Houdini Dax
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Houdini Dax

Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom | INDIE

Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom | INDIE
Band Rock Pop

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This band has not uploaded any videos

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"“Superduper Supergrass blasts with lovely bendy 60's pop bits. Most endearing.”"

“Superduper Supergrass blasts with lovely bendy 60's pop bits. Most endearing.” - Simon Williams, Fierce Panda


"“I would imagine that this is what watching The Beatles in Hamburg was like.”"

“I would imagine that this is what watching The Beatles in Hamburg was like.”

This bullseye accurate observation by a punter midway through Houdini Dax’s set neatly sums up the rip-roaring incendiary blast of beat pop turned out by these charming young men.

With an average age of 19, the trio of singer and guitarist Jack Butler, bass player Owen Richards and drummer David Newington, have been causing extraordinary sensations among Cardiff’s gig-going fraternity with their frenetic, ‘tearing down the walls’ approach to their live shows.

Thankfully tonight they shake some sizeable action in such a manner that we’re left breathless and giddy by an entertainingly gonzoid live show which rattles along with a youthful, unhinged energy that, much a like a runaway train, threatens to career out of control at any second.

Most refreshing however is that, in this day of earnest young indie poseurs, they play with a genuinely engaging and refreshingly unselfconscious sense of fun.

Jack screams and spits the words out as if he were being exorcised by Screaming Jay Hawkins, bass maestro Owen pounds out a rock solid rhythm while spnning on his Cuban heels and drummer David Newington is the most watchable drummer I’ve seen for a long time, all flailing arms, psychotic stares and wild, manic energy.

Given that they’re playing at the Fabulous mod night, they’re fittingly kitted out in three button jackets and skinny ties.

In thrall to the 60s but not slavishly so, the band as a whole are quite a proposition – firing out three part harmonies alongside their demented twist and shout.

They rip it up with a scatter-brained confection of sonic pop, freakbeat, psychedelia, garage rock and rhythm and blues.

Their set comes careering to a close with a propulsive version of The Spencer Davis Group’s classic I’m A Man, the Hammond-pumped original rewritten as a bonkers speedfreaked workout.

To paraphrase the Modfather Paul Weller himself: “Now that’s entertainment!” - The Western Mail (Wales Online)


"A fizzing, colourful, fun-packed thrill ride"

A crackerjack of an album. Fizzing, colourful, a fun-packed thrill ride that proves there is exciting chemistry yet to be had out of fearless youth, strings, skins and a well-thumbed record collection. - BBC


Discography

BBC Sessions EP (Release December 2009)
Robin You Lie (Single) (Released March 2011)
O.L.L. - (Single) (Released May 2011)
You Belong To Dax Darling (Released June 2011)
Heavy Tease (Single) (Released November 2012)

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Bio

As the latest hideous splattering from MTV’s turd cannon “The Valleys” continues to paint the entire nation of Wales in broad strokes of the colour stupid, it’s with the gasping relief of a drowning man breaking the water’s surface and inhaling a life giving dose of air that Cardiff’s finest young band “Houdini Dax” point, aim and viciously fire off their newest single and remind everyone that the city has much more to offer than a roving gang of gawking, culturally atrophied morons.
Indeed the three young Cardiff natives have already caused one hell of a stir across the Great British isles since their debut album “You belong to Dax Darling” sucker punched an unsuspecting music world right in the throat last year. It was a perfect blending of 60s inspired, psychedelic-tinged, hip swiveling rock and-ah-roll and “more infectious than the common cold” vocal melodies all wrapped up in an extremely modern song writing model. Since being signed to Cardiff indie label “See Monkey Do Monkey Records” a few years back, they’ve consistently blazed a big Dax shaped trail up and down the country, dismantling venues and leaving nothing but shaking converts to their uniquely modern twist on a classic sound quivering in their wake.
Or to put it another way…. they are very, very, very good at doing that live music thing….
With “Heavy Tease”, the first single to emerge from their yet untitled second album, they’ve expanded their palette even further and given a glimpse into what we can expect. The single is a multi-headed, constantly shifting monster of a pop song; one second it’s all razor sharp instrumentation and snarled vocals, the next soaring harmonies and wistful romanticism before suddenly crawling up into a twisted slide of hazy fret work that wraps around you like a paisley patterned, Hendrix-shaped snake.
It sounds like the pre-credits freeze frame fist punch music of a John Hughes movie being filtered through the LSD lens of the 60s and soundtracked by a collaboration between the Black Keys and Tame Impala all whilst John Lennon’s ghost looks down, smiling and nodding in signs of approval.
Currently they’ve been snatched up under the wing of Ms Charlotte Church, to act as primary tour support and you will find them injecting their own unique brand of rock ‘n’ roll into a UK venue near you this autumn and across the US in spring 2013.