Lisa Bouvier & Allt Ar Musik – Indian Ar Dod CS
Horowitz – The Knitwear Generation CS
(Fika Tapes)

Two items here from a new London-based / Scandicentric micro-label, both of them zipping effortlessly past my twee-defences and making me smile and get all ‘yay-for-handcrafted-objects-and-DIY-culture’ and so on, however much of a filthy anachronism starting a tape label in 2011 may be.

To address the Lisa Bouvier / Allt Ar Musik one first, if someone described the music herein to me before I heard it, my cynical grown-up self would hiss like a wounded snake and go hide in the airing cupboard until it was over. So it’s a good job that I saw Lisa B. play a real nice solo set prior to purchase, giving me the courage to press play and roll with whatever transpired. And what transpired is TOTALLY AWESOME, whisking me back to the innocent days before I had really clocked the existence of any “indie-pop scene”, when I would still meet any manifestation of polite, well-dressed kids ‘doing it for themselves’ with a hearty thumbs up and when I would still welcome the presence in my life of records on which white people play poorly recorded trumpets.

So let’s put the question right out there: how does the idea of mannered, bedroom-fi Swedish language covers of Mary Lou Lord’s “His Indie World” and Sebadoh’s “Gimme Indie Rock” grab you? Not so good? Well take a second look, because only an inveterate grouch would deny that these particular ones are a ton o’ fun. There’s a really great feeling of after-school four-track fun about these recordings that bypasses any/all reservations, and indeed sleevenotes from Lisa B. reveal how these are quite old recordings, dating from when she and the dude who is ‘Allt Ar Musik’ teamed up at college and just started goofing around with some music, expressing their joy at the joint discovery of the kind of up-with-people DIY/indie culture that us British or American kids are drenched in from an early age and basically sick of by the time we crawl into our mid/late ‘20s.

Cover art depicting the two of them sitting happily on some bedroom floor surrounded by cheap equipment is emblematic of the whole affair. Oh, to be a youngster again, to sit on that floor; drink tea, giggle, make songs. Good times.

Horowitz are a band who I’d imagine would be apt to share these wistful sentiments of badges-n’-Converse nostalgia, and whilst I’ve probably run out of original things to say about them by this point, their bleary-eyed fuzz-pop remains a thing of grandeur on this here Fika tape. In fact, it sounds better than ever busting out of a tape. Well, not really ‘better’ as such because my tape player turns everything into underwater sludge, but… aesthetically correct? Yes, definitely. I could describe Horowitz’s three songs here and tell you what they sound like, how they fit into the band’s oeuvre and such, but really all I want to say is goddamnit, there’s something about everything Horowitz record that just hits me right here y’know? Their home-taped drum machines and bubblegum Boyracer fuzz, their drifty, elegiac melodies and the big bearhug of lonely/star-gazing indie-boy emotion that goes into each one of their songs… it just makes me want to salute and wipe a tear from my eye, y’know? “This is why we fight”, all that kinda stuff (god help us if there’s a war).

Much as I shake my fist at the retro-tape craze (largely on the practical grounds that the tapedeck on my mini hi-fi grinds away so painfully I might as well have dropped it in a fishtank on the night John Peel died and left it there ‘til last summer), there’s no denying that these Fika tapes are real lovely pieces of work – brightly-coloured cassettes in hand-folded cardboard packets, each stuffed to bursting with a download card, a ramblin’ photocopied insert, a fruit teabag and a recipe for cake. The whole lovin’ package! Horowitz give us a recipe for beer-cake, and all is right with the world.

Each tape limited to 100, so if any of this sounds like the kind of culture you might feel a connection to, check ‘em out.

http://fikarecordings.com/
http://www.myspace.com/horowitzband
http://lisabouvier.se/

Labels: Horowitz, Lisa Bouvier, singles reviews, tapes

One Last Batch of Singles Before the Year-End, Part # 2


The Girls At Dawn –Never Enough b/w Every Night (Hozac)

There’s nothing much I can write at the moment to convey how much I love this single, and the song “Every Night” in particular, at the moment. Piss around all day at work, drag my carcass home, play Girls At Dawn single. Make dinner, piss about the house, play Girls At Dawn single several more times, go to bed. That’s how life’s been this week.

