I feel that whilst writing for Blue Walrus I’ve somewhat neglected the folk aspect of the inventory and so felt it was about time that I wrote about a band that had a calming influence on the ear drums , and the drums skins, for once. So let me introduce Dead Cities (Bandcamp/SoundCloud), a band that have vastly grown in the last 12 months and with reason to as well. I’d like to think that their name comes from punk band The Exploited but I have a feeling that due to the fact that Dead Cities bleed folk rock, this is highly unlikely. Their name originates from basically seeing Liverpool as a bit of a dead city after the rubble that was left in the wake of World War Two, which has also sadly been a true description of the music scene in the past few up until nowadays.

Now, if you were to look and listen to these boys at first it’d be hard to recognise that they are Liverpudlian and this I love. Over the past few articles I’ve tended to scream and shout about how Northern bands are ‘repping’ the North and how great it is but to be honest, it gets a bit old after a while. Dead Cities prove that you don’t have to always stay true to your regional heritage in order to make good music and be recognised. It’s refreshing to stumble upon (not through that god awful website but literally) a band that’s subtley accomplished and nonchalant about their underground success, which is inevitably going to expand outside of Liverpool.

For Dead Cities, the Groundhog Day feeling of the modern lifestyle mixed with dissatisfaction generally provides much material for lyrics that a feeling of the mundane mixed with an unrelenting optimism. Songs such as ‘Old Man’ with its bold drums and waltz rhythms which leads to an explosion of melancholic vocals and folk angst capture this sentiment vividly. Another of my favourite tracks is ‘Hours’ where Wyatt quizzes a girl’s rock bottom dealing with desertion and his own frustration in a sensitive but robustly heartfelt four minutes.

As a trio with a lot of musical components to each song, there’s a lot of switching during their set; jumping from guitar to drums from drums to mandolin. It’s a dynamic live show that, along with great, heartfelt music, is entertaining to say the least. A true natural talent was born in the poetic lyrics of Ryan Wyatt that is complimented by Oli and Martin; they’re like bread and butter.

Dead Cities by Dead Cities
Hours by Dead Cities
Saddest Star by Dead Cities