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Pass the fucking bucket Twee, hand-drawn cover art? Check. Dodgy retro outfits and a truckload of mascara? Check. Cutesy boy-girl vocals and choppy guitars? Check. Y HALLO THAR Help She Can't… Oh, wait, it's The Kabeedies with a trio of sugar-rush indie jerk-pop nuggets entitled "Ten Animals I Slam In A Net." Seriously, though. On the evidence of this EP, they're essentially a junior version of the much-missed (by me, anyway) HSCS minus some of the anger and eye glitter, all nonsensical couplets and nagging refrains, two-minute tracks demanding to be played again and again. You either love this sort of thing or hate it (in which case you have no soul), and I'm a fan. Very promising. 8/10 http://www.myspace.com/thekabeedies
In contrast, it's difficult to have any reaction at all to Red Light Company's "Meccano." You know the drill: vaguely tuneful, lots of angsty platitudes ("follow your heart," "the weekend is over") delivered with forced breathiness, a nice bit of tinkling piano for the mums, pass the fucking bucket. For some unfathomable reason they've included an instrumental version, but I'd rather stick my head in a blender than waste another three minutes of my life on something this generic. 2/10 Son Of Dave's "Hellhound," however, carries
enough relentless swagger to make all three versions worth listening
to at least once. The lead track, remixed by Booombass, adds a crunching
techno beat to the drawled, menacing vocal delivery (though it probably
doesn't need to be six minutes long), while the live version builds
from stripped-down beginnings to a full-on mentalfest. 7/10
Reemer is a rubbish band name, "Rockstar" is a rubbish song title, and the singer's affected delivery immediately irritates. Things improve slightly when the guitars kick in and the whole thing turns into a fairly standard Big Indie Singalong ™. B-side's similar, only with more whining. Not offensively bad but, given the continuing existence of Oasis, fairly pointless. 4/10 The press release for Russell's Teapot's "Desire" E.P. kindly explains that their name is a reference to Bertrand Russell's religious analogy (Wiki it), and goes on to tell us that their work "is influenced by the contradiction of being an atheist… born into a cult religion." Ah, I do love a bit of pretension in a band. No, really, I do. Not enough bands are pretentious these days, and that means we end up with shit like Red Light Company. There needs to be substance to back it up, though, and I think Russell's Teapot deliver. The title tracks a somewhat overlong crashing instrumental, but opener "Broadcast" marries dreamy vocals to dark electronic rumblings, while "Heaven's Gate" has some interesting lyrics. Not sure whether I like it or not yet, but I'll keep listening. 6/10 http://www.myspace.com/russellsteapot
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