The Boxer Rebellion

[collywobble]

I'm not spamming, I'm just notifying all you peeps of a great band I saw last month. They blew me away and I've just found out their album comes out on Monday. Had not idea. But anyway, Exits by The Boxer Rebellion got a striking 7/10 in NME this week. I advise you to buy, this band were the first band to knock me off my feet for a long, long time. Was anyone else at any of the Jim Beam dates last month with The Raveonettes?

[johnny_t]

k thx i'll download their album and check them out :P

[johnny_t]

hehehhe m8 i downloaded the album but i still haven't listen to it, if u want it just tell me

[collywobble]

Thanks mate, but I'll buying it in the shops tomorrow. Being a cd collector an' all...

[johnny_t]

k sure as u like :)

[naty]

*mega bump*


i saw them on tuesday as support act with editors!!!

they are just fantastic!!!

who else likes them? :cool:

[Bernard]

There are a few fans on here I think.

Union is fucking amazing. :D

[Marisa]

Martin, you always have excellent taste and I just so happened to get some of their music from a friend the other day. I'll be checking them out!

[Kite]

Where would you suggest I start with this band?

[Bernard]

Uhh, both their albums are as good as each other, IMO.

Union is going up in multimedia shortly, and if you like that, I can upload Exits for you. Sound good?

[Kite]

Bearing in mind due to my backlog it might not get listened to for a couple weeks ;)

[Famous Old Painter]

I was just about to start this thread!

Union is my favorite album of 2009 (although I've only listened to one so far).


Favorite tracks I recommend you check out -

Watermelon - My favorite song off Exits.
Evacuate - Their latest single, will be free off iTunes in a few weeks.
We Have This Place Surrounded - Beautiful dark ballad
The Gospel Of Goro Adachi - Sounds like it could've been on Kid A. In the best way possible though.
World Without End - TBR at thier most Coldplay-like. Beautiful.


Also, I want everyone to buy Union the week of January 13. Union needs to go to #1!!!

[RadioMad]

I was just about to start this thread!

Union is my favorite album of 2009 (although I've only listened to one so far).


Would you mind sharing the album?
I can only find 1 expired link to it.

[Bernard]

Union is on iTunes on January 11th, so I'll be buying it then. A few of the tracks I ripped skip a lot, particularly Misplaced. Thanks, Audacity. I'll wait for the release date now.

It's sounding awesome though.

By the way, RadioMad, there's a link in multimedia. Like I said though, I didn't do a fantastic job of ripping it.

[Famous Old Painter]

All the more reason to buy it.

And trust me your rip is so much better than the one I attempted Martin.

[Bernard]

What's that in your sig?

*copy & paste*

We need to raise awareness here folks.

[Famous Old Painter]

Great, another username change. :laugh3:

[RadioMad]

The Boxer Rebellion #1?

That would be awesome, but in all seriousness... that'll never happen.

[Bernard]

It's more to get this a chart placing than anything else. Exaggeration helps.

[Famous Old Painter]

^ What he said.

Of course they'll never get to #1, it's more to raise awareness than anything.

[TheFoxThatBecameGod]

HELLS YEAH.

[Famous Old Painter]

Only a few more days now.

Gotta trust myself not to spend my iTunes credit until then.

[Famous Old Painter]

Album out today. Go buy it everyone.

[Bernard]

What he said.

Only £5 for an album as fantastic as Union? You'd be mad not to.

Bought Exits as well. :D

[VERVE]

Would love to buy it, but I don't have Itunes. :(

[RadioMad]

Done.

First time I ever paid for a full download album :P
(but only since it won't be released on CD for a while)

[iPsy]

It says it came out in the year 1900 :lol:

[Bernard]

Lol yeah.

108 years in the making?

Well, it felt like it... :D

[Famous Old Painter]

What he said

[Bernard]

We have to stop doing that! :P

It's at 57 in the UK iTunes chart.

[Famous Old Painter]

Great!

Evacuate is free from today I think as well. Front page and everything.

[Bernard]

They're on the front page here too, although for some reason Ireland doesn't do the single of the week thing.

[TheFoxThatBecameGod]

Number 16 in the main Itunes chart now :D

[Bernard]

Holy shit, you're kidding me right!? :o

That's fantastic.

[Famous Old Painter]

#13 at the moment.

Come on guys, don't let it be their peak! I wanna see them crack into the top 10 by this weekend!

[Famous Old Painter]

Union is presently #9 in America.

Yes that's right.

Read it again.

I don't believe it, I've never seen anything like this in my entire life.

[Bernard]

It's at #8 now. And #11 in the UK.

I thought Animal Collective reaching #2 over here was surprising, but this is just on another level.

Anyone who hasn't bought it yet, I would urge you to do so ASAP.

[Famous Old Painter]

It got up to #6 in the US last night. Wow.

Seems to be cemented at #11 in the UK though.

[Briggins]

I just downloaded the free single thingy. Pretty decent.

