Mammoth Penguins celebrate the release of their new album "There's No Fight We Can't Both Win" with a free show at The Shacklewell, with support from Solution Hours and Common or Garden.
Free tickets available from Dice and from WeGotTickets.
Mammoth Penguins
For the uninitiated, Mammoth Penguins are a 3-piece indie pop powerhouse, showcasing the songwriting and vocal talents of Emma Kupa (Standard Fare, The Hayman Kupa Band) backed up by the noisiest rhythm section in indie pop
Their first album, Hide and Seek, was released with the much-loved and sorely missed Fortuna Pop! in 2015. Stand-out tracks ‘Strength In My Legs’ and ‘When I Was Your Age’ were picked up by BBC 6Music and Radio X, and the band played a live session for Marc Riley the following year.
But Mammoth Penguins didn’t want to stop there. Their follow-up release John Doe in 2017 was an ambitious concept album, exploring the feelings of loss and anger at a man who fakes his own death, only to return years later. It featured contributions from Haiku Salut’s Sophie Barkerwood and Alto 45’s Joe Bear, and expanded well beyond the 3-piece rock‘n’roll template, with washes of strings, synths and samples (field recordings of butter being scraped on toast, photocopiers, and Ramsgate beach helping to fully immerse the listener in the world the band have created) filling out and developing Kupa’s songwriting.
Having had their ‘and now for something completely different’ moment, the band have brought that ambition and expanded palette to the production of this new release. The sound is big, bold and confident—with layers of guitars, backing vocals and keys all adding extra muscle—but maintaining Emma’s candid, heartfelt, confessional style of songwriting, and the jubilant power pop hooks that made the first record so special.
Solution Hours
Solution Hours are a two-piece band from London, comprised of Charlotte (vocals, drums) and Andrew (guitar, ambience). With spoken word-inspired vocals, dynamic drumming and unique guitar tunings underscored by ambient soundscapes played from a tape machine, the band have devised a sound that defies the usual trappings that a two-piece face, drawing comparisons to Life Without Buildings and bands from the heyday of 90s emo and slowcore in turn. They self-released the double single ‘Into the Sea / Pocket’ in 2017 and the EP ‘Try Again’ in 2018.
Common or Garden
Common or Garden is the project of Hannah Winter (Owl & Mouse), a London-based, Australian-born musician. After years of writing folk music on a ukulele, Hannah started experimenting with synthesisers and an iPad, and created the self produced, scrappy synth-pop sounds of Common or Garden.