Stoke-on-Trent-based duo – singer Joe Brennan Hulme and producer Jim Mycock – drop a fab new single, “Taxi” with an as-real-as-it-gets video to go with it, released today (21st Feb).
Much of their impressive output is crafted around samples, such as an Al Green track on their brilliant cut “Cross My Heart”, and The Average White Band on our fave track of 2019 from any band or artist, “Domestic Bliss” (“I want a house, a wife, a car and a couple of kids, I want some of that sweet, domestic bliss…”)
But “Taxi” sees Joe singing on top of a music track delivered by fellow Stoke guys and gals, their regular live backing band, The Rules. The horns sound ace.
The track deserves to be heard by many ears, preferably in pairs. It should be heard by major label A&Rs with vision and a desire to make some serious dough.
This is as commercial as it gets, uber-credible at the same time, keeping it dead real and treading their own ground, but stuff that Mike Skinner, aka The Streets, would probably be very proud of if he had created it.
Joe and his pal Jim have that “likeability” factor, that feel-good ingredient that just puts a smile on your fizzog the moment you hear them. If it doesn’t, you may well be deaf – or dead!
This track is centred around the average UK male consuming far more booze than their GP’s recommended daily safe drinking limits, to numb out the stresses and strains of every day living and love troubles.
The very simple but very clever video, sees Joe down his sparsely attended local drinker, complete with disco lights and a few bar fly characters joining in, as he sings to the track and sinks a few while he’s at it. Look out for the superstar with the air guitar pool cue!
The scene moves to outside and Joe, the worse for wear, peeing off taxi drivers and local drivers with his drunken antics in the road, and then a naughty bout of trespass onto the train tracks. (Don’t do this at home, kids…) You can see the video at the bottom of this page.
The song is a grower the more times you hear it. But it has the same quality, class and chutzpah as their small back-catalogue, and should do them much good as a profile booster and getting them talked about again after a period off radar.
With a change in management and other behind the scenes bits and bobs to sort out, they scrubbed their planned live dates last year to get their ducks in a row, while writing new material such as the new single. They are well and truly back – and very much on form.
Live shows being scheduled, but they have announced one in May, where they are one of the headliners of the “Your City Stoke” Festival. That’s Sunday 24th May if you fancy it. We will see you there!
Back to the new single – which on further listens conjures up the names Jarvis and Pulp and The Divine Comedy – and the press release blurb tells us:
“Taxi is an ambitious, intense and eclectic listen, sat on a grooving rhythm made further compelling by bluesy jazz flourishes, soulful charisma and spades of Northern wit courtesy of Stoke-On-Trent’s very own Average Joe”
It goes on: “This artist takes the very ordinariness of everyday life – the mundane, heartache, hard graft and little victories and twists it all into something transformative and hopeful. Taxi is a post heartbreak ode to alcohol’s soothing nature upon the bruised ego of a British male…”
A Tom Hardy meets Jack O’Connell look-a-like (sort of), Joe was raised in Stoke-on-Trent, or The Potteries as it is labelled – as the world’s main centre for ceramics production.
The city which was a major Northern Soul scene, and boasts not one, but two football teams and a city which spawned one Robert Williams, aka Take That’s cheeky chappie Robbie. We can forgive Stoke for that, yeah?
Inspired by vintage soul, hip-hop and classic R&B and the caustic spirit of Sleaford Mods and Mike Skinner, Average Joe takes timeless themes and kicks their arses into the digital age with the two “Rs” in sharp focus. “Real” and “relevant”.
Not much in life is certain, aside from death, taxes and most politicians being full of sh….But we are convinced, at Music Republic Magazine, that Average Joe are destined for major success. Been saying it a while now.
Deffo nothing average here….
https://www.facebook.com/averagejoestoke/
