Do you remember a few years ago when The Hives
burst on to the scene with the compilation Your New Favourite Band?
Well, on this update I'm going to introduce you to Mad Daddy's
Favourite New Band. No argument, hands down, absolutely no fucking
contest, two albums into their career these young Californians have
stolen a march on all of my recent discoveries by a country mile.
Yes, they really are that good.
Here's a question for you. What does the typical North American
teenage girl with aspirations of stardom sing about, and more to the
point in this case, in what style?Boys and skateboards in a punk-lite
manner a la the dreadful Ms Lavigne perhaps? Or maybe she'd shake
her booty on the production line of r 'n' b by numbers? Ok, lets put
it another way. Are seventeen year old girls actually capable of
writing and performing the most perfect rock 'n' roll, that will
appeal to the most extreme of middle aged cynics? Your answer? DAMN
RIGHT THEY ARE! But probably only if their names are Sierra Frost
and Lily Faden collectively known as Two Seconds.
I tracked down the very lovely and I
have to say, amazingly accommodating Sierra and
endeavoured to find out just why she and Lily are so
fucking talented. And here is what she told
me......................
Columbus, Ohio is by all accounts a lovely city. Home to the Ohio
State University which has the largest college campus in the United
States, there are clearly a hell of a lot of very gifted young
people residing there. Are any of them as talented in their chosen
field as Carlos Avendano aka Flotation Walls? Well, maybe there's a
few, but not that many I'll wager.
Flotation Walls have been in existence for ten years now, their ever
changing line up numbering over thirty members, the only constant of
which is the core of the band and resident genius Avendano, who is
currently accompanied by three musicians equally as accomplished as
the man himself, namely Anna Wuerth, Zak Moses and Ryan Stolte-Sawa.
Now, although Carlos tells me that lyrically he is heavily
influenced by Scott Walker and Rod McKuen who in turn were
influenced by another of his heroes, the great proto-punk Jacques
Brel, its with his musical favourites that we start to see the
blueprint for his psychedelic soundscapes. The four names he came up
with were Os Mutantes, Ennio Morricone, The Kinks and The Aphex Twin
and you can hear snippets of all of this startling array of talent
in his beautifully arranged compositions. As well as The Kinks,
Avendano has obviously listened to a lot of other British psychedelia
of the, shall we say more whimsical nature, but he has brought that
style bang up to date and firmly stamped his own unique identity on
it. Just listen to the Bowie like splendour of Kids Look At The
Waves with its eerie female harmonies, its one of those epics that
draws you right into the speakers, or the joyous Willis The Fireman
which bears a resemblance to The Polyphonic Spree.....but so,so much
better!
I, like you have only heard the four songs available on their
MySpace page, but if the rest of Flotation Walls output is of the
same astonishing quality, then we are discussing a very special
talent indeed. Keep your eyes peeled during the early months of
2008,when Nature, the album that these four gems have been recorded
for gets released.
It may be tempting for Avendano and company to remain within the
comfortable surroundings of his home city, but if word gets out and
the cream really does rise to the top, then they just may not have
any choice but to get out there and preach to the world.
I'm going to buck my trend a little here, and for once recommend
a band that some...particularly you London types!...may have come across
before. According to their MySpace header The Indelicates see
themselves as Indie/Folk Rock/Punk, and for once this brief description
proves bang on. The indie aspect relates to their sweet post C-86 naive
stylings, Julia Indelicates vocal melodies recall traditional English
folk at times...and punk?...well if Art Brut float your boat then you'll
have heard these type of acidic observational lyrics more than once in
recent times. All of this underpinned by the obvious chemistry between
Julia and Simon Indelicate makes for an irresistible sound than will
appeal right across the board.
Young Mr I, for those that don't know, is usually referred to as Simon
Clayton, composer of budget musical The Book of Job which toured the
country a couple of years ago and whose cast included both he and Julia
together with Pipette Becki. Julia was in fact a founding member of The
Pipettes before leaving to concentrate on her new band and indeed her
main career in photography. Produced by the venerable
Keith TOTP,
friend and sometimes bandmate of
Art Brut's
Eddie Argos, they have a new single set for October release with an
album to come in March '08,meanwhile just go out and buy their last
single Julia We Don't Live In The 60's....its addictive!
To sum up, anyone who has any sort of affinity with C-86 or the period
that followed, or has a liking for the wry lyrical observations of the
ever suave Argos should seek out The Indelicates, they are a very fine
band!
Haunted George....otherwise known as Steve Pallow....works out of
Llano Del Rio, a small town in California's Mojave Desert, and his
raw stripped down songs reek of that perceived menace (if you
believe the movies!) that those isolated communities can conjure up.
Once of The Necessary Evils and The Beguiled, he produces tunes that
our beloved John Peel would have revelled in, If the truth be
known I listened to George with the lights out just to get that
'period' feel and it took me right back to my teenage years
listening to Peelie in bed...yeah OK I'm weird like that! Part
Butthole Surfers, part a one man version of a very early Cramps and
part traditional hillbilly blues, its admittedly an acquired taste,
but I absolutely love it and his three albums are right at the top
of my shopping list. I know more than a few who visit Punk77 like
The Gories, well Haunted George could be just the man you need in
your life, so turn the lights out and enjoy!
The German accent really doesn't
lend itself to singing in English, in fact Germanic languages in
general don't lend themselves to constructing vocal melodies, I'm
told its something to do with intonation! So.......how about a
German powerpop band? It doesn't sound right does it? Ok, how about
a German powerpop band who do traditional late 70's UK/US stuff
better than most of their contemporaries? No? Then give The Varanes
a listen, they really are top quality. They've taken the best of the
collective classes of 76 to 79,thrown them up into the air and ended
up with a mish mash of the pub rock school...Lowe, Parker, Jackson,
Edmunds...and the American new wave...Cheap Trick, Petty, The Cars
etc, and its top stuff!
