Top Eight Thursday: Chris from Consumed's Eight Bands He And His Daughters Love

I find it nigh on impossible to narrow down all the music I’ve loved over the years into a list of 10 and my brain would explode if I tried. Instead, I’ve gone for a list of bands that both my kids and I like. My two daughters are 9 and 11 years old – they like everything you’d expect girls of their age to like, but they also dig a fair few artists they’ve heard played by me. I don’t purposefully try to shape their taste in music, but I do think it’s important to let them make their own decisions about music they may not necessarily be routinely exposed to, and it’s always cool when they pick up on music such as the contents of this list. In no particular order, here’s a list of bands that we all enjoy…

Royal Republic
I like the majority of this band’s material, but We Are the Royal is faultless from start to finish. Good time rock with some seriously weighty talent behind it. The kids pretty much know the words to every song on this album. I only know all the words to the Um Bongo advert.

The Bronx
Their last two albums in particular are firm favourites all round and are mostly played in the run up to our evening meal. I think the vibe they emit enhances our collective excitement when we know we’re only minutes away from eating a Hairy Bikers cottage pie.

Fishbone
Their logo was the first tattoo I had done (long since covered up – not because it was a regrettable choice of design, but because it was shit). What’s not to love? In Your Face and Truth And Soul are the two most played albums by a country mile. Seeing Fishbone live in the early nineties ranks up there as some of the best gigs I’ve ever been to.

Clowns
This is a band who knows what they’re doing. They provide the perfect mix of power, melody and aggression which is taken to another level in their live shows. Their fast reputation as a must-see live band is well deserved. I saw them play to about twenty people on a Sunday night in Worcester. They were bloody ace, but you could see how much they needed a larger, more enthusiastic audience to feed off and bring out their best performance.

Teenage Bottlerocket
My youngest says They Call Me Steve is the best song ever and has it set as her morning alarm. We played with TBR a couple of years ago and I was blown away by the level of energy that goes into their performance. I was knackered just watching them.

Against Me!
When my oldest was a baby, she used to violently nod her head to Stop! from the album New Wave, every time she heard it. Since then, the entire White Crosses album has taken over as the must listen to Against Me! album. If I was forced to compile a list of my favourite albums, this would definitely be a contender.

The Flight of the Conchords
We all like FOTC. Their songs are charming, funny and clever. With most other comedy songs, I can enjoy them for maybe a couple of listens before the joke wears thin. FOTC are hugely talented musicians and can emulate the varying styles of other artists perfectly. There is always an underlying level of self-deprecation and a sense of humility behind their songs, despite their evident brilliance as songwriters.

Mad Caddies
This is the first band my kids saw live. The Caddies are old friends of Consumed and I try to catch up with them whenever they’re in the UK. I took the girls to see them a few years ago and they had the best time. I got all proud and emotional seeing just how much the girls enjoyed themselves at their first ‘proper gig’. Keep It Going has some of what I’d say is their best work and is probably the album we listen to the most.

Consumed have a brand new EP coming out on Umlaut Records, titled A Decade Of No, on the 13th of July. You can pre-order the EP here.

The band are also playing a couple of shows to celebrate the release. They are playing in Manchester with Don Blake, Triple Sundae and Hoof on the 13th of July and in London on the 14th of July with Goober Patrol, Paradigms and a special Müg set covering the Descendents.