Monday, 28 February 2011

Adam Walton, BBC Radio Wales - 28/02/2011

The lovely Adam Walton was kind enough to play a track off 'The First Two Years' on his show last night. He chose to play 'Ghost Writers', a track which features some top grade guitar noodling by the one and only Todd Campbell. Big thanks to Adam for his continuing support, which we've been lucky enough to have since pretty much day one.

A shotgun practice tonight will decide the setlist for the release show next week. Expect the expected... and four new songs.

Also, here's an alternative link to the 'Fighting Tigers' video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_pvHC1ApKE

Wednesday, 23 February 2011

Testimonials - 23/02/2011

"An anthem-toting punk trio from South Wales. Solutions are neither following or explicitly shunning fashion, they are just following their own path. Before The Roars touches on Gainesville punk and bassy post-hardcore, exhibiting a jerky lyrical cadence of the sort At The Drive-In hit pay dirt with. Solutions have a real quality in them." - (RockSound)

"Solutions forge an exciting gruff punk/indie hybrid - imagine Tom Gabel fronting Kubichek! and you're halfway there. Before the Roars was released as a free download last December and serves as a testament to the breadth and vibrancy of UK punk rock in 2010." - (PunkNews)

"It goes without saying that a truckload of modern punk bands owe a huge debt to Hot Water Music. Cardiff's Solutions go one further, 'The Rest Will Follow' is 'HWM's' 'Southeast First' in new skin, while the gravel throated , emotional clout with which they power-drive through the likes of 'Sons Of Daughters' would even impress ol' Chuck himself. Passionate, Powerful stuff." - (24/7 Magazine)

"Three piece Solutions aren't falling among the ranks and following what you may have come to expect from South Wales from the likes of Lostprophets or Funeral For A Friend, but their gritty and energetic punk found on debut album 'Before the Roars' is full of potential and shout-a-long choruses." - (Punktastic)

"South Wales' latest emerging talents Solutions sing from a slightly different sheet to their mainstream countrymen - dabbling in the kind of muddied sound that indicates a familiarity more in keeping with the likes of Biffy Clyro than it does their fellow townsfolk. Before The Roars showcases just enough to have you believing that this Cardiff-based trio may just have another passage to write in Wales' burgeoning success story." - (RockMidgets)

... will be adding to these as and when we get press back for 'The First Two Years'.

Tuesday, 22 February 2011

'The First Two Years' Release Show Details - 22/02/2011

Friday 11th March 2011 @ Clwb Ifor Bach...

SOLUTIONS.
THE COMPUTERS
CELL MATES

Doors @ 7:30pm. First band on @ 7:45pm.

£4 entry - The first fifteen people through the door will recieve a copy of 'The First Two Years' CD for free. The show will be finished by 10pm in accordance with the club night curfew restrictions.

The Computers are a rock n' roll band from Exeter and have been friends of ours for many years; i'm thrilled that they've agreed to play. Cell Mates are a brand new South Wales band who i know nothing about to be honest, but they seemed like nice enough dudes to Robin and he was hugely impressed by the their first live outing at the Gay For Johnny Depp show at Clwb a week or so ago.

Monday, 21 February 2011

'The First Two Years' pre-order links - 21/02/2011

You can pre-order 'The First Two Years' via these links:

http://solutionsmusic.bandcamp.com/album/the-first-two-years

http://www.seveninchrecords.bigcartel.com/product/seven12

As mentioned before, the record will be released via Seven Records on MONDAY 14TH MARCH 2011.

Also, you can still view the 'Fighting Tigers' video here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_pvHC1ApKE

Histrionics - 21/02/2011

I can confirm that our second full-length record will be called 'Histrionics'.

