Song reviews

I’ve got a bit of a soft spot for the powerpop that seems to hail from the west coast of the good old USA (ahh! – love is the Kimberly Trip!) so it was with open arms that I welcomed Kissing Lola. They hail from Los Angeles but I would indeed have guessed that from the first four bars of “Forget About It” anyway. I have to say that it did sound like the kind of song that would have been on a teen movie soundtrack from twenty years ago but, hey, retro is never out of fashion these days. “1000 years” fortunately stepped to the front as the kind of radio friendly female fronted love song that might live for, well, 1000 years.

Wouldn’t have pinned these two songs on a trio of 14 year olds as the standard of musicianship is a lot higher than you would expect. Whilst “The Calm Song” rambles along in an over studious math rock  way for over 6 minutes – didn’t think the kids of today had an attention span that long – it betrays a certain lack of adventure more than anything else.  “Reposeful” throws in some vocals that suffer from being styled in the fashion of a trendy independent band. A band with a future? I wouldn't rule that out either.

Kind of a hellish hybrid of The Doors and early Nirvana, “Muzzle” is a laconic grunge-athon of a song that lumbers along whilst alternately staring at its own feet and the sky (and shows scant regard for the listener’s attention span while it is at it). A bit of editing and getting the guitarist to throw in a surprise or two should save the day for the finished version though.

From Ohio, these three guys pump out proper rock music that just cries out to be played loud.  “Zombie Baby” would make – unsurprisingly – a nice addition to a grungy B movie soundtrack while “Paramount” shows that the band can go further than mere repetition to make their musical point. Although somewhat lacking in sonic individuality, they do a decent job with these two songs.

“Last Goodbye” is the kind of fragile, reflective song that creeps up on you. There’s not much substance here in this demo – although that’s probably deliberate -with plaintive male and female (by Kat Orr formerly of the sadly defunct Ten To Five Project) vocals sitting angularly atop the sparsest of backings. It’s not an impact song but more the kind of song that finds you when you most need it. Really rather soothing even if there is an appealingly sharp edge to the words.

She’s an American singer, songwriter, model and actress and the very commercial songs that Xoch submitted to the Bluesbunny demo blood fest were “The End Of The World” and “Winter in Hollywood”. Now this should been a shooting fish in a barrel situation but it wasn’t. Respectable song writing skills are on show here but if you dig beneath the leaden sub Leanne Rhimes production, Xoch actually has an interesting voice and an expressive way with a lyric. Perhaps it is a sign of spending too much time in studios but, underneath all the vocal processing, I can hear an endearingly sweet voice.

You can tell when a band has had the benefit of a musical education and The Dirty Keys sound like such a band. Urbane, civilised with the wry demeanour of a fop down on his luck about the vocals, “Tired of Being” gives the old ivories a right good tinkling here. In fact, you could see Noel Coward approving of them making it hard to believe they are from Glasgow.

With delicate, hushed vocals of such gentleness that you would barely notice them as your ears are caressed, “Where You Are” could easily pass as a lullaby. Then, in a change of style, dear sweet, sensitive Jennifer goes a little bit country on the jolly “Conversations In My Head” just like Donna Hughes without the drawl. Whatever door she decides to knock on, I reckon she’ll be welcomed with open arms.

Pleasingly classy acoustic trio strip out Frightened Rabbit’s sound to give us a 1-2-3 of “The Things That Keep Me Here”, “Killing Time” and “Don’t Want To Hear It” with male and female vocals intertwined around the very solid and wholesome musical foundations. I doubt that you will ever find them shooting up in the toilet however but points have to be awarded for the barely suppressed sense of fun on show here. Eminently likeable.

A tough of English quirkiness is to be found here balancing Blur and Madness on top of an honest to goodness musical cake that is made up of cheeky chappies having fun. Their good natured bounciness works well on “The Horror Show” and "S.H.E.L.L.E.Y." (even if that one does sound more than a bit like “Hotel Califiornia”). “Shout It Out”, on the other hand,  is rather more ordinary but Jack Rabbit are certainly worth a listen anyway.

Ha! A ringer! No way this is a demo as it is way too slick. So slick they could be a roots version (a Scottish version, of course) of Fleetwood Mac and, with a bit of the fashionable local accents and some very neatly arranged vocals, it doesn’t take long for the nod of approval to be given to “Wild Blue” and “Down To River”. If these two songs are representative, then modern folk music has much to offer our ears. Thumbs up to Acoustic Butterfly!

Repetitive rock escapes from the confines of Stockport as “Rambling Junkie” . If you were expecting a bit of social commentary - or maybe even humour – given the title then you would be disappointed as nothing really happens to lift this band above the standard of your average big city rock band. Similarly turgid is “My My”. Maybe they are better live?