RELEASED 27/10/08 VINYL - SOLD OUT DOWNLOAD -
ITUNES
Press
MTV2 - "Tips For 2009: No.6"
Clash Magazine - "Tips For 2009: Undoubtedly one of the best live bands currently operating in the UK"
Q Magazine - "Incoming 2009: Queens Of The Stone Age riffs and punchy, staccato melodies"
Drowned In Sound - "obvious tips for the top in '09"
Irish Times - "EUROSONIC 2009: Man, I loved Baddies. They tore the Vera club apart - high-energy post-punk with more angles than a bunch of architects signing on for the first time"
NME – 8/10 Single Review - "A quadrant of straight-cut gents wielding a handy line in dizzying throat pop"
MUSIC WEEK – “Switching between twisted pop sensibilities that scream Talking Heads and a bass driven heft that takes more than a little from Queens Of The Stone Age"
ARTROCKER - "On a mission to make The Futureheads look lethargic"
BBC ONLINE – “Like Franz Ferdinand coming out of prison and losing faith in humanity"
RECORD OF THE DAY – “If In The City 2008 ‘belonged’ to any one band by virtue of how excited people were by them, then Baddies were that band"
ROCK SOUND - "Band of the month"
CLASH MAGAZINE – “Take note! Baddies RULED In the City. This four piece, epic riffing, balls to the walls, snarled up and punked out sonic adventurers are going to be BIG. Very soon indeed”
Q MAGAZINE - “Hyperactive music that jumps between Talking Heads style vocal antics and the bass driven heft of vintage Queens Of The Stone Age”
THE TIMES - "Baddies' debut single Battleships is like the Beastie Boys have challenged the Pixies to a sing off while Klaxons woo woo the fight along from the sidelines. And they're all loving it"
THE GUARDIAN - "full of muscular riffs and meaty choruses, delivered energetically and with a determination to encourage audiences to work up a sweat"
THE FLY – “They hurtle through a 90-mph set of Futureheads meets klaxons-if-they-replaced-the-electronics-with-more-guitars taught angular tunes. They’re the best band of the night by far”
This is the band biography for Baddies. I’m sure you’d like to hear all about the band… how they started, what they’ve done, what people have said about them and what the band have said about themselves. That’s okay. That we can do.
Cast your minds back to January 2007… where were you? What were you doing? Well, if you’re name was Michael Webster (and let’s face it, your name probably isn’t that, but please… work with me okay) you were hatching a scheme, a fiendish plot, a devilish desire… to start DUN-DUN-DUUUUURRRGHHH… A BAND! Yes! A band with guitars and vocals and drums and bass. Holy mother of fucking shitballs! Mike had the guitar and vocals, so far so good… but where do you go from there? Well, if you were Mike you’d go to see your twin brother who just so happens to be a fricking awesome drummer and ask him and guess what? He said yes. Brilliant. But that’s not where the fantastic train stopped… no sirree bob, those Webster twins kept a right on rollin’ and they picked up a Simon Bellamy and a Danny Rowton on guitar and bass respectively. So that was nice.
So there they were. One. Two. Three. Four. And they called themselves Baddies. Not The Baddies, just Baddies. Got it? Good.
After quickly writing a batch of songs, Baddies had discovered that not only were they: (a) pretty darn good thank you very much, but they had (b) discovered their sound. Yep that’s right sound in italics. So what exactly is the sound of Baddies? Hmmm, right okay… well, imagine this… Talking Heads (Good) + Queens of The Stone Age (different, but also good) + being from Britain and all that entails (???) = the Baddies sound (its okay to say ‘the’ there I think?)
The band worked hard. They gigged. They recorded some tracks, “Tiffany, I’m Sorry” and “Battleships” and before long industry types heard them and got all hot and sexy at the very prospect of the band, and industry types love getting hot and sexy, don’t you?
Within months the band were in hot demand, everyone wanted a piece of that Baddies pie. ZOOM! They played Eurosonic in Holland. WHIZZ! They played London Calling in Holland, again! KABLAM! They played In The City in Manchester and shitting crikey they went down a storm! “I love them” said one guy, “Fuck me! That was good” said another. Which was great y’know, that’s what Baddies wanted all along, the diabolical little tinkers.
So what would you do? You’re in this band, everyone’s spaffing in their pants because you’re so damn good, where do you go next? You release a single right? Yeah, a single! On vinyl, limited to 500 copies and then you sell them all. Yeah sold out. Can’t get it any more. Sorry. But that’s not enough for Baddies, no no no. You make a video too right? Not a big expensive thing, just a little performance video. Film it, discretely put it out there… see what happens… get to number 1 on the MTV2 / Myspace chart with like zero promotion. That’s what you do if you’re Baddies anyway.
Now Baddies face the next phase, second single and then the debut album which Mike describes as “an insight into 'the struggle' of getting to where we are now”. The album is their autobiography, a collection of songs that tell the tales of the everyday and then dumping them on their heads and laughing at them in a sort of You’ve-been-Framed kind of way.
Just like all the best bands, Baddies are a gang… a group… a gaggle. They are united. They wear uniforms that say this is us, this is what we do, we are here to do a job. Do the job.
"Handshake" on my radio show, The British Breakfast on WRIR 97.3FM Richmond, Virginia USA and streamed live on wrir.org Saturday (today) between 2-4PM.
You are the best rock band from the moment. Can't wait to see you guys in Belgium (15 october in Brusssels). We hope to be your support act that day ! ROMANO NERVOSO