I should do a whole “I Like” post about them really; I could try and write something about the feeling of mystery/creepiness/distance that seems to be becoming ever more prominent in stuff I’m hearing from America at the moment, and how exciting it is when, in the right hand, this feeling can be conjured not by production tricks or effects but by… something intangible in the playing itself. I could do a self-deprecating bit about how Girls At Dawn seem so absurdly tailor-made to pander to all my odd likings and obsessions at this particular moment in time. I could even wax aimless for a bit about what a quietly brilliant and evocative name for a group Girls At Dawn is.

All that would be surplus to requirements though – there’s a delicate balance to this music that allows it to work outside of understanding, outside of cultural context, and I know if I start blundering around getting verbose, taking it apart with words, I’ll be in danger of destroying that.

Everything about Girls At Dawn here is SPARSE – they begin with that Raincoats/Marine Girls/Shaggs sense of daring open space, as the remnants of stern chords hang in the air for several breaths, challenging you to object before the song continues. The kind utilitarian approach to homemade rock music, where every note, every sound, is weighed for its usefulness, and excess baggage is stared down and forced out; it’s uptight, but also incredibly comforting, as chillingly beautiful vocal lines can rise bravely from the spaces between notes with no accompanying fanfare. This still being the notional realm of weirdo lo-fi art-punk, there’re no tedious intrusions of ‘perfection’ or perfect tonality here, with everything giving the appearance of a jolly, half-assed clatter. But every element that comprises Girls At Dawn’s self-produced songs is simple, perfect and devastating. A single “la la-la la-la-la la” fleetingly catches the essence of psychotronic British folk more purely than a whole troupe of crumhorn-wielding chancers, before the ‘Planet Caravan’ tremoloed backing vocal on the chorus just floors me once again, making me wish I could step through a gateway into the purple/pink psyche forest on the sleeve, to commune with the three witch-oaks and set out in search of Angel Blake and that spectre from the first ‘Sabbath album, as Girls At Dawn echo through the branches like a siren’s call…

I know, I know, I just did precisely what I said I wouldn’t do.

And I know, I know, what AM I talking about? You just listened to their myspace, and it’s just more scrappy, so-so, faux-naïve Brooklyn hipster music…

Well you didn’t really expect the enchanted village to still be there when you came back with the police did you? Jeez.

http://www.myspace.com/thegirlsatdawn
http://hozacrecords.com/

Horowitz – Supersnuggles EP (This Almighty POP)

Aah, god bless Horowitz, back again with yet more achingly beautiful home-recorded lovelorn fuzz-pop. Y’know, it’s perhaps an obvious observation, but it only just occurred to me – Horowitz are all about reflecting a deep, deep love of independent British music circa 1997, from the Helen Love tribute cover art to the Urusei Yatsura transatlantic vocalisms to the kinship with Boyracer to… well they must have a certain fondness for Dweeb, I’m sure. Needless to say, this is home territory for me, and it’s great to know they’re still out there, fighting the good fight, singing of their love for Winona Ryder over dizzy sherbert fizz guitar scuzz and melodies to die for. Track three here, ‘The Boy From Whatstandwell’, is a bit of a departure though, it being a Horowitz ballad, complete with 3/4 time, clean guitars and wistful – like, even more wistful than usual – lyrical concerns. It’s really nice, although maybe I’m just saying that because the sleevenotes, in which Pete or Ian or perhaps someone else entirely, relate an age old tale of teenage railway station kisses, made me shed a tear. “I wished they could last forever, but they never could, because I had the papers to deliver the next morning and needed an early night”. Amen, fellas.

http://www.myspace.com/horowitzband
http://www.thisalmightypop.com/

Invasion – Spells of Deception 10” (This Is Music)

I thought I’d take a chance on this one after reading about Invasion on The Quietus and thinking, good grief, THAT’S a band I need to hear! The basic recipe takes one Sleep/Wizard worshipping doom metal guitarist, adds a high energy drummer with a penchant for setting her kit on fire and a ball-busting female soul singer, and calls upon them to compress their combined essence into songs that frequently don’t even break the two minute mark, resulting, so one would hope, in flaming juggernauts of musical bombast the like of which the world has never before seen.

