Thank god for Finlay. Not on any kind of musical merit score (although their track on the Truck Fest CD is pretty good), but had their set captured my imagination, rather than leaving me a little cold, I would never have left the main stage & headed off to the Barn to check out The Edible Five Foot Smiths. An hour later, having been wowed by their proper indie with occasional big noisy bits set (think Pavement crossed with Six by Seven), I was interviewing them, discussing Hull, The Spin Doctors, and giant apples.
"Basically," say frontman Matt, who's charming banter and sense of humour had elevated their set further, "there was a science magazine, and in France they were growing some apples, trying to grow big apples basically, and they couldn't get the formula right, so the actual apples, you couldn't eat them. They worked through it for a period of time using genetics and things. In the end, Granny Smiths were the only things that could be grown to a big size, and they ended up with a 5ft Granny
THE
EDIBLES ARE:
Matthew
Thompson - Vox/Guitar
Bod - Bass
Jonathan Kemp - Guitar
Ian Appleyard - Drums
REVIEWS
Truck
Fest 2003
LINKS
Fonda 500
Smith, and it was edible. So the magazine said 'It's an edible 5ft Smith'. And that's where the name comes from."
The Edibles (as
I shall refer to them from now on for the sake of brevity), have come
out of four years in Hull's incestuous music scene. "Pretty much
the first thing that (bassist) Bod said when I met her was 'I hate the
fact that Hull's so incestuous' because we stole the drummer from Bod's
band at the time, and that didn't work out."
" Yeah, that's true, bastards. She came back though." Bod, along
with drummer Ian, also plays with fellow Hull band, and Truck Fest favourites,
Fonda 500. "We like to share", she adds, "it's the best
way."
And this tight knit community
has been a big influence on The Edibles sound, "Fonda 500 are a huge
influence" claims Matt, "Lots of other bands we know too, Black
Nielson", adds guitarist Jonny. "Just People that have fun with
music, like Super Furry Animals. Anywhere between Aqua & Melt Banana."
The band are also particularly excited at working with Hawksley Workman
on their latest album. "He's our Jesus" superfluates Matt, "well,
except for Bod. She's the only one of us that doesn't sound like a girl."
Interview by Paul Madden