Brighton’s finest new purveyors of raucous, off-kilter garage rock, Demob Happy follow their triumphant 2014 debut single Succubus with the Young & Numb E.P., due for release on Record Store Day, April 18th via Milk Parlour Records/So Recordings. The band will also be touring ahead of the single release and come to Liverpool’s E.V.A.C. on March 31st.
Born out of a manic and inspired blur of several days and nights locked away in a makeshift studio out in the desolate Welsh countryside, the Young & Numb E.P. sees the quartet emerge from a haze of hypnotic and relentless jam sessions with four hard-hitting tracks. Each recorded live, face to face, encompassing the raw electric chemistry of a ferocious rock n’ roll band kicking against convention. “There’s a moment when you first play a song, where everyone is psyched and it flies. You hear it on demos but you lose it in studios” singer Matt Marcantonio explains of the recording process. “We had to beg, borrow and steal all the recording gear so we could capture that in the middle of nowhere.”
Declaring themselves devoid of institution from the get go, 2013 saw Demob Happy define Brighton’s The Great Escape festival before they were even asked to play it, careering their van into the centre of the festivities to play a now infamous gig straight out the back of it. While a near-miss gig at a house party in the interim months saw them just dodge a £40,000 bill for caving in the ceiling. ““It was like watching people abuse a trampoline. There was about a foot of give!” Marcantonio adds.
Tickets for Demob Happy at the East Village Arts Centre are on sale now.