What I think of The Drums

This is a short review I wrote of The Drums' EP, sorry if you're offended by the controversy against the nme gods, but Surfer Blood are tonnes better.

The Drums - Summertime

The Drums haven’t made much attempt to avoid cliché with their debut EP Summertime which has been released this year on Island Records. They seem to have ticked all the  cool-crowd boxes for NME who have admitted their embarrassment for everyone else trying to make music in a world with the Drums in it. So added to the fact that the BBC have dropped their name into their not-so cutting edge musical menu, the Brooklyn quartet might be fighting over their street-cred as well as their Smiths T-shirts. 

They are however, undoubtedly catchy and its easy to be drawn in by the mix of stylish 80’s melody in ‘Best Friend’ and youthful summertime euphoria of ‘Lets Go Surfing’. Not many bands before have reflected their influences as much as general new-romantic obsession and The Cure infatuation shines through on the melodic ‘I Felt Stupid’. 

Their full self-titled album is due for release in early June, just in time for the festival season and trendy kids’ BBQs. 

Video for M.I.A’s ‘Born Free’ Banned From Youtube.

M.I.A’s single ‘Paper Planes’ reached such a high level of commercial success it may have earned itself the brand of mainstream, but people who have been with M.I.A since the days of her debut, Arular will know that this acclaimed and political artist couldn’t be cruising further away from the middle of the road. 

The recent single “Born Free” released on XL records, has made the news for its 9 minute long video companion, which shows a group of armed government thugs scouring a city and rounding up all the ginger-haired boys, who are taken to a dessert and brutally killed for sport. The director Romain Gavras who created the video for Justice’s ‘Stress’, appears to be using the mass murder of ginger haired people as a symbol for racial genocide and war crimes. 

A name which alludes to article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, suggests that the video has a deeply issue-based concept, making any claims of ‘gratuitousness’ seem sweeping and thoughtless. To draw a curtain across such crimes, puts them into the realm of the unspeakable, which is surely harmful and will become a breading ground for protest. 

The video could be a backlash against the success of recent war films which make no attempt to address the USA’s reasons for war, but to paint an emotional portrait of the American soldier and reinforce the view that the Iraqi and Afghan people are a threat, and identify them as  the ultimate enemy. 

So should the video have been banned from youtube? No. Age restriction, fair enough, I mean we do seem to be living in fear of an entire future generation of Venables and hoodys. If such a generation have indeed grown numb to scenes of violent warfare, then surely for that very reason the ban can be described as nothing else but online-censorship. 

The reasoning behind the ban is that youtube prohibit gratitous violence, but in my opinion, the only justification of banning a video which could have essentially been a documentary, is fear of the internet and its increasing power to round up troops of people towards a common purpose. 

Political activists now have more than a placard and a megaphone, the internet has given them the tools to publish controversial material with the world as their audience. Whether this is a step forward or back, is for you to decide. 

Darwin Deez

This is a short review I wrote of Darwin Deez's single - Constellations. 

Darwin Deez exudes a colourful and childlike cheerfulness with this effortlessly quirky indie corker. It makes joyful waves to the classic lullaby, twinkle twinkle little star, and the early stuff from fellow New Yorkers the Strokes’. 

The XX - XX

The XX are a young trio from south-west London who have blasted into the limelight over recent months. Their dark, minimal sound is made up by vocalist and guitarist, Romy Madley Croft, Jamie Smith insists that he prefers to play an electric drumkit, and bassist and vocalist Oliver Smith.  

While you sink into the album, and distract yourself by wondering which voice you are most amazed by, this band will catch you of guard, and gently creep under your skin until you won’t quite know what to do with yourself. 

After the intense track ‘Crystalised’ you might also wonder if the entire album was written in some sort of drowsy euphoria, or anesthetised state. 

