The View And Continued English Fascination

And on today's show we have...

Hats Off To The Buskers
The View

There's a certain indie-garage stereotype that one associates with British bands. You know, the thick accent, coupled with the drunken driving charge right after being caught for possession of whatever's hot these days. Kyle Falconer is every bit Pete Doherty as he is Julian Casablancas. And though The Strokes are fascinatingly American, The View are simply Brit.

The lazy swagger and roll of tongue, the cheeky tambourines, the rhythm based riffs, it's all there in Hats Off. But what's it with The View? It's not fluke that all, and I mean ALL, their tickets for their UK headline tour sold out within an hour! Technically speaking, they're not even from England (but when has that ever made a difference). These Scot indie darlings are the current NME hype, and though we all love the NME, there's always a pinch of salt to remind one of what one really wants to listen to.

The View aren't thinking too big with Hats Off. You're not going to find anything new here. But it's the old that they do well. Not surprising then that they toured with Babyshambles and Primal Scream in 2005. The melodies are simple, the accent is thick as the bluesy leads and simple lyrics. I'm still trying to understand why then did the album debut at #1 on the UK charts.

The album itself is energetic, but laid enough back to not force you to listen. Falconer is as Scot as Scot can be. Heck, I'd call him Irish with that accent. At times swinging between Dropkick Murphys and The Libertines, the album is packed with classic Scot indie-punk. Right from the opener Comin' Down to the singles Same Jeans and Wasted Little DJs, there's goons aplenty. And though none of the tracks are absolutely original, they're entertaining enough to ensure a few listens. The best song has to be The Don which is the Dancing Shoes of this album.

The problem with The View is that they're just not unique. And they keep shifting style. From The Libertines to suddenly Cornershop and even Oasis. Face for The Radio is an adorable acoustic piece but is daylight robbery to Oasis's Fade Away.

They say "The View are on fire". Unfortunately for them, there's nothing much here to light up about.

Ooh Ratings!: 72/100

Stream: The View - Superstar Tradesman

Maximo Park And Everything British

And on today's show we have...

A Certain Trigger
Maximo Park

What is art-Rock? Paul Smith, Maximo's mouthpiece, used to be an art teacher before he joined the band. It's the sort of ironic creative license you get to do something presumably experimental. Of course, this doesn't mean that Maximo Park is art-Rock per se. In fact, it's about as experimental as The Jam, and in parts is The Jam. But Smith and co have balls, and for that bit of Newcastle accent, you'd better listen.

Okay, so this came out over a year and a half ago, but given that MP's next release is about a month away, it's good to have a reference. I'd heard Going Missing some time before the entire LP, and immediately thought "Franz Ferdinand". The cynicism didn't end there. The lyrics were too 'contrived' and 'influenced' for me to believe them immediately. The bass was too low. But perseverance and the Kaiser Chiefs forced me to get the whole album, and the rest as they say, is an exercise in death metal.

The good bits first. The album is not boring. At all. Even when Smith stretches the last "You know the way I feeeeeeel" on I Want You To Stay, it just 'fits'. Lyrically, like most 'art-Rock' out of England, it's good satire and amusing at times but you do get the feeling that Smith may actually be a little sneaky. Relationships, loneliness, the whole hog. "You better run along, back to your new man" (Limassol). It doesn't usually get better than this, and at times takes one back to the opening strains of Jacqueline on Franz Ferdinand.

The jewel of the album has to be Apply Some Pressure. Like a crazy ball bouncing at high speed, it jumps from here to there, ending in a fantastic hook that guarantees you won't move to the next song before listening to this again.

The album doesn't really fail at too many places. Given the horde of similar bands coming out of England, it's easy to find fault, and er... similarity. Thematically, it's sort of what one would expect. Smith does promise though "The path you take will never make you happy". At the end of the LP there's piano and high hat galore, in what seems like theme songs from old American sitcoms. It's a little 'efforted' to get the chorus right, and the hook catchy enough. But it works to an extent, and one wonders what they'd have achieved if they'd spent a little more time doing and a little less time thinking. It becomes increasingly obvious when right at the end Smith suddenly turns Jim Morrison on us with Acrobat.

As it is, they were nominated for the Mercury Prize in 2005, the same year as Kaiser Chiefs, Bloc Party and Hard-Fi. Unfortunately for them, Franz Ferdinand won it in 2004.

