Dudebox "Track Of The Spring"

I guess this could be the last Dudebox Track Of The Season review in this format – as this year has gone on it’s become more and more apparent that MySpace is well Over. Always a slightly clunky format, it looks like it’s been finally killed off by the twin attack of YouTube and Facebook. I’m finding more and more that new bands haven’t bothered with it, and old bands aren’t updating theirs. So until Facebook allows you to listen to bands’ music without Liking them – or until I decide I’m happy to Like every single band I come across, we might be approaching a Reviewing Impasse!

Still – that doesn’t mean we haven’t got some more great local music for you to listen to right here! Get it while you can!

((As always, I am duty-bound to announce the Disclaimer that none of these bands have asked us to review their music – in fact I’d be surprised if any of them ever realise we’ve done it! – but the point of the matter is to try and shine some lights onto all the corners of this always-surprisingly-large-and-vibrant-and-various local music scene. Break out the cutlery and let’s have some dinner. A dinner of Rock!))

MMT.


“All Burned Out”: KASTAPHOR

Forget MySpace or Facebook - Kastaphor are professional enough to have their own website with music on anyway – they play gigs in London, all over the adjoining counties, and at The Stables! They’ve got that kind of ‘polished’ ‘adult’ vibe, without being dull. Singer Emma has an incredibly soulful voice, there some excellent guitar soloing, and although it’s not really my sort of music it’s unarguably an accomplished song which you can imagine going down perfectly in a smoky rock club.


“Mexican Doom”: VOMIT WHORES

We reviewed Vomit Whores way back in our first ever Dudebox Track Of The Season review a couple of years back, and at the time I wasn’t sure if they might even be a joke band – but this is much better! The kind of queasy funk-edged metal you’d expect from Mike Patton fans, muscular and relentless. A punchy treat that doesn’t take itself too seriously.


“Gangsters”: IDOLTRIBE

We discovered this on DJ Michael’s Basement Music compilation, and for me their session version of this track was the standout track on that CD. It bounces along in an incredibly jaunty semi-acoustic manner, and then when the backing vocals kick in in the chorus you think “blimey, this is something special”. There’s even a bass solo! It’s the sort of song I feel compelled to learn the words to so I can sing / chant drunkenly along to – and I can’t give much higher praise than that!


“Hold Your Own”: KEEPER OF THE RIFLE

This season’s MK Metal Korner! As hairy and intense as you’d imagine, but reassuringly still has a strong sense of melody in amongst the shouting and growling. And as we’ve noted before in these reviews, the local metal bands seem to have no problem whatsoever in producing studio-quality recordings, this could easily be a long-established national band by the sound of this track. Love the solos too. (flicks devil horns)


“Farewell Goodbye”: ROSES AND PIRATES

Another lovely song by the R&P ladeez, our Track Of The Season winners last Summer with “The Rose”. This is altogether more reflective, a gentle lullaby for the end of a long and testing night. You can almost hear the bar staff trying to clear out the audience, who won’t leave till they’ve heard the final beautiful note fade.


“Flaming Sun”: WITHOUT REASON

Surfing the quiet-loud dynamic as well as any local band I’ve heard recently, this mixes beautiful vocal harmonies, a persistent groove from the bass, a casual yet cool solo and occasional full on hard-rock choruses. Another new name to me, but I’m hoping to catch them live very soon. We don’t have enough bands who sound like this.


“Is It Real Yet?”: FALL SHORT FOR GLORY

Some beautifully intricate lead guitar ushers us right into this sugary slice of punk-pop – it feels like a sunny day in FSFG’s world and I’m happy to be in it with them! That spiralling solo effect is almost mesmerising, but the rest of the song is impressive too – melodic, upbeat, well produced and an intriguing first experience of this band for me. I’m keen to hear more.


“Don’t Believe Her Smile”: ISABELLE

One of the most prolific of local bands – I can’t believe they’ve also got time to fit in running the excellent Sno!Bar Open Mic as well as their Leighton Buzzard gigs and social lives! – are back with another new album... and they’re so prolific that thing song isn’t even on it!! I love the keyboard on this – or it could even be an actual organ! Summery, soulful, sumptuous. They can’t miss at this kind of stuff.


RUNNER UP DUDEBOX TRACK OF THE SPRING

“Red, Green, Black”: SOUTH SEA COMPANY

We may have reviewed them last time round as well, but this track especially shows a definite step on since we first heard them. It’s confident, mature (in a good way!) – the bass drives along a slowly building indie-pop gem. This is a really impressive song, indicating not just a good present but a very good future if they’re already at this standard!


DUDEBOX TRACK OF THE SPRING

“Shyrite”: HOUSE OF JOHN PLAYER

Whatever else, it’s the different stuff that I really get excited by! Loops, synths, shuffly beats and vocals drifting between emotionless droning and an emotional falsetto. This is an excellent track – a standout among a bunch of almost-equally as impressive tracks. This dude played at the Sno!Bar a month or two back and I missed it – will be looking out for him in action again though. Hypnotic, a midsummer day’s dream.

Dudebox "Track Of The Winter"

Reviewers: MMT & Phil.

