BRAKES (from Brighton UK) are from L-R:

Marc Beatty - Bass
Alex White - Drums
Eamon Hamilton - Guitar & Vocals
Tom White - Guitar

Contact: brakes@brakesbrakesbrakes.com

Brakes live - see the Gigs page

Beatific Visions single out 20th August 2007

Having released singles about the loss of liberty (Hold Me In The River) and the death of God (Cease and Desist), Brakes have decided to release a song about the good things in life. Beatific Visions (”The sight of God or of the blessed in heaven, especially that granted to the soul at the instant of death” - Brewers Dictionary of Phrases and Fables) is a celebration of le petit mort, the momentary loss of conciousness during a climax, set in Brakes’ home town Brighton.

Cease and Desist single out 26th February 2007

The track is inspired by Phillip Pullman’s His Dark Material, by the Romeo Dellaire documentary Shake Hands With The Devil, by the old testament story The Book of Job and by the music of Johnny Cash.

The single will be released on 7″ and download. Each 7″ will contain cards, the ace of spades is the golden ticket, allowing free entry to any Brakes show in 2007.

B-sides are: We Saw Jerry’s Daughter (a Camper Van Beethoven tune) and Huevos Rancheros.

Watch the Cease and Desist video: Myspace - Youtube - NME.com

Read the January 2007 Update from Brakes. Their first album was 2005’s Give Blood. They’ve been described as “Literate Country Punk”.

The Beatific Visions out Nov 6th 2006 (UK) May 8th 2007 (US)

Audio: Subculture Magazine - Brakes NME page (under Media) Myspace

Tracklisting: Hold Me In The River, Margarita, If I Should Die Tonight, Mobile Communication, Spring Chicken, Isabel, Beatific Visions, Porcupine or Pineapple, Cease and Desist, On Your Side, No Return.

Read the September 2006 Update from Brakes.

While the subject matter is drawn from a similar well as Give Blood, it’s altogether more specific in its condemnation of certain global events and situations. Marc explains;

I like to think of this album as the soundtrack to a great battle between good and evil where the world almost cracks in half, sucking everyone into a life of eternal darkness and misery. There’s so much fucked-up shit going on in this world that it’s hard not to pass comment on it in our music. But as much as it’s important to us to write about that kind of stuff, there’s a lot of love and romance in there too.

They returned from Nashville with The Beatific Visions. 28.9 minutes of literate country-punk. It ranges from intensely personal songs of love lost and painfully remembered [No Return] to diatribes against religious fervor and the loss of the presumption of innocence [Hold Me In The River] to Bulgakov influenced observations of current geo-politics [Margarita]. Sometimes such sentiments are wrapped around riotous, deliriously entertaining, grinning ejections of clanging guitars and pounding drums [the soon-to-be-live-classic Porcupine or Pineapple or the souped-up, organ-laced, marvelously unhinged Spring Chicken] but there’s always room for sentimentally and genuine love in the world of Brakes, with Beatific Visions, If I Should Die Tonight and Isabel displaying their tender side.

Read more about recording The Beatific Visions in their Biography