Fight Like Apes - Fight Like Apes And The Mystery Of The Golden Medallion

When I wrote in my previous blog that Fight Like Apes were “like a pumped up fist f*ck against the wall of a pub, under CCTV cameras with your mum and dad watching from the other side of the street,” the band messaged me on my Myspace to tell me that it was the best thing that anyone had ever written about them, and then linked the piece from their website.

Well, I can now repay the compliment by saying that Fight Like Apes have just released an album entitled Fight Like Apes And The Mystery Of The Golden Medallion which is one most inventive and funny aural assaults of the year. A bombardment of synths, guitars and strident yelping vocals, with a polished production by John Goodmanson it just manages to stay on the right side of accessible. The record is currently only on release in Ireland, but thanks to those good people at Recordstore you can get it now before its UK release next year.

Since the previous blog, it has been a busy few months for the band, with festivals, support slots with The Ting Tings, their own tour under the Levi’s One To Watch banner and forthcoming support slots with The Prodigy, where the band are bound to gain some new friends with their uncompromising, chaotic electronic punk sound.

The beauty of Fight Like Apes album is that although their music is sometimes abrasive they match it with a delicious sense of dark fun. Lead singer MayKay may shriek and spit “Shit, shit, shit, shit, bang, bang,” as the chorus to Do You Karate, but elsewhere you can find her singing about how she likes plain toast with no cheese to an electronic backing track that sounds like a Woolworth’s Christmas TV advert with thrashy guitars played by drunk ramapaging 6 year olds. The album may have song titles like Digifucker and Snore Bore Whore and one ’song’ Megameanie may follow Napalm Death’s lead and last a sum total of 5 seconds, but it is all done with a warped smile. After a sample from the ‘so bad its good’ horror flick Plan 9 from Outer Space tells of an attack on a town by aliens during Battlestations, MayKay screams angrily that “The sample sounds like shit and I don’t want to hear it again.” It’s this kind of depreciating humour that gets my vote.

Fight Like Apes are not a band you would make love to. They are not even a band you would have a drunken shag to. Fight Like Apes are a band that you would have a wild abandoned f*ck to. On a bed of nails. And afterwards you may be sore, but hell, you’d have a big smile on your face.

See you down the front for one of their gigs soon. Here's the video to Jake Summers which sums up the band perfectly, with its mix of humour, aggression and warped pop.

Skint and Demoralised - New Waves @ Breaking More Waves

As the nights draw in Breaking More Waves huddles round the dwindling fire in the parlour, wondering if it is finally time to smash up the dining room table to create some more fuel to keep us warm in these dark, dark days. In the kitchen the cupboard is bare except for a lonely Pot Noodle, purchased in our affluent days as an ironic statement against Jamie Oliver’s Ministry of Food, which alas now looks delightfully edible. Yes, these are credit crunch times. And in such times a band with the name Skint and Demoralised should fit our mood perfectly.

Skint and Demoralised is front man and former performance poet Matt Abbott from Wakefield, and songwriter/producer Mini Dog from Sheffield. On the 17th November the duo release their debut single The Thrill Of Thirty Seconds, which is limited to 500 vinyl copies on indie label Another Music = Another Kitchen. The band however have a deal with a major label in the bag, and one has to wonder just how long it will be before the song is re-released for an attack on the charts.

The Thrill Of Thirty Seconds is a life affirming joyous pop song taken from their forthcoming long player Love And Other Catastrophes. The album was recorded in New York and will apparently feature Mike Skinner / Alex Turner type prose about lost / found love and let downs mixed with soulful, quirky pop tuneage with added instrumentation from session legends The Dap Kings, who were last heard playing on the last Amy Winehouse record. The single twitches with a spoken word verse, an irresistibly catchy chorus and loose jangling guitar that seem to have taken inspiration from The Housemartins, Johnny Marr and Jack Penate. It’s a song about the excitement and trembling anticipation of young love. “I‘ve never felt so scared, infatuated or excited, I felt just like a schoolboy and for some reason I liked it,” Matt sings and reminds us all of what those butterflies in your stomach can feel like. I suspect a few people will soon be having butterflies about Matt’s music. Here’s the video.

