This Is Not TV

Spooky NME cover bitches with crazy hair and funny names. Beyond that, they are a band. This is their latest single.

It’s ironic that it bears the title ‘She Is The New Thing,’ as this track carries the dust, cobwebs and grave-stink of half a dozen influences from the last five decades. First, it comes stomping at you like the Cramps’ ‘Human Fly,’ Coffin Joe and Joshua Third doing their level best to capture the rotten-brained psychobilly legend’s inexorable bone-crushing rhythm ‘n’ riff combo. Next thing you know, Faris Badwin is taking you to the Monster Mash, bending your ear about his latest would-be squeeze and how the relationship is ultimately doomed. Cheerful, though, in a Syd Barrett moment of lucidity style.

The chorus is a different kettle of bats, with screams stripped from the burnt-out shell of the Special’s ‘Ghost Town’ twinkling with an iridescent patina of Madness’ catchiness that brings the whole thing home without upsetting its flow.

Schlocky as hell, this track smacks of BBC Radiophonic Workshop records and spooked-up teenage Halloween parties, but packs a pounding sledgehammer of a melody like Rocket From The Crypt. Different hair, different names but they make a decent mailed fist of other people’s music.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Ah, the trusty Trabant, automotive mainstay of the Eastern Bloc and the first fully recyclable car. Only trouble was, it was too recyclable – in fact, some Trabants actually started to recycle themselves in transit if it rained too hard. That’s the problem with papier-mâché body shells. Rubbish for waterproofing, great for growing cress.

So if you’re an electro-pop group from Reykjavik with a ‘certain flair’ (the bassist, Viðar H. Gíslasona, has goldfish swimming inside his instrument in the video) with a lead singer (Ragnar Kjartansson) who looks like a cross between Leslie Philips and Kenneth Brannagh and a penchant for mirror balls, Trabant is an obvious choice of band name. Pass me the rotten shark, I feel one of my turns coming on…

The One: of six. As this glam cyborg of a song comes squelching, sliding and vamping into ear-view, like a camp ‘Boys and Girls,’ your first impression might be: “My God! Eurovision has escaped! Only Wogan can save us now!” and you’d be forgiven, because it don’t get no europoppier than this; listen to that broken English, the Kraftwerk on poppers synths and the porn-star guitar. This is only a problem, however, if you are not in touch with your European side. Embrace the fashionable naffness and, lo and behold, what fun there is to be had! Ragnar’s whispered androgonous vocals tease out the beat, teenage kicking along energetically with the bass, keyboards and guitars, taking the camp to light speed. The closest comparison I can think of soundwise are Belgian beat-masters Goose, but this is more disco friendly and less abrasive.

Plus you get five other spangling remixes from such I-am-sure-they-are-notables as Filthy Dukes, Black Ghosts and err, Williams. Interestingly enough, each remix takes it upon itself to highlight one particular instrument and run with it, making the track sound like, at turns, The Knife, Groovejet and Georgio Moroder. Why write more than one song, you lazy sods?

Though I am sure it will be a big hitter at the disco, ‘The One’ has all the hallmarks of a song that will end up as background music for Reality TV trailers on ITV – a terrible fate, really, but one that suits the nature of the group’s name. Trabant: the eco-friendly high-energy band. I just hope it makes it to the charts before it gets recycled.

Popularity: 3% [?]

The festival season is upon is, the sun is shining, Glastonbury looks like it will be a submarine festival (check the rook nests: if they’re high, it won’t be dry) and My Chemical Romance have been piss-bottled off-stage. Again. Still, I hear their treatment was not as warranted as Evanescence, who acted somewhat, erm, arrogantly and received a faceful of bladder-fresh urea for their troubles. Wake me up indeed. So, bands that take themselves too seriously not going down too well? Cheer up, oh asymetrical ones, here’s a nice pro/anti emo anthem to check out.

I have been aware of Bowling For Soup’s presence for a while (they formed in ’94 – ah the mighty nineties) but have never actually, really, particularly listened to any of their stuff. I bet it’s happy, I thought to myself. So here I am, 17 years later (bloody hell), finally getting a bit of Soup, and by golly it is happy! Not only does the song revel in a triumphant chorus of ‘I’m Gay,’ in a Daley Thompson controversial T-Shirt explanation and meaning, but it jovially manages to celebrate and humiliate Emo culture at the same time, talking about guys who’ weren’t too popular at school’ then saying it’s okay to be sad and it’s okay to be glad and, basically, I’m gay. A bit Jack Black in the motivational talky bits from Jaret, very Blink 182 in the content, totally Busted in the guitars, it’s infectious, uplifting, fundamentally annoying and will probably outstay it’s welcome after thirty plays, but they will have to be consecutive.

