Bright Young Things- They’re supporting Bloc Party and can’t even get into their own school’s battle of the bands , they’ve played in front of thousands and still don’t get recognized at school, Oh yeah and these guys are still only 13.

If ever there was a band who embodied the current musical climate it would be Lo-Fi Culture Scene. They’ve only been properly playing for 7 months, they’ve played only 4 gigs but they’ve being touted as the next big thing and are being trailed by a host of major labels. Even more extraordinary given the band have a combined age of 65 (that‘s between 5 of them). Still we ought to be used to this sort of thing by now. After all, the Kooks, one of the most successful bands of recent years, were signed after only 10 gigs. Despite their young age, the band are keen not to be viewed as merely a novelty band, as some sections of the media have come to view them. Time Out recently referred to them as ‘midget imposters‘ which the band are slightly embarrassed about, “It’s annoying, we’d rather people talk about our music rather than our height”. Still they shouldn’t worry about being over hyped as it’s their music that differentiates them from their elder peers. It contains the youthful energy of the Arctic Monkeys, the longing of the Libertines mixed with the emotional clarity of Bloc Party. When asked about influences it is hardly surprising that the three above bands were mentioned, but their influences don’t stop there “every time we see a band that we like live we suddenly start writing stuff like theirs. We’re seeing Cajun Dance Party tomorrow night so we’ll probably go and write songs influenced by them“. This is certainly one of the defining features of a new generation of bands, the likes of Cajun Dance Party, Bombay Bicycle Club and Kets who are as influenced by each as they are by anyone else, spurring each other onwards. These bands all played at the massively influential All Ages Clubnight, events where young people of any age could go and watch bands without fear of being asked for Id. In fact at the All Ages summer festival you have to be under 18 to get in. Lo-Fi attribute much of the band’s rise to the advent of the club, particularly when they played alongside Foals and Shy Child at Kings College, but they admit that the club is now a victim of its own success, and is now more of a “social thing“. Still despite having played in front of thousands, they are still relatively unknown in their own school, “we’re not very big in our own school, we just got rejected from our school’s battle of the bands contest”, even more extraordinary considering the fact that they are supporting Bloc Party soon and are due to play higher on the bill at the Truck Festival than more established bands such as Blood Red Shoes and Pull Tiger Tail. Despite the hype surrounding the band they are in no rush to get signed and join the to crazy carousel that is the music business. Who can blame them given the fact that the average shelf life of a band these days is measured in months. “We don’t want to sign to a label for another 5 years, and only then for one billion Dollars!” says singer Jacob mischievously. This figure may not be as ludicrous as it seems given the fact that schoolmates of theirs, Cajun Dance Party recently signed a deal reputed to be over a million with XL records. “We’re just going to keep writing, practicing and gigging, we don’t want to peak too early“. And perhaps most importantly, “we’ve got GCSEs in two years time“.

So what does the future hold for these bright young things? The band are going into the studio next month with acclaimed producer John Fortis to record some new material but they aren‘t anxious to release anything in the near future, “We might release an ep on our own label or something”. They would like to tour with other teen sensations Poppy and the Jezebels. When pressed about potential inter-band romancing the band became quite coy, “Maybe…, they’re really nice and cool, we’d like to do a gig with them”.

www.myspace.com/theloficulturescene


Will Holloway

ps Big Hello to Greg, the newest member of the Random Access Team

The best band in the world you’ll never hear.

Glastonbury is all about the hidden treasures. Spontaneous DIY gigs, supergroups, naked hippies with huge cocks, rabbit holes with Alice in wonderland esque characters popping out to scare you, silent cinema tents you can fall asleep in, pirate ships…I could ramble on for hours like a naked hippie on pills. While NME and every other publication raved about hidden gems, The Hold Steady, The Gossip, Cajun Dance Party, Remi Nicole, Los Campesinos!, there was only one band for me that made me want to leap for joy in a “I was there and you weren’t” kind of way (because that’s what everyone does these days). The band I’m referring to is the grossly underrated New Pornographers, a band that sells fuck all records but will revitalise your faith in pop in one listen, the best band in the world you will probably never hear. The New Pornographers play the kind of intelligent pop music you didn’t think exist anymore; each song a giddy rush, full to the brim with Shins esque soaring vocal harmonies and musicianship that both explores, innovates and pushes the boundaries of pop and remains inside them. Their last album, Twin Cinema, was met with the type of critical acclaim only reserved for The White Stripes; an album that stands tall from beginning to end, it transformed the band from a band you liked to a band you could not live without. And I thought they were just good on CD. The tightest, rawkest half an hour I witnessed that weekend, it was criminal they didn’t get more press coverage, during and after. Why not? Maybe the BBC was too busy with the Magic Numbers, or NME too caught up with Cajun Dance Party, whatever the reason, they missed out. And for that…The New Pornographers were the best band of Glasto that no one heard. Balls.

LES SAVY FAVOURITES

Hello again, it's raining outside and i'm bored, so i surfed the internet a bit and looky what i found...new LES SAVY FAV!!!!!!!! Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeey! For those of you who have no idea who they are, I suggest you go outside and bash your head with some shrubbery then go inside and purchase their whole back catalogue. They are perhaps the best live band in the world, no fuck it, they are the best live band in the world! Tim Harrington is a human embodiment of le sex and bassist Syd Butler is a lovely man who once replied to one of my emails. Anyway if you want some idea of what they're the watch this:



Now I've whetted your appetite, i have good news for all you LS Favvers out there, the band have a new album out on the 1st October called 'Let's Stay Friends' on Wichita Records. W00t! W00t!
Even better then that, they've released their first 'single' for download on the Frenchkiss Records Website (thank you). It's called The Equestrian and you can download it: here

Interpol - Our Love to Admire


It’s summer everywhere but in Interpol’s hearts, well if new album ‘Our Love to Admire’ is anything to go by, but would you expect anything less from the suited and booted dark knights of NYC? The album is the Interpol’s third and is certainly their most ambitious album to date, and its this ambition which is both the album’s strength and its downfall. By sacrificing their more radio friendly sound Interpol have been able to take their music to new and unchartered territory. ‘Our Love to Admire’ sees the band adding new forms of texture to their music and the most noticeable sign of this texture is the presence of an echoing keyboard in the background of much of the album. There are real juxtapositions in instrumentation on the album, at times the sound is eerily sparse, at one stage in ‘Pioneers of the Fall’ all the listener can hear are Paul Banks’ fragile and pensive vocals which is particularly effective. The album climaxes with the epic ‘Lighthouse’ which features Daniel Kessler’s haunting guitar picking over a bed of a dreamy soundscape which includes a choir and chiming tubular bells. This new ambitious approach also has the downside and means that much of the album is quite hit and miss. Tracks like ‘Wrecking Ball‘ and ‘Pace is the Trick’ seem to suffer from their lack of pace and parts of the album seem over-produced, perhaps a result of Interpol‘s move to major label, Capitol. That’s not to say Interpol can’t still write killer tunes, recent single ‘Heinrich Maneuver’ is a belter, ’Mammoth’ is a tune of gigantic proportions and the bassline in ‘There’s No I in Threesome’ is one of the best you’ll hear all year. ‘Our Love to Admire’ is a challenging record but one which is proves Interpol’s ambition to move forwards in sound and scope, for that they should be commended. “Babe, it’s time we gave something new a try” suggests Banks in ‘There’s No I in Threesome’ and with this album they really pull it off.

The album is out on 9th July.
Please go and preorder the album Here