LOUIE


Pictures by Tom Sheehan

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DEAD MAN SINGLE AND TWO LIVE DATES.

Punk rock six-piece Louie - who’ve been compared to the Buzzcocks and the Clash amongst others - have announced details of their next single which is pencilled for release on Fallout Recordings around May 22nd. Entitled Dead Man the single will be released as a CD featuring Dead Man, Listen To My Lies (demo), Locked Up (King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut live version) and a video of their last single Curves And The Bends, plus an 8” coloured vinyl edition featuring Dead Man and Heartbreaker Skies (live from King Tuts). Dead Man will be made available as a download three weeks prior to release from all online retailers and I-Tunes will be making a download of a King Tuts live version of Dead Man available during the week of release. Dead Man has been produced by Blur/Kaiser Chiefs producer Stephen Street and is the first hint at the results of album sessions currently being recorded by the band at Olympic Studios. Louie are set to release their debut album in September. Louie have just returned from a riotous tour supporting Dirty Pretty Things and will be appearing live at the Ultralounge on the Lower Ground Floor at Selfridges, Oxford Street on Friday 31st March as part of Future Punk. They will also be appearing live at the Underworld on Thursday April 20th as part of the infamous Camden Crawl.

Louie’s debut single Trees/One Big Repeat was released in November last year and quickly gathered plaudits in its wake: “like The Strokes being shocked from their slack-jawed nonchalance by way of six lines of crushed-up Ritalin and a quick bout of jabbing their fingers into a plug socket – a methamphetamine-snorting road movie crammed into 140 mouth-frothing seconds” (NME – Runner-up Single Of The Week); “a brilliant spurt of Buzzcocksian speed-punk” (Rocksound); “a rush of New York Dolls/Heartbreakers trashiness and ’77 punk energy” (Kerrang); and “a chorus to punch through walls to, an urgency that makes you want to get the resuscitation paddles out and perfection wrapped up in a 2 minute something package” (Disorder – single of the year). Everyone sang its la la la refrain and everyone identified with its staring out of my window digressions and, not surprisingly, everyone who could, bought it. Subsequently, it sold out in double quick time. Louie’s second single Curves And The Bends received similar critical acclaim and gained another NME Runner Up Single Of The Week plaudit.

LOUIE could just as easily be named after one of the most seminal rock ‘n’ roll songs ever to have been written as they could be after another word for a pimp. Either way, when you have heard them or witnessed one of their shows, you will know that it matters not: Louie, as simply au fait with rock ‘n’ roll iconography as they might be, have just as simply got it. Louie feature two nineteen year old singers called Jordan Smith and Gaz Tomlinson from Cumbria and York respectively plus lead guitarist Russell Ditchfield and rhythm guitarist Luke Morris. Their intensely cool line-up is completed by Andy Twigden on bass and Mikey Parrish on drums. Formed in 2004 and now based in London after meeting and recently dropping out of college, Louie have already caused a huge fuss in the British music scene and been likened to the New York Dolls by Kerrang, the Libertines by the NME, and the Heartbreakers (Johnny’s, not Tom’s, presumably) by the pair of them. Half the battle, of course - apart from the songs - is the obvious chemistry created when co-singers Jordan and Gaz collide on stage or collude in a studio. It’s been said before that they possess the cuteness of the Olsen twin sisters (thank you NME) and couple this with a brassy whirlwind of seminal bedroom poses and We Don’t Give A Fuck mentality and you can see what all the fuss is about.

LOUIE will be releasing Dead Man on Fallout Recordings through Island Records around May 22nd.



Phill Savidge 0208 348 0373 / 07887 584 242

phill.savidge@btinternet.com
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