Kal Marks

Considered veterans of the Boston DIY scene, Kal Marks has been going for over a decade, constantly pushing themselves and growing along the way. Their tireless work ethic keeps them out on the road, throughout the US and most recently their first tour of Europe and the UK. While many bands settle into a comfortable place, Kal Marks take pride in expanding their sound, contorting and reshaping the formula with every album they’ve released. They’ve challenged their audience over the years and its been met with adoration and critical acclaim from outlets like NPR, Pitchfork, Fader, and Stereogum. Known for being one of the loudest and heaviest “indie rock” bands out there, they’ve shared bills with Big Business, Black Midi, The Messthetics, METZ, True Widow, and more. Their explosive live show is built on feedback and cathartic aggression, an outlet to exorcise the weight of the world around us.

Thank

The Rock Band Thank From Leeds’ concoction of anxious disco grooves, harsh noise freakouts and inscrutable sprechgesang bluster was borne out of their hometown’s notorious – and now sadly defunct – DIY collective CHUNK. After the release of their debut full length ‘Thoughtless Cruelty’ in 2022 and a smattering of EPs and split releases, the band is back with their sophomore album 'I Have A Physical Body That Can Be Harmed’, a volatile yet joyously cathartic post-punk record.

Thank closed out 2023 with a December residency in Scarborough. Holed up in Beckview Studios and its attic flat, Freddy Vinehill-Cliffe (vocals/guitar), Lewis Millward (guitar/synth), Cameron Moitt (bass) and Steve Myles (drums) were accompanied by longtime producer Rob Slater (Blacklisters, Mush), and they effectively lived and breathed the album for 24 hours a day during the recording.

“Three of us studied in Scarborough, and during that time we played in a few different embryonic versions of Thank,” explains Vinehill-Cliffe. “We had barely visited for ten years, and in the meantime our old campus has shut down, our former practice space has been demolished to make way for luxury flats, and almost everyone we knew has moved away. So we were in this ostensibly familiar place where basically every trace of our existence was gone, it was a weird headspace to be in.”

“Thematically all the old classics are in there – sex, death, and Twitter brainrot. I don’t think I’m necessarily trying to say anything I haven’t tried to say before, I’ve just gotten better at saying it. I still hate landlords, I still hate right wing grifters, I still hate people who hide their cruelty behind progressive language. I do hate myself quite a bit less, so there’s some hope and positivity in there too, as a treat.”

In 2024 Thank signed to independent record label Big Scary Monsters, armed with a new album on the horizon and a smattering of upcoming shows in the UK and Europe to boot. 'I Have A Physical Body That Can Be Harmed’ is a brash, satirical and downright stomping full length that combines the raw ferocity of the band’s early work with the ambitious arrangements and electronic experimentation of their more recent output. The end result combines hardware techno squelch, jungle-inspired drumming, synth pop bombast and anarcho-punk spartan aggression, acid-fried and internet-poisoned with a shit-eating grin on its face, landing somewhere akin to The Cure’s ‘The Head On The Door’ if it was remixed by ‘Jenny Death’- era Death Grips.

The Waterboys

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