It’s not the cleverest song out this year (that’s probably iLiKETRAiNS ‘Spencer Percival’ IMHO) but it’s the first of a hopeful slew of songs that will eventually soundtrack a happy summer and will have you shake off your winter blues whether you like it or not. Now I’m off to listen to Anathema to get my balance back…

Popularity: 8% [?]

On repeated listens to White One… you’d be convinced quintet Elliot Minor are Californian pop-punkers born and bred. Well you’d be mistaken as these hail from the marginally less glamourous York. Not that its makes much difference.

Despite being imminently hummable, even Panic! At The Disco would feel slightly guilty if they came out with as lifeless a track as this, which is technically sound but lacking in creativity and imagination.

A shame really – with a bit more effort they could be the UK’s answer to Blink-182 or Jack’s Mannequin. Instead Elliot Minor seem more on track to be the next McFly but slightly worse.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Just to clear up any confusion from the offset, these Cardinals aren’t the Ryan Adams troubadours. Instead this lot are an indie four piece from Manchester.

Now, down to business. This lot are cocking dire. Lacking in any form of originality or freshness whatsoever, Goodnight is your standard plodding fare with just a trace of the Madchester sound to it.

This is likely to be only played at the most mediocre of student indie clubs such as 5th Ave and 42nd Street for oh, I dunno, two minutes before being dropped like the leaden balloon it is.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Pity me, oh TINTV folk, for I am reduced to an even more uninformed, opinionated reviewing fool. I know I have loadsa press release stuff somewhere, but can I remember where I put it? Thank goodness for myspace and Wikipedia: accessible, ubiquitous, inaccurate.

Kate Nash, you will be hearing with unfailing regularity, is the next big thing. Raised in Harrow, learning piano, attending some posh-sounding schools (though those are always the worst) and breaking her leg after failing to get into the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School (blimey, she took that a bit hard, didn’t she?), she decided that music was the game for her. Earlier this year, she released ‘Caroline’s A Victim,’ an nu-electro-parody that gained Lily Allen’s respect and its own parody, ‘LDN Is A Victim,’ and now she prepares to release an as yet untitled album and a second single, ‘Foundations,’ produced by Maximo Park and Bloc Party technical overseer, Paul Epworth.

Three months is a long time in music (and on Pluto) and a lot has happened to Kate Nash’s sound in the ensuing. Gone are the nu-electro beeps and ‘killer beats’ of ‘Caroline…’ now replaced by piano and acoustic guitar of ‘Foundations,’ a wholly more mature offering, both lyrically and melodically. The rhythm has all the force of a runaway bullet train and Kate’s lyrical expertise is given free license to expostulate dryly, wittily and erratically. It is very, very easy to make comparisons to Lily Allen – she has the same ‘Sarf Lundun’ twang – but her delivery has more in common with Ani Di Franco or Regina Spektor. There’s less innocence and more despairing resignation to lines like “Yeah, intelligent input, darlin’, why don’t you just have another beer then?’ than you would get from Lily even in her most bittersweet moments. It’s more Jamie T or Matt Skinner, but from the other side. The song’s inexorable momentum towards a violent, off stage conclusion is tragic, but that same momentum is also voyeuristically compelling. You become an embarrassed observer to a very personal tragedy.

She may only be nineteen, she maybe of THAT set and she may be getting all the radio coverage in the world, but consider: Kate Bush wrote ‘Man With The Child In His Eyes’ when she was thirteen, and that to my mind is one of the most touching songs ever made; Emily Dickinson wrote so knowledgeably on the human condition without ever leaving the house. Kate Nash is wise beyond her years, and this is quite a tune. Definitely not a victim of its own potential success.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Whaddya know, only a few months ago, some guy collars me at a gig and says, “You’ve gotta check out Reverend and The Makers. They’re gonna be big.” Not one to be swayed by my peers, I nodded and filed the statement under ‘popularist stuff that I would be really embarrassed to say “never heard of him,” about.’ Now I have their debut single sitting coquettishly on a pile of notebooks at the edge of my desk. Reverend and The Makers? Never heard of him.

‘Reverend’ is Sheffield music scenester Jon McClure, a man who has been gathering his own momentum and, vibe and flock over the last couple of years, calling on the various axe-wielders of Sheffield to lend their talents to the cause. His debut single, ‘Heavyweight Champion of The World,’ has been produced by Jagz Kooner, recently seen twiddling knobs for Primal Scream and Kasabian, so it is no surprise that this track takes all the genres, sticks them in a blender and makes one hell of a musical smoothie.

