I first heard of this band of three singing sisters from Watford last week at Adam Buxton’s Bug show at the BFI, where he showed this clever video. They are a little bit English folk, a whole lot Americana, depending on which of their albums you listen to. They are on my list to see live, and soon.
Facts about my new favourite band:
I came across King Krule recently thanks to a recent Nerdist Spotify playlist compiled by *fangirl blush* Meredith Graves. I think I might have possibly have heard of him before and assumed it was Billy Bragg set to a jazzy/punk/urban backing tape, because to my untrained Australian ear anyone singing in a vaguely London/Essex accent sounds like Billy Bragg. It’s my only explanation for not having had the sense to listen to him before.
His songs are lush soundscapes, layers upon layers of guitar and keyboard and who else knows what. Each listen of his songs allows another of these layers to come through like some treasure. Well worth a listen or several.
I caught The Phantom Band live at the Lexington a few weeks ago, having binge-listened to them on Spotify over several weeks. Definitely an amazing band to catch live – they had someone playing percussion using what looked like old office metal shelving! Yeah, more of this please.
I went in to seeing this band blind, as a support to Bis at the Lexington, and at first I thought they were called Ghostsoda because of the abbreviation of their name stuck in electric and duct tape over their keyboards and instruments. I assumed, because of who they were supporting and based on that mis-name, that they’d be quite poppy. Not quite right. Ghosts of Dead Airplanes are somewhere probably halfway in between Bis and the 90s and I am not even sure because this band confuses me, but in a good way. I mean, listen to Hair Metal Shame and tell me what it all means?
Picture of is of them rocking out to the youngsters at this all-agers gig…
A conversation earlier this week reminded me of the existence of The Czars. I am a big John Grant fan but somehow I don’t remember ever listening to his former band despite them being very much my cup of tea. I suspect I listened to them in Skinny’s or Rocking Horse Records back in Brisbane and rejected buying their output in favour of something else, like Custard. Limited student budgets and all that. Kids today don’t know how spoiled they are by the internet and things like Spotify. Ahem.
So yes, today I am listening to all of The Czars, and enjoying them very much.
One x Four 