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    • SHPLANG
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AMOEBA TEEN (Stourbridge, UK)

BIG STIR RECORDS is delighted to welcome to its roster: AMOEBA TEEN!

When speaking of a band like Stourbridge, England's AMOEBA TEEN as they manifest themselves today, it's difficult not to fall back on clichés like "going from strength to strength", "at the height of their powers", or "firing on all cylinders".  It's better, perhaps, to borrow a song title from the group themselves and say that they're coming on stronger: the banner year of 2018 saw an extensive reissue of their back catalog on Kool Kat Musik, their invigorating live set captured audiences at home and on festival stages across the UK, and for 2019 they have, in Medium Wave (due 1 June on Big Stir Records) synthesized their live energy and nuanced songcraft into an album that's bracing, immediate, and humming with the energy of its time in a way that fans of peak period Kinks, The Jam and classic power pop across the decades will recognize and adore.

Amoeba Teen were founded by critically acclaimed songwriting team of Mark Britton and Mike Turner. Armed with a four-track tape recorder and junk shop guitars, the pair began writing together back in the dying embers of the last century. With a rag-tag collection of scratchy demos, they slowly honed their craft, melding together lush harmonies, hooky melodies, the odd sample and overdriven guitars. Hints of power pop can be heard -- Teenage Fanclub, Jellyfish and Big Star spring to mind -- but Turner’s raucous guitar and reverb soundscapes keeps the vibe punky and a little dirtier. 

During a particularly dark year of damp accommodation and alcohol, their work attracted the attention of Nokia, who wanted to feature their track "Friend to the Stars", in a TV advert. They declined and chose to remain underground and drunk. During a three-year break Mark Britton re-released some of Amoeba Teen’s material, attracting international acclaim that included rave reviews from Powerpopaholic, Pure Pop Radio and an Album of the Month award from Ryan’s Gig Guide.  A reformation was in order: in 2016 the group rebuilt upon Britton and Turner’s songwriting foundations, adding Simon Muttit, legendary former bassist of Fierce Panda Records' darlings, X>Y. On drums is Carl Baylis, whose percussive skills have found him featured on Steve Lamacq’s record of the week on BBC 6Music. 

The band's 2017 album The Appleyard Sessions was an acoustic detour that hinted at their hidden alt-country influences, while retaining their hallmark harmonies and melodic hooks. Meanwhile the live band sharpened its electric energy and were invited to perform at the International Pop Overthrow Festival at the iconic Cavern Club in Liverpool, and appeared on a compilation on Omnivore Records, home to artists such as The Beach Boys, Tim Buckley and Hank Williams. They found themselves warming up football fans at the West Bromwich Albion versus Liverpool match and rounded off a year of big performances with an appearance at Brierley Hill Civic hall, having won a local radio competition to support BBC2 Radio favourites, King Pleasure and The Biscuit Boys. 

Amoeba Teen's arrival in the orbit of the burgeoning Big Stir massive comes at a renaissance moment for both parties, as Medium Wave proves to be a gorgeous summation of the band's recorded and live strengths into a cohesive and affecting work that's certain to catch ears both at home and in the US.  Already the album's lead single "Suit and Tie", included as part of the label's Digital Singles Series, is seeing a debut on BBC 6Music, and the album joins a robust slate of new records from the international likes of Kai Danzberg (Germany), Trip Wire (San Francisco), In Deed (Sweden) and The Armoires (LA). Tour dates throughout the year in support of the album are being lined up as Amoeba Teen prepares to support its best record yet with the kind of bravura live performances fans have come to expect. Stay tuned for more as the year unfolds!

Medium Wave: CD
  • Medium Wave: CD

Medium Wave: CD

Includes a download of the album Medium Wave
In cart Not available Out of stock
$12.00

The new album from AMOEBA TEEN! Track list:

1 Clementine 2 Babycakes 3 (Coming On) Stronger 4 Like A Hit To The Head 5 Wandering Bullets 6 Half Time 7 Suit And Tie 8 Ship To Shore 9 Hickory Hill 10 Everybody Wants 11 Save

The new album from Amoeba Teen charts a band contemplating middle age, the middle class, and a comfortably numb life among middle Englanders. MEDIUM WAVE resurrects the band’s classic pop instincts, set in the midst of a mid-life crisis that challenges the genre’s lyrical formula to which power pop aficionados are accustomed.

Like the album’s title, Amoeba Teen looks back longingly to a previous radio era, as they survey an inner and outer world in flux and old physical certainties giving way to digital white noise. But there’s also a different kind of medium they seek, calling on the spirit and wisdom of Chris Bell, John Lennon and Harry Nilsson.

Oscar Wilde once remarked, “The old believe everything, the middle-aged suspect everything, the young know everything.” The album’s starter Clementine, a mid-tempo folky waltz underscores Wilde’s insight, with a sneering cynicism as, outsiders, Britton and Turner, ‘lift the lid on the cackling crush’. Defiantly, they ask the masses to come outside and embrace the cold. The agenda couldn’t be more explicit: this a band unwilling to succumb to the mainstream.

After a hypnotic conclusion to the album’s opener, we’re thrust into Babycakes, a jaunty Beach Boys-esque number that features stabbing horns. Here Britton contemplates the novelty and excitement of an emotionally unstable ‘drama queen’ versus the ‘steady-as-she-goes’ contentment of the familiar. This is a theme the album flirts with later on in the string-laden Wandering Bullets, where forgiveness is sought while reminding the listener of everyday addictions we all quietly lean on to get through the day. In other words, don’t be so quick to judge.

