The Datsuns
The Datsuns
V2
Aussie rockers, The Vines, might have taken both the UK and US by storm last year, but the antipodean combo didn't have it all its own way. Also kicking-up a guitar and music-press fuelled racket in the Northern Hemisphere was a little-known New Zealand act by the name of The Datsuns. Hitting the headlines in the UK late last year thanks to a series of high-octane sellout gigs following the release of their eponymous album, The Datsuns look set to repeat this success in the US this month, where their fiery debut has just been released.
While music press-led categorization has meant the band has found itself lumped with alternative and indie bands such as The Hives, The Strokes and The Vines, The Datsuns' retro-1970s white noise is a far cry from the fashion statements, fluidity and art school ties of any of the aforementioned acts. As if sent to exorcise New Zealand from the ghosts of ma and pa pleasing Crowded House and Split Enz, The Datsuns go straight for the non-pop, non-pap jugular, producing a debut album that incorporates the sounds of Radio Birdman, Deep Purple and Thin Lizzy in one harrowing tune after another. This is not an album for those who suffer from a nervous disposition. It is an album for those for whom plastic pint glasses and the noxious odors of stale urine, beer, sweat and vomit sound like a fantastic recipe for a great night out.
Filled with simple, yet effective no-nonsense heavy rock guitar hooks, rampant vocals and a genuine feel for the beer and weed-loaded sound of yesteryear, The Datsuns go all out to impress with tunes such as Sittin' Pretty, MF From Hell, In Love and the oddball and comic, Harmonic Generator.
The album's highlight is Freeze Suckers, a six minute heavy rock feast that sees a tune not that far removed from Radio Birdman's early 70s classic, Aloha Steve and Danno, revamped and with the addition of some Jonah Lomu-sized Kiwi attitude.
The Sea and the Cake
One Bedroom Thrill
Thrill Jockey
Based out of Chicago, singer/guitarist Sam Prekop and bassist, Eric Claridge, initially expected The Sea and the Cake to be a one-off project. Eight years and five albums later, however, the band have become a permanent fixture on the US indie-pop circuit. Released last month, One Bedroom, is the four-piece band's latest studio venture and one that proves that stylized pop riffs and happy-go-lucky dance melodies are alive and well and living in the Windy City.
Picking up from where the band's 2000 Oui left off, One Bedroom sees the band making full use of the popularity of jazzy-pop, mild electronica and general breezy up-beat licks. Ambling rather than kicking in with the spacey pop riff-driven, Four Corners, The Sea and the Cake's One Bedroom makes for a pleasing listen from start to finish with the only annoyance being a rather lame cover version of David Bowie's Sound and Vision.
A first for the band is the ambient Hotel Tell -- a tune that verges on the very edges of being labeled a dance track. Whether or not this is the musical direction The Sea and the Cake will take for its next release listeners will have to wait and see.
Pavement
Slanted and Enchanted: Luxe & Reduxe
Matador
Accidentally inventing the lo-fi sound thanks to the combination of dodgy amplifiers and squalid recording studios with bad acoustics, Pavement dominated the US indie charts of the early 1990s with its off-beat lyrics, prolonged bouts of feedback as well as its anti-pop and heroin chic.
RSS