Ooh Ratings!: 80/100

Watch: Maximo Park - Going Missing

Paul Dempsey And Something For Everyone

And on today's show we have...

Desert Lights
Something For Kate

Echolalia was the first SFK album I heard. At the time, I was thoroughly impressed. I still am, but given the number of Australian bands I've been listening to (read Silverchair, Powderfinger, Wolfmother, er... Jet) that impression has been measured.

Paul Dempsey thorough hopelessness as a 'happy' singer gives SFK something that no other Aussie (or for that matter, indie) band can claim... poetic depression. It's no secret that Dempsey and SFK are brilliant songwriters, but what sets SFK apart is just the absolute and resolute despair with which the music is constructed. Which is not to say then that SFK falls into the ever popular 'depressing alt' genre of music. The music is edgy, truthful and though not obvious in the 'obvious' sense of the term, but fairly 'accessible'.

Desert Lights is the Melbourne outfit's fifth outing. It was released in mid-2006 and since then has been certified Gold in Australia. The album as a whole is much darker than it's predecessors and one can credit this to their new producer Brad Wood, replacing Trina Shoemaker. It's melodic pop at its best, but much moodier and a little less 'produced'. The band proves once again that hopeless depression can be beautiful.

Dempsey can be raw and thought not menacing, can definitely hit the lows well enough to complement the grunged out guitars. On the opener California, he sings "It's a beautiful life" almost forcing you to believe his sarcasm. Or is he forcing himself? It's obvious that the band has taken time to make this a lot more 'thoughtful' a production than their previous efforts. The song construction is more or less the same but increasingly raw and unpolished. The album is like a growing wave that reaches its crescendo near the end but is sweeping and large enough to crash hard and loud. Transparanoia has everything you'd expect from a post-grunge, alternative anthem - the marching snare, the crashing cymbals, the distortion laden riffs.

"Is it the voice of irony and boredom fighting it out for first place". Statues and Washed Out To Sea provide the album's grand finale. The experience is complete without either boredom or irony and what makes it worthwhile is the fact that the second listen sounds even better.

Ooh Ratings!: 92/100

Download: Sandpit - Along The Moors (MP3)
Stephanie Ashworth played bass for Sandpit before joining SFK.

Kaiser Chiefs And Rubay

And on today's show we have...

Yours Truly, Angry Mob
Kaiser Chiefs

I can't get the words Ruby, Ruby, Ruby and Rubay out of my head. Though somehow, I'm not altogether convinced that I want to.

The Chiefs are back in their sophomore attempt. Of course the weight of expectation wouldn't be too high? I mean, it's not like Employment had like eight singles or anything. And it's not like I went through the last five months humming "Na Na Na Na Naa". Okay, I did. So basically, KC has a lot to live up to.

YT,AM is not as catchy as Employment. Maybe it's the Kaiser fatigue, maybe it's too much Maximo Park. Maybe the songs just aren't that catchy. Which is not to say that have too. "We are the angry mob, we read the papers everyday" is every bit as stadium as "I predict a riot"; but somewhere along the line Ricky Wilson forgot to reinvent his band. It's something that's going to catch a lot of bands out this year if they're not careful (Arctic Monkeys, Wolfmother, er... Maximo Park).

Where Ricky and co. have shown some skill is in reliving the instrumental chorus excitement of Employment. Songs like Heat Dies Down and High Royds are flowing with sticky hooks and sing-along choruses. And somewhere in the middle they throw in a gem in the form of Love's Not A Competition (But I'm Winning); Wilson's softer side isn't exactly "soft", but it's good enough to save the album from being boring.

Sure YT,AM's going to sell tonnes of records for the Chiefs, but if they want to fill up the arenas, they better start thinking bigger on their next outing.

Ooh Ratings!: 87/100

Visit: Yours Truly, Angry Mob

Axl Rose And Black People

NME has the bestest artist pics ever.

Here's Axl singing 99 Problems.


Bitchin'.

Liam And Who's Big Mouth

NME reports that Liam (Gallagher, obviously) was involved in a rather violent tete-a-tete with a photographer. The photographer of course claims that he was five meters away from Oasis' lead singer at the time of the alleged punch-up. Also fortuitously present at the scene were Liam's wife and his five year old son Gene.

