There’s a lot of reasons to love d-i-y punk pop duo Pris, but in particular for their two fingers up at the world f*ck you attitude. Some of their recent targets on Facebook have included Jessie J, Ellie Goulding and Jessie Ware: “Jessie Ware on Later looked like my old boss doing karaoke at a works do,” was one that made us giggle recently. They’re the sort of band that we reckon it would be great to hang out with and go drinking with, except for the fact that we imagine they’d drink us under the table and then leave us tied to a lamp post, possibly naked, for punishment for what we’re pretty sure in their eyes would be some of the ‘bland’ music that we feature on Breaking More Waves. The good news is that Pris have returned with a new song and accompanying video. Do You Wanna Be In My Bland is all lo-fi gangsta in a d-i-y style, with toy guns, lipstick, tit tape, bikes, cars (an old VW golf) and cigarettes. It reminds us a little of the likes of Shampoo, Fuzzbox, Kenickie, and Bis. It’s kind of shouty but still has plenty of pop sensibility about it. Right we’re off to listen to a bit of Mumford & Sons and Michael Kiwanuka, we’re sure Pris would appreciate that. Pris - Do You Wanna Be In My Bland?
Remember Pris? The lipstick, glitter, leopard print, cool as f*ck power punk pop band from London who took healthy slices of references from early Manic Street Preachers, Kenickie and Shampoo and splashed their vivid generation sex colour spray all over it? At the time when they featured on the blog a fair few times we’d already dreamt up how the band’s life would go. First there would be a collection of sassy angry riot girl infused singles, stinking beautifully of vitriol and punch. Then a deliriously noisy and journo baiting lo-fi bastard pop EP would follow. Then they’d glam up their sound, get a major label record deal, record a big glossy chart topping album with three killer singles and one that would flop abysmally, before the inevitable split after one final chaotic gig. From here Pris would become every underground cool kids favourite cult band (especially in Japan) until twenty years later they’d be referenced by the latest big American rock band in an interview, have one of their songs featured on an advert for a new perfume and finally reform for one shambolic but somehow scintillating reunion show in some dodgy pub in London. It would of course all be bloody brilliant. That was our Pris fantasy. The reality was they just seem to disappear before they even got that EP or the major label deal. We assumed it was Pris RIP. But now they’re back. Guitars are for the moment ditched, pouting however is still very much part of their raison d'être. Pris mark their return with a cover. Men Without Hats scored a one off UK top 10 hit in 1983 with The Safety Dance (an album Rhythm of Youth made it to number 96 for just 1 week after the single). The video was probably one of the most incredible / horrendous (delete as appropriate) things you’ve ever seen with more waistcoats than Mumford & Sons could dream of, pole dancing (the maypole sort) and a dancing dwarf. Now Pris give their take on it which doesn’t contain any of the above but does (as the band stated in a tweet to Breaking More Waves) have arses and knee high socks. Let’s hope that this is just the start of things to come. Maybe there’s still a hope of our dream coming true. Pris - The Safety Dance
*This is the final standard new music post on Breaking More Waves till after Christmas. But up to and including the 25th itself, the big man will be along. Listen carefully and you might be able to hear his sleigh bells in the distance. Get ready as Santa unloads his musical sack on Breaking More Waves, starting later today.
Remember Pris? They're the sassy d-i-y girl band that was sticking two fingers harshly up in front of the face of a lame pop culture world that seemed to have forgotten how to be angry.
Well, they’re back, stripped down to a two piece but still full of energy, wrath and pouty sexiness.
Having recently tweeted a picture of Fred from Spector with the word TWAT scrawled across it, new single A-Bomb In White Heat rails against Shoreditch and Hoxton hipsters like a Kenickie for 2012. We’re pretty sure that Lauren Laverne would approve. “Oh he just died again, oh he just died again, with his garage band sleeves and his cocaine disease, oh she just died again, oh she just died again, dance away her stress in her mum’s wedding dress,” opens Cat against a barrage of whack it hard military style drumming and we’re hooked straight away. (The military style is taken further in the video, although we’re not sure if we’ve ever seen soldiers this glamorous or cool as f*ck looking.)
“Let’s kill them all do you concur?” the duo continue later; Cat is certainly a lady who doesn’t mince her words. And even although ultimately Breaking More Waves is all above peace and love, we can’t help but finding ourselves nodding along in agreement, so persuasive is the Pris blend of punkish power-pop. It’s good to have them back. We're looking forward to this war.