Suit and Tie delivers on the raucous up-tempo rock n roll that Amoeba Teen are known for; performed live and mastered at the world famous Abbey Road studios. Yet even among the crunchy guitars and bass, Turner draws our attention to a man trapped in middle management. Britton and Bayliss join in on catchy choral harmonies, in sympathy rather than mockery at the man’s predicament.

Hickory Hill turns left towards alt-country territory, where we are taken on a sunny day stroll. But not everything is plain sailing. For there is another place – beyond Britton’s reach – that he won’t ever get to in this life. In acknowledging his own mortality and also surrendering to his inadequacies Britton acquiesces, with a simple request to scatter his ashes in a world he never lived in. Rather than straying into a morbid tale, the song offers the listener a heart-warming story of someone finding quiet contentment with what they’ve been given.

Another wave washes over us in Ship To Shore, as Turner and Britton warn us that the fog’s coming down and that the Black Dog is never far away. Lyrical abstractions give way to a reminder that even ‘the greatest navigators got blinded by the sun’.

Medium Wave is an album for the everyman standing at their crossroads. It’s an album for those in the middle who continue to enjoy ‘the shock of the new’ but have a growing sentimentality for yesteryear. This is the sound of a band that is learning to appreciate the good in the present while sleeping with one eye open. And in doing so, Amoeba Teen continue to subvert the power pop genre, yet never straying far from a strong hook and catchy melody.

--Jeff McGinley, March 2019

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Medium Wave by Amoeba Teen

Medium Wave

Amoeba Teen

In cart Not available Out of stock

CD Download

In cart Not available Out of stock

The new album from Amoeba Teen charts a band contemplating middle age, the middle class, and a comfortably numb life among middle Englanders. MEDIUM WAVE resurrects the band’s classic pop instincts, set in the midst of a mid-life crisis that challenges the genre’s lyrical formula to which power pop aficionados are accustomed.

Like the album’s title, Amoeba Teen looks back longingly to a previous radio era, as they survey an inner and outer world in flux and old physical certainties giving way to digital white noise. But there’s also a different kind of medium they seek, calling on the spirit and wisdom of Chris Bell, John Lennon and Harry Nilsson.

Oscar Wilde once remarked, “The old believe everything, the middle-aged suspect everything, the young know everything.” The album’s starter Clementine, a mid-tempo folky waltz underscores Wilde’s insight, with a sneering cynicism as, outsiders, Britton and Turner, ‘lift the lid on the cackling crush’. Defiantly, they ask the masses to come outside and embrace the cold. The agenda couldn’t be more explicit: this a band unwilling to succumb to the mainstream.

After a hypnotic conclusion to the album’s opener, we’re thrust into Babycakes, a jaunty Beach Boys-esque number that features stabbing horns. Here Britton contemplates the novelty and excitement of an emotionally unstable ‘drama queen’ versus the ‘steady-as-she-goes’ contentment of the familiar. This is a theme the album flirts with later on in the string-laden Wandering Bullets, where forgiveness is sought while reminding the listener of everyday addictions we all quietly lean on to get through the day. In other words, don’t be so quick to judge.

Suit and Tie delivers on the raucous up-tempo rock n roll that Amoeba Teen are known for; performed live and mastered at the world famous Abbey Road studios. Yet even among the crunchy guitars and bass, Turner draws our attention to a man trapped in middle management. Britton and Bayliss join in on catchy choral harmonies, in sympathy rather than mockery at the man’s predicament.

Hickory Hill turns left towards alt-country territory, where we are taken on a sunny day stroll. But not everything is plain sailing. For there is another place – beyond Britton’s reach – that he won’t ever get to in this life. In acknowledging his own mortality and also surrendering to his inadequacies Britton acquiesces, with a simple request to scatter his ashes in a world he never lived in. Rather than straying into a morbid tale, the song offers the listener a heart-warming story of someone finding quiet contentment with what they’ve been given.

Another wave washes over us in Ship To Shore, as Turner and Britton warn us that the fog’s coming down and that the Black Dog is never far away. Lyrical abstractions give way to a reminder that even ‘the greatest navigators got blinded by the sun’.

Medium Wave is an album for the everyman standing at their crossroads. It’s an album for those in the middle who continue to enjoy ‘the shock of the new’ but have a growing sentimentality for yesteryear. This is the sound of a band that is learning to appreciate the good in the present while sleeping with one eye open. And in doing so, Amoeba Teen continue to subvert the power pop genre, yet never straying far from a strong hook and catchy melody.

Read more… close
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  1. 1
    Clementine 5:03
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    0:00 / 5:03
  2. 2
    Babycakes 3:39
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    0:00 / 3:39
  3. 3
    (Coming On) Stronger 3:17
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    0:00 / 3:17
  4. 4
    Like a Hit to the Head 3:46
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    0:00 / 3:46
  5. 5
    Wandering Bullets 3:12
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    0:00 / 3:12
  6. 6
    Half Time 0:45
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    0:00 / 0:45
  7. 7
    Suit and Tie 2:31
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    0:00 / 2:31
  8. 8
    Ship to Shore 3:53
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    0:00 / 3:53
  9. 9
    Hickory Hill 3:44
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    0:00 / 3:44
  10. 10
    Everybody Wants 3:32
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    0:00 / 3:32
  11. 11
    Save 4:58
    In cart Not available Out of stock
    0:00 / 4:58

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