"Now here’s one of those bands that you listen to and
wonder why you haven’t already heard of them. They’ve
even got one of those names that you feel like you
should’ve heard before: Victor Talking Machine. But
investigate them, and find that they’re an unsigned band
with quite a sparse Myspace page and a tragically tiny
gig list to go with it. Search for them online, and it’s hard
to find any kind of coverage of them at all, which just
seems crazy as soon as you hear them.
On first listen of their track featured on this issue’s
covermount CD, ‘Date Models’, they sound as current
as they could be, with MGMT / Empire of The
Sun vocals backed up with a much heavier, rockier,
scuzzier sound. You can even see lyrical or at least
song-topic parallels with MGMT’s ‘Time To Pretend’,
the tongue-in-cheek musings about people who chase
fame and fortune above keeping integrity central to
their music – you’ve gotta keep it real, after all! Their
vocals shouldn’t be reduced just to comparisons with
strained-throated trendies though, there’s a lot more
pained wailing going on here (in the best possible way).
The vocals from Stephen Smith and Ricky Clarke (even
the band member’s names are cool!) are what can only be
described a shoegaze-tastic.
When we asked them to describe themselves, they gave
us ‘shoegaze-noise-pop with melodic elements’ which
goes a small way to describing them, but just doesn’t do
them justice. Shoegaze? Yes. Noise-pop? Certainly. But
‘with melodic elements’ is a massive understatement.
Take the only other song (come on, guys, give us some
more!) on their Myspace page at the time of writing,
‘Strung Out’. It’s basically The Jesus & Mary Chain’s
‘Just Like Honey’ but with a different vocal. From the
drum-centred intro and indeed rhythm throughout the
track to the soft, scuzzy guitar backing, it takes all the
right beautiful melodic elements of that classic track and
emulates them. Now, I don’t know how many people
would agree, but there’s nothing wrong with taking a lot
from another band as long as you do it in your own way;
look at bands like Arctic Monkeys or Kings of Leon.
It gives a nod to the music they love and gives you that
same warm fuzzy feeling you get when a DJ plays one of
your favourite songs.
Their shoe-gaze (there it is again) sound is extremely
now and extremely good, and as far as can be fathomed,
they seemed to be playing support slots beneath inferior
bands. This can only be down to their anti-T4 ethic,
they “cringe at the thought” of touting themselves on
cool-for-kids programmes and changing their sound to
fit the market, but the market seems to be just ripe for
their taking right now. It really seems like the only reason
for their lack of coverage is that, sadly, in a post-John
Peel world, no-one’s going to help them sell records but
themselves. And us, cos we like them."