THE 'ARTS & CRAFTS' EP IS NOW AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE HERE .
It costs $10 and the tracklisting is as follows:
1. Class of 2000
2. Monkey Puzzle
3. It Started In Naples
4. My Guess Is No
5. We'd Suit Each Other
6. Virtue Was Your Downfall
'A masterclass in sun-flecked, Pixies-inspired pop economy … Amida mix artistry, intellect and economic pop savvy’
-Manchester Evening News
'"Class Of 2000" is maybe one of the cleverest jangly pop songs you'll hear this year… Amida can crash and jumble their sounds and still walk out of it all with an air of sophistication, gallons of innocent charm all shaped by knowing, rusty guitar shaped bustles... Amida's sparkling rings of melody set them apart from so many other new bands. Bigger things to follow for sure.’
-Manchester Music
‘At just under 13 minutes long, ‘Arts and Crafts’ is an all too short burst of unpolished, pop pleasure’
-Is This Music?
'jangle pop harking back to Postcard's golden days... If Class of 2000 doesn't get your body moving then I suggest you passed away in the night'
-Indie.mp3
'Amida's Arts & Crafts debut EP (a six track must!) has lively strummed melodies and guitars beamed with mirth, absolutely a pure subtle indiepop sound I've heard this year so far... go buy this cd to snug your ears, then sit tight to wait for their upcoming stuff, yet again Plastilina certainly keep delivering characteristic smashing pop productions!'
- Smash Hits Productions
'Amida's Arts & Crafts EP has six shining examples of the sort of short, jangly, laidback music that isn't afraid to be happy, albeit dourly; it's the aural equivalent of a lazy summer'
-Tastyfanzine
NEW VIDEO FOR 'Class of 2000'!
Animation by Viviana Godoy, pictures by Catalina Godoy - the most talented sisters in Chile! Many thanks are sent across the sea. It is beautiful : ) -
Class of 2000
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And so it began...
that two outcasts of taste met by a dirty Cambridge bus station on an April afternoon, between the homeless people and teenagers wearing baggy trousers and Nirvana t-shirts.
John had scruffylong hair like a mid-nineties indie reject, and Drew strangely resembled the bastard offspring of Graham Coxon and Burt Jansch, although he had sometimes been compared to Clint Boon of the bob-cut. Nothing else was notable about them, so they started a band.
John had actually arrived on English soil a week earlier, with sand in his pockets fresh from the Arizona desert. He was dry like a desert rat. As a child he saw Jerry Lee Lewis smash up the piano and decided to pick up the guitar instead. By the time he'd learnt his fourth chord, a one-way ticket to England had been purchased... indie-pop salvation awaited on Blighty's shores.
After stumbling into a job, Drew didn't know where he was, but he was in Cambridge. In his old band he'd played average versions of average indie songs (Oasis). Then he began tuning his ears to some more interesting sounds (almost-French gypsy jazz). His first floor box room on Upper Gwydir Street was to witness the slow, painful birth of Amida.
For several weeks they played to old women and dogs in local folk clubs. Heading north in search of a drummer, they found a home in the hills of Sheffield, before crossing the psychological border to the Gotham City of Britain, Manchester...
Augmenting the line-up is Jamesy, who lives 10 minutes away from where he was born, and probably always will. He has played bass for several years, after the discovery that he couldn't play barre chords. He tries to write and edits the most infrequent fanzine ever. At one gig he fell in love with one particular band and eventually became their bass player forever and ever.
Also on the Amida payroll is Seb Hood, who recently, mercifully, cut his crazy-ass hair. Seb has Tourrette's Syndrome, and can be heard yelping such nonsense as "Meller" in the middle of otherwise stirring ballads.
And last, but certainly not least, the indispensible Scott Challinor, aka Mr. C, aka Scatman Crothers, aka Scatman Begins, aka Drumbo Shrimp, has been taken onboard and serves as drummer/spiritual guide to the boys in the band. Scott is also the musician of the group, and is not unaccustomed to dropping phrases like "out of tune" and "don't sing through your arse, John."
United, the 5-piece are out to prove something. Anything.
