Martha

Martha are a rock band from Pity Me, a village in County Durham in the North East of England. After singles on their own Discount Horse label and Odd Box Records, their debut album Courting Strong, was released on Fortuna Pop! and Salinas Records in 2014. As of 2019 they have released three full length albums on cult UK and US based independent record labels.

They have described themselves as queer, straight edge, vegan and anarchist. They have no designated frontperson and all contribute vocals.Two members of Martha previously founded (and still play in) the band ONSIND, and another leads the band No Ditching.

They have variously cited The Housemartins, Motown, Billy Bragg, The Thermals, Ted Leo, power pop, The Replacements, Heart, The Marked Men, Big Star, Masshysteri, and The Exploding Hearts as influences.

I started listening to Martha basically on the blind recommendation of my favorite band, Los Campesinos! Martha toured with LC! a few years back, and when all the COVID stuff started popping off, Martha sold a collection of demos and rarities, Move to Durham and Never Leave the House, for $5 (or less if you’d been out of work) for a single day. I decided to hop on it. Later that night, I bought their entire discography for a very reasonable ~$21 from Bandcamp.

Here’s some of my favorite tracks to start you out:

• Clatty Harriet
• Six Men Getting Sick Six Times (Mendable)
• 1967, I Miss You, I’m Lonely
• The Historian
• The Void