Fresh Meat Monday - Pronto Mama

Would you care to introduce yourself?  

We’ve got Marc Rooney (guitar/vocals), Ciaran McEneny (keyboard/guitar/vocals), Michael Griffin (bass) and Martin Johnston (drums)   


How would you describe the music you make?   

Ehh it’s just a mix of the stuff everybody is into. We are into song writing and think that a good song can be played in any style so we try not get pinned down to a certain genre. Anything we write that we think is a good song we try to make work for the band.      


How did you start out making music?    

We’ve all played music since we were young playing anything from classical to jazz and have all been in bands before doing our own respective things. The band’s just a progression from doing that.      


What process goes into the way you write songs?    

Usually someone just comes in with an idea for a song and we’ll rehearse it and add any cool or somewhat mental bits we think sound good. Generally Mick and Tino come up with the mental -that’s the actual musical definition- rhythmic stuff. We like to harmonise a lot, so that can take a lot of time to get together as well. Once the form of the song is sorted we’ll play it at a show and that’s when you tend to see what bits work and what needs changed. Once you’ve gigged the song a few times it tends to sort itself out.   


What can people expect from your live shows?    

A lot of nice grooving songs interjected with bouts of loud “lets make hunners of noise” refrains and our bass player Mick dancing about mad like he has a problem. We’ve tried to hold back recently on our inane between song banter about totally unrelated incidents and trying to plug our merch but there will probably be a bit of that. We just try to have a laugh and be as into it as possible. Sweat... there will also be much sweating.     


What are you all listening to at the moment?    

Radiohead, Talk Talk, Talking Heads, Liam Clancy, Steve Reich, Neil Hannon      


What can we expect to see/hear from you in the future?   

We’ve just released the video for “One Trick Pony”. It’s the last single off of our new E.P “Lickety Split” and was written and directed by Robert Florence the writer of the Scottish sketch show Burnistoun. We’re headlining at King Tuts Summer Nights festival on the 12th of July in King Tuts, so we’re going to use that as the launch night for the E.P and Lickety Split will become available online on the 2nd of July. We’re also playing this year at Be in Belhaven and at Doune The Rabbit Hole. After that we don’t really know, we’re thinking of putting an album together with our current songs and all the ones we haven’t tried as a band yet or trying to sit down and write an album as a whole.


  Pronto Mama - Still Swimming Love You by peenko


Bandcamp
Twitter
Facebook

Help Ma Boab, It's The 62 Word Review

Pronto Mama – Lickety Split EP

If you like your barbershop music all laid-back with cool synths then you'll love Pronto Mama. Love You is somewhere in between Fleetwood Mac's Albatross and The B-Sharps, and is without a doubt the best song I've heard all year. One Trick Pony is superb, particularly the half-time baws-oot at the end. The best EP I've heard since Galchen's The Red Dot. 

Love You live for BBC Radio 1 Introducing

Lickety Split is released on 2nd July

SOS – Carry On Suzie

It's like The View have been transported back to the late 50s. The lyrics are a bit mundane ('in a room with superficial fakes') and at times – many times – lines are stuck together to rhyme just for the sake of it. That aside, it's not actually a bad pop song. A song written for festivals, if ever there was one.

Available to download on 18th June

Letters – Older Motion Pictures EP

Reviewed their recent single. This EP builds on it however there's so much going on in instrumental opener Explosions that it's actually a difficult listen. Thankfully, things really pick up with the atmospheric Older Motion Pictures and the far rockier Torren. But it's the epic From Time To Time that really steals the show, its quiet interlude twinkling towards a mammoth climax.

Available now here.

Fin.

Friday Freebies

The Twilight Sad
It really feel likes ages since we last heard anything from Kilsyth's finest, fear not though as they are set to release their third full-length album, ‘No One Can Ever Know’, ‘Kill It In The Morning’ in February next year. As a taster of what to expect they've made new song ‘Kill It In The Morning’ free to download from the band’s website alongside a wee trailer. Personally I think if this is the direction that the new album is going to take then it's quite a bold step, there's still a lot of noise going on. It still sounds dark and atmospheric, but with bits of electronic in there, personally I am looking forward to hearing more.

Sparrow & the Workshop
The clothes brand Penguin seem to be the latest fashion brand to have decided to jump on board with bands. All you really to know is that you can download ''You don't trust anyone' from Sparrow & the Workshop for free here. There are also tracks from folk like Young Legionnaire and Bad Bad Lazarus, plus an array of other stuff that I have never heard of.

Sigur Rós
In November Sigur Rós are set to release their first ever live album, 'Inni', which is also being released as a live documentary film. Released on an array of different formats, ranging from Blue-Ray to vinyl, the whole thing was recorded over two nights at the Ally Pally in London. In anticipation of its release they've made the track 'festival' free to download.

Odd Box Records
If you haven't come across Odd Box Records before, then now's a good time for you to do some much need catching up. The London based DIY label have made a 32 song compilation available for free download, it's a great way to get yourself acquainted with some awesome new music that you probably won't have heard before.

Luke Leighfield and Jose Vanders
If you missed it earlier in the week, The Pop Cop posted up a blog about Jose Vanders which is well worth checking out. All you really need to know from me is that Jose duetted with Luke Leighfield to record a this beautiful cover of Bon Iver's Blindsided which is free to download on Bandcamp.

Pronto Mama
If you like your indie pop to be catchy with a touch quirkiness, then Glasgow 5 piece, Pronto Mama should be right up your street. What I presume must be there debut self titled single is free to download on their Bandcamp, do yourself a favour and get it downloaded.

Chin Yi
It used to be that I was pretty clued up on music from all over the world, however, since I started this blog almost 3 years ago, my knowledge of anything that isn't Scottish is now pretty piss poor. Every so often though I dare to step out of my comfort zone to see what else is out there, after a tip off from a friend I somehow found myself listening to Chin Yi, a dark psychedelic band who hail from Granada in Spain. Surprisingly I found myself actually getting quite into their new EP which is free to download on their Bandcamp page. Fans of Nick Cave should hopefully find this is right up their street.

The Ugly Club
Talking of bands outwith these shores, New Jersey outfit The Ugly Club have just made their new Visions of Tall Girl EP free to download on their Bandcamp. Fans of Broken Bells and My Morning Jacket might want to check this one out.

The Mademoiselle
Glasgow trio, The Mademoiselle, have made their self titled EP free to download on their Bandcamp.

Mata Macdonald
If you like your Americana/Country then Mata Macdonald might be the man for you, hailing from Stornoway, the singer songwriter has just released his debut EP. You can get a taster of it by downloading his song '3 Men' for nowt via his Soundcloud.

Flying MaN sHARK
The Edinburgh alt-pop rockers have made their self titled debut album free to download on their Bandcamp page.

Lovers Turn to Monsters
Not one to rest on his laurels, Kyle Wood aka Lovers Turn to Monsters is one prolific fella, having released his last album 'Beyond Glasgow Howls' back in June of this year. He's now recorded a new album, 'Pandas, Hearts, Blankets & Birds' which he's posted up for free download on Bandcamp.

Wild Beasts
Fresh from playing at The Electric Frog festival in Glasgow a couple of weeks back, Stereogum have posted up new track 'Thankless Thing' from Wild Beasts here.