Writing for said record is going well. Yesterday at practice we wrote a brand new song that sounds like 'Yield' era Pearl Jam. Even in it's extreme infancy, it sounds huge, and absolutely nowhere close to anything we've ever written before. Truth be told it kinda started as piss-take free jam between practicing sets, but it soon evolved into it's own kind of beast after around five minutes. Rhys pretty much solo's over the entire thing, and Eddie's bassline is 'sick'. I'm playing through a clean channel using tons of chorus and delay effect. It's our first song that utilises my new chorus pedal no less, and it'll be the first of many if they all turn out like this. The best things come from nowhere.

So yeah, back to Histrionics... including 'Pearl Jam' we now have around eight complete songs to take into the album session, whenever that may be. I'm thinking the first two weekends of October. Eight days, if we incorporate Thursday and Friday of each week respectively. That's the plan, by which time i expect us to have a pool of at very, very least fifteen songs to hack down to the final ten/eleven to make up the record.

There will be at least one other release between 'The First Two Years' anthology CD and the eventual release 'Histrionics'. One that is definitely happening is an ultra limited edition live CD., which will be recorded during our set at 'The First Two Years' release show in Clwb Ifor Bach (details and a poster for that show to follow).

Tuesday, 15 February 2011

Fighting Tigers video - 15/02/2011

Courtesy of Chris Callow...

http://vimeo.com/19858762

Cheers again Chris!

Thursday, 3 February 2011

Update / Best of The Decade... - 03/02/2011

In a few days we will have the finished video back from Chris Callow. We're all super excited to see it, the few screenshots we've seen so far look sharper than anything we ever could have imagined. The addition of a full lighting rig on set was certainly something of a masterstroke (good call, Rob).

Along with some really promising news with regards to immediate touring plans (which i painfully refrain from spilling on here just yet, for fear of jinxing the whole deal), we suffered a huge setback with regards to the recording process for the second album. Cut a long story short, the great studio we were using, at a crazy cheap rate, has been closed. Our friend and producer Chris Morgan wants to fully continue the project elsewhere, which is great as we're all more than happy to continue our work with him, but some serious consideration is gonna need to be given as to where and exactly when we're gonna resume the process. There are a few ideas bouncing back and forth between me and Robin, not one of which we've been able to entirely agree on as of yet so the thought process continues. I myself was pretty heartbroken when i first heard the news, but upon reflection i actually now take the stance that in the grand scheme of things, it probably works out best for us. The four songs we already had down didn't quite connect as much as i hoped they would, and i've since figured out why that was. I was looking forward to going back in the studio and carrying out a grand re-patching of what we previously had down, but now it'll most certainly be a case of starting back at square one. I guess, our initial sessions can be seen as something of a trial run.

So that's where we are at the moment. Back to square one with the recording of LP2 and awaiting our first ever music video.

In the meantime, i thought i'd share a list of my very favourite albums of the last decade, between 2000 and 2010. I've been meaning to do so since the start of the year, but only found the time to do-so during some rare down time over the last week. I've tried to keep it 'in order' as best as i could, but after the eighty or so mark, things can pretty much get interchangeable i guess. By 'in order' i mean the most special to me and clostest to my heart taking up the higher positions on the list, but every record here has a place in my heart, for some genuine, obscure, ridiculous or other reason.


