Nothing quite like a bit of last minute tour action. Envy Corps have announced a string of dates starting on Saturday around the UK for two weeks - be sure to catch them, as frankly they deserve to be massive by the end of the year. Their new album, Dwell is out on Monday - read my review here.

Tickets are on sale now, priced around £5 - £6.

Saturday 26th April - London Astoria (with the Courteeners)
Sunday 27th April - Birmingham Bar Academy
Wednesday 30th April - London 229
Thursday 1st May - London 229
Friday 2nd May - Bath, Moles
Sunday 4th May - Brighton Freebut
Tuesday 6th May - Oxford Jericho Tavern
Wednesday 7th May - Bristol Fleece
Thursday 8th May - Cambridge Barfly
Friday 9th May - Peterbrough Met Lounge
Saturday 10th May - Tunbridge Wells, Forum

I’ve been aware of The Envy Corps for a while, and was excited to be going to see them last August, only for Brandon to suffer a stroke. However, since then they’ve recovered and are about to release their debut UK album, Dwell. Sounding like a slower, poppier Kings of Leon, or a more mainstream Pablo-Honey era Radiohead mixed with Idlewild, Coldplay and Band of Horses, they’re instantly accessible, yet still different enough to not sound like a rip-off.

Opening with “Wires and Wool”, the Iowa foursome start off with a rocky, obvious single that is immediately catchy, full of brooding anger, just waiting to boil over into a full blown fight. Closely followed up with “Sylvia (The Beekeeper)”, they show off their literary references, commenting “Sylvia Plath / Soaked in the bathtub whilst I was pushing drugs with my Dad”, getting all philosophical about suicide and other such fun subjects.

“99,100″ is one of my personal stand-out tracks - a proper stomper, you can just imagine it as the backing music in a new Quentin Tarantino movie over one of the vicious fight scenes, building up and then going quiet, with lead singer Luke Petipoole’s fragile voice building its strength as the song reaches its crescendo.

“Story Problem” is a joyful march that should have the festivals clapping in time, chanting and waving their hands in unison. If it doesn’t, something’s wrong with them. Asked about the background to the song, Luke Petipoole reportedly told a reporter: “No comment,” he says, “but I will tell you this: it was a one-off, and for one night only. I am not generally a deviant.” Ooh er! The brilliant, Takeshi’s Castle style video is available on youtube from here, and looks like they had fun doing it.

Whilst nothing new or particularly innovative, they’re one of the few bands that can put out an album which is consistently good - some obvious strong singles, some quality album tracks that just reward extended listening. You can tell that they’ve worked hard, and deserve success. Watch this band, as they very well could do an Arcade-Fire explosion in popularity on us this year.

Dwell is due out on April 28th.

Some of you may remember that last Wednesday I went to see Envy Corps at Water Rats in London, however they had to cancel the show suddenly.

Well, news has since emerged as to why they had to cancel so abruptly: guitarist Brandon had suffered a stroke. Only 30, he is expected to make a full recovery.

Our thoughts are with him and his family… so unexpected.

Photo is taken from Stephen Mcleod’s flickr stream under the Creative Commons License.