giest

Tonight I went to my first American gig of the summer. The other two I have attended here have been acts from home and made me realise how little I miss the act of seeing live music in London. In an act of leisure music feels so much more special. Here I will go out and see no one I know. I can choose to go to gigs alone and feel wonderfully lost in the crowd and tonight was such a night.

I went to go see We All Have Hooks For Hands at the Knitting Factory (which by the by has an amazing sound engineer, venues of such a capacity -140-rarely sound as good as the KF did tonight.) Playing to a semi mental crowd the Dakota eight piece really lived up to the promise I had come to hope of them. Sounding like Kings Of Leon but not arrogant or quite so polished, they appeared fresh faced and ambitious like all bands that play the Knitting Factory. They appear to have an ability to cause crowds to perform a hybrid of hardcore dance paired with that indie head bob, with a tiny bit of swing dance thrown in. I can see them getting better with each album and do believe they need and deserve a development deal, I'm pretty sure if Virgin UK came to see them play a few months from now they would wet themselves with excitement. Yes.

For the fans of American Rock that's quite poppy and contrived in nature, such as myself from time to time, a band called Hero Pattern played upstairs at KF to a hugely warm reception also. They sounded much better live than they did on myspace, which is nice. However they're a band I enjoyed watching, but would likely never shell out actual money to see.

Trotting back over the ocean I have a new found love for 'Galaxy Of The Lost' by Lightspeed Champion. Having been aware of Devs' endeavour for quite a while, I first heard this song when covered by the brazen voiced Florence and The Machine (the girl is superb, but is very unfortunately managed by the Queens of Noize. Personally I feel anyone who misspells on purpose is an utter fool and the fact they are in their mid thirties and are pill popping, coke sniffing groupies doesn't afford them any respect in my eyes). This song however, is gorgeous and lyrically resonant. It really strikes a chord with me. The video is also wonderful and heart warming. I would and will buy the Lightspeed Champion album on the basis of this acousmatic and simply stunning single. Point to Domino! I've also been told Devs' favourite band is Lifetime, which makes me want to shake his hand. He's probably the only one in the London indie scene who could name even one of their songs. Commendations are in high order.
So So So Compelling.

punch.

I really recommend listening to We All Have Hooks For Hands and Please Dept.
Both bands have huge potential. I hope to rectify not having seen either live yet this month by seeing WAHHFH play the New York Knitting Factory on July 18th and Please Dept. play the Lower Eastsides one and only Cakeshop on July 27th.


We All Have Hooks For Hands are a indie folk outfit from Dakota on American indie label Afternoon Records, who happen to have some really good and undiscovered bizarre bands hiding in their wings. WAHHFH are sonically quite a bit like Kings Of Leon on 'Because Of The Times', which as you may gather, is a really wonderful thing. The band have a disposition that inspires me to believe they could provide an album as cohesive as 'Because Of The Times' in the near future. I expect a major poaching within the next twelve months.

Recommended Track: Hold On C'mon
http://www.myspace.com/weallhavehooksforhands


Please Dept. are a band whose sound lies somewhere between Cold War Kids, Black Wire and Guillemots. Imagine a freak show playing your local bar and you may develop the right picture. Jittered piano punching and a deep, off beat and a daunting vocalist allow the Brooklyn dwelling band to actually make the keyboards + band set up original.

Recommended Track: Sailors Mouth
http://www.myspace.com/pleasedept

My current obsession is Harlem Shakes, an unsigned band from Brooklyn whose song 'Red Right Hands' echoes constantly in my head. I would seriously, seriously have a listen to the band. Fans of all of the left field material on Sub Pop, Suicide Squeeze and Poly Vinyl -my favourite labels-will likely adopt this band with huge amounts of adoration.

http://www.myspace.com/harlemshakes