First taste: Duran Duran, ‘Planet Earth.’ Don’t knock it, look at their career following that debut, not their comeback. Like that track, ‘Heavyweight…’ has a “let’s not fuck about” attitude to it, reinforced by the funky fast bassline and ‘Eye of The Tiger’ riff. Rev himself has a more neutral, mid Atlantic voice with just the slightest hint of Sheffield – a tickle on the aural palate – and delivers wittily constructed lines of an updated Marlon Brando circa ‘On The Waterfront’ ilk with casual flair and aplomb. I particularly like the reference to Camber Sands; reminded me of my childhood. When you get to the chorus, it is an impressive fusion of rock, new indie, old skool rave and new rave – a less confrontational Bloc Party sound, or even a more hearty Klaxons, heavy on the high-hat. And to garnish? Oh, but of course, a cheeky, post-ironic guitar solo. Devilish. No, straight up, this single really does straddle the genres in a way only seen at adult entertainer track meetings. Something for everyone. Too broad? Check out the other two tracks.

‘!8-30’ drops a huge chuck of electro bass on top of a dance rhythm, decorates with Balearic guitars and completes with sweetly-delivered Mike Skinner/Jamie T like lyrics. Part over-produced Ibiza parody, part serious LCD System techno heavy hitter, you gotta admire the guys range and sense of humour – the Josh Wink send up ending is priceless. Then you get the spoken word bonus, ‘Last Resort,’ a collaboration with John Cooper that sounds like an updated Stanley Hollloway monologue. Humorous, knowing, scornful observation of seaside gloom. Camber Sands again.

Personally, I’d be hard pushed to find someone who couldn’t find something appealing about The Reverend’s sound. Magpie music it may be, but no one element swamps the other, it weaves nimbly through the categories and heads straight for the top of the charts. That said, he doesn’t fanny about and over compensate. Well produced it may be, indulgent it isn’t. As genuine as the Arctic Monkeys, as infectious as Bloc Party and as eclectic as LCD Soundsystem. Maybe that guy I was chatting to had a point after all.

Popularity: 18% [?]

I suspected something was going on when he got the James Bond gig. One of the grungefathers sound tracking a bunch of gyrating silhouetted nudes? Hardly ‘Jesus Christ Pose,’ is it? But I was willing to let it lie. It’s just a glitch, I thought.

I was wrong.

‘Arms Around Your Love’ is the second single to be released from Chris’s forthcoming solo album ‘Carry On’ – no Kenneth Williams, no Sid James, I’m afraid – and has been produced by Steve Lillywhite, previously linked with U2, Rolling Stones and Morrissey. Alarm bells are ringing for me already – I’m doubting the raucous factor here.

And my fears are confirmed. Acoustic guitars strum gently away like a certain Mr Big song while Chris takes his voice through the motions. “I’m just gonna have to take it,” he sings croakily. Sounds like it. Out go the minor key changes, in comes the hook from ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’ – okay in context, but this is not it. And the voice – what’s happened? It used to perform octave-defying leaps from earth to ionosphere in microseconds; now it bumbles around the mid-ranges like a regretful drunk in a bar. The middle eight hints at some kind of vocal and modular limbering, but nothing materialises. Instead, a nice warm harmony comes in and makes me shudder with disgust.

‘An illustrious career that defined a generation.’ I agree absolutely. So what’s he doing here? Shortly after listening to this, I listened to ‘Euphoria Morning’ again. Made eight years ago, I know, but comparing that to this… no comparison. I realise that some might say that this is a ‘coming of age’ song, or a ‘show of maturity,’ but I don’t want that. I want to live vicariously through my rock gods. The choice is simple: die, or grow old disgracefully; don’t fade away like this.

Popularity: 6% [?]

Usually, press releases bang on about the same old useful but dull stuff: who the performers are, who produced it, when it’s out, why it will be 2007’s must have single/album/aardvark etc. Yeah, I’m getting off the whole music thang, but I like to approach the melodic experience in an holistic fashion ie. I ramble. Anyway, when a press release comes along that, though light on info, is heavy on intimacy, a refreshing change occurs: my brain actually wakes up To summarise, it talks about lead singer Siddhartha’s missing out on eighties pop cultural references, and how he was made to learn lots of Bollywood showstoppers instead, often against his will. It is also, in Goldspot’s case, enlightening and helps to explain why ‘It’s Getting Old’ is just so gosh-darn enticing.