That’s the theory, anyway. In practice, “Spells of Deception”s title track is something of a disappointment, a classic example of what happens when some individually potent musicians get together and somehow emerge with results that seem far less than the sum of their parts. The trio crucially fails to gel here, with Marek Steven’s workable sludge riffage left growling in the corner in the face of Zel Caute’s sledgehammer dance-punk rhythm track (too much cowbell), whilst Chan Brown sounds equally lost, her pitch-perfect Aretha-isms sounding lonely in the otherwise empty high-end and searching for a tune to latch onto amid a complete lack of melodic counterpoint. Sounding like the kind of warmed over studio experiment that you can imagine the post-fame Gossip might have come up with before shaking their heads and going back to the drawingboard, it’s a bit of a dog’s dinner to be honest. Thankfully, the other track on the A-side here, “Behind The Black Gate” (alright!) shows the band really getting their shit together, with Steven and Caute locking into a filthy downtuned groove that’ll instantly win the heart of anyone who ever swung hair in the front row at a Winnebago Deal or Orange Goblin gig, and Brown stepping up to the plate as an appropriately mighty rock frontwoman, declaiming Ozzy-style over the song’s sinister middle section. I was hoping she’d utilise the pleasantly mental space-echo to mimic both the Robert Plant and Sandy Denny parts on Zep’s ‘Battle of Evermore’ at the same time, but sadly things lurch to an end that’s WAY too premature, lacking any conclusion or even a restatement of the awesome opening riff. Crucially, NO SOLOS seems to be another Invasion rule, as necessitated by the bare-bones line-up and Steven’s strict reliance on the bottom three guitar strings. Whether or not that counts in their favour, I’ll leave you to decide.

Clearly a band with a mighty potential for awesomeness, I hope Invasion manage to realise it. Personally, I’d like to hear them get longer, heavier, slower, weirder. You’re not gonna get any mainstream indie crossover appeal outta this stuff guys, so do the decent thing and Embrace The Doom. The B Side of this 10” is taken up by a remix of “Spell of Deception” by Optimo, to whom no offence, but we’ll skip over it just cos, well… when was the last time you heard a ‘remix’ of a track by a rock band that wasn’t a waste of plastic? (That’s not a rhetorical question – in my case it was Oneida’s “Caesar’s Column” 12” from back in aught three.)

http://www.myspace.com/invasion
http://www.thisismusicltd.com

Labels: Horowitz, Invasion, singles reviews, The Girls At Dawn

Young, Free, With Singles, Part # 2.



Manic Cough – Eggs & Chips (Purr)

Oh man, how could I possibly not love this? Sounding like the early Slits if they’d discovered a little bit of ‘60s basement funk instead of the reggae, Manic Cough dispatch the a-side here in about eighty seconds, letting us know their penchant for “eggs and chips and weetabix” early in the morning. “Fuck the euro, fuck the euro!” they inexplicably yell in the middle. The rather convoluted song-writing credits on the back name four different people, only one of whom is in the band, as contributing lyricists, making me think they perhaps gave a credit to everyone present at the breakfast meet-up where the song had its genesis, and threw in a passing euro-sceptic waiter for good measure. What larks! B-side ‘Get Some’ is even shorter and even better, a girl-punk twist party classic with massive bass-line, gang vocals and really well-developed melody, like Kenickie hitting the beach in a cadillac or something. I’ve never bought a record on Purr that’s been anything less than a bona fide winner, and this is no exception. MORE PLEASE!

