Bombay Bicycle Club - 'Evening/Morning'
The comedian Richard Herring has a nice little monologue about this lot. He noticed a boy in the street wearing a T-shirt with Bombay Bicycle Club on it, and this caused him to have a ponder about what kind of message this young fella was trying to send out. Was he, perhaps a fan of the Indian Restaurant of the same name on London's King's Road? Or indeed any of a wealth of similarly-named eateries around the world?
Was he claiming to be a member of the various health and fitness clubs which have also made use of the name? Was this, perhaps, an ancient T-shirt, handed down the generations from the original Bombay Bicycle Club? Or is he just a fan of the band?
Chances are the answers to all but the last of these questions will have been no, but can you imagine the car-crash of cultural signifiers if the lad had been wearing the T-shirt which depicts an octopus spelling out the band's initials? Think about it...
Especially now, when the worlds of indie rock and the actual ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ (hello!) are seemingly at loggerheads. It could spark a RIOT!
(. It's made of pure pandamonium.)
I mention this because there's a similar scattering of smushed-up, handed-down, information within this ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳'s music. The squalling intricate mess of searing fuzz bass and twittery guitars is pretty standard for your modern indie band, as is the world-weary quavering voice. I've been through the list of other bands who also use this basic sound so often it's becoming dull, even for ME, so I won't go over it again.
But just to be clear, in this song it's more the Joy Division list, rather than the Vampire Weekend list you'd have had if this was their song 'Always Like This'.
So, let's focus on the things which mark this apart from, say, the Maccabees. Let's examine the things which are so unambiguously theirs that even Richard Herring could spot them, with earplugs in.
Thing 1: Jack Bicycle Club has a slightly deeper voice than Orlando Maccabees, but not as deep as Paul Interpol.
Thing 2: None of the bands who make songs that sound like this song have written a song which has a chorus which goes "I'm ready to owe you anything".
Thing 3: There is no thing three. The guitars are very pretty though.
There, I trust this will clear up any further confusion. *dusts off hands*
Download: Out now
CD Released: March 8th
³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Music page
(Fraser McAlpine)
Comment number 1.
At 4th Mar 2010, harrythedog10 wrote:³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ are a nice enough band but to me they sound like they're trying to be Interpol - especially on this song. Unfortunately Interpol surpass them in everyway as a band and make more memorable songs.
Hopefully with time they'll improve because there's definately the potential for a great band here, sadly at the moment there's nothing here to really excite me.
3 Stars
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Comment number 2.
At 4th Mar 2010, George Scrafton wrote:I agree with you there harry, although I see potential, I don't yet see a fully fledged band that are in any way to try and compete with other bands that are at the top of their game. Having said that, they are relatively new and not to mention they seem to have built up a strong fan base from nothing, as evidenced in their win at the NME Awards. Give it a few years and I am sure that we will see a band that is confident, interesting and a little bit quirky ready for UK domination. Maybe.
2.5/5
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Comment number 3.
At 4th Mar 2010, jonesybcfc wrote:Not a bad song but a forgettable one, of the like you could see and hear in any pub in a city on a saturday night.
I do like pandas though, so 3 stars.
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