Friday, October 17, 2008

Late of the Pier

I've been following this band from England called Late of the Pier for several months. If you mixed The Faint with David Bowie and Davy Crocket (you know, the model image of a frontiersman) you'd get something like what LotP produces.

This band is so fucking cool, and they are, or at least look, young as hell. Of course, being hip and young they can't use their real names, so, with stage names like Samuel Dust, Francis Dance, Red Dog Consuela (which I think might actually be his given name) and Jack Paradise, you can be sure that you're dealing with creative, and most likely, pretty weird dudes. But that's usually what makes a band cool. And these guys are nothing in they're not cool.

Lyrically, they are extremely intriguing. While one may be inclined to find them dark, I don't find that to be the case at all. They're certainly skeptical and a bit cynical, which often lends itself to being introspective and intelligent - and that's just how they come off. The instrumentation fits the lyrical content very neatly. This is the more Faint-like of their elements. In fact, the guitar tone at the end of "Space and the Woods" is directly off a Danse Macabre track. No matter, this band is supremely original. Their songs move and ebb and flow and screw with the typical construction of a pop song, which I personally love. I'm sick on the standard, as I think a lot of people are. So, if you're like me, and are indeed sick of standard, easily-reproducible rubbish, as the the Brits would say, tap into Late of the Pier.

They'll be at Irving Plaza here in NYC on 10/24. I've got my tickets, I suggest you get yours.

-Hank C. Kupsic

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