The lovely Matt Abbott from Skint and Demoralised asked his record company (Heist Or Hit) if The Culture Vulture could premiere the video of the first single from his new album, The Bit Between The Teeth, (and nobody else has got it till June 10th) … of course, we jumped at the chance!
Here’s Plessey Road …
Matt sent a write up on the song/video exclusively for us:
After following the narrative of the lyric so closely with the previous video (‘Breakfast at Sylvia’s’), we were really keen to create something for ‘Plessey Road’ that has nothing to do with the track whatsoever. It was actually on the aforementioned video shoot that I was chatting to Mollie Wilson (the star of the ‘Sylvia’s’ video) and she told me about a small photography project she’d done for college. I asked her to send me the shots over, and the second as I saw the camouflage-wearing sniper with the rabbit head mask on, I knew I wanted to use it in some shape or form.
She agreed to let us use it as the single’s artwork, and that’s when the idea for the video came. As it happens, Mollie’s house is literally located in the middle of the Canyard Hills (aka “The Hills of The Soldiers”), so we didn’t need to give a second’s thought to the video’s location. All we needed was an evil weapon wielding sniper to stalk me around the incredible wildlife, and an viable motive for his deadly desire. I won’t reveal any more because I don’t want to spoil the video, but I will say that it’s the most fun I’ve ever had on a shoot, and by far and away the best video in S&D’s small collection so far.
Special thanks go to the Wilson family for their hospitality; Nez’s assistance with the locations and the firearms, Gill’s catering and of course the concept which was derives from Mollie’s photograph. And also full credit to Mike Bailey for his cinematography, as well as his fantastic edit. I hope you all enjoy it, and we look forward to making the next one…
SKINT & DEMORALISED
“The Bit Between The Teeth”
Album released on Monday 8th April via Heist Or Hit Records
Featuring the single “Breakfast at Sylvia’s” (Monday 25th March)
“Abbott is genuinely the best indie lyricist to surface in recent years.” – AAA Music
“Wakefield’s most articulate (and can we say handsome?) street poet finds the romance beneath the realism…. He’ll have you feeling better in no time” – NME
When asked to try and summarise the history of Skint & Demoralised to date, you’d be forgiven for scratching your head and wondering where to start. From surfacing on MySpace in late 2006 as the stage name of a teenage punk poet to gracing the Radio 1 playlist less than 3 years later, it’s safe to say that the band have had a rather eventful journey so far. But through linking arms with Pixie Lott at the Brit Awards to stacking her CDs in HMV six months later, there’s one reason why the Yorkshire duo of Matt Abbott and MiNI dOG continue to work together: music.
As a performance poet first and foremost, crafting his trade in front of spellbound audiences at local indie gigs and club nights in homage to his idol John Cooper Clarke, it is Abbott’s development as a lyricist that has seen Skint & Demoralised really come of age and craft a record that is as accomplished as it is fresh and exciting. Despite having just turned 24, the Wakefield-born frontman has a wealth of experience under his belt, and a keen knack for painting poignancy in the grimmest of settings and framing the particular with universal understanding. It is the vivid and compelling nature of his stories and lyrical vignettes on “The Bit Between The Teeth” that give it such impact and resonance, and with Sheffield-based producer MiNI dOG providing the musical accompaniment, the act once described as a “match made in musical heaven” by Sunday Times Culture editor Dan Cairns have once again documented a strangely upbeat snapshot of recession-struck Britain.
After deciding to take a singing approach on second album “This Sporting Life”, Abbott has reverted back to his spoken word routes for a third of the tracks on “The Bit Between The Teeth”; none more striking than the epic eight-minute opener “Amores Perros” that depicts a harrowing and excruciatingly personal tale. Named after one of Abbott’s favourite films, it kicks the album off with a quote from Leeds United legend Billy Bremner and serves up a healthy portion of sex, alcohol abuse, lust and violence before we’ve even had the comfort of a chorus or a jangly guitar to remind us that this is in fact an indie record.
Musically the songs tap in to that great vein of lo-fi and wonderfully simplistic indie acts such as Orange Juice, The Go-Betweens, The Smiths and Arab Strap; a development of the sound that saw Q Magazine describe S&D’s previous release as “defiantly rough and ready” and close in some respects to contemporary records such as Baxter Dury’s “Happy Soup” or Jamie T’s “Panic Prevention”.
The songs are mostly set where they were written on the Northumbrian coast, with many of the focal points referenced in the opening track, and from maudlin ballad “Broadway Circle” (which spends a day in the world of a young woman who loathes life working in the local launderette) to fist-pumping Sky Sports favourite “When Saturday Comes” (which expresses a love for an afternoon at the football whilst managing to avoid being a loutish anthem), it’s almost as if you’re speed-dating with nine different Northern bards, and each has their own unique story to tell. Think Arab Strap meets Art Brut, with a pinch of Squeeze and Arctic Monkeys.
For all press enquiries please contact Mick Scholefield on 0161 4080389 or email micks@heistorhitrecords.com
HEIST OR HIT RECORDS // London-based Independent Record Label // Home to:
Simian Ghost (Stockholm, Sweden) / Fantasy Rainbow (Manchester, UK) / Skint & Demoralised (Wakefield, UK) / Bad Veins (Cincinnati, USA) / The Answering Machine(Manchester, UK) / I Am Oak (Utrecht, Netherlands) / Dinowalrus (New York, USA) / LoveLikeFire (San Francisco, USA) / Letting Up Despite Great Faults (Austin, USA) / Rapids! (Bournemouth, UK) / Pomegranates (Cincinnati, USA)