Nixon and the Burn are a three-headed rock ‘n’ roll band that hail from the rolling-hill regions of South-West England.
The initial seed was planted in the holding cells of a local police station on the morning of November 13th 2003 by two stray members of (a now defunct Exeter band) Murdock. Deciding to swap instruments shortly after the disturbances, Adam Hughes (formerly bass, now lead guitar) and Steve Sowden (vice-versa) wrote a fistful of new material inspired by their experiences of that receding summer for a project that had no foreseeable shape.
With Murdock falling open at the seams, they locked themselves into a rehearsal studio with newly-auditioned drummer Fergus B. Gordon, to bounce new ideas around. The results of this are now open to public consumption and/or scrutiny.
Having played over 400 gigs (and covering twice as many miles) in previous outfits, it should come as no surprise that Nixon and the Burn are primarily a live band. Murdock had triumphed as ‘best band to play the bay’ over two respective years of a popular Torquay competition and, going back further, Ad and Steve first cut their live teeth as sixth-form rock puppies Echofiend (occasionally supporting an up-and-coming local band called Muse) at the last decent hometown venue to get closed down by the council.
In late 2004 the band were approached by the development team from Sawmills Studio (Muse, Supergrass) who called in cohort and producer Paul Reeve (Muse, Beta Band, and Razorlight). The band were soon recording in deepest Cornwall where a plan for world domination was hatched. Phase one was the release of the bands first EP proper (the highly sought after Nixon And The Burn EP) on Sawmills in house label Dangerous Records. This was followed by a cover mount for industry mag Music Week and a run of packed out gigs up and down the country.
There are many varied influences within this band that shouldn’t work in conventional harmony. Militant guitarist Ad ‘5’ cites vintage Brit-punks like The Clash, Sham 69 and The Undertones next to American heroes Talking Heads , Devo and The Pixies; he believes his unique playing will one day heal the transatlantic cultural divide. Bassist/singer Steve really digs Nick Drake’s Pink Moon album (maaan!) and anything to emerge from Detroit in the last century, from Robert Johnson to The Von-Bondies via The MC5. He hopes to save enough money to reassign his skin colour one day. Tub-thumper (and official ‘muscle’ of the band) Fergus B. Gordon is inspired by the rhythmic power-housing of Led Zeppelin as well as stuff from Dave Grohl’s canon (Queens of the Stone Age, Killing- Joke, Probot et al) and pretty much anything else with drums loud enough to induce vomiting.
You could describe their sound as scuzzy, yet literate punk-pop with a DC twang and a refreshingly contradictive British lyrical perspective. They make for an eclectic aural mix-up of everything they know and feel about rock ‘n’ roll music. Curtly describing their own style as ‘the musical equivalent of a Tarantino movie’, Nixon and the Burn fantasise about a future of social revolution, fucking in the streets, political upheaval and endless guitar feedback. They refuse to elaborate further.
www.nixonandtheburn.com
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