THE MANX SOUND EXCHANGE: Stars and stripes: Zebracore
IN THE FLESH: Postcode's last outing at The Engine Room in Castletown, supporting Kraul in November
THE back catalogue of long established ‘zebracore’ band Postcode will be celebrated tonight (Friday), with the release of two-disc compilation Zebranthology.
The 46-track collection features the band’s three albums, an EP and previously unreleased material from the early years of the band.
To mark tomorrow’s release, Postcode – guitarist Mikie Daugherty, singer Marie Reynolds, bassist Steve Halsall and Martin Rigby on drums – will play a launch party gig at The Engine Room in Castletown, with support from rockers The Clown Calls For War.
Mikie explained the band’s self-defined genre, ‘zebracore’: ‘At first that was kind of a joke, but I quickly realised that it describes what we do pretty well. Like the black and white stripes of a zebra there are a lot of opposites in our music, quiet and loud, noise and melody, male and female, acoustic and electric, digital and analogue.’
It all started in 2005 when Mikie and Marie began writing songs together, in a project that was never planned to become a real band.
As the new songs began to take the shape of an album, and other bands they were each involved in coming to an end, the coast was clear for Postcode to formally form in early 2007.
The albums featured in the new anthology include 2007’s Zebracore, the next year’s The Post-Zebracore EP and Zebraland, and the stripped down Zebracoustic in 2010.
‘I’m proud of the songs we wrote back then,’ said Mikie. ‘We remastered every single song on Zebranthology which made a hell of a difference, it was great to hear them as they should always have sounded.’
There is also a brand new EP on the immediate horizon, and there may be some special pre-release copies around tonight.
‘We’re ecstatic with it. I’m sure I’ll say this every time we do something new, but it is probably the best thing we’ve done, in terms of performance, production and songwriting,’ said the guitarist.
‘It’s a bit of a departure from our previous releases stylistically you could say, but it’s still Postcode.’
The band have presence on stage as well as studio.
‘Someone once described our live show as like PJ Harvey jamming with Sonic Youth and Fugazi which was nice, whether that’s accurate or not,’ said Mikie.
Not just confined to Manx soil, Postcode spread the word in a short 2012 tour.
‘That was a lot of fun, a really great experience. It actually kicked off in Hamburg, where we’d been invited to play at the NewUSB festival, and then we returned to play London, Sheffield and Bolton. We aim to get back on the road as soon as we can.’
Postcode’s releases are available from http://postcode.bandcamp.com/
• Lee Brooks’ ramblings on the rumblings of the island’s music scene. Help support the scene by emailing lee.brooks@newsiom.co.im or calling 695674 with Manx music news, reviews and photos
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Weather for Isle of Man
Sunday 19 May 2013
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 9 C to 15 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: South
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: 8 C to 14 C
Wind Speed: 23 mph
Wind direction: North west
