Mazes jump into summer with a fizzing 1’56’ worth of pure ‘Summer Hits’ on the 20th June. Their effervescent just-out debut ‘A Thousand Heys’ – from which it hails – has enjoyed an extremely enthusiastic reception and following their first full UK tour supporting Dum Dum Girls the band can be found at the Camden Crawl, Great Escape and Stag & Dagger in the coming weeks (see below for details).
Catch Mazes Live! – at Camden Crawl, Great Escape, Stag & Dagger…
27-April Manchester Deaf Institute (supporting Times New Viking)
28-April Sheffield Queens Social Club (supporting Best Coast)
29-Aprik York, Stereo
30-April Live at Leeds
01-May Camden Crawl@ Koko
14-May Great Escape@ Green Door Store
19-May Stag & Dagger London @ Village Underground
21-May Stag & Dagger Glasgow @ Captains Rest
Recorded last November on an old lightship moored on the Thames opposite the Millennium Dome, ‘A Thousand Heys’ (FatCat, 11th April) captures the excitement and fizzing energy of a band still in day-jobs with everything in front of them. And, by taking 10 instead of the usual one – maybe two – days to record, it delivers that energy while sounding like one of the freshest, most life-affirming collections any of us are going to hear this year.
Mazes appreciation of the D.I.Y ethos and sense of community amongst their peers – Pens, Cold Pumas, Male Bonding, Spectrals – stems from the attitude many of the acts they admire embraced. Jack runs Suffering Jukebox whilst Conan, also a member of Graffiti Island, is CEO of Italian Beach Babes, labels that are very much a part of what makes the UK scene so vibrant at the moment. ‘A Thousand Heys’ sees Mazes dart in and out of their respective record collections with the rapacious enthusiasm of wide-eyed kids in the proverbial sweet shop. Embellished with Pavement’s wayward clatter, Buzzcocks’ intensity, and Big Star-esque nihilist lyrics, they can sound like a British Invasion group: Witness the syncopated McCartney bassline that kicks in on ‘Surf & Turf’, and it’s cheeky opener ‘I get off trains and wave, like Beatles at JFK’.
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