Glasvegas - 'Geraldine'
In 1986, when the Smiths were the greatest thing that could ever happened to British music, when 'indie' referred to a sub-culture of shambolic, '60s-obsessed guitar bands who never, ever, ever got played on daytime Radio 1 (apart from every now and again, and it felt like a total victory and entirely wrong all at the same time), and when the charts were dominated by Tina Turner, Queen and Phil Collins, if you could have taken footage of Glasvegas back to a cardiganed indie fan, and told them this was the hotly-tipped band of 2008, they would register no surprise whatsoever.
After all, in 1986, this is what the future of music looked like, and even if the time machine which delivered this news was unable to bring back a note of music, just looking at the band perform would be proof enough.
You've a singer who is the spit of Joe Strummer - classic quiff-era Joe at that - and he's ranting passionately in front of a band who dress entirely in black. You've a drummer who plays standing up - just like Moe Tucker and Bobby Gillespie used to - and a lyric sheet which is less about the unremarkable easiness of making love in a nightclub and more about the heroic struggle involved in making ends meet.
Bring the tunes in, and see the light of recognition glow even brighter behind the eyes of our indieanderthal friend.
Those massively-reverbed, wall-of-sound, Jesus And Mary Chain guitars, that reedy, boomy, hiccupy voice, the two-chord churnaround which just pounds and pounds and pounds and never deviates, the sulphuric acid guitar solo, and look, isn't that Alan McGee lurking in the background? What happened to his mushroom cloud of ginger curls? OMG what year is this? Why did I just write OMG? What's a blog anyway? Is it like a fanzine? Where's my fringe? I can't go out without my fringe! Oh dear lord Morrissey in Salford, what's happening here?
Oh wait, it's just a new band who sound like a blend of loads of old bands. Phew! Business as usual...
Download: Out now
CD Released: June 23rd
(Fraser McAlpine)
Comment number 1.
At 24th Jun 2008, -RachelS- wrote:Oh good, another song to back up my theory about bands and their liking for old-fashioned girls' names!
I mean, think about it... 'Valerie' by the Zutons, 'Delilah' by Plain White T's, 'Ruby' by the Kaiser Chiefs, ummm... we'll gloss over the fact that I thought Maroon 5's 'Sunday Morning' had a chorus that went, "Oh, Eileen"! (I was so disappointed when I found out it was, "all I need"!)
And now this... 'Geraldine' - thank you Glasvegas!
One day, there will be scientific proof.
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