| CD REVIEW The Drums |
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Band : The Drums This band’s founding members Jonathan Pierce (vocals) and Jacob Graham have been friends since childhood, having met at Summer camp. They’ve enjoyed individual musical pursuits (Pierce in former Columbia act Elkland, Graham in several Punk acts in his home state Florida), but had never worked together prior to founding The Drums in Florida. Moving to New York City, the guys completed the line-up by adding Pierce’s former Elkland bandmember and guitarist Adam Kessler and NYC native and drummer Connor Hanwick. Musically speaking, the band makes Pop, and a very nice one at that. Stylistically, the guys sound like a happier version of a Factory Music band, with a ‘50s Surf Pop twist, and with cited influences such as The Wake, The Smiths, The Shangri-Las, The Tough Alliance, The Embassy, Orange Juice, and Joy Division, that is no real surprize. What with Pierce being somewhat remeniscent to Morrissey, the hybridisation The Smiths – Surf Pop actually works best! Live, the guys perform with cute female backing singers, and on the mini-album (7 songs for a total length of 25 minutes) you’ll find some girl (uncredited) doing backing vocals here and there, and even doin’ a duet with Pierce in “Don’t Be A Jerk, Johnny”. Prior to the release of the mini-album, on September 28, 2009, Moshi Moshi released the 7-inch single Let’s Go Surfing (B-side= “Don’t Be A Jerk”), the album’s opening track with its fancy whistle melody. Since then, a second 7-inch with the tracks “I Felt Stupid” (the catchy album closer) and “Down By The Water” (thewacky ‘50s ballad on the album, and possibly the band’s tribute to the Shangri-Las). In essence, each and every song on this 7-tracker has an attraction of it’s own, and I’m sure any music lover over 60 is gonna fall in love with this band right-away! Mind you, this band has enough wackiness in its music to please the younger generations of music listeners…as proven by the successful gigs the band’s been playing! Part of the reason why V2 has released the mini-album in mid February (in spite of the fact that a full-length might be coming very soon indeed), is because The Drums started a European tour (UK first) in early February. The quartet (certainly enhanced with some female backings) should be in Amsterdam’s Bitterzoet (as one of only 3 non-UK gigs, the others being in Berlin and Paris) on February 26, and if the sounds you can listen to at myspace.com/thedrumsforever (4 out of the 7 songs) excite you to the point of wanting to see the band play live, forget it…because the venue’s apparently sold out already, as is the rest of the compléte tour! That’s how catchy these guys are…and if thàt ain’t an indication of how much yoù (in spite of being so yooung that you’ve never heard any music from the above mentioned influencial bands) might possibly like The Drums too, I dunno! Go check the music out now! And yeah…yet another addition to my year-lists! 98/100 Tony. |