We love Pris. We love the fact that they’ve called us a c*nt. (Ok, it had the word lovely in front of it, but that’s not the point). We love the fact that they don’t give a sh*t. Yet we don’t like swearing. We don’t particularly like shouting, being angry or being abusive to people. Really we just want the whole world to be one big festival of love. So we’ll say it again – we love Pris.
They stand for everything we’re against but equally we love everything they do. Pris are trashy, brashy, shouty, scary, sexy, thrilling and offensively brilliant. They’re the kind of band that you really don’t care how well they play their instruments or how well they can sing – they’re not Adele for f*cks sake. Yes and we love Adele as well. We have no idea if they are competent live outfit (we kind of hope they’re not) and at this stage it doesn’t matter. If every band arrived on the scene and played 100% perfectly from the word go we’d probably only have Coldplay in our lives.
Fact - the B side to their debut single Blu-Tack Baby is even better than the A side. Fact - they do ace cover versions. Fact – they’re playing Breaking More Waves hometown multi-venue festival in September, why not bag yourself a ticket now? Fact – we love Pris.
Here’s a new video montage Pris have put together for their cover version of Janie Jones by The Clash which we featured a while back on the blog. Also there’s another new cover, this time of Bye Bye Baby, originally recorded by Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons but probably made more popular by tartan teen sensations The Bay City Rollers in the 1970’s.
Do you love Pris? You should do, otherwise they might just call you a c*nt. And you wouldn’t want that, or would you?
Richard Russell, founder of record label, XL Recordings, said in a recent interview with the Guardian that the sexualisation of female artists is “boring, crass and unoriginal.” He certainly has a point and the fact Adele, an artist on his label, has sold huge amounts of records without having to ‘sex up’ shows what it is possible to do.
But let’s be clear about this. From the starting rush of adolescence, to your first snog at the school disco, pop music has always partly been about sex; remember Elvis Presley thrusting his hips provocatively? Britney Spears in a red PVC catsuit? It’s always been there and probably always will. When you’re young, full of breathless hormones, your friends, looking good and getting f*cked are probably all you care about and pop stars are part of the fantasy. Of course, commentators are right to express their concerns about the influence of sexualised female pop stars and their affect on young impressionable teens and pre-teens. There’s a line to be drawn. But ultimate sexiness is not about revealing everything, it’s about suggestion, confidence and imagination.
Which brings us, for the second time today, to Pris – a sexy band. Pris are not sexy in a fake grinding-your-half-naked-arse like Rihanna manner, but in a confidence-verging-on-arrogance cool indie-punk way. They’ll no doubt get criticised for just being a sum of their reference points, but we reckon that they really wouldn’t care. Their cheeky-trashy couldn’t give a shit attitude feels surprisingly refreshing; we could quite imagine a good percentage of indie-punk teen boys (and girls) wanting to be in their gang – and, thank god, this is a band who look like a proper gang. Boring crass and unoriginal? Only if you’ve lost the will to live. Back in the early 90’s the Manic Street Preachers were criticised for ‘not being able to play’, the indie snobs just waiting for them to fail. Pris could well get the same sort of backlash – but judging by their tweets, they’ll be ready to take it on just as the Manics did. Sometimes there’s more to pop music than just pure musical quality, otherwise all we’d have are 100’s more Adele’s.
Earlier today we posted about the Pris involvement in Wangate and streamed their debut single – a foxy uh-huh-yeah Kenickie-esque puncher. Now the band have released a video – littered with their musical reference points we think it’s fair to say the probably don’t like Mumford and Sons, but do like The Clash and The Pixies. And how often do you see Birdland as a reference point these days? Now were Birdland ever sexy? Were The Pixies? Mumford & Sons? It’s all in the eye of the beholder.
This weekend just gone a minor twitter storm in a tea cup brewed. “What’s on your iPod?” Ellie Goulding was asked in an interview. “I really love the alternative music scene and people like Fleet Foxes and Wild Beasts, but I’ve also got Friendly Fires to Rihanna and Beyonce. I’ve even got Don’t Stop Believing,” Ellie answered.
It didn’t find favour with the controversial hormonal punk-pop London four-piece Pris who tweeted Ellie’s answer to their followers with the statement “Why Ellie Goulding is a massive wang.” Pris you may remember have previously (and somewhat hilariously) rubbished Guillemots, Adele, Jessie J (relating her to Mystic Meg) and Noah and the Whale.
