Ones to Watch 2017 #9 - Cabbage

The text has been reading the same for a number of years now, it goes something like this....

Guitar music is in a rut, indie as people used to know it is creatively and commercially dead. Blah blah blah blah.

Whilst having given those headline grabbing statements lots of consideration over the last few years, I've come to the conclusion that I don’t 100% agree. However, I do think there’s a strong case to be argued that the vast majority of new guitar based music has reached middle age even before its stopped being a child. There’s an awful lot of stuff out there that sounds bereft of originality, repeating the same ideas over and over. But hold on. That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a bad thing. As I’ve stated before, not all art can be visionary. Some of it will just be people expressing themselves; and as human beings, feelings and emotions of the same sorts run from generation to generation, so it's no surprise that some forms of music won't change that much.

However, one feeling that seems to have got a little lost somewhere along the way in most guitar and pop music is anger. The world is a pretty divided and uncertain place right now, but there seem to be very few artists expressing their feelings about it in their songs, unlike genres such as hip-hop and grime.

Which is why I’ve picked the terribly named Cabbage as Ones to Watch for 2017 - and despite what regular readers think, it has nothing to do with the promo pic above, which is yet another addition to the musicians in the bath catalogue of which if you are a regular reader you will know I have a warped obsession with.

Lee Broadbent (Vocals), Joe Martin (vocals, guitar), Eoghan Clifford (guitar), Stephen Evans (bass), and Asa Morley (drums) are Cabbage and come from Mossley, just east of Manchester. They make the sort of energetic racket that will send bodies and beer pints flying in sweaty club environments. It’s hardly the stuff of originality, but they’re a bunch of rude dudes who at least seem to have plenty to say. With song titles like Uber Capitalist Death Trade and Grim Up North Korea you can immediately guess that at least they’re trying to throw a firework in the pot of self-centred apathy that seems to consume a lot of musicians these days. Let’s face it, you’re hardly likely to find Dua Lipa (as talented as she is) singing about having a wank in a quiche on public school class war onslaught that is Dinner Lady.

Then there's Cabbage’s live shows - events that have had new found fans shouting about their love for the band and their scruffy, badly behaved, madness and chaos. Energy, attitude and bravado are higher up the ranks in terms of output than necessarily great pop songs yet - but it's early days. These scallywags might write a killer anthem and gain a cult following or they might end up exploding and falling down to the gutter in less than a year. Either way, let’s go with them on the ride.

Cabbage - Dinner Lady (Video)