Victoria can be a lot of things; a girl’s name, a lake, a city, even a now defunct German motorcycle. But this isn’t a blog about girls, lakes, cities or motorbikes, although blogs probably exist for all of these things. Sometimes they even collide head on. You might find a girl writing a blog about German motorbikes.
But this is a music blog and therefore we are interested in the music of Victoria who we first introduced in March 2012 (although they made a fleeting appearance the year before in a different guise, but you’ll have to do your own detective work on that one if you’re interested.)
Now the band has released a new song via You Tube, cropping up first on the ever excellent Killing Moon Ltd website. Crossfire is a riotous smack of a tune that drawls its way across a soundscape of warped electronica, noisy guitars and thwacking drums that makes us think of the likes of Kasabian, Interpol and The Big Pink for starters. “You said I’m the only one,” snarls their lead singer with menace and swagger. This is edgy, snarly indie rock music with a very satisfying bite. Hail Victoria.
In theory naming a band in the age of the internet should be easy. One quick Google search should reveal if the name has already been taken. It avoids the problems of the past where a band would find success in one country only to discover another band with the same name elsewhere. The Charlatans had to become The Charlatans UK in the US, whilst a law suit from a lounge singer forced Suede to become The London Suede, but the word Google meant nothing when those bands started. Yet whilst it’s easy to discover if a band name has been taken, a new consideration particularly for upcoming groups is having a name that is easy to find on that Google search.
Which brings us to Victoria; put quite simply they’re a very difficult band to search for on the internet. Ironically Victoria used to be called something else, something that was impossibly easy to find on the web. We’re not telling you what that band name was though, simply because this post is a bit of a cheat; we’ve actually written about this group under their previous name. In fact, we’ve already streamed one of their songs before, albeit an earlier version. So if you want to find out who they were previously go and do your own detective work like we had to or cast your mind back through the distant memories of this blog. Or better still, just enjoy the music and don’t bother with the past. The future is more important.
Victoria do indie rock. Its large and weighty, its big music. We’d file its sonic ambition alongside the likes of U2, The Horrors, White Lies and Haven (anyone remember them?). Whilst not sounding particularly like any of those bands there’s a comparable sense of I-could-do-anything euphoria that bursts forth from Victoria’s effects laden guitars and epic choruses, possibly making you want to hail them as the future kings of rock, that is if the future of rock is brimming with the sounds of vastness. Take a listen to Jessica and towards the end you’ll probably be quaking on your knees as someone momentarily flips the switch to ’post rock squealing meltdown.’ Which is maybe why they’ve named their Soundcloud player Hail Victoria, which we think would be a magnificent name for a band itself except of course a Metal/Thrash/Hard Rock/Alternative/Gothic combo that appears to have a main member called Crashdown RattleSnake has already taken that moniker, even although they don’t seem to have done anything with it.
Despite knowing of their past we actually know very little about Victoria. They’re from London (hopefully their nearest tube stop is Victoria), they go by the names of David Arthur Jr, Matt Kern, Pete P and J Adams and they have the looks of serious intent to match the sound – all black leather jackets, shades and haircuts. They’re just about to enter the studio to finish mixing some new songs which the band hint will show a development. Live shows are likely to then follow.
Whilst we wait for those tracks to see the light of day, for now may we suggest that you ignore Victoria at your peril? They mean business.
