The Orwells • Neu • DIY Magazine

Name

: The Orwells
Based: Chicago
Listen: ‘Other Voices’
Similar to: FIDLAR

Every festival by way of The Great Escape - y’know, the ones where you’re meant to see tons of new bands - provides at least one eureka moment. Even within the queues and the slight disappointments and the oh-god-why-am-i-on-the-beach-at-5am moments, there’s one timely appearance of a new band stepping up to the mantle that helps level things out.

The Orwells did exactly this last weekend. They burst onto the Haunt stage on a Saturday night drunk as hell. They’re all around 17 or 18 but they got their hands on booze because they’re cool as hell. And they held it together on stage despite the beer and the broken guitars, because they’re tight as hell.

They’re accomplished musicians with a wild, possibly dangerous frontman in Mario Cuomo. Their debut album came out in 2012 via Autumn Tone, but things are truly stepping up a gear this year with a single release on National Anthem and all kinds of rumours about a fully-fledged deal with a proper label. We’ll see. All we know is live, they excel. Even when a dodgy air conditioning system is wafting all kinds of ungodly scents in your direction, they’re a dose of the fresh stuff.

‘Other Voices’ is out on 24th June (UK - East End / National Anthem) and 25th June (US - East End/ Canvasback).