Pris have been picking up support from the likes of Eddie Argos (Art Brut), Nicky Wire (Manic Street Preachers), Everett True (music critic) and a number of UK music blogs including Just Music That I Like, Sweeping The Nation, Von Pip Musical Express as well as ourselves over the last few months. It was one of these bloggers – Von Pip who re-tweeted the Pris tweet. Then the fun began.
Before you knew it the war of the wangs had broken out, with potential-pop-starlet-but-no-hits-yet Spark and her manager responding to Von Pip. “Fucking annoying people being nasty for no reason. I think it's fair to say that both Von Pip & Pris are huge fucking wangs. HUGE WANGS,” retorted Spark. Then her manager threw at Von Pip “Write about things you like then, eh? Otherwise, that makes YOU the wang.”
The irony in this miniscule wangate was that neither Pris, Spark or her manager were probably aware that Twitter has a new head of operations in Europe. His name? Mr Wang. We wonder what he would have thought of his name being used in this context.
The day that modern society loses the freedom of speech, in any form from twitter to protest, will be an incredibly depressing one. All we would be left with would be one sided sycophantic opinion – and that doesn’t help form any sort of wisdom, on-going intelligent debate about issues or give any context to form views about what is ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ in the world. Von Pip’s politely restrained response to Spark’s manager sums it up neatly. “Actually I think I'll decide what I write about if that's ok with you. But thanks for the advice.”
So for Mr Wang here’s the debut single from Pris – The Better You Look The More You See - streaming courtesy of Von Pip on Soundcloud. He’s one of the most credible (and funniest) UK bloggers out there, wang or not. That’s not sycophancy from Breaking More Waves – just what we think. Likewise we love the music of Ellie Goulding. We enjoy a fair amount of Spark’s as well. We’re kind of hoping that Pris will call us wangs for doing so and even if they do, we’ll still love them as well.
Pris play a variety of shows in London in the next few weeks and have also been confirmed for Breaking More Waves hometown multi-gig multi-venue festival in September, Southseafest, alongside the likes of Johnny Foreigner, Die! Die! Die!, Trophy Wife, The Miserable Rich, Bleeding Heart Narrative, Dry The River and My First Tooth with plenty more to follow. Catch Pris live then and enjoy their sassy-pouting-splenetic-indie-punk-pop whilst you can.
The internet is amazing isn’t it? You can find everything on it. We mean absolutely everything. This week for example we know that somebody in Edinburgh searched for the words “Scotland free or a desert,” on the worldwide web and somehow found Breaking More Waves. Then another person looked up “Zane Lowe talking about good loop pedal” and was directed here. And if anyone spots Ellie Goulding carrying a breast milk express pump at any festivals in 2011, be sure to let her know that a person from the Netherlands is looking for her, because someone there searched for the words “Ellie Goulding sexy boob milk at Bestival,” this week and arrived at this blog.
Whatever route you’ve made it to Breaking More Waves, as a regular reader or a newbie, welcome. This is the Saturday Surf, a weekly round-up of a smidgeon of tracks that we didn’t quite get to feature in full blog posts over the last seven days, but deserve some coverage.
There's just 3 songs this week - all better than the finest loop pedal and Elle Goulding’s breast milk. Possibly.
You may remember Pris from a while back. They’re the power-punk trio of girls (and a boy drummer) that come with the Eddie Argos (Art Brut) / Manic Street Preachers stamp of approval and SHOUT THEIR TWEETS LIKE THIS and have recently been stirring it up with a few Guillemots fans by tweeting things like “GUILLEMOTS ON 6MUSIC: ''I LIKE FOOD''. WHAT A VILE AND BORING THING TO SAY-BUT THEN HE IS IN A VILE & BORING BAND WHO DO BAD BEATLE COVERS” or as they tweeted to us “THEY’RE CUNTS.” No holding back there.“Is it true Guillemots fans cry in the corner after sex?” they asked forgetting the capitals, upsetting a few more Fyfe Dangerfield followers in the process. Even if you can’t stand their music follow them on twitter (here) and see what mischief they’re up to next. Here’s a cover version of The Clash’s Janie Jones that they put on line a while back - debut single The Better You Look The More You See is out soon (ish)
Next up is the geekily named Right Click Save As who delivers this rather good demo of prizeworthy-electro-indie-dance. The song is called House and with big swipes of lush synth and falsetto vocals there’s an undeniable similarity to the likes of Fenech-Soler coupled up with Friendly Fires. Right Click Save As is the solo project of one Ben Mercer and you don’t even need to click save as. Instead press the arrow download button below and the song is yours. Do it now.
