singles
march '06
yeah yeah yeahs - gold lion
the bands first album and media blitz completely passed me by, so when the first single from the bands long awaited second album dropped into the pile i was rather sceptical. all hype and no substance? pah. tis a cracking little number, new wave seediness, siouxsie and the banshees melodrama, and a slow and low burning groove with a nice acoustic guitar strum, and some lovely subtle studio overdubs. however, it's the addictive chorus of "oooh's" and "aaaahs" which will hammer it home whenever the track gets radio play (it will !).
engerica - the smell
from the cover alone this band have decided to go for a complete overhaul with their image. previous singles were wrapped up in lovely minimal hangman game styled logos and art supplementing the short bursts of cheeky punk pop perfectly. this time round, its all b-movie artwork and zombies. having released more singles than i care to remember its with some relief that the band are at last on the release schedule for the album, 'there are no happy endings'. according to the pr they still maintain that they are from essex. not easy to tell from this big american underground.rock noise with severe usa accents that are used to tell us all about winnies skinny legs (lyrics are printed for the benefit of all), which is all the more perfect when lines like 'liar cheater bogey eater' are pronounced amongst the nu-grunge-esque noise.
b-side, a cure for living, is 4 minutes 22 seconds, probably the longest track the band have ever released. unfortunately its a little too emo filled for my own tastes, but the goth kids that love all this new rock noise will love it.
test icicles - totally re-f**cked
never did like this lot, apart from the debut single which was kind of fun, but over the spread of a whole album their brand of rock/beats was just too much for me. obviously though a lot of folks loved it, so tis a shame that they have realised that the music wasn't worthy of continuing with their recent announcement of calling it a day. fair play, if you aren't enjoying yourself why on earth should we.
but prior to the total end, somehow, i suspect we will hear from the band again, they are releasing a complete overhaul double tracker on various download sites and vinyl only i think. the 2 tracks, 'boa vs python', and 'catch it!' have been remixed and now feature a multitude of grimey noise makers such as lethal bizzle, ozzie b, knowledge, scary whizzkid, its a complete mess and makes little sense to me. lots of beats and spitting words.
make your own mind up.
quickly.
b.c camplight - blood and peanut butter
have to be honest, when i was sent the album from which this debut single is lifted from i was somewhat under whelmed. something just made my head spin back to the horrors of 70's aor hero gilbert o' sullivan and long suffering car trips to the soundtrack of his shite on the battered but cutting edge 8-track. however, when taking this track on its own, the sheer loveliness, melodic strength and simple piano structures makes this rather gorgeous. especially when played after the test icicles. ha. fans of badly drawn boy, alfie, and various easy listening bands where harmony, melody and lazy sunday mornings are the key to happiness. catch the man on tour in the uk. details on his website i would suspect.
duchess says - noviciat mere-perruche - in serial ep
4 track ep from this new canadian label that proves the country aint all indie pop and rock as this kicks off with a lovely dirty electro pulse before a scream jolts you out of your slumber, now having had you blood curdled, straightforward thin machine beats are dragged from the depths of the 80's to drive the track home with rock guitar overdubs. hurray, sigue sigue sputnik revival begins here. fantastically spooky female deadpan vocals maintain the air of distress and discomfort to disco friendly beats. a great lead track which dominates the other 3 tracks, but that doesn't mean that the mix of old school synths, generous extras of guttural processed guitar noise (big black must be on the bands playlist surely), and grotty vocals are not worthy of attention. especially the final track, 'black flag', where the machine beat is as simple and direct as it should be, the vocals as paint strippingly searing as they should be, but with a melodic structure that's very good, as it should be.
basically, this is a wonderful chunk gritty electro-rock noise, which if came from shoreditch would have certain press people chomping at the bit.
the morning after girls - hi skies
the lead track is rather misleading : sleazy rock-n-roll that oozes tattoos, bad breath, and venues that i would never take my kids to, in other words, bloody excellent. however the other tracks on the ep by this melbourne band like to throw other cliches into the mix for your listening pleasure. so for the second track.always mine', take a chunk of jesus and mary chains feedback, a slab of courtney loves fuck you attitude, and drop an old dandy warhols styled shoegaze drone, and the love of black a la brmc. add to this the band are mates with rides mark garderner, have supported jim ried (j&mc) and brmc, should give some indication as to their direction in sound. the long drawn out psyche-trip of the final track, 'tomorrows time', is very much in line with the spaced out reach for the stars guitar epics by various creation label heroes.
hmm. my favourite new guitar band ?
quite possibly.
hundred reasons - kill your own
uk brit rock looked for a while to become a lot more popular with a certain brand of youth, and this lot were getting a lot of love. so i would like to think that this excellent return will please a lot of people. not my normal kind of thing, but the band have managed to create a massive noise. massive. like some bastard offspring of audioslave this is modern upfront in-yer-face rock music, simple as that
duels - animal
eek, calling this 'animal' on the label that brought us suede's classic 'animal nitrate' is surely asking for trouble ! still, it's not got the same level of drama, nor implied seediness and nor will it bring about a whole new era in bristish pop music like its predecessor, instead this is a much more level headed slice of solid indie rock. like a pared down muse, thankfully, with a lot more control over harmony, duels are finding their own sound quite nicely.
not great, but certainly not bad.