This is a tribute MySpace to the late Johnny Narcissist.
Please feel free to download the music but note that all songs and lyrics are still the property of the owners.
Twisted Moodiness & A Sensitive Swagger (BBC West)
The band can count BBC Radio 1 presenter Steve Lamacq and Jimmy Page as admirers, and they had support slots with The Crimea, The Glitterati and The Keys. Originally from Aberystwyth where, out of boredom, mutual appreciation for guitars and making interesting noises, school friends Alun and Paul decided to start a band. Several years of honing their skills and undergoing a few line-up changes followed. After moving to Cardiff, the rhythm section of Steve and Harry were recruited in 2002.
Think the moodiness of Sympathy for the Devil by the Stones, Venus in Furs by the Velvet Underground, or Dirt by the Stooges, mixed with the more contemporary feel of Massive Attack, Death in Vegas and Primal Scream; epic, moody, twisted rock songs about love and life.
Alun sings with one eyebrow raised and a sensitive swagger, personally inviting you into his world while the music around him tries to stab you in the head with a carving knife. Kill or be killed, this music will betray you. It's the musical equivalent of finding immense, sick pleasure from discovering that the love of your life has just run off with your best mate.
Steve Lamacq (BBC Radio 1)
Baggy didn't die... it now lives on albeit in a slightly twisted form of Johnny Narcissist ... Featuring a poet singer Johnny Narcissist are a four piece alternative rock band that have relocated from their native Aberystwyth to Cardiff... Imagine a vocalist who sounds like the bastard offspring of David Byrne from Talking Heads and Shaun Ryder from Happy Mondays woven in a bed of introspective guitars.
Adam Walton (BBC Radio Wales)
"Twisted and idiosyncratic song smiths from Aberystwyth!"
Welsh Bands Weekly
"This is the kind of thing that really gets me excited, something that has been released on a small budget and released by the band themselves but still manages to sound great.
Sweet Nothings is a masterwork of songwriting with classic summer/winter verse contrast -that is to say a calm, relaxing description in the verse, breaking into a chorus you wouldn't dare look in the eye if you passed it on the street with its "I think I love you too much" semi-shouted lyric.
Mr. Carousel is an altogether dirtier affair with a guitar line that will gatecrash your mind and the lyrics are genuingely excellent. If only The Johnny Narcissist had a little more cash to invest in a proffesional studio, these would be under rediculous heavy rotation on my stereo. Can't have everything though can I?"
Gigbite.com
"Johnny N hail from Aberystwyth and bring us this great demo, a demo that puts The Doors to shame, with this 100% demo of the week for smokers and should be given away with High Times Magazine.... The first track is The Happy Mondays sounding Raincloud Girl... the whole thing comes together as a classic song, the way classic songs be. About this Time begins and i feel the intro is leading me into a Dr Dre song but am soon moved along with the vocals and am compelled to listen to it all, the vocals in the style of Jim Morrison... This is a band that are out to get noticed and if they keep releasing great sounding music like this then it won't be long until we hear JN on our radios... if there's one band one band to go and see live in the future put JN on your list - i have"
The Cambrian News
"The biggest thing to come from Aberystwyth since last years flu epidemic... powerful thought provoking lyrics... This band's going to be huge."
Virtual Cardiff
"The Doors meet Massive Attack meet The Happy Mondays..."
Garageband.com
Groove baby groove. This song's all about attitude and its confidence is established early on by the drone of the bass guitar that pumps life below the skin of the track. Everything about it is dead on:the guitar, the bass, the 'calm before the storm' vocals.. and the vocal tacit at the end is incredible. In only a few occasions has so simple an offering said so much - hence the FIVE OUT OF FIVE.
Music for the end of a night (Matthew Blythe South Wales Argus)
If you're feeling wasted like an abandoned lover/ bourbon drenched fool, then prop up the bar in The Riverside, Newport this fiday when The johnny Narcissist come to town.
Originally from Aberystwyth, JN is a four piece made up from forgotten pieces of Elvis Costello, The Stone Roses and The Doors. The band's (Alun Pughe, Paul James, Gareth Pughe and duncan Bamford) demo is full of promise and live they are a seriously moody prospect.
Alun sings with a glass-cracking voice from Bob dylan's school of stirring grunts. On Mr Carousel, the second track from the CD, he swaggers like Ian Brown's taller brother come pick the wee one up from school.
On About this Time he does a bit of a Doors lilt, with a slurred vocal, and the band follow suit with a slow, sleazy blues.
It's music for a end of the night spent drinking on the wrong side of the tracks, like The Tindersticks ot Tom Waits - with a little work they could be next.
