeral for a Friend in their 2007 December tour. They have also supported Paramore and New Found Glory on the 2008 RIOT Tour - during which, guitarist Iain Mahanty, has been known to join New Found Glory onstage to perform their song, Hit or Miss.
In 2007, the band appeared at Give It A Name Festival, The Full Ponty Festival, Download Festival, Hyde Park Calling, Farnham's Summer Breeze Festival, Collision Course Festival and the Reading and Leeds Festivals.
During their time as an unsigned band, the band garnered a rare and unprecedented amount of press and support from the likes of Kerrang, NME, Big Cheese, Rocksound, Tuned and Total Guitar magazines, as well as BBC Radio 1 and XFM.In a television interview Lostprophets vocalist Ian Watkins claimed that 'relatively unknown bands such as Kids in Glass Houses are a lot better than a lot of known bands out there.'
In August 2007, the band were nominated for Best British Newcomer at the Kerrang Awards, where the group were beaten to the award by Gallows. Despite Kids in Glass Houses' disappointment at not winning, fellow countrymen Lostprophets brought the band up on stage with them to claim their own award. During the run up to the awards, Kids in Glass Houses played a special show, titled The Day Of Rock, inside Virgin Megastores on Oxford Street, London, alongside Enter Shikari, Fightstar, The Answer and Turisas.
During October 2007, the band completed a 16 date headline tour of the UK supported by London's Tonight Is Goodbye and friends of the bands rotating on the tour - Saidmike and The New 1920. Following that they supported fellow Welshmen, Funeral For A Friend on their December 2007 UK tour.
[edit] Smart Casual (2008-Present)
Between the October and December tours, the band recorded their debut album at Long Wave Studios with Romesh Dodangoda, who also produced the band's previous EP. [1] During a studio session, the band recorded a live version of Glassjaw song Ry Ry's Song. The song was uploaded to their MySpace page for a limited time.
They signed to Roadrunner records on the 8th of December 2007, shortly before going on stage to support Funeral For A Friend.[2]
The band released "Easy Tiger" as their next single. They recently completed the video, which has received considerable rotation on music channels, as well as entered the Kerrang! Top 10 Overdrive upon the first week of its release.[3]
The band released their debut album, entitled Smart Casual, on May 26, 2008. The album features re-recordings of three songs from E-Pocalypse!. Prior to this, the single "Give Me What I Want" (a re-recording of the track "Me Me Me") was released on May 19, 2008.
On Sunday 25th May 2008, Kids In Glass Houses were amongst other bands, performing on the Glamour Kills stage, in Leeds at the Slam Dunk Festival. It was said that the band had received the best reaction from the crowd.
[edit] Live Performances
During live performances the band are known to cover a number of songs, these have included Ashlee Simpson's 'La La' combined Glassjaw's 'Pretty Lush', 'New Noise' by Refused and 'AM/PM' by American Nightmare. The band also covered 'Thriller' by Michael Jackson at their Halloween shows in 2006 and 2007, as well as Mariah Carey's 'All I Want For Christmas Is You' the previous Christmas. Footage of their covers can be found on YouTube. In addition to this, Iain, Shay, Joel and Phil all have the 'iconic' flamingo design - from the band's t-shirts - tattooed on their legs.
[edit] Discography
[edit] Albums
- Smart Casual (CD/deluxe edition) [May 2008] (#29 UK)
[edit] EPs
- The Things Bricks Say (When Your Back Is Turned) (demo CDr) [2004] - Out of Print
- Trust Issues With Magicians (sampler demo CDr) [2005] - Out of Print
- E-Pocalypse! (demo CD) [2006] - Out of Print
[edit] Singles
- "Me Me Me" (now known as "Give Me What I Want") (ltd. 7"/download single) [June 2007] - Out of Print
- "Easy Tiger" (ltd. 7" picture disc/download single) [March 2008] - 7" limited to 2000 copies
- "Give Me What I Want" (formerly "Me Me Me") (CD/7"/download single) [May 2008]
- "Saturday"
[edit] Chart Positions
[edit] Singles
| Year | Title | Chart Positions | Album | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK Singles Chart | UK Rock Chart | UK Indie Chart | |||
| 2008 | "Easy Tiger" | 113 | - | - | Smart Casual |
| 2008 | "Give Me What I Want" | 62 | - | - | Smart Casual |
| 2008 | "Saturday" | - | - | - | Smart Casual |
[edit] Notable Press Coverage
- Kids in Glass Houses featured in Kerrang magazines "The Hottest New Bands On The Planet!" feature at the beginning of 2007.
- NME magazine ranked the band at number 3 of 10 in their 'Best New Bands' review of the 2007 Reading and Leeds Carling Festivals.
- The band won the Fresh Meat section on DJ Zane Lowe's Radio 1 show.
- The band recorded a live session for Daniel P Carter's Radio 1 Rock Show at the legendary Maida Vale studios.
- They have performed on Lily Allen and Friends.
[edit] Other Projects/Bands
Previous projects/bands the band have been involved with include:
- In 2008, Iain teamed up with Drew Elliott, of friends and tour buddies, The New 1920, to start an acoustic project named 'Dirty Leaves'. They will be recording in April and playing shows.
- Aled has spoken of undertaking two new projects in 2008. The first is a solo project under the guise, 'Timid Monster', which is said to be 'lo-fi indie storytelling'. The second is apparently called 'L'enfant Sauvage' and is proposed to be an electronic project with various collaborators and friends.
- In 2006, Aled, Iain and Philip started and played in the band 'Bearfight!'. They were a hardcore band influenced by The Swing Kids, Bad Brains and Converge. Rumour has it that the band will record the tracks later this year, but have no immediate plans to play shows again.
- Phil and Joel provided backing vocals on The Blackout's I'm A Riot, You're A Fucking Riot from The Blackout! The Blackout! The Blackout! EP.
- Aled provided vocals on think:Fire's They Shape Shift from the Swings And Roundabouts EP.
- Iain played guitar for Dopamine up until 2006 and their last release Experiments With Truth.
- Shay played bass for Welsh band The Next Nine Years.
[edit] References
- ^ rocklouderKids In Glass Houses recording and demoing debut album - retrieved January 7th 2008
- ^ Kerrang! Kids In Glass Houses sign a deal!
- ^ myspace- blog post- Wednesday, January 02, 2008 "mission statement"
[edit] External links
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