The lyrics of ‘Basic Space’ will prove perplexing metaphors or progressions unnecessary, by just putting the most acute and passionate human emotion into simple and beautiful words, “I think I’m loosing where you end and I begin”, 

‘Heart Skipped a Beat’ is the closest thing to a commercial track after appearing on an advert for the messed-up-rich-kids American drama, 90210 but as most of the songs were written when singer, Romy was just 17, its edge and impressiveness remains firmly intact. 

Is this really a debut album? Are they really 20 years old? This record has left me asking questions, and after being skeptical of all the slick and stlyish marketing hype, it has left me taken aback. The rest of my life is making room for this album. 

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

There is no escaping the fact that this is one of the most brutal and exhausting films you will have seen in a very long time. Our cinematic palettes have been manipulated by the glamourous triumphs of the Hollywood Blockbuster which is, to make an utter genralistation, as politically neutral and conventional as possible. Any European film I have seen, did require an open mind and this is definitely no exception. 


When I first reflected on the experience that was this film, I felt that the shocking rape scenes and images of murdered women to be gratuitous and that the powers of suggestion could have maintained the films strength. However, after thinking more about the message the film was portraying I realised that the story didn't want its audience to hopefully imagine a woman's experience with the misogynistic and evil characters to be anything less than traumatic. 


Besides, if poorly made teen horrors like 'Final Destination' can show an all-American cheerleader get empaled on a flying pole for the soul purpose of getting a universal "Ewwww" from the audience, then can't a skilled film maker explicitly represent the utter horror of rape in order to build and develop a highly disturbed and avenging heroine?


I didn't percieve any of the violence against women to eroticized by any stretch of the imagination, for me rape was portrayed as the ugliest thing in the world, which leaves characters broken and unfixable. For me also, Lisbeth was a definite feminist who was left without the ability to trust men. I think it would have been both unrealistic and unjustifiable if the ending saw her riding off into the sunset with her new hunky fella. 


A review in the Guardian (by someone who hadn't seen the film I might add) stated that "In the novel Larsson spares us many graphic descriptions, leaving a lot of the worst to our imagination. It seems, then, that the film has betrayed not only some of the book's original subtlety but also its feminism" . This comment was a result of accusations that the film was a indulgent of misogynist fantasy. I agree with this  eloquent comment left on the review which said:

"I can understand why someone would find the depictions of sexual violence in the film upsetting but can't imagine how anyone could see them as eroticized. They are simply truthful, and in my opinion, filmed in a manner that keeps the focus on the victim's experience. This is necessary to the narrative, because Salander (Lisbeth) will eventually behave in a ruthless and seemingly brutal manner as a result of the view of the world her experiences have given her."


This last sentence reveals an interesting moral dilemma which this film tackled, because Martin, who was eventually found to be responsible for an endless string of horrific crimes against women, was infact himself broken by his misogynist Father at a very young age. He made him into the brutal rapist that he turned out to be, so arguably his past experiences were responsible for his utter lack of conscience or human compassion. This is also the reason given for Lisbeth's violent and ruthless behaviour. When asked why she simpley left Martin to die an horrific death she says that he can't be excused, he is pure evil and everyone chooses who they want to be. There is definitely an intreguing connection between the two character's state of mind as the camera focuses in on the satisfaction in Lisbeth eyes as she watches Martin burn to death which Martin previously shows when he talks about the thrill of killing. 


If what Lisbeth said is true,  and that people do choose who they want to be, then I think thats exactly what she did, she truely felt that Martin desserved to burn, similarly to how the suffering she inflicted on her Guardian earlier in the film. It isn't just that simple though, Lisbeth doesn't choose to be left heart broken at the end without the ability to put faith in the man she loves. 


I think the most important thing to remember in this discussion is outlined again by the eloquent commenter: "Drawing a curtain across rape and other forms of sexual abuse should not be the default feminist approach to these crimes. Obviously, it's not always appropriate to be rigorously truthful about violence, but relegating it to the status of the unspeakable can be just as traumatic for those who survive as ubiquitous depictions of violence"

Sound of Rum Interview.

