Way back last October I saw a band called The Winter Tradition play at Electric Circus as part of the Oxjam festival. Back then I said that:
“The Winter Tradition are a four-piece folk group who were great live. They had to compete with a half-full room of people talking over the music, which was annoying but it’s bound to happen in somewhere like the Circus (the layout sort of facilitates it)…so yeah; soft folk vibes interlaced with rougher-hewn vocals that are closer to Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly than the pop-folk of Mumford et al.”
Since then, they’ve released a new single, in support of their album Gradients which is due out in June. The single, San Diego, was released about five days ago. The video for it is below.
Seems they’ve lost the acoustic guitars entirely. It’s not quite pop-punk, but it’s certainly rock/pop fare – an anthemic chorus with heavy emphasis on guitar drops. Despite the change, I still like it. It’s very high quality, and with so many cheap knock-off indie bands still strewn about like rubble from an earthquake, that’s a sincere compliment. Whether or not I want to hear more from The Winter Tradition per se, I definitely want to hear more good rock music.
The Winter Tradition play Edinburgh on the 19th of July, at Cabaret Voltaire.
