Foodchain by Leeds band 10,000 Things has been out for a while now but I have only just got my hands on a copy after seeing the band live on tour with The Blueskins and The Cribs. The recording certainly catches the live energy of the band with ease and brought back happy memories of the gig, lyrically and musically think sixities American r'n'b with a Yorkshire accent, infact the track 'Oh No!' brought to mind Dr.Feelgood (whoops showing my age there!) with a massive dose of humour thrown in. All four tracks add some down to earth lyrical themes to high energy guitar fueled rock and roll which makes for a very enjoyable ten minutes listening as the band like to keep things short and sharp when it comes to song length and certainly cannot be accused of out staying their welcome. 5/5
Review by Darren Bunting
Worthy rather than exciting is how I could describe this debut single from Thirteen Senses, sounding a little like Fin or Turin Breaks with the distortion pedal plugged in they tread the line between noise emo/indie rock and a more whistful sound. I quite like the single myself but I do not think they stand out from the pack on either 'Thru The Glass' or 'No Other Life Is Attractive' but they are picking up lots of radio airplay and a slot on the NME Brit Pack tour not to mention being included in NME's 2004 Hot List. Time will tell if they manage to expand musically and find a stronger sound of their own but I can hear no reason why they should not on this single. 3/5
Review by Darren Bunting
Sometimes pastiches of sixities pop music work well and at other times it just becomes tedious, unfortunatley Sub Pop's The Shins fall onto the side of tedium to my ears. There is nothing particular 'wrong' or poor with any of the tracks on their single 'So Says I', I just found myself unable to generate any sort of enthusiasm for any of the three tracks. They have a sound that leans towards The Monkees more serious moments with psychedelic guitar twangs and whispered vocals to add a bit of variety to the very tinny production, live they might be a different proposition and they embark on their first European and UK tour in April. 3/5
Review by Darren Bunting
Angular Records comp heroes Luxembourg unleash their third EP of svelt, pop noir and it's a pretty good listen. Singer David Shah has one of those voices that you'll either love for its character and intonation, or hate for it's occasionally grating nature and tendency to warble, and it's his voice that defines the three tracks of mid nineties inspired indie that make up 'Success Is Never Enough'.
Their combination of keyboard based britpop, jangly guitars and darkly comic social commentary lyrics places the band somewhere between Pulp and Gene, and, perhaps unsurprisingly, is far better when it veers more towards the former than the latter - where 'Success is Never Enough' revels in chart gazing synths, soaring guitars and dynamic rhythms, 'Make It' is bogged down in over elaborated vocals and uninspired backing; but enough promise is shown here to suggest that if we get the Britpop resurrection that we've been promised/warned about from some sections shouls appear, Luxembourg could quite easily be at its forefront.
Nyaaargggh!!!! My ears!!! This horrible piece of jangling, jaunty, "look at us we're kooky" guitar pop sounds like Cornershop's 'Brimful of Asha' being played by an orchestra of mosquitos scraping agitated cats across a hundred blackboards, and as such is only useful as a means of torturing war criminals. And to think I had this record recommended to me by people purporting to be my friends! Makes me feel physically unwell every time I hear it.
There is, as a wise man once said, a thin line between clever and stupid, and Chicks on Speed have always surfed that line with the expertise of a Bandai Beach veteran. Take 'Wordy Rappinghood' as an example - another addition to the CoS repertoire of obscure cover versions (this time of a song by Tom Tom Club), which pares down their DIY artistic urges with poppy synths and club beats, while coupling multilingual lyrics about literature, ecology and world peace with a gibberish chant that wouldn't sound out of place on The Cartoon's 'Witch Doctor'. Sadly, the song itself isn't quite up to CoS' usually impeccable standards, more a kooky curio than a standout track, and there are plenty of better songs to be found on the wonderful '99 Cents' album from which this is taken.
On the flipside, their own 'Love Life' is a far better bet - an aching slice of Human League electro balladry, featuring some of the best vocals the Chicks have produced to date; while Playgroup offers little more than the occasional echo to justify his remixers' fee.
Anthemic, melodic and emotional indie guitar pop does not get much better than the Midland's Riley, signed to Mi-5 Recordings. Their first officially released EP, 'Sit Up', shows how brilliantly written and performed songs and impassioned delivery can still sound fresh.
Title track 'Sit Up' sounds a little like James fronted by Peter Gabriel and swells up from a quiet almost apologetic intro and first verse into a swaying sing a long/lighters in the air track and then it builds even more into a full blown roaring shout out loud epic chorus that deserves to be heard by as many people as possible. Towards the end of the track I was reminded of the best parts of U2's 'Rattle and Hum' or 'Joshua Tree' albums but with more straightforward and less pretentious lyrics.
'Forgiven' also starts with a quiet strummed guitar and vocal intro with washes of cymbals before launching into another epic chorus, the verses on this track reminded me a little of The Verve but with added oomph and the use of light and shade keeps the interest, you are almost on the edge of your seat waiting for the chorus to kick in.