When this band get big, people are going to have a hard time pigeon-holing their innovative, lyric-based music. Really interesting and intelligent people. Great live. Catch them if you're at Glasto or Bestival. I understand that the interview is reeeeeeeeaally long and obviously needs cutting down, but it took me hours to type it up. So thats a job for another day. 

Welcome to Portsmouth by the way. Have you been before?

We came to Portsmouth to get the Ferry once.

Was that for Bestival?

Yeah. We had this amazing hour in Portsmouth. I got fish and chips.

Are you looking forward to opening the gig in Portsmouth tonight?

Yeah definitely.

How many dates have you done?

This is number nine. They’ve been amazing. Each one has been different. The first sort of five, we were finding our feet, but the last few have just been amazing. Really good strong gigs. 

How would you describe your sound to someone who had never heard your music?

Its sort of a collage of the things were are into really. Afro beat, hip hop, jazz, funk, rock. 

How did the name Sound of Rum come about?

Honestly, we were gonna come up with a really interesting lie for this, but there isn’t one. Its quite boring. We were in the car, we had just been at Glastonbury, and we were like, we really need a name. We need one else we are never going to move forwards. We were just looking at a map, and there are these islands that are just past Scotland, called Sounds. Sound of Rum, Sound of Egg. It looked good on the map, and I drink rum. It seemed really fitting.

And how about you guys? How did you all meet?

Just from giging in South London, playing in lots of different bands and line ups, then we just came together to start a new project. To try and see what we could do with small numbers and see how far we could push it. 

Who, or what would you consider your biggest influences?

We were in the car the other day, listening music that our friends had made, the contemporaries. I realised that I’m just as much influenced by the people that I’m around, and that music community, as I am these great poets and great writers that I love to read, great musicians and amazing rappers.

What are your favorite poets?

I like William Blake, I like Samuel Beckett although he isn’t really a poet. I like good authentic poetry. Well written written words and lyrics and music. When something is amazing then I love it. I haven’t really been blown away by anyone contemporary. Most of the people I love have been dead for 50 years. Which is a shame. 

I just read a Samuel Beckett book, I had to read Murphy for my course.

Murphy is amazing! That was the first novel he wrote, he had been working with James Joyce write. He hadn’t written anything before and he just wrote Murphy. Amazing.

How long have you been involved in music?

I’ve been doing music since I was a kid. 

How is the new album going? 

Its going really well. We’ve got all the tracks down. They’re being mixed and produced, its going to take a few months. Then we have to decide which ones to keep and which to throw away. Its definitely happening, its really exciting hearing the past year of us making music, coming into this one thing that is going to define us.

Is it really hard when you got really attached to songs and then you have to let them go, because they don’t go with the album?

That hasn’t happened yet. Its going to happen though. We’ve got two many songs. The thing is, is that you want to drop the early ones because the current ones are what you are most excited about. But relatively speaking no one has really heard us yet, so we want to come out with stuff that we first came out with. 

What festivals are you heading to this year? 

We get around. We’ve got Glastonbury, We’re doing a stage called Pussy Parlour on the Saturday afternoon at 3pm, and I’m doing some poetry on the left field stage. Bestival, Secret Garden Party loads. Latitude, Big Chill. We need to make sure we have some fun this time. We never really find out whats going on. We just sit around and go “should we go and see something? Glastonbury is going to be good this year. 

Whats your favourite festival? 

Bestival! Secret Garden party I really like, its in Huntington. Its really nice. Tts beautiful. Thats the one we had to leave because it was the same weekend as Camp Bestival, which was good as well. 

it gets stressful when you’ve got to do like three of four in one weekend, thats when you can’t really enjoy it. But their all wicked. The best ones are the ones which are a bit unique, like Bestival and Glastonbury. 

I went to this one in America Burning Man, that was nuts. I just like the ones that have got their own feel, their not just generic. 

You’ve been described as the sound of new England, do you have any idea what they meant by this?

