Artist:  Kids In Glass Houses
Title:  Smart Casual
Price:  €10.99
Format:  CD Album + DVD
Release Date:  23/05/2008
Producer(s):  Romesh Dodangoda
Label:  Roadrunner Records
Artist’s Origin:  Penpedairheol, Wales
Members:  Aled Phillips (Vocals), Joel Fisher (Guitar), Iain Mahanty (Guitar), Andrew Shay (Bass), Philip Jenkins (Drums)

Track Listing

CD
01.  Fisticuffs
02.  Easy Tiger
03.  Give Me What I Want
04.  Saturday
05.  Lovely Bones
06.  Shameless
07.  Girls
08.  Good Boys Gone Rad
09.  Dance All Night
10.  Pillow Talk
11.  Raise Hell
12.  Church Tongue

DVD
01.  Acoustic Set From Clwb Ifor Bach, Cardiff, Wales On April 5th 2008
02.  Making Of The Album
03.  Making Of The 'Give Me What I Want' Video
04.  Track By Track Commentary
05.  Music Videos
   - Give Me What I Want
   - Easy Tiger
06.  Full Album Karaoke

When frontman Aled Phillips formed Kids In Glass Houses in 2004, he'd have been the first to admit that it existed as little more than a hobby and was simply something that grew from the boredom of being a teenager in the tiny village of Penpedairheol, 20 miles from the Welsh capital Cardiff.  The band, as the singer puts it, "played about twice a month and practiced about half that amount."  Things started to change however, when a friend of Aled's, Philip Jenkins started drumming for the band and inspired a more dedicated attitude towards the ‘hobby'. Together, the band recorded their first two tracks in early 2005, ‘Flirting With Widows' and ‘Telenovela' on which Aled not only sang, but also played guitar. 

The singer was relieved of his stand-in guitar duties shortly after, when guitarist Joel Fisher, who lived on the same road as Phillips and was a regular at the bands early shows, entered the six-string fold, alongside Aled Rees.  Almost immediately after in November 2005, the group's burgeoning local popularity saw them win an online poll to open the 'Taste Of Chaos Festival' at Cardiff's International Arena, to an impressive and intimidating 7000 people.  Despite ending the year on a massive high, impending university courses and other commitments threatened the future of the young band and saw bassist and founding member Earl Phillips leave the band for academic pursuits. Andrew Shay, who was now a free agent following the demise of his previous band (The Next Nine Years) replaced him and the newly cemented line-up eagerly began writing new material.  The result of these writing sessions would be 2006's breakthrough five-track demo EP, ‘E-Pocalypse!'.

The process of writing the EP was relaxed and carried no real expectations.  "We were essentially nobodies in the music scene, so it made no real difference to anyone," recalls the singer.  "We just wanted to come out with the CD and sort of say, OK, here you go, deal with it.  We had become increasingly and consciously distant from the sound coming out of South Wales at the time and we just wanted to write real songs that were a bit different to what had become the norm.  Fun songs.  Songs that we'd listen to and enjoy and that weren't predated or just lumped in to the swill and forgotten."

Collectively, the quintet had grown up listening to a cocktail of Rock, Punk, Hardcore, Indie and Metal.  During their time in school, they championed bands such as Glassjaw and Lostprophets, admiring their tireless energy both onstage and off and their dogged determination and work ethic.  However, it was the timeless songs of stalwart artists like Duran Duran, The Police, Michael Jackson, Prince, The Smiths and The Cure that played an integral and influential role in the bands creative development and provided an ambitious benchmark for the band to aspire to.  The months that followed would see the band pour out four new songs in the form of ‘Me, Me, Me', ‘Easy Tiger', ‘Raise Hell' and ‘Historia'.  Once recorded, the band knew they'd produced something pretty special, but were unsure how it would translate to an unsuspecting audience who had become increasingly accustomed to a tried and tested formula.  Nor would they have guessed how many opportunities these songs would give them and just how far they would take them.

Easy Tiger

Fellow countrymen Lostprophets invited the band to open at some of their ‘Liberation Transmission' tour dates in July 2006 and again the five-piece found themselves playing to thousands of people at a time.  Once home from their brief supporting stint, the band parted ways with guitarist Aled Rees and spent the next few months cashing in favours and borrowing band members from their local peers.  One such person was close friend, Iain Mahanty, then of Dopamine, who filled in when the band headlined a sold-out Clwb Ifor Bach in Cardiff to celebrate the ‘release' of their EP.  A night that Phillips remembers fondly, "It was a bit of a milestone for us.  We thought we were the Rolling Stones for 40 minutes."