The final two tracks, 'Belief Within The End' and 'We'll Be Fine', keep up the quality and it is a long time since I have heard a debut CD with every track as good as this, the CD is available from most record shops or the bands website www.rileyofficial.co.uk
Look out for the band live as they sound just as good on stage as they do on this CD which is another reason why stardom should be beckoning for Riley. Life is never fair but hopefully fortune will smile on them and they will be showing up all the pre-packaged pop rubbish clogging up the charts for the soulless pap it is. 5/5
Review by Darren Bunting
Track One, “I think you’ve had enough (of all this sorrow)”, I am initially pleased with ‘cos it’s one of those tracks where the singing starts right away with the guitars, but overall it’s not bringing anything new to the jingly-jangly, slightly distorted (but not too much in case mum gets upset) table of indie-rock. They’d be a mildly diverting support band.
Track Two, “You’ve got it all worked out”, sounds like track one, but with a Cocteau-Twinsy bassline. Which doesn’t redeem it. Teenage girls/first time away from the Home Counties students may like this bloke’s vocals, but they just grate with me.
Track Three, “Exercise tiger”, implies some military knowledge, but it is all front, for it is as military as something not very military at all. It is in fact, very boring and dull.
Track Four, “Idyll for all” is the last track, for which I give thanks and praise to the Lord. It sounds like indie by numbers to me. Oh, actually it’s not so bad at the end – the guitars are slightly out of tune which makes it almost ok. A sort of very timid Dustdevils.
Racescene have been featured on Xfm’s unsigned slot and I can see why, cos they specialise in the bland crap indie bollocks that Xfm wet their panties over. But they don’t give me a big huge erection, so they can get lost. And guys, it’s not “check there web site” but “check their web site”. These things matter.
TO ALL BANDS – IF YOU ARE JUST GOING TO COPY WHAT OTHER PEOPLE DO, AND COPY WEAK RUBBISH LAME INDIE ‘MUSIC’ AT THAT, THINK AGAIN. PLEASE STOP.
Get a new strategy – “I will make music no-one has ever heard the likes of before, I will bring something new to the table (and I will do my research on this), I will shock, surprise and delight or I will not bother”.
Thanks for listening, Rashied Garrison.
Hailing from Birmingham in the UK but with a vocal style touched with some tranatlantic drawl reminscient of a tuneful Bob Dylan, 'Spinning' by Michael Clark aka Clarkesville is a very pleasant 3 minutes of pop. Spinning might not be the most original of songs but compared to most pop chart wannabies 22 year old Mr. Clarke is a pretty good alternative and even if the tune does have rather large hints of the 60's is that such a bad thing? 3/5
Review by Darren Bunting
It can rarely be considered a good sign when your cat decides to urinate copiously upon the envelope containing a CD for review, but in this case my usually trusty feline made a grave error of judgement. For 'Social Hand Grenades' (incidentally, also the name of the first ever Twinstar Revolution gig) is three minutes and twenty one seconds of heads down power pop thrills. OK, so there's nothing new here, but to be honest, who gives a shit (or indeed a piss) when the three songs here are packed to the gills with more high adrenaline, high speed, hot riffing action than the collective works of The Hives, Ash and Supergrass combined. Elastic of bassline and shouty of chorus, Jetson could be just the tonic for those who find the New York new wavers too po-faced, but don't want to resort to buying an album by Jet.
Anyway, onto the next review. Here puss.
Once upon a time during the mid-nineties, in the kingdom of Britpop, there lived a Scottish band called Annie Christian. Their brand of Manics style glammy indie rock with throaty but operatic vocals and quiet tingly bits made Paul very happy, as did the comedy name of their singer Larry Lean. But all was not well in the kingdom of Britpop, and soon its once bright union jack coloured landscapes were decimated by plagues of poor quality pub rock bands sent to destroy Bripop by the evil major labels who were only interested in cashing in on its success. And so it came to pass that Annie Christian faded out of existence never to be seen or heard of again.
Never again, that is, until a brave new band of warriors going by the name of The Boxer Rebellion emerged from the barren wastelands of the indie rock scene to release a single that bursted with the soaring guitar pyrotechnics and quiet tingly bits once wielded so proudly by Larry Lean and his long forgotten band of guitar warriors. And they made Paul very happy.
The first release from the new look Ikara Colt, following the replacement of original bassist Jon Ball with Tracy Bellaries, and it sees them picking up pretty much where they left off - a 100mph car crash of rumbling bass, hammering drums and guitars that teeter on the brink of chaos, but crucially hold it together just enough so that the whole thing doesn't descend into a messy tangle of noise. Add to that a gloriously infectious shoutalong chorus, and the extra snarl injected into Paul's vocals, and any worries you may have had will be incinerated by three minutes of apocalyptic art punk.
Ben Gibbard returns to Death Cab duties following a brief, but impressive sojourn into the world of electro with side project The Postal Service. 'The New Year' sees Death Cab's wimpy indie boy with glasses and a sensitive side sound given a stint down the gym with Guided by Voices. The overall effect is a little glossier than Bob Pollard's bunch, which kind of defies the point of GBV, but is pleasant enough none the less. B-side 'Blacking Out the Friction' returns to the frailer end of the emotional scale, and its keyboard atmospherics will tug at the heart strings of all but the most hardened cynics. 'Flustered/Hey Tomcat', however is an aberration of cut up 'wacky' samples and Morgan style comedy funk which should be avoided at all costs.