I was planning to do a review of Brandon Flowers’ solo debut, Flamingo, but decided against it after a brief once-thru’. After all, we at poptart only put up stuff that 1) we like, and 2) we think you may like and Flamingo doesn’t come into any of the 2 categories. My sincere apologies to the fans of The Killers, but his solo effort sounds weak and too middle-of-the-road to say the least.
What can I tell you about these guys who don’t have a wiki-page as at time of writing?
This quartet is L.A. based (who says there aren’t any good West Coast indie bands anymore?) and is made up of Sarah Chernoff, Cameron Parkins, Max St. John and Evan Weinerman. Incidentally, Cameron and Sarah double up as Ronnie Ray Gunn and Mimi Malone respectively for the upcoming Garage/punk band the Franks.
Unlike the Franks, Superhumanoids has the boy-girl vocal, clean guitar rifts, electronic beats and synths all amalgamated into a melodic lush sound. Can’t really put my finger on the one genre that describes them but, in a record shop, you d most probably find it under “indie”. LOL.
At times they sound New Wave, while other times quite surf-ish/post-punk (the Drums). Cranial Contest is a good example of this. Listen to Persona and you could be forgiven for thinking that Superhumanoids is an Arcade Fire tribute band. Another fav, Hey Big Bang, is a power ballad with a catchy staccato drumbeat that feels tailor-made for Chernoff’s haunting vocals. Here again they sound like a different band altogether.
After reading all this, you’d probably go, “you are recommending a band that don’t know what they want!” Either way, these guys sound really good for something that was initially conceived in the bedroom of Parkins. Trust me on this.
Listen and download HeRe.
Persona from superhumanoids on Vimeo.
There is only one answer for the question: The Golden Silvers!
I don’t know if it’s the dreariness of the credit-crunch driven depression or the lack of self-worth from not working, it’s times like these when we all could do with a little cheer in our lives. Listening to these guys do just that.
Despite forming in 2007, this London-based trio has only released their debut album, “True Romance”, 2 weeks back. True romance indeed, because I have fallen in love with brit-pop all over again. The album kicks-off with their previously independently-released single, “Another Universe”. Pretty mellow at the start, but the piano-driven song has such a melodic chorus and brilliant dramatic end to it:
‘Now i feel my powers fading
As the blueprints and diagrams and history books hold me to their hip
and my limbs start trembling as my vision starts fading
and my spirit starts to slip
and i see them wave goodbye
their left hands were casting a curse
while singing songs of a paradise from another universe’
Underlying the Golden Silvers’ song-writing/playing style is the “doo-wop-ish” backing vocals that accompany Gwilym Gold’s distinctive laid-back vocals. In addition, the piano work done on their songs give off the same kind of vibe when you listen to your old Ben Folds Five records. All in all, the record has an excellent amalgamation of pop-ish, disco upbeatness and slow-mellow in the right proportions. I mean, how often can you listen to a record from start to finish these days – We would pick two songs from each of our favourite CD’s and put in an iTunes playlist, or if the you have the newer updated version, Genius does that for you.
Here’s To True ROMANCE!
