Brighton Grunge throwback band Sick Joy are set to support their friends Demob Happy when they play a post-lockdown gig in Newcastle on December the 4th this year. The event is due to take place at the Tyne Bank Brewery and should be an exciting celebration of the ending of lockdown number two, providing all goes to plan regarding the R number. Sick Joy and Demob Happy are fast friends and in-fact have a lot in common, both bands officially birthed in Newcastle but came into their own and are based to day in the idyllic Sussex seaside city of Brighton.
The gig will also feature support from local band Shallow alongside the host of returning Newcastle expats. Shallow describe their music very simply on their Bandcamp page which simply states ‘we make loud noise.’ Vocally, there is much of the Kurt Cobains, Eddie Vedders and Chris Cornels in this lineup and it is interesting to hear a trademark Seattle-scene snarl in the voices of three bands which hail from Newcastle and Brighton, UK. Of the three, Sick Joy are certainly the darker, opting for long swirling pools of darkness in their songs which contrasts with the all out aggression and almost danceable energy of Shallow.
Demob Happy bring a similar energy to the party as Sick Joy, except with a somewhat more danceable beat which harks back to the early drum machine type beats of 80s goth rock bands like Killing Joke or The Cure, who were some of the real originators of danceable darkness and helped pave the way for the punk-inspired slam-dance festivals of American Hardcore and later the slowed down and moody slam-dancing of Grunge, lead of course by the well known prince of darkness turned inwardly, Kurt Cobain.
Despite the rugged exterior, it is not just the rough and ready sound and distorted guitars that bands like Sick Mob have picked up through their love of the American Grunge Rock of the 90s. The unlikely spirituality and of these wayward souls which would lead to such feminist statements as Kurt Cobain wearing a dress on stage has also rubbed off on these Newcastle/Brightonians. Sick Joy’s song smiling shame which is available on Bandcamp for £1 deals with issues of sexual violence and is part of a fundraising effort where the proceeds of all purchases of the song will go to ‘The Survivors Trust (TST),’ which ‘is a UK-wide national umbrella agency for 130 specialist organisations for support for the impact of rape, sexual violence and childhood sexual abuse throughout the UK and Ireland.‘
More recent efforts from Sick Joy include such cheery titles as ‘Joy Sucker,’ receiving a video release on Youtube last year, a song taken from their EP ‘Them Days,’ released on the 13th of September 2019. The EP is available to buy on vinyl through the band’s website or can be streamed or purchased for download on major platforms such as Spotify and iTunes.