http://www.myspace.com/maniccoughh
http://www.purr.org.uk

Dean McPhee / Chapters – split 7” (World In Winter)

Here’s an unexpected treat I found on my doorstep this week – seven inches of low-key psychedelic beauty from the appropriately named World in Winter label. I heard on the radio this morning that the temperature’s going to hit -7 in the Uk’s city centres tonight, and the radiator in my room’s not working too good, so this whole package suits the circumstances quite well, I feel. On side one, loop-happy guitarist Dean Mcphee gently entwines some deeply comforting, sorta-melodic Sitar-tinged guitar lines over a steady interstellar bass pulse, cocooned within a mist of dense analogue echo, tape delay and tremolo, recalling both Sandy Bull’s electronic excursions on his Valentines Day ’69 record, and Tom Carter’s more laidback work on recent Charalambides albums, but with an odd, inexplicably British flavour about it, a potentially perfect soundtrack to some hauntastic Sunday afternoon visit to some icy hilltop ruins. On the flip, Derbyshire trio Chapters continue in a broadly similar vein, looped phrases merging into crystalline echo-fog, a thick, enveloping sound and Eno-like attention to detail preventing it from ever sinking into sub-ambient drudgery or post-rock nowheresville. Like feeling reality return as you sit in the car and wait for the heater to kick in? A pretty great record anyway, bringing back happy memories of freezing & dreaming in my lonely garret to the sounds of Flying Saucer Attack’s ‘Mirror’ and the darker reaches of the Ochre records back catalogue…. so if that particular, indefinable strand of British soundscaping has ever been your cup of warm, warm tea, I’d deem this one well worth tracking down.

http://www.myspace.com/worldinwinte
http:// www.myspace.com/deanmcphee
http:// www.myspace.com/chapterswiw

Projekt A-Ko / Horowitz split 7” (Filthy Little Angels)

Projekt A-Ko, you’ll recall, are the band formed by three quarters of my teenage idols Urusei Yatsura after UY called it a day back in about 2001-ish. They’ve always kept a pretty low profile though, and to be honest I had no idea they were still in operation, so to find ‘em popping up on this split with popscene heroes Horowitz is a glorious and unexpected surprise. And I’m pleased to report that despite the apparent years of silence, they’re pretty much picking up right where they left off too, as their first tune here, ironically entitled ‘Nothing Works Twice’, kicks straight into a fuzzed up Slanted-era Pavement riff, working downbeat verses hinting at some kinda dystopian sci-fi scenario into a huge, rollicking pop chorus complete with all the ‘ba ba ba’s you could ask for. It’s all here; those sneery, transatlantic vocals that have apparently worked their way so thoroughly into my DNA over the years that I sing like that automatically, and plenty of that rampant, string-breaking guitar scuzz too. It’s a fucking winner, and reassures me I was no fool back when I was obsessively taping every repeat play of UY songs off Steve Lamacq when I should have been doing my homework. Their other song here, ‘Goodbye Sunlight’, is a touch more subdued, starting off with acoustic strumming, even more ‘ba ba ba’s, and some lovely female backing vox… presumably the work of previously silent bass player Elaine? It’s another good song anyway – great to have these guys back.

Horowitz’ two songs on the other side are entitled ‘Hug Target’ and ‘Sweetness I Could Die In Your Arms’, and your kneejerk reaction to those titles will likely mirror your reaction to the music. Predictably, I love it. As with all Horowitz stuff, it’s about the most perfectly realised homemade guitar pop imaginable, rejecting sadsack indie cliché in favour of compressed doses wideeyed, swooning, naïve love-joy, graced with the kind of melodies the skinny tie power-pop contingent would kill for. Like the sound of a geeky schoolboy gazing in wonder at the departing back of the girl who just kissed him for so long that he accidentally gets hit by a bus and floats off to a heaven where Dan Treacy joined Big Star and Boyracer rule supreme.

