Bombay Bicycle Club
I have a somewhat troubling soft spot for the young, scruffy UK indie guitar bands that are sprouting up three-a-day on Myspace these days. The blueprint tends to be: “Take Me Out” indie-disco drumbeat, trebly guitars and bangs for days. There will usually be a few fun dancealong singles, Erol Alkan will book ‘em, then they either get signed or head off to art school. We’ve seen it before.
London’s Bombay Bicycle Club, though, have managed to turn the formula on its head just enough to stay planted in my rotation for the last few months. These lads add significant chime to the normal guitar slash of the Trash-standard sound, but the immediate standout is vocalist/guitarist Jack Steadman’s unlikely vocal inspiration. Rather than affecting a Luke Jenner yelp or Julian Cassablancas drawl, Steadman channels Marc Bolan, delivering with a quivery croon.
The ‘Club only have two EPs yet, but eMusic’s got ‘em both. For starters, check the teenage nostalgia stomp of “The Hill” and indie-disco (yeah, they do that, too) semi-hit “How We Are.”
For a few seconds Alex, when I first looked at your post this morning, I was convinced I’d written it. Luckily I’m not going mad - so I’ll just say that there’s some more support for Bombay Bicycle Club here (but I would never have hidden Late of The Pier away in a link!)
Oh sweet - glad I’m not alone! I need to check out more LOTP, I’ve only heard bits and pieces. Any suggestions on where to start, track-wise?