HOME

REVIEWS

SoundsXP Presents

Friday 6th April 2012
All Day BBQ Festival

Sparrow and the Workshop
6 Day Riot
The Nuns
Singing Adams
Y Niwl
Colours
Dignan Porch
+more tbc

The Windmill
Brixton
Price tbc

On Our iPod

Golden Grrrls - New Pop 7”

Chris Devotion & The Expectations - Amalgamation & Capital (album)

Trailer Trash Tracys - Ester (album)

Throwing Up - Mother Knows Best 7”

Howling Wolf - Complete Chess Masters 1951-60

The Ketamines - A Rotten Bond/1 Yr (from Oddbox Singles Club Pt 2)

Cardinal - Hymns (album)

Proper Ornaments - Taking the Gamble Out of Buying 12”

Darren Hayman - January Songs (album)

Various: Marshall Teller EP 12”

Latest Forum Posts

Album Review

Betty and the Werewolves
Teatime Favourites Damaged Goods

Article written by Ged M - Aug 30, 2010

Betty and the Werewolves: Teatime Favourites

The cover seems tea party twee, with pastel-iced cakes, proper crockery and a copy of Madame Bovary peeking out from beneath the Bath buns, but there seems to be something stronger in the pot than PG, judging by the fast and feisty character of their music. ‘Euston Station’, which was their excellent first single, sums up their dissatisfaction with convention: “I don’t want dinner and a movie/ I just want someone that’ll move me”. Their rebellious indie approach seems torn from the same textbook consulted by Dolly Mixture and Tallulah Gosh, taking elements from punk rock and 60s girl groups (just hear the Ronettes’ stomp in ‘Good As Gold’), and mixing them up with angular post punk rhythms and dynamically dark alt-country (‘The Party’). Their cultural references might suggest a certain swottishness at first glance but their literary hero is Charlotte Bronte’s bad boy Heathcliff, while ‘Plastic’ seems to take collecting vinyl a bit Tetsuo-style literally: “my plan for the future is to have some pieces sewn into my face”.

The record captures the same blur of joyful movement that you see when they play live, from the hysterical tale of suburban crushes, ‘David Cassidy’, to the fiery punk-pop of ‘Purple Eyes’: “you asked me if I liked the Libertines/ who the fuck are they?” There’s the odd misfire on the record but their lust for life burns fast and furious through these songs; it gets more impressive on each play and has already got to be one of my favourite records of the year. If we awarded marks, I’d give it 5 out of 5 chocolate fingers.

Links:
http://damagedgoods.co.uk/band/?c=Betty-And-The-Werewolves
http://www.myspace.com/bettyandthewerewolves