So, in conclusion, both sides of this record make my tummy feel funny and bring a tear to my eye, and you should get a copy! It’s limited to 200 though, and mine is number 186, so assuming Filthy Little Angels opened the box the right way around, you might have to get a move on.

http://www.myspace.com/projektako
http:// www.myspace.com/horowitzband
http://filthylittleangels.blogspot.com/

Used Kids 7” (Salinas Records)

Tons of good vibes exploding out of the debut(?) single from these funloving punkers, apparently based in Brooklyn, although they celebrate the Midwest in song and their label is based in Ferndale, MI. Anyway, the score is some distinctly un-Brooklynlike good, old fashioned six pack on the lawn pre-hardcore rock n’ roll, and that’s certainly no bad thing. Musically, things manage to be sorta simultaneously sloppy and tight, but happily rockin’ either way (think Replacements). A-side ‘Midwest Midsummer’ is an absolute BLAST anyway, a mighty, widescreen feel-good beast of Springsteen proportions on a Ramones budget, and near five minutes of it too, complete chorus repeats, ‘na na na na na, na na’s, solos and exhortations – I mean more than one - to “sing it!” and to “keep on rocking!”. Wowza! High fives all round! Fantastic stuff! The b-sides aren’t quite as good, and reveal the band’s primary weakness; namely, the vocals. Although the three fellas in the band take lead on one song each (“..and Kate screamed”), only the guy who sings the A side really seems to have a strong enough voice to get the point across, which is a shame cos the other songs are still pretty good, and have some great lyrics (as printed on the back); “Cupid’s landlord would keep your deposit / you would get the horns if you did this to Odin / it’s true you don’t need a licence to drive in Wisconsin / but you still gotta pay if you cause a wreck”…? Just tighten up the recording and playing a bit, tweak the vocals, and I’m with you guys.

Just checked the Used Kids myspace, on which they describe what they’re going for musically as follows:

“Like when it's midnight and you're at a dance party with your friends, maybe some enemies, and someone's been hijacking the stereo and playing shitty ironic indie dance music all night. Maybe you've just cracked open a can of Schlitz, or passed around a fifth of Evan Williams, but whatever you're doing, you're ready to really cut loose, and suddenly the Exploding Hearts are on the sound system and you're running around the place, knocking over chairs and preaching Gospel-style to all the clueless hipsters how you're a Pretender at the Game of Love. And as you rampage and thrash around the place, you feel once more what it was like when you heard the Ramones for the first time and there was a nuclear detonation in your brain. Or maybe the songs of the Used Kids recall for you how it felt that time when you and your roommate were driving straight from Seattle to Minneapolis, the tape deck broken, and as you searched at dawn through the toxic waste on the FM dial in the badlands of Montana, you heard the riff from Tom Petty's "Running Down A Dream" and you punched the ceiling of your car as you both sang along with every word.”

*blinks *
*reconsiders *

The Used Kids can be my friends forever. I’m sorry about the stuff I said about the vocals. I was wrong, and everyone should buy this record and give these guys money and/or beer. SING IT!

http://www.myspace.com/usedkidsny
http:// www.myspace.com/salinasrecords

POST-SCRIPT: The temperature didn't actually hit anything like -7 on the night I wrote that Dean McPhee/Chapters review, I think a young weatherman on Radio 4 just got overexcited. So I didn't freeze to death in the end, which was nice.

Labels: Chapters, Dean McPhee, Horowitz, Manic Cough, Projekt Ako, singles reviews, Used Kids

Monday November 24th
Those Dancing Days play at Goldsmiths Student Union.



