It has recently been announced that Manchester favourites Temple Songs have
changed their name to The Pink Teens. To celebrate, the band will be releasing the fantastic new EP “Good Luck, Pink Teens” The 12 track EP will be released digitally and on 12” vinyl through RIP Records on Monday 24th November.
Anyone familiar with the development of musical polymath Jolan Lewis and his former
outfit Temple Songs should understand that a willingness to escape having to meet other
people’s expectations is high on the agenda. So it goes; after revered vinyl releases and
bustling headline shows that previously caught the attention of the likes of NME
Magazine amongst a slew of other music publications, Temple Songs are no more.
Enter Pink Teens, a reshuffling of former Temple Songs musicians fronted again by
Lewis, who have readied a brand new nine-track EP that manages to shift the musical
dynamic from an already experimental Temple Songs back catalogue to new heights.
Recorded in his studio just outside of Manchester, the EP is an amalgamation of Lewis’
will to be uncomfortably honest and create a pure form of music, devoid of an ulterior
motive.
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Opening track ‘Shanghaied’ is pinned by a captivating, driving rhythm – whilst showcasing
the harmonious progressive pop Lewis has been known to curate, free of adulterating
post-production or inessential features. Also laid down are the interchanging Velvet
Underground Live 1969 style guitars of ‘Cola Girls’, before Lewis’ more obscure
influences soon present themselves via ‘Coco’. Channelling The Parable of Arable
Land era Red Crayola, candid and hypnotic strums of guitar illuminate a rhythmic
singsong vocal style.
Whilst a nine-track EP may seem superfluous to some, Jolan Lewis has offered the
following reasoning on the release: ‘It’s an EP, just because I never thought of it as an
album. I think that the intention is usually more important than the perception and there’s
no need to apply rational thinking or anything like that. It’s music.’
With the beating angst of ‘More Than I Can Bear’, providing a mid-record high before the
ferocity of closing track ‘Hate’ bring things to a head, the collective is a glimmering
example of how The Pink Teens highlight themselves and separate from a flurry of do-ityourself
outfits contemporaneously occupying a chunk of the underground music scene.
There’s the raw unpredictability of noise rock peaking throughout, twinned with the
sensibilities of more vocal pop – the balance between which is determinable solely by
each listener in a reactionary way.
There is a unifying theme that does run through the nine tracks, however, in that each
song is treated on its own merits. Even with that being the case, it makes for an
invigorating, flowing listen from start to finish.
The band will be supporting the release with a small national tour across the south of UK
before returning back to Manchester to finish off work on their debut album, to be
released next year.
The Pink Teens are: Jolan Lewis (guitar vocals) Dave Hardy (bass) Jean Hughes (guitar)
Andrew Richardson (drums).
You can buy the EP HERE:
Upcoming Dates:
8th October – Shapes, London
9th October – Start The Bus, Bristol
10th October – 60 Million Postcards, Bournemouth
11th October – Lennon’s Bar, Southampton
21st October – Bleach, Brighton
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