One can't wait for Gene to grow up. Not least if he's listened to any of Oasis' catalogue post The Masterplan.


Why Liam? Whhyy? The above picture was clicked after just before NME lost it's chief photographer. Run now Gene, while you're still young and impressionable.

Watch: When Liam Gallagher Attacks

On today's show we'll probably have the new Kaiser.

Klaxons And Other Loud Noises

And on today's show we have...

Myths Of The Near Future
Klaxons

I'll be honest. I like NME. And they like everything. I haven't read a single review that was under 7 of 10. And ever since they gave Klaxons 9, I'd been waiting to get my hands on this baby. Oh man is their website trippy.

Heralded as the new wave of new rave, the weight of expectation on MOTNF was high. And fortunately, I'm a sucker for opening tracks. So Two Receivers had me at hello, though admittedly I thought it was the opening to Sick Sad Little World (Incubus). And though it's not really a 9 of 10 track, it's got enough spunk in it to ensure a good start to the album.

From then on, it's a roller coaster ride through, well, most places in South England (okay so they're from London), some places in Morocco and wherever else there's a party with alcohol punch and fruit. Golden Skans, with it's floaty ooo's and aaa's is psychedelic pop at its best with its druids and whatnots. Somewhere in between Franz Ferdinand and The Strokes we find ourselves drunk in the video game end credits of Gravity's Rainbow and suddenly the Bee Gees type vocal harmonies aren't that cheesy anymore. Phew. It's not just the harmonies that bring back fond memories of disco and shiny balls, but just the way the songs flow from one bouncy robot beat to another.

Where Klaxons lose out to, say The Rapture, is in energy. Which is not to say that the songs aren't terribly exciting. "Light the bridges with the lantern, you know something's going to happen" (Forgotten Worlds) Klaxons may be caught for trying too hard. Maybe.

Stream: Klaxons - Gravity's Rainbow

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Oh man! Definitely NSFW.

Laura Veirs And 2005

And on today's show we have...

Year Of Meteors
Laura Veirs

Rarely does one listen to something and immediately know that the rest of the year is going to be just peachy. There's something about Laura Veirs' unassuming way of constructing a song out of what seems like a dead end that made Year of Meteors my soundtrack of 2005. Obviously, it didn't help at all that this was the first piece of her work that I was listening to, but I guess, in retrospect, that wouldn't have made a difference anyways.

The effortless, flowing movements that don't demand your attention but make their presence felt nevertheless put together the tiny details that collectively make the listening more worthwile than anything else you were doing. In Magnetized she puts together the eternal sunshine of a simple folk guitar and the picture of love in turmoil in almost Cat Power-esque exquisiteness. Which is not to say that the creation is more inspired than original. In Spelunking she tries once again to oversimplify her fear of commitment, and once again, it works. Even when she tries to punk-up her sound on Black Gold Blues it doesn't sound forced at all.

The first time I heard this record, I had it on loop for five plays. I'll be honest. If you haven't heard this yet, the rest of your year isn't going to be what it could.

Download: The Young Rapture Choir - Magnetized

She's out with her new album Saltbreakers on April 1.

Adele Bethel And Scottish Accents

And on today's show we have...

The Repulsion Box
Sons And Daughters

Adele Bethel could well have been a waitress at some small pub in Glasgow where they served drinks at night with a round of community singing around a piano and a guitar. It's really that simple with Sons and Daughters, like the songs on The Repulsion Box wrote themselves after a particularly good night at Smith's Beer and Chips.

Their inherent folk-iness (or beer buzz as I'd like to believe) sets them apart from a tonne of other Scottish bands who're trying too hard to be Britpop, 10 years too late. Scott Paterson (second vocals) adds a bonus range to their songs that would've been good enough if it was just Bethel singing. And the unavoidably catchy thump, thump, thump is just irresistible. They had me at just Bethel's divine Scottish accent. And it's just the same when she lets out this mirror-shattering screech like on Gone. There's a certain predictability to what they do after the first few songs but that's forgivable given the economy with which they create these bombastic tracks. This is not your average pub band who've had too much to drink before getting on stage. It's a bloody good way of saying "I love you" without a hesitant tone, and then sleeping with the neighbours wife.

Stream: Sons And Daughters - Red Receiver