The Capes was a five-piece

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the mu ...

band from

South London South London is the southern part of London, England, south of the River Thames. The region consists of the Districts of England, boroughs, in whole or in part, of London Borough of Bexley, Bexley, London Borough of Bromley, Bromley, London Borou ...

. Their hook-laden music drew comparisons to

britpop Britpop was a mid-1990s British-based music culture movement that emphasised Britishness. It produced brighter, catchier alternative rock, partly in reaction to the popularity of the darker lyrical themes of the US-led grunge music and to the ...

, in particular Blur.

Biography

The band formed in 2002 when singer/guitarist Kris Barratt, keyboard player Richard Gladman, bass guitarist Rupert Cresswell and drummer Rupert Phelps began rehearsing together at South London's

Goldsmiths College Goldsmiths, University of London, officially the Goldsmiths' College, is a constituent research university of the University of London in England. It was originally founded in 1891 as The Goldsmiths' Technical and Recreative Institute by the Wor ...

. Rupert Cresswell's brother Nick was soon brought in as an extra guitar and keyboard player, thus completing the current line-up of the band. Hard Soul Records, an American label, released the band's debut EP ''Taste'' in 2005. This was followed in early 2006 by the Capes' first album, ''

Hello ''Hello'' is a salutation or greeting in the English language. It is first attested in writing from 1826. Early uses ''Hello'', with that spelling, was used in publications in the U.S. as early as the 18 October 1826 edition of the ''Norwich C ...

''. Despite two American tours, an appearance at

SXSW South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Te ...

, and favourable reviews by online publications such as

Pitchfork Media ''Pitchfork'' (formerly ''Pitchfork Media'') is an American online music publication (currently owned by Condé Nast) that was launched in 1995 by writer Ryan Schreiber as an independent music blog. Schreiber started Pitchfork while working ...

and Cokemachineglow, by late 2006 the band had parted ways with Hard Soul. This was in part due to a general lack of support from the label, who, amongst other things, left the band stranded in

Athens, Georgia Athens, officially Athens–Clarke County, is a consolidated city-county and college town in the U.S. state of Georgia. Athens lies about northeast of downtown Atlanta, and is a satellite city of the capital. The University of Georgia, the sta ...

at the end of the 2006 US tour.Thecapes.co.uk
''Hello'', however, is still available both in the US and internationally via the

iTunes Store The iTunes Store is a digital media store operated by Apple Inc. It opened on April 28, 2003, as a result of Steve Jobs' push to open a digital marketplace for music. As of April 2020, iTunes offered 60 million songs, 2.2 million apps, 25,00 ...

. In late 2006, the band signed to Fabtone records in Japan, who domestically released ''Hello'', with a slightly different track list and some bonus tracks, on 10 January 2007. The band has confirmed, via its Myspace page, that they are now defunct. Singer Kris Barratt is now focusing his attention on a new band,

Spring Tigers Spring Tigers are an American pop band from Athens, Georgia. The band was formed in March 2008. History The band was formed when Kris Barratt, as frontman of the since disbanded group, the Capes, found himself stranded in Athens mid-tour when ...

, on the

Bright Antenna Bright Antenna Records is an independent record label, founded in 2007 and based in Mill Valley, California. The label was created by producer Sep V and by writer Tiffanie DeBartolo and named after the lyrics to the song "The Spirit of Radio" by ...

label.

Discography

Albums

* ''

'' (Hard Soul Records, 2006)

Singles and EPs

* ''Taste EP'' (Hard Soul Records, 2005) * "Tightly Wound" Single (Outafocus Records, 2005)

References

External links

Official site

MySpace page
* Allmusic biography and reviews
Pitchfork review of ''Hello''

{{DEFAULTSORT:Capes, The British indie rock groups Musical groups established in 2002 Musical groups disestablished in 2008 2002 establishments in England