the star spangles - bazooka !!!
i never got the hives - too much of a pantomime. never dug the white stripes - too basic and raw for home listening, and as for the strokes, well they were far too contrived and clean cut for me to ever be interested in their tinny little songs.
so what about this new big hype act ?
from the covers of the singles and the album they have that cooler than thou thrifty store look to perfection, so much so that press release goes to lengths to advise that the bands look is down to the bands own personal choice over years of limited budgets, and not some trendy designer. so here we have the latest new york guitar saviours .. digging into the archives for the new kids on the block. take a dash of new york dolls, a smidgen of ramones knack for a good tune, iggy pops' non melodic gruff vocals, add a few short sharp cracking songs and voila do we have a hit lp packed with old school punk pop like the undertones/buzzcocks once thrilled the masses with ?
i'm sure the band have a lot of haters lined up ready to give em manufactured preordained hell, but for me, i have loved this lp over the last couple of weeks - a lot more than i ever expected.
i have shouted and danced along to its 13 tracks in 37 minutes perfection. often, while concocting a rather delicious spaghetti bolognaise (37 minutes is perfect length for the task in hand), i have found myself spinning the lyrics to 'which one of the two of us ..' ad infinitum round my head for far too long and yet still i am not bored of the catchy song. this is the type of lp that doesn't need a nice hi-fi system in well designed surroundings, this lp is best heard blasting out of a small boombox while life goes on all around, the songs are strong enough for casual listening and dont require months of dedication to get into. by the third spin the lp is well and truly sorted, filed and is now ready to be enjoyed for all its simplistic pleasures.
ok, the style isn't breaking any rules of originality, the reference points are as easy as any i-spy game played with a 6 year old, there are no sonic tweaks added to the mix to give it a 00's twist, this is recorded straight to tape as it comes out of the monitors. and hurrah for that ..
so, beware, the band are in for a lot of slack due to the presence of the blokes, but i know which lp i will be blasting over the coming summer months.