1) Reinventing Axl Rose – Against Me!
2) Not Enough Night – Kubichek!
3) Turn On The Bright Lights – Interpol
4) In Remote Part – Idlewild
5) Relationship Of Command – At The Drive-In
6) This Is My Ship – Dartz!
7) My Secret Is My Silence – Roddy Woomble
8) Curses – Future Of The Left
9) Forget The Night Ahead – The Twilight Sad
10) Love Is Hell – Ryan Adams
11) Dead Reckoning – Small Brown Bike
12) Caution – Hot Water Music
13) The Midnight Organ Fight – Frightened Rabbit
14) You & Me – The Walkmen
15) Daisies Of The Galaxy – The Eels
16) Better Days – Fiya
17) Up In Them Guts – Planes Mistaken For Stars
18) Dry River Fishing – No Choice
19) Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters – The Twilight Sad
20) From Here To Infirmary – Alkaline Trio
21) S/T – The Drips
22) Board Of Rejection – Gunmoll
23) Alligator – The National
24) Read Music / Speak Spanish – Desaparecidos
25) White Pony – Deftones
26) Source Tags & Codes - … Trail Of Dead
27) No Division – Hot Water Music
28) Patent Pending – Heavens
29) A Certain Trigger – Maximo Park
30) Desperate Youth And Bloodthirsty Babes – TV On The Radio
31) Wall Of Arms – The Maccabees
32) Bleed American – Jimmy Eat World
33) Heartbreaker – Ryan Adams
34) Give Me A Wall – Forward Russia!
35) Antics – Interpol
36) Above The City – Smoke Or Fire
37) S/T I / The Bronx
38) 100 Broken Windows – Idlewild
39) The Greatest Story Ever Hula’d – Grabass Charlestons
40) Worship & Tribute – Glassjaw
41) Shootenanny! – The Eels
42) Oxeneers – These Arms Are Snakes
43) Colour It In – The Maccabees
44) S/T – Lucero
45) The Last Broadcast – Doves
46) Journal For Plague Lovers – Manic Street Preachers
47) Capture / Release – The Rakes
48) Boys & Girls In America – The Hold Steady
49) Wiretap Scars – Sparta
50) Maybe I’ll Catch Fire – Alkaline Trio
51) Belt Up – Milloy
52) Worlds Apart - … Trail Of Dead
53) Kensington Heights – The Constantines
54) Post Electric Blues – Idlewild
55) Oh! Calcutta – The Lawrence Arms
56) Is This It? – The Strokes
57) Cease To Begin – Band Of Horses
58) S/T – Conor Oberst
59) A Weekend In The City – Bloc Party
60) Some Cities – Doves
61) Primary Colours – The Horrors
62) Home – Josh Rouse
63) Through The Windowpane – Guillemots
64) So Jealous – Tegan & Sara
65) Saturdays = Youth – M83
66) Now Here Is Nowhere – Secret Machines
67) Dear Science – TV On The Radio
68) Do You Like Rock Music? – British Sea Power
69) Magpie – Stephen Fretwell
70) The Sad History Of The Village Of Alnerique – Dartz!
71) Easy Tiger – Ryan Adams
72) The ’59 Sound – Gaslight Anthem
73) Madonna - … Trail Of Dead
74) Destroy Their Future – American Steel
75) Nobodies Darlings – Lucero
76) As The Eternal Cowboy – Against Me!
77) The Back Room – Editors
78) Creating Problems While Practicing Solutions – Milloy
79) Drop It Til’ It Pops – Hot Club De Paris
80) Antidotes – Foals
81) S/T – The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart
82) Infinity On High – Fall Out Boy
83) Travels With Myself And Another – Future Of The Left
84) For Emma, Forever Ago – Bon Iver
85) How You Gonna Scare Us Now? – K-Line
86) Paradise – Paint It Black
87) So Many You Could Never Win – Army Of Ponch
88) Lisbon – The Walkmen
89) Your New Favourite Band – The Hives
90) S/T – The Lemonheads
91) From A Basement On A Hill – Elliot Smith
92) Nashville – Josh Rouse
93) The New Romance – Pretty Girls Make Graves
94) Room On Fire – The Strokes
95) S/T – The XX
96) Make Another World – Idlewild
97) We Bare All – Radon
98) Decaydance – Head Automatica
99) Kid A – Radiohead
100) The End Of History – Fionn Regan
101) Agony & Irony – Alkaline Trio
102) Favourite Worst Nightmare – Arctic Monkeys