[Famous Old Painter]

http://www.nme.com/news/various-artists/42124

Since their success with the self release, The Boxer Rebellion's management told NME.COM that the representatives of Radiohead (http://www.nme.com/artists/radiohead), Arctic Monkeys (http://www.nme.com/artists/arctic-monkeys), Editors (http://www.nme.com/artists/editors) and The Pretenders (http://www.nme.com/artists/the-pretenders) have been in touch to congratulate them.

Ian even put them on the front page of Coldplaying!

[RadioMad]

Wow, that is so cool for them :D

I really think they should let the album + single chart. I mean, why the hell should that not be allowed? It's an official way of releasing music!

[Kite]

The single should be able to chart, but I would predict the album chart rules being changed to allow download-albums to be included if they are only available online.

[Kite]

Right, I have a song by this band called Cold Red in my iTunes library from a various artists cd, any idea what it's from?

[Bernard]

You mean Code Red?

One of the first songs the band released, available on the single of the same name.

[Kite]

But not on their first album?

[Bernard]

Yeah, it's a non-album track.

[Kite]

Coolness.

[ollyh]

Got the album a few days ago and its very good, amazed how well its done considering how obscure the band was before last week. Favourite songs on the album have to be Flashing Red light means go, Move on, Evacuate, Forces and Semi automatic. Although I haven't seen a radio station notice them yet, are there any playing TBR out there yet?

[Coldplay Junior]

Union is one of my favorite albums :D

[Kite]

Oh yeah

[Dejan]

DROWNED IN SOUND REVIEW 8/10

Back in the summer of 2003, The Boxer Rebellion seemingly had the world at their feet. As the hotly-tipped inaugural signings to Alan McGee's newly launched Poptones imprint, their stadium anthems in waiting should have propelled them to the status kindred spirits in bombast Coldplay were beginning to revel in and continue to thrive on ever since. Instead, the old adage 'everything happens in threes' became a reality for The Boxer Rebellion. First of all, no one bought their debut album Exits, then their label went the same way, cast aside by the burgeoning download boom. Thirdly, to add injury to an already catastrophic list, frontman Nathan Nicholson endured a life-threatening rupture to his appendix that put the future of the band in jeopardy altogether. Lesser artists would have taken the hint and returned to the less fraught realms of nine-to-five normality; not The Boxer Rebellion.

Four years on from Exits, which many thought would be an apt epitaph for the disaster stricken four-piece, they're back with a new record, and despite having no label to carry out the promotional hard sell on their behalf, sound twice the band they did back then.

Almost from the word go, Union delivers a statement of intent, kicking and screaming its way out of a subdued coma. Whereas before they maybe Edged a little too closely to their influences, this is a record brimming with a new found confidence, a re-birth from a band that cynics hoped had been dead and buried long ago. Maybe the traumatic nature of their singer's ailing health and subsequent return to full fitness revitalised the whole unit, hence the record's title, but here there's an undoubted self-belief shining through that nothing less than perfection will suffice, and while Union falls just short of those hefty heights in the wider scheme of things, there's no denying The Boxer Rebellion have given it their best shot.

Despite having been recorded nearly a year ago, even the band themselves couldn't have expected such an enthusiastic response as the one they got when Union became the first digital only release by an unsigned band to crack the Billboard top 100 in January. Although even that groundbreaking feat still couldn't attract a major backer to subsidise and release the whole album, its success and gave The Boxer Rebellion the impetus to finance Union's physical release themselves, and here in its full glory, their long-awaited follow-up to Exits finally sees the light of day.

What's quite apparent is the way the band have used the years spent in their own studio honing and enhancing their sound, the opening 'Flashing Red Light Means Go' and aforementioned 'Evacuate' hinting at a more expansive, widescreen view than on any of their previous recordings. The guitar duels of Nicholson and Todd Howe ring clearer than ever before, particularly on the epic finale of 'Silent Movie', which cascades Union to a brooding, emotive climax. At times, there's a claustrophobic tightness that turns melancholic asides like 'Soviets' into billowing wombs of sonic bliss, while 'The Gospel Of Goro Adachi', with its semi-introspective lyrical assertions ("What's done is done to me...") coupled with a lilting waltz-like accompaniment is simply stunning in its execution.

Likewise the poignantly rabid 'Forces', where Nicholson pleads "Don't save yourself for someone else" takes the mantle Tom Smith and his Editors borrowed back home to roost, possibly for good this time. Ultimately, Union not only rekindles the burning sense of desire that encapsulated The Boxer Rebellion's early singles and live shows over half a decade ago, and if there's any sense of justice, surely re-ignites a floundering industry's interest in a genuinely progressive and forward-thinking group of musicians. We can only live in hope.

[mysongislove1915]

Another great band! :) Been listening to their stuff a lot in the past couple of months and they're amazing. In Pursuit, Watermelon, Flashing Red Light Means Go, Evacuate, The Gospel of Goro Adachi, Misplaced and Semi Automatic are probably my favorites.