No. Well, he isn’t from London which means we embrace other parts of the world [laughter]. Growing up in London you forget you’re on an Island, and when you start hanging around with people from towns, especially northern towns that have a proper identity, you realise you’re from a country with a culture and not some mad metropolis. 

You’re songs seem to be pretty issue based, would you agree?

I tend to write really intense poetry and lyrics which are about things. So I guess they are issue based. They just are what they are. If its about a realtionship, or something I’ve seen in London, or a friend who has gone a particular way, its not really anybody’s issue apart from mine. I guess they are issue based though. 

So you wouldn’t say as a band you were really political then?

No, I think when I was younger I would have like to spread a political message through music. As I’ve got older, I’ve realised how naive an idea that is, and how little I know, actually about politics. I’m more interested in self-enrichment and improvement and just enjoying music and enjoying creativity. I think its a lot more useful to say love yourself, than fuck Esso. 

What other artists would you associate your sound with? 

Speaker’s Corner Quartet. Jamie Woon. David Jay. Polar Bear, John Merkovich. DJ Snuff. There’s a load of rappers, their called Speaker’s Corner, they’re like my peers. All these guys play with jazzers from around the way. 

All the people that Kate just mentioned, they’re the contemporaries, their the people that we’re moving forward with. If we were going to get a tour like this, their the people that we would want to come along with us. Or if they get a tour then we want to be on it with them. Its that all movement thing. Its not quite a scene yet, but I think in the next year, it will be something more definite, more defined. I feel like what we do is quite different from other bands so its difficult. If you’re in a punk band, you can get together with other punk bands and go do a massive punk night. 

When we play with Polar, or Jamie Woon it makes sense because its all music coming from a genuine place. Its less about genre, and more about people doing something real. 

Who would you most like to make music with? 

There’s a lot of people. Shall we go round? All the people in that list before, is on the cards. Speaker’s Corner I wanna do, their a Jazz quartet. We’ve both got drummers, but apart from that we’ve all got separate instruments. I’d like to get them down, and do a track with Kate rapping on it. Jamie Woon, because he is a really amazing singer, and it would bring a new vibe to back up a chorus, or a whole verse. We’ve done a collaboration with Polar Bear, which will hopefully be on the album, it might be promotional we’re not sure yet. 

I want to collaberate with Rizza and the Wu Tang Clang. I’d like him to make me a beat. I’d like to collaborate with Bjork. Willy Mason, I want to write lyrics with him. Anyone who you listen to and you just go wow. I love that feeling, when it makes you cry and stuff. I’ve been listening to Johnny Cash, he makes me cry, buy obviously he is dead so that would be a bit difficult. 

Where do you want Sound of Rum to take you? Just a really really good legacy of albums. We’ve got our minds set on not just this album, but the next one and the next one. We want to make some truly incredible music. We want to keep blowing each other’s heads off with new ideas. We want people to know about it. Its not really fame, where you blow up and you’re massive for a few weeks and then you disappear. We want it to be sustained. Some bands just everything they release is a step forwards, its an amazing achievement to keep yourself fresh and interesting, and with the times, not getting stale. Keep being the sound of new England!

 Would you ever compromise your music to reach a certain goal, or level of popularity. 

These days if you’re a musician or a writer, and you need to survive, you might need to do a commission for somebody, or a company that can pay you enough money to pay you’re rent. I would write someone a poem, that I would have never written for myself if they hadn’t asked me to write it. But I don’t know if that is compromising your integrity because times have changed. Nobody is really making money from selling records. If you’ve made the decision to enter into this industry, and into this game then you’ve got to be prepared for it. You can’t be afraid of selling out. Great music is great music, and if you have to make shit music as well to pay your bills, then alright. Aslong as you’re still making great music. I wouldn’t want to be rapping for Mcdonalds or something I don’t really believe in, but I’m not going to say I wouldn’t do it, because there might be a time where I need to. Which is a horrible thing to hear myself say. 

