Band started Jan 2001 by Jill and Jamie. An
attempt to marry together new technology with acoustic guitars and super-duper
songs about concrete, anarcho-syndicalism, yearning and civil servants have
proved fantastically successful. Of a fashion. Musically they like
clear-as-crystal lyrics, and grand orchestral sweeps (with the odd electric
guitar solo! Wow, rock out), and nice acoustic finger-picking.
They are influenced by Mercury Rev, Belle &
Sebastian, Low, Pulp, Blondie, New Order, Velvets and Woody Guthrie (Jamie
secretly wants to be Elvis live at Vegas). But to be fair a bit of Alan Bennett
and Sylvia Plath are thrown in the lyrical pot pourri. These are
seriously literate people. Camus, Kafka, JK Rowling. You name it, they've
heard of them.
They are most definitely not Sheffield's
hardest working band. They believe in the maxim that style and talent overtakes
muck and sweat in the long term any day. Or something.
I mean, don't expect much bum-wiggling on stage or
even much stage-craft as such. Let's face it, you don't expect Rodin's "The
Kiss" to jiggle about like some nodding dog now do you. A lot depends on how
much wowee sauce is consumed to be perfectly frank (one band member is a Geordie
after all. In fact two of them are Ugandan. Christ, one's even from
Sheffield).
After rigourous auditioning (which included asking
people if they fancied playing) they now have a full band line up and are ready
to perform their first live set at the Grapes in March (date tbc).
Their original album is for sale on MP3.com, and
parts of it can be downloaded from IUMA.com.
"The Cosmonaut ep" is to be released on High Rise
Records to coincide with their first gig and will available from Fopp, Jacks and
at the gigs.
Speaking as a true fan of the band I can honestly
say they are not the worst band in Sheffield 11. For impartiality's
sake I am forced to declare I am also in the band. But hey, we're
all full of it.