The opening hissy drums and plaintively-sung title cry out eighties revival, and the New Order/Cureish guitar riff only serves to confirm this. In fact, throughout you could be forgiven for thinking that this is a nice indie-pop retrospective like the Killers first album: the chorus pleasantly spreads the vocals thickly over a three-line harmony, the guitar trundles on, octave up, octave down, and the drums continue to hiss. It’s flouncy and moody, but that’s not the whole tamale. There’s something else, the structure seems a tad flamboyant for indie pop. What is it?

The answer lies in the intimate press release: Bollywood influences. What, non-western musical influences that go beyond using non-western instrumentation and actually look at the song structure and complexion? That, my friend, is crazy talk. But that’s what’s going on; the emptiness, loneliness and melancholy comes not from a penchant for eyeliner and baggy cardigans but a passionate dramatic tradition. It’s a bit unusual, a bit subtle, but it definitely works, and without having to resort to Sitars and Tablas either (not that here is anything wrong with Sitars or Tablas, just that their over use by western artists desperately trying to sound exotic is, well, getting old). So that’s it; something old, sounding new. Gold star for Goldspot.

Popularity: 3% [?]

In the space of the past 12 months, post-hardcore New York mob From Autumn to Ashes have gone through a number of changes. Upon returning from a six-month break, lead singer Ben Perri quit the band during recording to be replaced by drummer and co-vocalist Francis Mark.

That and they released a fourth album which is both beautiful and barbarous in equal measure. Now with new drummer Jeff Gretz and guitarist Ron Lauristen added to the line-up which is completed by Brian Deneeve (also guitar), FATA are back to what they do best, playing live.

Just before their Manchester gig I caught up with bass player Josh Newton for a quick natter.

You’re about halfway through the tour, how’s it been going so far?
Thus far its been great, the crowds have been good, its been fun. We love coming over here.

What can the kids expect out of tonight’s show?
A lot of kicking and screaming and maybe some falling down!

Its been quite a while since you’ve last been here, how’ve the crowds reacted? There’s been quite a few changes to the band since last time.
I think we almost have a new crowd, like a turnover in the generation of fans. Its been cool, they seem really into the last couple of records and when we play really old stuff they seem to look confused occasionally!

How’s the reaction to the new album, Holding a Wolf by the ears, gone? It’s the first since Ben Perri left and Francis Mark fully took over on vocals.
The reaction’s been really good so far.

Were you worried at all about how some fans, especially the long-term ones, would take to it?
No not really. We’re gonna do what we’re gonna do and if people like it that’s awesome and if not there’s plenty of other bands out there for them to listen to.

So the new record’s gone down well?
Yeah sure, you occasionally get those who are all “you’re too different now, you’re not the same band” but there hasn’t been much of that all. Truthfully I expected more of it!

I’ve read that the band sees Holding… as its most significant album to date. How did that come about? Had anything in particular changed during recording?
I suppose it was the right combination of us and…I mean there was nothing consciously different at the time. Ben quit literally as he was supposed to do his vocals, so everything was already written at that point. We just played in a room together and whatever didn’t suck we kept. I guess it was just luck more than anything.

You were saying about how the crowds have changed slightly do you think that’s in part due to the recent popularity of bands such as My Chemical Romance pushing the scene that the likes of you, Thrice and Thursday helped to build more into the mainstream?
I don’t know if its necessarily “helped” it just sort of is what it is. But I’m definitely not complaining. I’m glad that anyone likes the band, we really appreciate that. Its just interesting to keep seeing a new crop of faces, which I suppose happens with every record. You’re always going to gain and lose people no matter what.

So before recording began for Holding… From Autumn to Ashes was “on hiatus” for a couple of months. Was there ever a period where you thought this is it for the band?
Its seems with this band that every record is the last record so it wasn’t really that big of a deal. We had spent quite some time touring, then Brian Deneeve (guitar) and I went on tour with Reggie and the Full Effect. It just wasn’t too much of an issue.

But usually when a band is “on hiatus” it can be read as “we’re breaking up”…
Oh yeah definitely. But it just worked out that way, we were burnt out from playing our songs and we needed to take a break for a while. It wasn’t a conscious thing, it literally just sort of happened. It definitely wasn’t a dramatic “oh we’re not going to play for however long” thing. We were just hanging out one day and it was like “let’s do a show”, then it was “let’s go do Warped tour!” and we were back.

So what’s the plan after this tour?
We’re going into Germany and the rest of Europe for about a week, come back here to do Download. Then we’re off back to the States for a fortnight with Senses Fail, then two weeks in Canada and other two with Aiden. After that we’re back in Britain again for the Reading and Leeds festivals and after that who knows?

We have at least 12 months of touring for the new album so we’ll probably be back here a couple of times before the year’s up.

www.myspace.com/fromautumntoashes

Popularity: 6% [?]