The next in my series of indie pin-up girl crushes is Dead Disco, a trio of lovely lasses from Leeds, England. Who were noticed by James Ford of Simian Mobile Disco who helped them record a few of their earlier singles in his attic. Since then their singles like “Automatic” and “You’re Out” have been garnering them more and more attention.
But what about the music? Well, to break it down, at times they sound like a female version of the Libertines hammering through shambly rock numbers with the sultry voice of their Victoria cooing over the mayhem. Then at other times they bust out the full on dance beats and synth for their diabolical disco anthems like “You’re Out”. When a band looks and sounds as good these girls can massive success be far ahead?
The first band that I’m going to cover in my series of girl fronted groups is the indomitable and Intel pimped New Young Pony Club. The UK band was heralded as one of the first acts to kick start the Nu Rave movement along with other NME super hyped bands like the Klaxons. They utilize a system of stop and go ultra rhythmic bass and cooing synthesizers to coax people out onto the dance floor. Once you’re there though, vocalist Tahita Balmer will induce some manic dance floor fury with her Blondie-like seductive authority.
New Young Pony Club’s debut LP “Fantastic Playroom” is set to be released in late August of this year. A clear highlight from the album is the galloping single “Ice Cream” with it’s sensuous strut that could work just as well in the bedroom as it could fire up a party. The atmospherics and build in another album highlight “The Get Go” release to become a bouncy and most satisfying number. While the Talking Heads like rhythm never does let up, that doesn’t mean that the songs don’t slow down for some sensitive, in your ear style purring like on “Talking Talking”. That song practically requires mood lighting and a rotating zebra bed. The greatest strength of the New Young Pony Club is that they aren’t afraid to slow songs up a bit and increase the funkiness, every guitar, every blip, every bass jab is there to enhance the groove and get the party started.
It seems like a bunch of post-punk acts are coming in my direction lately. Among them, Junius, an acclaimed Post Punk band hailing from Boston Massachusetts. Like many bands these days they’ve been compared to Joy Division and the Cure, but there is something that is palpably dark and brooding about their music. I’m not talking about “Susie won’t go to the dance with me, time to listen to Linkin Park!” kind of brooding. There’s something intellectual and relevant about how the Robert Smith like wailing wraps around the chiming earnest guitars. People are going to make easy conclusions that they sound just like Interpol, Editors, or any other recent post-punk revivalist band, but Junius brings modern inspirations to the table and at times explode with raw radio ready chaos that at once could attract mainstream listeners without compromising their message and image as a band. “A Word Could Kill Her” features an interpol-esque melodic descent into an all out wall of guitars and wailing that could unite the indie kids and the hardcore kids. That is if the hardcore kids can tolerate the sophistication until the breakdown.
The Omaha Nebraskan quartet Go! Motion, hearkens back to the early propulsive wailing of the Cure combined with the stop and go mayhem of Bloc Party’s dance rock aesthetic. Fans of White Rose Movement, Editors, and Interpol will find something to like here. Their take on the whole atmospheric urgent dance music is more linear and they’re not afraid to bust out homages to both The Smiths and The Cure in the same song, “Charm is Harmless”, which sounds surprisingly fresh for all of it’s Marr guitar and Cure plucks. The sustained notes of “Somewhere Nowhere” show that they didn’t need to find inspiration from U2 on their second album, like Bloc Party, they were ready out of the gates to emulate the edge while still retaining their own sound. The influences are easily deciphered on each track of Go! Motions’ debut “Kill the Love” but don’t let that distract you from the raw energy and the passion of the music.
The next in my series of indie pin-up girl crushes is Dead Disco, a trio of lovely lasses from Leeds, England. Who were noticed by James Ford of Simian Mobile Disco who helped them record a few of their earlier singles in his attic. Since then their singles like “Automatic” and “You’re Out” have been garnering them more and more attention.
