Alamos is a band from Dundee, Scotland. Their music could be described as post-punk, scream-pop or even indie rock in the original sense of the word. Being a trio, they deliver short, sharp blasts of vitriolic chaos - albeit chaos of the fun variety that’s laced with intelligent hooks.

At the helm is guitarist/singer Kris Keiller, brother Mark Keiller on drums, and Fraser Stewart (Fritz) on bass.

Kris and Fritz met up at high school (Fritz has an unhealthy fascination with zombies, vampires and all things undead) while Mark started annoying the neighbours with his drumming as soon as he left the womb. Kris collects vinyl and generally spends too much time talking about the intricacies of guitars to people who don’t really understand what he’s on about. On-stage the trio create a noise which on a good day you can easily lose yourself to. In the words of Iggy Pop, “you don’t feel pleasure, you don’t feel pain, you are consumed by what you are doing”. Or something like that.

Their early live material, along the lines of Dischord’s Q And Not U, and other power trios with loud drums, dirty bass and disjointed guitar, saw them picked up by Scottish indie label Pet Piranha Records in 2004.

One of the band’s favourite songs “Kill Baby Kill” was their debut 7” release which featured on a playlist by the late, great John Peel. Hugely encouraged by this, a second single “Photograph It” was released a few months later. That single received even more attention with BBC Radio1 DJs Steve Lamacq, Rob Da Bank, and Vic Galloway giving it a spin. The video for it featured on the MTV2 Daytime Playlist for 5 weeks. Big thank-you goes out to director and friend Tim Mattia for all his help and support. Tim once did a video for pop band Rooster but he doesn’t like to talk about it…

This media exposure has enabled the Scottish band to gig across the UK repeatedly, through a combination of DIY shows and invites from local promoters.

In 2005 Alamos were invited to tour with Hell is For Heroes and have also shared audiences with likes of Franz Ferdinand, Weird War, The Subways, Aereogramme, Sons and Daughters, Biffy Clyro and iForward Russia!

Having cemented their reputation in Scotland as one of the best up-and-coming bands around, they were invited to play the Wickerman Festival in 2006. A fun day out was topped off with a ‘KKKK’ Kerrang 4/5 Live Review: “Alamos are a shrink-wrapped volatile bomb for anyone that misses McLusky”.

2006 also saw the release of the band’s self-titled debut album. Recorded at CaVa, Glasgow with producer Geoff Allan (Sons and Daughters, Mogwai), it received positive reviews from Kerrang 4/5 (‘KKKK’), Rocksound and Drowned in Sound amongst others. It documents the best cuts from the band’s earliest work and gives people interested in Alamos something more substantial to sink their teeth into. As Rocksound put it: “Scotland's Alamos make not a single emo apology for parading tense basslines in front of taught guitar riffs reminiscent of early Fugazi” and Kerrang compared it to “Madonna-era …Trail of Dead”. High praise indeed!

Expectations were surpassed further still when the debut album was offered a release in Japan through indie label Vinyl Junkie Recordings. Alamos music videos featured on daytime music TV channel Space Shower for 2 months, charting as high as # 27 whilst the album itself charted at # 30 in HMV Japan’s first half of 2006 chart for New International Artists.

Having spent the last few months writing new material, Alamos return in 2007 with new single “Silly Icarus, But You Can’t Really Blame Him For Trying”.

It’s available from digital stores (iTunes etc) and also as a free cd single for fans at shows. The second album is being recorded with Steve Albini at Electrical Audio, U.S.A. in March this year, which can only be a good thing.

With a promising debut under their belts and a live show that continues to improve with new bassist Fritz onboard, let’s hope Alamos keep making noise for some time to come.

Band website: www.alamos.co.uk
UK Label website: www.petpiranha.com
Japan Label website: http://label.vinyl-junkie.com/alamos/

www.myspace.com/alamos