David Dunn, Sheffield Star
"..five curmudgeonly thirty-something northerners..."
Rob Webb, Sheffield Telegraph
OUT NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The single 'Vanity Unfair'/'Three Mallards' is out now! (on Thee SPC ). Recorded and Produced with Rock Orton & Dean Honer, mastered to the max by Rob Gordon. Available on Supa-thick heavyweight, clear, wipe-clean vinyl (500 copies). A CD version (limited to 200 copies) is available on Meat Pie records with an extra slice, 'Bladderwrack', recorded and mixed at BLAKK SAUSAGE by FRED SHE .
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The single is available thru various real and online retailers [see stockists on Thee SPC site ] (check our blog) , from us at our shows and on MP3 from Thee SPC and Pure Groove Digital. All three tracks are also available from itunes!!
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What the papers say...
"Like across between Richard Hell and the Voidoids and a dandified rent boy, Meat For a Dark Day’s ‘Vanity Unfair’ mixes extremely explicit-sounding guitar lines with gleefully punk vocals and very dumb-sounding beats to make an idiot-punk/black leather-rock song with a gratifyingly instant appeal....It’s a puffed-up blaggard of a song: preposterous, simplistic and quite magnificent fun.
And on the b-side ‘Three Mallards’, a gentle acoustic lost-love ballad with echoey vocals and plenty of soul, proves that MFADD don’t need to pander to the instant gratification Ramones-rock camp – they just wanted to. And why the f*** not, indeed? More soon, please..."
Drowned in Sound.com
"Meat for a Dark Day finally commit their brooding creativity to disc ... this slathering tale of a man in love with his reflection - think Iggy Pop doing a late night bottle of JD with 90s Essex scamps The Godfathers and you won't go far wrong..."
David Dunn, Sheffield Star
"...Definite Nick Cave influence on this rollicking number from another fine Sheffield band. Ross Orton (who also has produced everyone from MIA to Jarvis!) on production, and he gives it a nice booming sheen."
PURE GROOVE RECORDS
"'Vanity Unfair' is a thumping slab of prime garage boogie with a nice line in caustic observation. If it were a person it'd be that louche-looking individual at the other end of the bar eyeing up your girlfriend. The B side, "3 Mallards", couldn't be more different, a folk tinged wisp of a song that lingers in the head. It's a fine single, and you should put your order in for a copy immediately.
NOTES FROM A DEFEATIST
The best single on mighty SPC label so far???Well i'm loving it, with it's bluesy, juddery wired up pop brilliance and it's acoustic folky flip. Well Done.
JUMBO RECORDS, LEEDS
"A great 7" showcasing the differing sides of the band with a slow smog-esque A side with haunting dulcet vocals, tinkling piano and plucked guitar. Richard Hawley style. The other side is a more chanting Mark E Smith style vocals with drums and guitar to make you shift your hips and tits."
NORMAN RECORDS
"...Vanity Unfair by Sheffield's Meat For A Dark Day is like an update to Blur's Parklife punctured with the quirkiness of XTC played in a garage venue. It's a short, rocky and anthem like affair packing a mighty punch despite clocking in under two minutes.
The flip side 3 Mallards slows things right down and over the course of it's five minutes I am undecided if is a piece of art or a pile of pretentious tosh. Still it provokes a reaction and that's the aim of making music is it not?"
INDIE-MP3.CO.UK
"...could easily be a split release from two different bands such is the stylistic difference between the tracks, hints at great and varied things"
Rob Webb, Sheffield Telegraph
"...'Vanity Unfair', is a garage rock number, being a funny and perceptive story of someone in love with themselves in the mirror, who cannot deal with the rejection inherent in the real world. He's probably one of those cool looking types, wondering why no one speaks to him, and longing to return to his mirror that returns his love as he suffers the heartache of separation from his reflection.
The B side, 'Three Mallards', is more balladic in style, I'm guessing the three mallards of the title refers to those flying ducks people used to have on the wall of their houses in the 70's. And so, relating to ordinary things, this is a sad song about the failure of an ordinary relationship. It sounds like the protagonist is hiding someone else in his room and inviting the ex to come around the next day to collect their stuff. Can you drag that concept out to 5 minutes? Only if you can write it as beautifully and compellingly as this."
HELEN TIPPING, PENNY BLACK MUSIC
"Another quality offering from thee SPC, Meat for a Dark Day offer up significant variety even within the confines of a chunky clear vinyl 7". Vanity Unfair is an energetic slab of art punk with a distinct hectoring swagger and a nice line in guitar whooooms. 3 Mallards by way of complete contrast is a deep voiced country bar-room melancholy, slow paced and more sparingly backed - though toy piano, a little bass and some distant woodwind encroach every so often on the gently picking acoustic guitar.
Musically, to go from low voltage McLusky to a pared back Lambchop in the space of 5 minutes or so isn't bad going and, even if not as lyrically exciting as those comparisons might suggest, this lot could be very entertaining."
MATT H, SOUNDS XP