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Single Review

The Victorian English Gentlemens Club / The Capitol Years / Smoke Fairies / The Vivian Girls / Help Stamp Out Loneliness / Fight Like Apes
Singles round up

Article written by Ged M - Jun 26, 2009

Renew your club membership! The Victorian English Gentlemens Club return with ‘Parrot’ (This Is Fake DIY Records), a slab of monstrously primal post-punk rhythms underpinned by super-distorted bass. And just as the rumble dies down, there are about 20 seconds of outrageously gorgeous pop to finish off. It’s smart and daring art-rock, in the spirit of Sonic Youth and style of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Website

The singer of The Capitol Years, who goes by the name Shai, Son of Eli, says “it was a humble attempt to write my own ‘Needle in the Camel’s Eye’”. What he’s produced in ‘You Can Stay There’ (SOE Records) is less Brian Eno and closer to Guided By Voices, a cracking, catchy guitar-pop gem filled with Beatles-y melodies. Myspace

“Eldritch” is an adjective that’s likely to haunt the Smoke Fairies. Their ‘Frozen Heart EP’ (Music For Heroes Records) shows off their spooky folk-blues, a sound that’s otherworldly and old but simultaneously contemporary, with its reference to TVs and the robot lovers cover. There are amazing harmonies and it leaves you smouldering inside like hot coffee on a cold day. If you hurry you can pick up one of 500 packs with an extra 5-track CD, on which it’s well worth hearing the wistful winter blues of ‘He’s Moving On’. Website

The Vivian Girls’ latest ‘Moped Girl’ (For Us 7”) is recorded for the Rough Trade Shops’ own label and is a doozy, the 60s girl-group sound mixed with raw and rumbly New York rock’n’roll. ‘Moped Girl’ is stripped back to an elemental backbeat and amazingly simple but neat guitar solo while the catchy ‘Death’ might have been recorded in a bucket but has a jolt like you just connected to the live rail in the NY subway. Dirty, short and perfect. Myspace

The voice of D Lucille Campbell on Help Stamp Out Loneliness’s ‘Pacific Trash Vortex’ (Where Its At Is Where You Are Records 7”) is so astonishing I have to play the song three times in a row because the first two times I’m so spellbound by her voice that I forget to pay attention to anything else: it’s like Laetitia Sadier or Nico (without the existential angst), and utterly compelling. Finally listening to the band, there are moody swathes of keyboards, pulsating in a way that reminds me of Magazine. What’s more, the band must have some great songs if they can afford to relegate the brilliant ‘Cellophane’ and its naggingly addictive bassline to the b-side. Not just a single, a revelation. Myspace

Fight Like Apes latest single 'Something Global' (Model Citizen Records) is a sly satire on the music industry, radiating pop heat and leaving you with a nicely toasty glow courtesy of a fabulous pop hook. It jumps around in a mad frenzy and while it fits neatly the "XfM indiepop" niche, it's a uber-catchy song that you wouldn't kick out of bed if it had drunk several pints of cabbage water. Bonus points for the title of 'This Is Like The Time Jody Didn't Know What Cunnilingus Was', a bizarre and frantic song built around the refrain "give me a twirl!"
Myspace

Links:
http://www.myspace.com/viviangirlsnyc

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