Black Kids + Ladyhawke @ Portsmouth Pyramids

At the back end of 2007 Black Kids and Ladyhawke both came to Breaking More Waves attention in a big way. Black Kids had released the fantastic Wizard of Ahhs, a free download E.P combining joyous indie pop sounds with a yelping vocal reminiscent of Robert Smith of The Cure. It was on the Breaking More Waves stereo for months. Ladyhawke was not at the time signed to a record label, but had put out a couple of tracks via Myspace that were full of such incredibly unhip 80’s references such as Bananarama and Stevie Nicks, that we loved her instantly simply for doing something a little different.

A year however can be a long time in pop music.

Black Kids, initially so full of colour and hope released Partie Traumatic, a Bernard Butler produced album that at best was merely average. Butlers production brought some pop sheen, reminiscent of Hot Hot Heat and the aforementioned Cure but many of the tracks had a missing spark. There were some highlights, such as I’m Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You, but these highlights were songs that we had already heard on the free E.P. It seemed very much a case of first out of the blocks, but lacking the stamina to deliver at the finish line. Ladyhawke likewise got lots of tongues wagging when she was signed to Modular records, and a press flurry followed, but her live performances failed to dazzle, her lanky geekiness, lack of stage presence and reliance on guide backing vocals at subsequent live gigs raising questions about her true potential.

So as the two artists bumble into Portsmouth for a gig at the Pyramids Centre on the seafront, there is a chance to redeem themselves. A chance to kick some musical butt. Unfortunately both acts fail to hit where it hurts. That is not to say that either act is particularly poor, but watching them perform certainly doesn’t inspire either.

Ladyhawke underwhelms. Despite a slightly beefier sound than previous performances I’ve seen, the previously mentioned reliance on a guide vocal to flesh out the choruses and complete lack of personality leaves one feeling empty and short changed. Even songs like Back Of A Van and My Delirium which on record sound like potential hits become mundane and pedestrian.

Black Kids take to the stage with OMD's ABC Auto Industry blasting from the speakers before mop haired lead singer Reggie Youngblood gasps flirty lyrics of partying, kissing and dancing over the bands mix of choppy guitars and watery wavering synths. Unfortunately the overall effect lacks significant punch. Live Black Kids seem to occupy almost the same musical pop territory as Alphabeat, but without the energy, fizz or buzz to move a crowd. Even the vain attempts by the slightly hyperactive bouncy keyboard players to get the band clapping and jumping seem slightly cringe worthy and pathetic. The fact that the band have to plea to the crowd “Could you guys pretty pretty please dance with us,” for their final song says it all. One of the most unmemorable performances this year.

On the basis of this gig, I suspect the shelf life of Black Kids and Ladyhawke will be short unless they can find a few more keys to open new creative doors. It’s not that either act was poor, but average simply isn’t good enough.

Passion Pit - New Waves @ Breaking More Waves

Passion Pit are the hottest but geekiest looking indie dance pop kids from Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA to come under the Breaking More Waves radar. Essentially the brain child of one Michael Angelakos they have so far released one single state side; The Chunk of Change EP. It conjures up memories of the mix tape mash up of The Avalanches, 8o’s electro synth and MGMT. Their sound is so now, so left field pop, so compact, that it may even be their undoing. A backlash may even start before they’ve had a good crack at it. Originally conceived as a late valentine present for his girlfriend, then distributed to friends and via Myspace, Michaels’ songs ended up being released by Frenchkiss, the people who put out Les Savy Fav, Cut Off Your Hands and The Hold Steady. From the minimalist electro pop of I’ve Got Your Number, to the multi coloured collage construction psychedelic pop of Better Things, Angelakos sings with a fey high pitch affected vocal that at first may annoy, but quickly becomes highly addictive. You can hear this best on Sleepyhead a song that features infectious swirling synths, helium backing vocals and a highly creative video (below) which goes back in time when pictures were fixed to a spinning device to create the illusion of movement. Watch and be confused and amazed.