Over the last few weeks the ‘UK indie guitar music is dead’ argument has been cropping up in various places on the web again. Right here, right now, I’d like to suggest that this argument itself is dead. It’s like music journalists have run out of ideas to discuss so they’re just recirculating the ones that we all talked about 8 or 9 years ago.
When we have bands like Wolf Alice striding boldly forward with a highly accomplished, often adventurous and never dull second album, together with exciting new bands like Pink Kink (featured earlier today) appearing with regularity, the only thing I can imagine is that the people writing these articles have lost their way with music. Maybe guitar based music isn’t lighting up the singles charts in the UK, but ignoring the excitement, creativity and energy that exists out in the pubs and clubs of live music venues across the country where indie bands are playing is to ignore a lot of great stuff.
So, here’s another very good indie guitar band. Stereo Honey’s The Bay starts with some moody synths and glam rock drums (dare I mention Gary Glitter’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Part 1 – it feels wrong to reference him given his crimes, but the musical similarity is there) but it’s when the chiming guitars kick in that things really take off. Add in lead singer Peter Restrick’s absolutely gorgeous falsetto, where he sings of a love storey formed from tragedy and death and what you have is a band creating atmospheric arching guitar pop that sounds, to my ears at least, wonderfully alive, despite what certain journalists say.
Stereo Honey - The Bay
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