Over the next couple of months, the band took to playing everywhere and anywhere they could - a relentlessness that would reward the band with 1,500 sales of the EP by the years end.  By October the group had started to gain the attention of record labels, managers, lawyers and booking agents and were promptly booked to play their first London show, coincidentally alongside another newcomer to the British underground, Gallows.  The tiny show in Camden's Bar Monsta venue would see the band head back to the Valleys with a handful of business cards, bearing contact information for a whole host of big industry players.  Having played the Bar Monsta show and a handful before it, Mahanty would leave Dopamine soon after and join the band full-time.

With interest from fans and the industry increasing at a very healthy rate, the band's EP was serviced to the UK's rock media and received glowing reviews, most notably a 4K review in Kerrang! magazine.  "After that, we all had a bit of a ‘fuck me' moment," states the singer. "Things definitely changed.  We started selling out shows, making some money and more and more doors began to open for us."  In just the three months that remained of 2006, the band went on to play seven London shows and subsequently began 2007 with a manager and a booking agent to their name.

2007 would begin as 2006 ended - busy and on the road.  The band embarked on their first proper tour of the UK in support of Hundred Reasons.  The tour served as a fine appetizer of what was to come and a definite learning curve for the fledgling group. Kerrang! magazine ran an ‘Introducing' article on the band in early 2007, as well as declaring the band as one of ‘The 10 Hottest New Bands On The Planet'.  "You really never forget the first time you see yourself in a magazine," Phillips comments. "I got up at about 7 in the morning to run out and get it.  I haven't been up that early since," he laughs.

As Spring came to a close, the band had scaled the UK with 30 Seconds To Mars and The Blackout, headlined Klub Kerrang! at London's impressive Koko venue, as well as notching up an appearance on the ‘Give It A Name' festival bill and it's preceding ‘Give It A Name Introduces..' tour.  With no real chance to catch their breath, the group found themselves on tour with the Manic Street Preachers and Goo Goo Dolls, as well as making appearances on the Full Ponty, Download and Hyde Park Calling festival bills, before beginning their first headline tour of the UK in June to predominantly sold out venues.

By the summer, the band found themselves on the receiving end of a Kerrang! award nomination for ‘Best New Band' and were on the Carling Festival bills in Reading and Leeds, performing what NME.com described as "nothing less than a total early afternoon victory," to capacity Carling Stage tents.  Quite a feat for a band with just a five-track demo to their name.  "I never in a million years thought that EP would take me to Earls Court, Donington, Reading and Leeds and allow me to sell out our first ever UK headline tour," adds Phillips.

When the band finished their October headline tour on Halloween at London's Islington Academy, the band proved they were worth the hype that had surrounded them in the previous twelve months, giving a stellar performance to a packed house, that included opening with a cover of Michael Jackson's classic ‘Thriller', complete with outfits and makeup.  The next day, the band entered Long Wave Recording Studios in Cardiff, with Romesh Dodangoda at the helm, who had previously produced ‘E-Pocalypse!', to record their debut album.

Once recording was complete at the beginning of December, the quintet took to the road in support of Welsh natives, Funeral For A Friend.  On the opening night of the tour, the band put a stop to months of talks and speculation by putting pen to paper with Roadrunner Records.  As if it was written in the script all along, the tour would finish just days before Christmas at Cardiff's International Arena - a venue that the band had been dwarfed by just over two years earlier.  This time around, the band were more than equal to the venues size, giving a sneak preview of material from their upcoming album and commanding the stage and audience with a conviction and confidence that belies their status as 'new kids on the block' and serves as a statement of intent for a year that is theirs for the taking.

Speaking about the opus which they've entitled ‘Smart Casual', the singer reveals, "I've never been as proud of anything as I am of our album and what we've achieved.  It was a labour of love and for all the drama, we got there in the end," he adds.  "I absolutely cannot wait for people to hear it.  I'm a bit nervous that they won't like it, but I think they will.  Deep down.  I hope so.  They have awful taste in music if they don't," he concludes, tongue firmly in cheek.

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