Mongrel (British band)

Mongrel
Origin	Sheffield / London, England
Genres	Rap rock, indie rock
Years active	2008–present
Associated acts	Arctic Monkeys Babyshambles Reverend and the Makers Poisonous Poets
Members	Andy Nicholson Lowkey Jon McClure Drew McConnell Joe Moskow Matt Helders

Mongrel are a British-Irish band formed in 2008, by former Arctic Monkeys bassist Andy Nicholson. Alongside Nicholson in the band are Jon McClure and Joe Moskow, both of Reverend and the Makers, Babyshambles bassist Drew McConnell and Matt Helders from Arctic Monkeys as well as London rapper Lowkey from the Poisonous Poets.

Mongrel released their first album Better Than Heavy on 7 March 2009. The content of their music is political, with the majority of their songs having lyrics which challenge government issues. The band have announced they will play a show at London's Boston Arms on 5 November, with a four track digital EP due for release the same day. Released on the Wall of Sound label, the EP feature debut track "The Menace".

For the album, McClure stated "We had Saul Williams come in and do a thing on it and hopefully M.I.A. is going to do something and maybe Pete Doherty. It's got a good flavour... We're really taking a few people to task, kind of like we're Public Enemy or something." In an interview with The Guardian, McClure also expressed a desire to record in Venezuela and work with Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez for the band's second album.

Better Than Heavy was released on Saturday 7 March 2009 free in The Independent newspaper. It was the first time a British band had given their début album away free with a national newspaper on release. The full release, 23 March 2009, contains two CDs, Disc 2 is a reworked version of "Better Than Heavy" by Adrian Sherwood at On-U Sound Studios, tracks are re-titled Dub versions.

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