Our final track for this latest Saturday Surf is a remix. From the darker edges of the internet the squalling nightmare sound of S.C.U.M is given a electronic-knob-twiddling reworking by Manchester’s new dark-rave princes Christian AIDS. The track has a scary distorted feel to it that means it’s not so far removed from the witch house scene. Like rain-soaked sex on someone’s grave, it’s all kind of wrong and yet also live-for-the-moment right.
That concludes the Saturday Surf for this time. We’ll be back on Monday with our nostalgic memory trip that is Music That Made Me before launching into the goodness of new tunes shortly after that.
“DON'T YOU JUST HATE BANDS WHO DJ? WE DO. WE HAVE A NEW SONG, SIMPLY CALLED, WE HATE YOU (NOT YOU, THEM)” shouts the latest tweet from our new blog loves (and favourites of Manic Street Preacher Nicky Wire) post-punk-popsters Pris. You know we’re going to love it before we’ve even heard it – and they’re right – we do hate bands who DJ. It has been known in our experience for groups to turn up for a paid DJ slot, get their roadies to do all the mixing (or even worse just use an iPod) whilst they drink all the rider and get members of their entourage to find drunk, desperate, ugly students to perform sexual favours behind the DJ booth. Nasty.
Bloggers DJing are probably just as bad, after all we can be a horrendously earnest bunch (but at least would never go the ugly student route – we have better taste). We're constantly analysing every song, only posting tracks on the basis of so called 'musical merit and quality' which frankly is a load of old tosh - we really do climb up our own arses now and then don't we? Sometimes we forget that the best pop culture isn’t about the music at all. It’s about the haircuts, the attitude, getting up and having a go, the fashion, the sex, the drugs, the good times, the hangovers, and everything in between. Pris understand this. If you met them in the dark corners of an indie disco, they’d probably have you naked, rob you of your money and scribe the word IDIOT on your forehead with lipstick before you even knew it. Here’s their new song – it really doesn’t matter what you think of it, they probably don’t care.
With their sassy-trashy-bubblegum-garage-pop, attitude body slogans and leopard print love Pris are the heirs to the vacant throne last properly occupied by the likes of Kenickie and Shampoo. Pris are a do-you-wanna-be-in-my-gang punk-pop collective who are basically too cool for school and too cool for you. They’re ridiculously and resolutely spunky, filled with attitude and vibrant as hell. Check their twitter for some of their comments – they’re probably going to upset a lot of people. “JESSIE J LOOKS LIKE A MENTAL MESSED UP MYSTIC MEG. DO IT LIKE AN ASTROLOGER,” they shout in capital letters. “Jesus Christ, we'll actually kill ourselves if we have to listen to Everything Everything ever again,” is another. Probably the best twitter account in the world ever. Their publicity shots seem to have them down as a three piece, but there’s a drummer boy lurking in the background somewhere as well, but frankly nobody cares about him because it’s all about the three girls up front, being cool as f*ck and giving it all they’ve got.
Pris are the antithesis of everything but are absolutely about something. You may have guessed by now that we like them a lot. And although you may not have clocked Pris, there’s a few who have already. Our musical taste blog near neighbours Just Music That I Like picked up on them very recently as has critic Everett True who called them The anti-Kings OF FUCKING LEON which is about as brilliant as it can possibly be. Pris are the girl group that in a perfect world would record a cheap shabby lo-fi cult debut album then sell their soul to the man, produce a follow up glossy hit record which will feature a spit and polished new version of their cover of Don’t Call Me Baby, then call it a day before everyone hates them.
Get your lipstick, hairspray, high heels and shades, grab your cigarettes, let’s get drunk, oh there’s going to be trouble, but it’s going to be fun. Punk pop with hooks that punch high, punch hard and punch good. “We don’t claim to be Chris Martin or Thom Yorke, we’re musicians in the very loose sense. Songwriting is for losers,” proclaims lead singer Cat. Right now we’re not going to disagree with her.
