Music:
Member Since: 07/03/2005
Band Website: Bye-Bye
Band Members: Andy - Drums
Ben - Green Guitar
Cat - Bass
Laura - Synth
Mark - Voice
Sean - Blue Guitar
Influences: Boredom, getting bitten by horses, cheap drinking, tea and crisps.
Sounds Like:
JAKE THORPE
Post punk attitude with enough warmth and melody to serve as the ideal remedy to the growing ranks of faux 80s throw backs.
WILL DURDEN
The live was amazing!
RIO, VIDAL SASSOON
That's right, happycasio!
You don't know them yet but that's where EAR FARM comes in. EAR FARM has found their music to be really great foot moving angular post-punkish rock that...wait. That'll conjure images of Artic Monkeys (etc, etc) and the UK music HYPEmachine. No, these guys have managed to take in all the right influences and turn out something that's their own. There's a bit of Blur, Pavement, and The Wedding Present going on in their tunes; or for a slightly very recent comparison, they sound like an English Tapes 'n Tapes (except with some girls in the band of course). I'll be contacting them as soon as this post is finished to get a copy of their EP and, based on the songs on their MySpace site, I expect I'll be listening to it a lot.
EARFARM
Happycasio! Are one of those bands. They blend the wonder of bands such as The Smiths and Joy Division et al, but with jerky staccato guitars and a post-punk edge.
Lead Singer Mark strolls around the stage like a Nobleman surveying his country estate, while at the same time wrestling with the mic stand like it is a star-crossed lover he is desperate not to leave him. He has time in between that to deliver a sort of haunting vocal which gets into your head and turns your brain over and over until you dont know where you are, but suddenly you aint in Kansas anymore. Am I a tower? Am I a cliff? He wonders on the impressive Englands Green. I dont know the answer, but you know what? It doesnt even matter.
One guitarist Styler rarely faces the stage, and I half feel like it is because the sounds he extracts from his guitar are part of an ancient secret that he doesnt want anyone else to know about. The other, Ben, is happy to smash the shit out of his like some crazed renegade cop trying to lift a confession from his suspect. All the while, the female element are a picture of calm, happily playing along, presumably dreaming of some sort of Utopia, where all music is this good.
Check them out while you still can. At the moment, theyre Romfords best kept secret, but with an EP Commotion Sickness in Rough Trade selling out fast, you cant help but feel that wont be the case for long.
MUSIC TRUTH
4 Legs Good, 12 Legs Better -
Happycasio! are the Animal Farm of modern popular music, before it all started getting tricky, and Snowball nicked off. And that makes me a bit teary.
To explain this sudden emotional excess on what is otherwise an ordinary Friday morning, let us consider the Happycasio! equation:
Vocals lost somewhere in a Bermuda Triangle of Ian Curtis, David Bowie and Tilt-ing Scott Walker
PLUS
Genius duelling naked guitars, who like each other really, and make up in every song
PLUS
Textbook Korg squeaks, squirts and bellows
PLUS
PiL-ed up bass lines, and reservedly manic drums
EQUALS
Epic pop that makes me cry.
Now, be cautioned, mix this up all wrong, and it's a mess. Too many egos sneaking up the volume and it falls apart. Anyone happy taking a supporting role, and it becomes pointless. Be cautioned, but worry not.
The possibly disparate parts of the 'Casio! understand that together we stand to an almost sickening extent, that allows them to make such massively proportioned pop songs, that they can whack in a couple of different choruses, take off at a tangent without due care or attention for anyone else, and still bring it all together in a six minute song that flies by. They've got it so right, it makes me weep. Bless.
TINY DANCING
Record Label: HumanError Records
Type of Label: Indie