We’re pretty lucky that the label we’re signed to, Sunday Best, they’re happy for us to put out what we want to put out. They’ve been guiding us, they know what is good and what is going to sell, they give us advice, but they don’t say “if you don’t put keyholes in this track, and vocoder over Kate’s vocals then I’m not putting this out. They’re giving us free reign. We’ve never been told do something that goes against what we think is good, if they tell us to do something, its normally a really good idea. 

I was pretty hurt when I heard Bright Eyes on a bank advert on telly, but have you ever stopped liking a band for ‘selling out’?

It is hard when a band you really love, does something crass like an awful advert or something. As I’ve moved into a position of becoming a professional artist myself I understand it a bit more now. 

I used to be really against advertising music on adverts but the more I think about it, the more I think its a great way to get you’re music out there, millions of people are going to hear you’re music without realsing it. The only thing is if it gets really annoying, but thats generally when the tune is already a bit annoying. You’ve got to make money, and you have the right to make money. 

Its tough though, I do think that when an artist a little bit of over exposure you stop caring. Especially when someone suddenly becomes famous then before you know it their music is on every advert and trailer. 

Bob Dylan is on a trailer at the moment, “times are a changing”, doesn’t mean thats going to detract from my enjoyment of his work, but he is different. 

Its all about giging, and people paying to come and see you. 

People keep saying to me, you’re not going to sell any records. But I’m just entertaining the thought of it, we have to get the album out. Thats the most important thing. I do want to sell loads of records. So much of that is out of your hands, you can make the best record in the world, but if it isn’t publicised and you don’t tour so not enough people know what it is. You’ve got to tell people they want it so they go and buy it. 

Its tough playing to a crowd who have never heard your songs before. When Pip goes on stage, all the mouths are saying every lyric. 

If they said that the gig tonight was cancelled how would you spend the evening?

Is there any parties happening tonight?

Not that I know of. 

Do parties ever happen?

Parties happen every night! 

We’re obviously not cool enough, only the lead singers get invited.

Exactly yeah. I’m not saying a word. 

Well obviously hope it isn’t cancelled!

Reviews. Reviews Reviews

So this entry and the last are chatting, about artists and records that everyone has, no doubt already made their minds up about, but they were written for my music journalism project so I thought I might as well chuck them up on here. Keep the anti-Ellie remarks clean please, if you would be so kind.

February 2010 [When I started writing this, then it got neglected]

Two Door Cinema Club - Tourist History  (I always seem to want to call them Three Door, you can to if you like.)

Irish love spawn of Bloc Party and The Futureheads

At this time of year, hype generators like the BBC’s Sounds of 2010 poll can give bands a lot to live up to, and the ‘tastemakers’ didn’t leave ‘Two Door Cinema Club’ behind. This exciting Northern Ireland export are defiantly set to get some teenage knickers in a twist with their debut release Tourist History, which has eventually broken through to the masses after years of touring the array of small venues around the UK. But in fact this short and bitter-sweet marvel deserves the same level of admiration given to other distinctive bundles of inventive indie/electro such as Foals and Delphic which the band have opened for, during the time when most of their fans only new them as a myspace page or blog entry. 

The opening track ‘Cigarettes in the Theatre’ pushes the comic-book-reading student art-rock buttons and definitely shines some light on the Bloc Party comparisons. ‘This is the Life’ is a more indulgent melodic entry and ‘I Can Talk’ shows some cracking Futureheads inspired riffs and quirky vocals, putting them up there with some of the indie-pop names around this year. ‘Something Good Can Work’ is for me, the icing on the neatly iced sponge cake with heartening lyrical progressions and The dazzling catchyness of ‘What you Know’ show Two Door to be the  love spawn of many British bands before but still bringing something new and superb to the electo indie-pop table that you can’t quite put your finger on. The album ends on the ironically high spirited tune, ‘You are not Stubborn’ about arguing to the point that you can’t remember why on earth you fell out in the first place. 

This summer will no doubt be a massive summer for Two Door Cinema Club, prepare to be singing their tracks around the fields of Glastonbury.