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Single Review

Crocodiles/ Rowland S Howard/ The Cribs/ Theoretical Girl/ The Vivians/ The Victorian English Gentlemens Club
Singles round up

Article written by Ged M - Aug 17, 2009

It’s easy to know who Crocodiles have been listening to on the distorted, fuzzed up, JAMC-emulating ‘I Wanna Kill’ (Sexbeat Records 7”). Dark glasses, dark vocals and dark themes have been done before but this is a really seductive trip to the dark side. However, you pigeonhole the San Diego duo at your peril, on the evidence of the flipside. The narcoleptic ‘Here Comes the Sky’ is the complete opposite of ‘I Wanna Kill’, seeming to bubble up slowly from between the cracks of the band’s consciousness, with an effect like the Beach Boys on a weird acid trip. Myspace

Rowland S Howard is a legend as member of the Boys Next Door, Birthday Party, Crime and the City Solution, among others, and collaborations with the coolest of the cool (Thurston Moore, Lydia Lunch…) but heroin stifled his creativity. So it’s fantastic to report that his new single represents a return to something approaching great form. ‘Pop Crimes’ (The Passport Label 7”) has a pessimistic worldview (“a planet of perpetual sorrow”) but is a dramatically good tune, the menacing bass sliced through by stiletto guitar while it sounds like the four horsemen of the apocalypse are camped out in his vocal chords. On the flipside, his duet with Jonnine Standish of HTRK has a touch of the girl group sound with a sleazy Suicide-style veneer and narcotic delivery. Pleasurably scary with the lights out. Myspace

The Cribs new single ‘Cheat On Me’ (Wichita Recordings), which is released on 31 August a week ahead of the album ‘Ignore the Ignorant’, is a catchy indierock single with a naggingly addictive guitar riff that bears the unmistakeable Johnny Marr signature. The only downside is that Ryan Jarman’s rough-arsed voice hasn’t improved as much as their music has, which doesn’t suit the song as well. Myspace

We reviewed ‘Red Mist’ by Theoretical Girl (Memphis Industries) at the very start of 2007 and it’s out again to promote her new album. This is the noir electro-pop tale of a jealous lover, though the faster tempo of the 2009 version adds a greater pinch of paranoia. That hyperventilating pace suggests panic, though Amy T’s voice is a bit too cool and mannered to convince that she’s done anything more dangerous than ladder her tights. Myspace

The Vivians are an Edinburgh 5-piece whose ‘Just Two Girls’ (Too Pure Singles Club 7”) should be as punchy as their New York punk influences but comes across too much like the Killers. It’s not the wound-up guitar sounds or the jackhammer percussion, which are fine, but the vocals are bloodless and the song a bit tame. ‘Glasshouses’ rescues matters with its electric barrage of “hey hey hey”-strewn punk moves; a bit like the Dictators, should anyone remember them. Myspace

The Victorian English Gentlemens Club continue to surprise on their way to album number two (Love On An Oil Rig, due 14 September). There are two great things about the single ‘Watching the Burglars’ (This Is Fake DIY Records). The first is the tidal wave of polyrhythmic drumming that is thrilling and scary, producing a coronary terror like the feeling after one Red Bull too many; the second is the vocals: great call and response singing ending in a glorious pop chorus. With the stuttery rhythms of ‘Polish Man’ on the flipside (part Yeah Yeah Yeahs, part Glitter Band on amphetamines), this is artrock that wields its awkwardness as a potent weapon.
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