Brakes

Brakes are a UK indie rock band from Brighton, active from 2003 to the present. The group’s line-up consists of Marc Beatty, Eamon Hamilton, Alex White and Thomas White. They are also known as Brakesbrakesbrakes on their US releases.

Formation and background

The band forms after Eamon Hamilton, then of British Sea Power, plays a solo support set in Brighton for The Lonesome Organist. Thomas White and Alex White, both of The Electric Soft Parade, see the performance and recruit Hamilton to start the group. Marc Beatty, who plays bass and has also worked with Mockin' Bird Studios, The Tenderfoot and British Sea Power, joins soon afterwards.

Hamilton fronts the band and also plays guitar. The group begins as a side project, but continues as an ongoing band.

Recordings and releases

Brakes release their debut single, Pick Up the Phone, on Tugboat Records in 2004. Their first album, Give Blood, is recorded in early 2005 for Rough Trade Records and follows later that year. It contains 16 songs, runs for 29 minutes, and includes re-recorded versions of tracks from the debut single. The album features guest vocals from Leila Moss of The Duke Spirit on a cover of Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash’s Jackson, and from The Pipettes on a version of The Jesus and Mary Chain’s Sometimes Always. Rough Trade shops vote it their best album of 2005.

The band’s second album, The Beatific Visions, is released in November 2006. It is presented as a more serious record than Give Blood while still keeping the group’s awkward, off-kilter character. The album includes songs such as Hold Me in the River, On Your Side, If I Should Die Tonight, Isabel and No Return, and it is cited by Radio 1’s Colin Murray as his Album of the Year. Rough Trade Shops place it at number four in their best albums of 2006 list.

Brakes sign to FatCat in October 2008 and release their third album, Touchdown, in April 2009. It is recorded by Paul Savage at Chem 19 Studios in Scotland. Around the same period, acoustic versions of new and older songs are recorded and later issued as the live album Rock is Dodelijk, which appears in November 2009. That live release is recorded partly in Brighton and partly in Cologne, Germany.

Touring and style

The band tours with Belle & Sebastian in early 2006 and with Editors later that year. They later tour the US with The Twilight Sad and We Were Promised Jetpacks. Their live performances are described as fast, loud and immediate, and their recorded work is noted for mixing punk energy, garage rock, country-leaning touches and political references with dark humour.