Tuesday November 25th
'breakfast in the ruins' posts on the Plan B forum:

"Wow, Those Dancing Days were FANTASTIC last night! One of the best live bands I’ve seen in ages…. If there’s one thing I don’t like about their records (and that’s a big IF) it’s that they’re a tad over-produced, so I’m so, so glad to have seen them totally rocking all those incredible songs live to a half empty hall of about a hundred students (and about eight people over twenty sticking out like sore thumbs) on a freezing Monday midnight. As is obvious from the records, their drummer is INCREDIBLE – she looks about twelve and rocks out like John Bonham doing session work for ’80s Madonna. And the rest of ‘em are no slouches either – not much in the way of show(wo)manship, but that’s fine with me since they’re busy playing the living hell out of their songs and looking like they’re loving every second of it. The intro to every single song, even album tracks and b-sides, got an immediate “yes! I love this song!” reaction from me and/or others in the crowd, and it’s the first gig I’ve been to for ages that had a proper, spontaneous encore. Not to mention dancing on a Monday night. Shrug ‘em off if you like, but in their own way Those Dancing Days are DIY as fuck – no gimmicks or hype bullshit or pandering to genre/gender/age-based preconceptions, just five cool, characterful girls working hard to make the biggest, best, skyscraping, optimistic pop music they can imagine. WOW. Dear Diary, I LOVE THIS BAND SO MUCH, etc.

The gig seemed to be running on East London Time, so I didn't get home on the buses until 2ish and feel like I just done got up and died on the spot this morning, but, wow, it was worth it."

Mp3> Those Dancing Days – I Know Where You Live


Friday November 28th
Shrag and The Loves play at The Buffalo Bar.

(I didn’t get a chance to write anything about this one, but rest assured both bands were really terrific, and I had a great time.)


Monday December 1st
Hotpants Romance play at The Windmill, supported by The Understudies, Horowitz and The Give It Ups.


(Headliners Cars Can Be Blue had to pull out because, appallingly, UK customs wouldn’t let them into the country and kept them detained for 48 hours. Can you believe that..? Fucking hell.)

Tuesday December 2nd
'breakfast in the ruins' posts on the Plan B forum:

"So I had a fantastic time at the gig last night.... attendance was pretty low, I guess what with the headliners having cancelled, the fact it was a freezing Monday etc., but the folks who were there brought a great atmosphere with them (talk about cliquey - I think I knew nearly everyone in the room, by sight if not necessarily by name :D ).

Hotpants Romance were an absolute inspiration! Proof positive that knowing how to play and fretting (no pun intended) about tuning and guitar sounds etc. doesn't matter a DAMN so long as you've got the energy and smarts to get on stage and just *be awesome*.

They're like Swell Maps if they were girls and didn't bother with all the arty stuff, or like early Magik Markers if they were a pop band, or..... actually, no, those are crap comparisons! They're like the Ramones is what they're like! Really, really early, pre-first album Ramones, before they got their shit together and when they used to argue between each song about what they were gonna play next. I guess that all sounds kinda patronising, but...uh... IT'S NOT; in my world at least, this makes for a totally radical band of the highest order. And their songs are amazing too - I mean, obviously they've got their whole trashy pop-punk thing down, but they've also got a really odd, sweet, kinda introspective angle on things, ala The Marine Girls - just killer, real life sentiments expressed in as few words as possible - wow.

I lent the guitarist the only plectrum I own, and she never gave it back, so now I'll have to take a special trip out to a guitar shop to get some more. But no matter - as a hopeless fanboy, I'm honoured to have been of service.

It was great to catch up with Horowitz too – those guys are heroes. So dedicated to what they do. That being: loud guitars, beautiful melodies, geeky references, choruses designed to make me melt. Heartfelt, homemade power-pop. Fantastic, as it always has been and always will be.

Vivian Girls tonight - what a great eight days it's been, musically speaking!"

Mp3> Hotpants Romance – Blow My Fuse
Mp3> Horowitz – I Need A Blanket


Tuesday December 2nd
The Vivian Girls play at The Windmill, supported by The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, Betty & The Werewolves and The Bridport Daggers.



Wednesday December 3rd
'breakfast in the ruins' begins typing the following into the “reply” box on the Plan B Forum, but thinks better of actually posting it:

"Vivian Girls were stunning last night. They were so loud! My ears are wrecked this morning. Every time I move my jaw distant bells start ringing. It was so incredible to stand at the front and let those amazing songs just envelop me completely. And they have *so many* amazing songs - loads of new ones that aren't on the album. They're such an incredible presence on stage too; I was kinda worried that maybe it would be a case of the real life band being crushed by the expectation that all the hype has thrown their way, but they're such a positive, relentless force, such a massive noise, so determined to smash their songs into everyone's heads, it's just... [speechless].

