Luke Pritchard, the frontman for the Kooks has been gurning to the Daily Star about the state of the Indie music scene. He claims bands like The Pigeon Detectives have ruined it by diluting the ‘movement’.
When we first came out it was a cool time, with the Kaisers, Arctics and Bloc Party on the same circuit. I don’t think many people would place us with those acts, but at the time I really felt part of that whole movement.”
It’s funny what’s followed. Bands like The Pigeon Detectives took what was there and slightly diluted it.
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We don’t know what it is about this pairing of Alex Turner and Miles Kane, but Standing Next To Me and previous single The Age Of The Understatement are in a different league to the Arctic Monkeys altogether.
There’s a retro 60’s feel to this music, but with a dark intensity that underlies the song. The video reinforces this with the guys decked out in early Beatles-era suits and surrounded by dancing girls in equally 60’s style costumes. Everything is shot in a low light, and the only splashes of colour are the girls’ tights.
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I got a shout earlier today from a musician called Bradley Boyer, the guy behind a brilliant band called Auto Defiance. I’d all but stopped writing about unsigned bands because of the pitiful quality of acts that emailed me, but Auto Defiance are worth writing about!
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Vampire Weekend are hot property at the moment. Any serious music publication is talking about them - but who are they and are they any good? This guide will tell you (mostly) everything you need to know about the band, who are not real vampires by the way. Shame, because that would be a great gimmick…
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OK, let’s get up to speed on these Shadow Puppets people. The Last Shadow Puppets are Arctic Monkey Alex Turner and Miles Kane from The Rascals.
I trusted Alex Turner not to simply rehash Arctic Monkey’s type material and pass it off under a different name. Boy, does he deliver. This is good stuff.
The Age Of The Understatement has all the ingredients of an epic tune. Big drums, a galloping rhythm, Kane and Turner sharing vocal duties with a sense of suspense during the verses.
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Cops And Robbers is to be the fourth single from The Hoosiers’ debut album, The Trick To Life. They’ve got their tongues planted firmly in their cheeks yet again, as the video for the tune whisks them off to Dickensian times for crimefighting capers.
I’ll admit, I was skeptical that they could continue the fantastic run of singles that they’ve had with this album, but the Hoosiers have come out again with an exuberant, fast-paced record.
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The Wombats are firing out singles thick and fast at the moment. Their latest, Backfire At The Disco, continues in a similar vein to Moving To New York. In sharp contrast to their ode to insomnia, Backfire At The Disco is a relentless Indie anthem with healthy dose of floor filling goodness.
Following in the tradition of many breaking acts, Backfire was released a while back, before the band hit the big time. Now that the world has taken notice of The Wombats, they’ve decided to dust off this excellent tune and give their new fans a chance to buy it.
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I like The Kooks, I really do. But do you get the impression that Always Where I Need To Be isn’t quite the stunning leap forward you expect from a band about to release their second album?
After having been fed a diet of She Moves In Her Own Way and Naive, I was kind of expecting a progression of their sound. As far as the single goes, though, Konk (the new album) looks likely to be disappointment.
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It’s been kind of hard to ignore this tune recently. I’m given to make comparisons with Alphabeat for the colourful video, the boy-girl vocal blend and the shouty, upbeat chorus.
And given the foaming mouthed rave review I gave Alphabeat, you can take it for granted that Black Kids are every bit as vibrant and infectious as their Danish peers.
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Scouting For Girls are releasing another identikit single on April 10th called Heartbeat. Oh boy, I can hardly contain my excitement or, indeed, my bladder.
And why should I hold back the putrid waves of urine? Because Scouting For Girls are surely taking the piss with this blander-than-bland nonsense. Simon Reynolds over at DS poses an interesting question:
how long can Scouting For Girls push this factory-line indie sound before their fans tire of it?
The thing is, there’s not even a pretence of coming up with an original song. Each single they’ve released over the last few months has been a watered down regurgitation of the one before it. Heartbeat is just awful, and no amount of positive spin can change that.
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