At any one time in a City the size of our fair home, the number of ‘currently gigging bands’ runs well into three figures, going on local press and MySpace sites alone! Still... because of our commitment to covering local scenes and artists (in every genre), at various times over the last couple of months Phil and I have tried to convene with a laptop and a wireless connection in order to try and do a kind of “Milton Keynes Singles Review”. However, cos of MonKeyVision and my PC dying and a myriad of other excuses, it’s taken a wee while to get this off the ground. Therefore, instead of opening this (hopefully regular) series with a ‘Dudebox Track Of The Month’, sit back and enjoy the ‘Dudebox Track Of The Season’! Winter’s almost over, but the music never stops! ;-)

DISCLAIMER: These reviews were all carried out between January and February 2009, and as far as possible are entirely reviews of Milton Keynes-based acts. To the best of our knowledge. Also, we tried to steer clear of bands who’d applied to MonKeyVision. This time. Ta.

It turned out not to be an easy task. As far as I can tell, there’s no way of searching MySpace by “town”. Still, we persevered, blundering around at random looking for MK footage. Quite early on, we stumbled across a band called Nifty Fifty Cowboys who had a song called “If It Were Only Like The Movie” we liked:

P: “I’m liking this already… they sound enthusiastic about their music!”
M: “Something slightly Ska-y about it, in’t there?”
P: “It sounds a little bit like Wheatus.”
M: “I like this conversation he’s having with himself in the middle. Sounds really cool in a way.”
P: “If a mate of mine recorded this and then played it me, I’d be like, dude – that’s AWESOME. It sounds enthusiastic, it sounds fun...”

But then...

M: “So, just as we were liking it, there’s a notice on the MySpace saying it’s just one bloke, and he’s 'broken himself up' and he’s moved to a “serious site”, so we’ll go over there next..."

The new “serious site” where he’s an acoustic artist showed that he’s now based in Coventry – which kind of invalidates the whole thing anyway. Though the Nifty Fifty Cowboys were from MK. In 2007. Ahem. Back to the drawing board.

We turned up a band with the great name of Vomit Whores whose second track “Born With A Twat” makes me nostalgic for my teenage metaller years:

M: “They got a few Mohawks going on.”
P: “They don’t sound really happy, but they sound like they’re having fun playing this kind of music.”

But despite the browsing (and the wilful avoidance of MonKeyVision bands!) there was an easy choice to review: MK-based Silver Brazilians are receiving national coverage, so checking out their MySpace was a no-brainer. Our choice choon was “Kate Winslet”, also named “Coolest Song In The World” by “Little Steven’s Underground Garage”:

M: “Now, I’ve listened to The Beatles quite a lot, and that’s a spot-on Beatles pastiche.”
P: “I think it’s great, I love it.”
M: “A deliberately retro sound, but I like it. Accurate in it’s retroness... it knows what it’s doing. It still sounds cool, doesn’t it... still feels... Deliberate Retro Future Chic.”

We’re also keen to review other genres than guitar-based rock, so big up one time to Soul. His track “Come Down” was a genuine contender for Dudebox Track Of The Season, and “Broke” is good too:

M: “It’s funny that kind of... angry, dark songs are better for rapping somehow. Having said that, I dunno where you purchase a Gat in Milton Keynes? Maybe that shooting and tackle shop in New Bradwell.”

I think we can squeeze in one more before we get to the Winners - Our Man In The Bronze Age, who we’d seen live last summer at the Vicarage Party that me and Martin had also played at. No tracks stand out above the others on their site, but overall they're pretty darn ace anyway:

M: “When they came on at the Vicarage party, they were absolutely astonishing, and me and James, possibly – cos by then we were absolutely hammered – but we did sit there in stunned silence. It was proper dark by then and the lights were on them, and there was like steam rising, and it was pretty eerie. And at the same time great. And I think we decided they were the best band we’d ever seen in Milton Keynes. But that may have been the mood and emotion of the night.”
P: “I’m having trouble putting the set of events that happened that evening into a chronological order.”

RUNNER-UP DUDEBOX TRACK OF THE SEASON:

RE-WRITING DESTINY: “You’re The One (recorded live)”

We started off the review by arguing the toss between Summery Girl Punkpop vs Teenage Boy Emo bands. Phil waxes lyrical about some band he saw in Australia called The Spazzys.

M: “There’s a vague hint of Sixties girl groups as well, isn’t there?”
P: “Her voice is really good. I like the fact you can hear her accent. She sounds like a suburban punk.”

But then I make the mistake of mentioning Liz Phair and Phil’s away. Just a tip if you're ever in conversation with the man. Keep quiet on the Phair. ;-) Still, kudos to Re-Writing Destiny. We’re planning to check ‘em out live sometime soon.

DUDEBOX TRACK OF THE SEASON:

FELIX: “Back In Style (lala lepus remix)”

Admittedly, Felix aren’t entirely based in MK currently, but key member Lucinda Chua is a native, a member of ace post-rock orchestral combo The Holistic Cleansing Quintet who we frequently dug as Monkey Kettle Pitz Reviewers back in the day. Sadly unable in the end to compete in MonKeyVision, Felix were the sort of band Phil and I were after all along, and “Back In Style” is their finest MySpace track: a lo-fi vocal, wistful piano, subtle cello and even subtler “Twin Peaks” references. And then the beats kick in. You’re not going to hear a finer band round these parts often. So, basically, there’s an album, some kind of record deal, and a band The Dudebox is well into. Watch this space for more details, hopefully. Especially now we're getting the hang of this whole MySpace reviewing thing.