Leatherette kick off their European and UK tour this week in Lyon. The tour will also include a show at London’s The Shacklewell Arms on 22nd March. Full dates are below:
15 March – Le Trokson – Lyon, France
17 March – Le Rockerill – Charleroi, France
18 March – Le Café de Paris – Paris, France
20 March – Le 3 Pièces Muzik’ Club – Rouen, France
21 March – The Crofters Rights – Bristol, UK
22 March – The Shacklewell Arms – London, UK
23 March – Golden Lion – Todmorden, UK
24 March – The Piper, Hastings, UK
25 March – Hot Box Live – Chelmsford, UK
26 March – The Peer Hat – Manchester, UK
28 March – Sonic Ballroom – Köln, Germany
29 March – Marie-Antionette – Berlin, Germany
30 March – Alter – Mannheim, Germany
31 March – Humbug – Basel, Switzerland
01 April – SAS – Delémont, Switzerland
Leatherette are, by their own description, “five shy guys who sometimes get off the stage and punch people,” a quintet whose car-crash of jagged noise, twisted love and dark, anguished melody has delivered a remarkable – and eminently combustible – debut album.
Leatherette recorded ‘Fiesta‘ “almost like a live album”, they say. The result is a sucker-punch of an LP: the sound of bruises, the sound of uncertainty, of anxiety, punctuated and punctured by explosions of cathartic violence, a voice pushed beyond any comfort zone and into the blood-red blossom of impassioned and empathetic saxophone. Simultaneously poetic, caterwauling, broken and beautiful.
The album title is “a reference to the bullfights in Pamplona,” the group say. It’s no empty metaphor. “Bullfight is a strange ritual,” they elaborate. “And we’re against bullfights, but they’re fascinating in an iconographic way. And also metaphorically, violence flows on both sides, but in a feastful way. It’s similar to a concert, really – you’re expressing violent things, in a physical way. And people react to that, which is wonderful, which is fantastic.”
The group are based in Bologna, but all hail from different towns in Italy. These five young men – singer/guitarist Michele, bassist Marco, drummer Francesco, guitarist Andrea and saxophonist Jacopo – are united by a profound need to make music, to express themselves naturally and honestly.
The group bonded over wildly differing influences – everything from midwestern emo gods American Football to Berlin-era Bowie, to James Chance & The Contortions, to rap and electronic music – to create a dense, passionate, articulate sound of their own.
You can file them near fiery post-punk kindreds like King Krule, Shame and Squid, or unhinged 90s noisers like Unwound or Hoover, or squalling No Wavers like James Chance, but the truth is there are few bands like Leatherette that walk this Earth.
Leatherette‘s debut album ‘Fiesta’ is out now on Bronson Recordings.
WATCH ‘SO LONG’ VIDEO HERE
WATCH ‘THIN ICE’ VIDEO HERE
LISTEN TO ‘FIESTA’ HERE
BUY ‘FIESTA’ HERE