I love their album to death, but now it just sounds like some muffled reflection of their actual reality. Maybe it was just all the noise and excitement, but when they played "Tell The World", I got kinda religious and started thinking, ok, y’know, this actually everything I love and strife for and believe in, *happening right in front of me*. My own personal vision of God, if you will. It was probably the closest I’ve felt to heaven for many months.

Beat THAT for hype.

And they didn’t even play “Where Do You Run To”!

Obviously Betty & The Werewolves were fantastic in support too, and should not be overshadowed; bouncing around to their set was an absolute blast. They’re such a perfectly realized band – every song just an absolute femme-punk gem at hardcore tempo with radical riffs and guitar breaks, frenzied rhythm strumming, sweet harmony vocals.... wow. Also, much respect to the bass/lead vocals werewolf for her carefree pogoing. She’s quite tall, and the stage at The Windmill is pretty small, and a bass guitar is a big thing to swing around in mid-air, so it must take some serious dedication on her part to the noble art of jumping up and down. I mean, I was playing in the same spot the previous evening, and if my feet had left the ground I suspect a catastrophic pile-up of leads, band members and equipment would have been the immediate and ugly result, so that in itself is fairly awe-inspiring.


Anyway, it’s an absolute travesty that circumstances have contrived to make this only the SECOND of the many, many gigs Betty & The Werewolves have been playing this year that I’ve actually been able to witness. I’m definitely gonna have to make a more concerted effort in future. Any Londoners reading, take heed – these guys are the best band in town, and every day that passes on before you go to see them is a day wasted. Thank them in your prayers tonight.

This year’s indie-pop new big things The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart were a late addition to the bill after their support slot with The Wedding Present got cancelled, and they were pretty good too I guess. They’ve definitely got a more powerful sound going on than most other “indie pop next big things” I could mention, but, like many current Amerindie bands, it’s maybe a tad too slick for my tastes. They sound kinda like they’ve started work from a blueprint of *exactly* what they want their band to sound like – in this case, variations on MBV’s “Paint A Rainbow” with arch, Interpol-ish vocals and hypnotic spacerock basslines – then practiced like fuck and tweaked members, equipment, songs etc. until they’ve got it DOWN, then hit the road/studio and waited for the love to roll on in. Admittedly, it’s a great blueprint, so if my brief X+Y=Z above floats your particular boat, well, get on down to the harbour, cos they do it better than anyone, and their set is very enjoyable, but…. y’know. It don’t touch base with my soul. I’m probably just being unduly cynical though really – I ended up having a brief chat to the singer/guitarist afterwards, and he seems a really good guy. I’m sure they’re actually as genuine in their intentions as any other band, and I shouldn't leap to such foolish music journo-ish assumptions.

Opening act The Bridport Daggers were pretty cool too actually, if perhaps a tad out of place on this line-up (and out of place is as good a place to be as any). Chiming, overdriven guitars, twisted Scientists-esque swamp-rock racket, vicious rockabilly rhythms, two guitars and no bass - good stuff.

What a fantastic evening of deafening, joyful music."

Mp3>The Vivian Girls – Tell The World
(I’d post a tune by Betty & The Werewolves, except they’ve only put out that one 7”, and I don't have a digital version.)

….

And I just got myself a ticket to see Mika Miko headline a late-running seven band bill in Stoke Newington next Friday …. I’m psyched to have gotten a chance to finally see them! So that makes what, six amazing female-led punk and/or pop bands in the space of a fortnight…? Will my fragile heart be able to stand it?? – watch this space.

Labels: Betty And The Werewolves, gurls, Horowitz, Hotpants Romance, live reviews, pop, punk, The Bridport Daggers, The Pains of Being Pure At Heart, The Vivian Girls, Those Dancing Days