103) Gang Violins – Read Yellow
104) S/T – Deftones
105) Keep Your Heart – The Loved Ones
106) Toxicity – System Of A Down
107) Live At Los Feliz – Chuck Ragan
108) A Song To Ruin – Million Dead
109) LP III – The Soviettes
110) Ten New Messages – The Rakes
111) Hosannas From The Basements Of Hell – Killing Joke
112) In A Million Pieces – The Draft
113) Chase This Light – Jimmy Eat World
114) S/T – Kudzu Wish
115) Separation Sunday – The Hold Steady
116) The Eraser – Thom Yorke
117) The Sufferer & The Witness – Rise Against
118) Gold – Ryan Adams
119) High Violet – The National
120) Radios Burn Faster – Read Yellow
121) Shine A Light – Constantines
122) Isolation Drills – Guided By Voices
123) 28 – Radon
124) For Blood & Empire – Anti Flag
125) Diamond Eyes – Deftones
126) Mercy – Planes Mistaken For Stars
127) S/T – Friendly Fires
128) McLusky Do Dallas – McLusky
129) End Times – The Eels
130) Whatever People Say I Am, That Is What I Am Not – Arctic Monkeys
131) S/T – The Futureheads
132) Open Season – British Sea Power
133) Jacksonville City Night – Ryan Adams
134) The New Fellas – The Cribs
135) The Chemistry Of Common Life – Fucked Up
136) Panic Prevention – Jamie T
137) That Much Further West – Lucero
138) New Wave – Against Me!
139) Fuel For The Hate Game – Hot Water Music
140) Beyond – Dinosaur Jr
141) Where The Humans Eat – Willy Mason
142) Gold Country – Chuck Ragan
143) Original Pirate Material – The Streets
144) Absolute Dissent – Killing Joke
145) Good Health – Pretty Girls Make Graves
146) Magic – Bruce Springsteen
147) Dancing For Decadence – The Sainte Catherines
148) Futures – Jimmy Eat World
149) Death & Entrances – My Latest Novel
150) Funeral – Arcade Fire
151) Alight Of Night – Crystal Stilts
152) The New Drop Era – Young Livers
153) Twenty One – Mystery Jets
154) Ideas Above Our Station – Hundred Reasons
155) New Lexicon – Paint It Black
156) Everything All The Time – Band Of Horses
157) In Rainbows – Radiohead
158) Blinking Lights And Other Revelations – The Eels
159) Meanderthal - Torche
160) Sink Or Swim – The Gaslight Anthem
161) Promises / Warnings – Idlewild
162) From Under The Cork Tree – Fall Out Boy
163) Kingdom Of Rust – Doves
164) Hold On Now Youngster – Los Campesinos!
165) Two Suns – Bat For Lashes
166) In Boca Al Lupo – Murder By Death
167) Boxer – The National
168) Calling The Public – 59 Times The Pain
169) The Age Of The Understatement – The Last Shadow Puppets
170) Supporting Caste – Propagandhi
171) Dits From The Commuter Belt – Bromheads Jacket
172) Total Life Forever – Foals
173) Good News For People Who Love Bad News – Modest Mouse
174) Cardinology – Ryan Adams
175) Rebels, Rogues & Sworn Brothers – Lucero
176) By The Way – Red Hot Chili Peppers
177) The Song Of The Blackbird – William Elliot Whitmore
178) Silent Alarm – Bloc Party
179) The Great Depression – Defiance, Ohio
180) Farm – Dinosaur Jr
181) Truth Is A Menace – North Lincoln
182) 13 In My 31 – My Red Cell
183) Ask Mark Twain – Grabass Charlestons
184) Humbug – Arctic Monkeys
185) A Flight And A Crash – Hot Water Music
186) Left & Leaving – The Weakerthans
187) The Devil And God Are Raging Inside Me – Brand New
188) Dead FM – Strike Anywhere
189) The Artist In The Ambulance – Thrice
190) Women’s Needs, Men’s Needs, Whatever – The Cribs
191) Perfecting Loneliness – Jets To Brazil
192) Society Is A Carnivorous Flower – J Church
193) Infinite Arms – Band Of Horses
194) Revolutions Per Minute – Rise Against
195) It’s Blitz – Yeah Yeah Yeahs
196) Romance Is Boring – Los Campesinos!
197) LP II – The Bronx
198) Earthquake Glue – Guided By Voices
199) Accelerate - REM
200) In Ghost Colours – Cut Copy