Here at Joyzine there’s nothing we like more than discovering a brilliaht brand new band, and there can be few better places to look than the fantastic First Timers Fest at DIY Space for London.
Comprised of a series of workshops aimed at getting first time musicians together and providing them with the basics of songwriting, musicianship and DIY recording and promoting, culminating in a two day festival in which every act is making their debut, the festival has a particular focus on increasing female and non-binary representation in the DIY music scene. Bands to have emerged from the festival include Joyzine favourites such as Big Joanie, Breakup Haircut and Primetime.
Today First Timers will be hosting a zine making workshop and social at DIY Space, with the end prodcut due to go onsale at this year’s festival (more details here). For today’s caelndar window we’ve got a fantastic collection of tracks from First Timers alumni for you to download.
Big Joanie were the first band to bring First Timers to our attention when they appeared as guests on The Joyzine Radio Show a few years back. Since then they’ve gone from strength to strength with debut album Sistahs released via Thurston Moore’s Ecstatic Peace Library label and already starting to pop up in ‘Best of 2019’ lists. We’ve a track from the album for you today, ‘How Could You Love Me’.
London femme-punk band Charmpit came out of FTF 2016 and are all set to release their debut LP through Specialist Subject Records in the new year. Mixing sugary pop-punk with a fiery sense of justice, it looks set to be once of the albums to look out for in 2020 and today we have a sneak preview in the form of ‘Bridges Go Burn’.
Graduates of this year’s festival, Breakup Haircut first came to our attention with the fuzzed-up lo-fi splendour of debut EP What Did You Expect, I Got It Off The Internet back in September. The release rightly made it into Loud Women’s top releases of the year alongside Joyzine favourites Hurtling and Desperate Journalist, and today’s track ‘Why Can’t I Be Cool Enough To Move To Berlin?’ is taken from it. Breakup Haircut are set to kick off the year supporting The Just Joans at The Oast in Rainham on 11th January – more details here.
Excellently named DIY glam punks IRN Brunette formed for First Timers Fest 2018 with the aim of creating queer punk that was “positive, angry, energetic and fabulous all at the same time.” Give ‘A to B’ and we’re confident that you’ll agree that they’ve succeded.
Halaca formed the same year as IRN Brunette and have stayed involved with both DIY Space, where they played several shows including the excellent Food Collective night, and their fellow 2018 graduates who they supported at their EP launch in October. Halaca unveiled their own debut release ‘Dancing In The Bathroom’, complete with a splendid DIY video which you can watch here.
Our final track of today’s sextet comes from queer/trans alt-rock band Bitch Hunt (who it just so happens were on the same EP launch bill with the previous two bands). Having formed for the 2017 festival, they were back in 2019 to lead a workshop on ‘What To Expect At a Soundcheck’. They also featured on a compilation from the excellent Hell Hath No Fury Records alongside Joyzine faves Wolfgirl and Jemma Freeman & The Cosmic Something as well as both Big Joanie and Charmpit from today’s calendar window. You can download their track ‘Tear Up’, along with all of today’s calendar bands on the link below.
Download all six tracks here (right-click to download)
All of the tracks on The Joyzine Advent Calendar are completely free to download without any need to sign up, and if that fills you with the spirit of giving, why not make a donation to our chosen charity Crisis to help with the excellent work they do supporting homeless people in Britain.
Check back every day until Christmas Eve for more free festive musical gifts or check the links below to catch up on what you may have missed so far.
Day One: Oh! Gunquit
Day Two: Vodun
Day Three: West Midlands
Day Four: Peter With Rosie, Hey You Guys!, Peter Richard Adams + Evilwitch
Day Five: Mask
Day Six: The Son Fathers
Day Seven: Ariel Sharratt & Mathias Kom + 22-Pistepirkko
Day Eight: The Melting Ice Caps
Day Nine: Extradition Order
Day Ten: Those Fucking Snowflakes + Foxcunt
Day Eleven: Real(s)
Day Twelve: Austerity
Day Thirteen: Nini Bong + Time Dilation Unit ft. Momoe Tasker (GUTTS)
Day Fourteen: Muscle Vest
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