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As you know, we love Best Coast here at LET. And having asked them to open their UK tour for them, Best Coast obviously loves them some Sex Beet. Which means, as you might well imagine, that we too love Sex Beet.
They are, perhaps, London's answer to those Austinian scamps The Strange Boys and their ilk. You see, as with TSB Sex Beet has some obvious love for years gone by, mixing the breathless glee of some late fifties/early sixties simplicity and surf vibes with a hearty dose of ferocious, almost shoegazing fuzz, not to mention a wee bit of attitude as well. And yet, there seems to be something even better, even fresher about them. They are endearing, they are brash, and they are a perfect fit for a Best Coast tour. I'd remember their name if I were you, little lovvies, because they might just be on the precipice of something big. At least, they fucking well should be.
mp3: Sugar Water (Sex Beet - go here to buy some shit)
Our inbox is always runnething over here at Les Enfants Terribles. It’s terribly exciting to open up our inbox and see what goodies have been sent to us. Most of what we get is pretty good, but every now and again, my loves, every now and again we get a little something sent to us that really tickles our fancy. And Brighton’s Ice Black Birds, well, they tickle my fancy, float my boat, and shiver me timbers. And then some.
My love for Ice Black Birds was nearly instantaneous. From the sunshine-through-the-clouds, bluesy guitar riffs that serve as the introduction to the band to the slightly theatrical, insanely captivating vocals of “As Birds We’d Be Fine”, I couldn’t tear my eardrums away. It’s a song that feels nearly anthemic at times, so big and broad and bulky is the sound. “I love love love the things that you do,” sings, nay croons, Sam Denniston, and I boomerang that sentiment right back at them. “As Birds We’d Be Fine” is nothing short of fantastic, and could very easily turn into one of my favorite songs of the year. But they’re not done yet. “Doors” is a distinctly sassier, though equally catchy, little number, calling to mind shades of the naughty cheek of bands like Mott The Hoople and Slade (maybe it’s all that cheeky, bombastic falsetto in the middle of the song?), but without all that flouncing and glitter and with a whole lot more of the raunchy Northern Soul, underground kinda vibe. The gist is that they're fucking fantastic, and I was powerless to resist them.
Ice Black Birds has totally, utterly, and completely beguiled me. I’m a smitten kitten over them, and if they don’t somehow come over to the US of A in the near future I’ll be totally heartbroken. They’re definitely my newest objects of sonic affection, and I can’t recommend them enough.
mp3: As Birds We’d Be Fine (Ice Black Birds from As Birds We’d Be Fine)
mp3: Doors (Ice Black Birds from As Birds We’d Be Fine)
Yes, my little sweeties, yours truly has been known to be quite an Anglophile. And seeing as I’ve been feeling a wee bit nostalgic regarding my many wonderful months spent in bonnie Scotland, I figured now was the perfect time to launch a feature focusing on, you guessed it, bands from the United Kingdom (and Ireland).
I couldn’t ask for a better band to start things off with, given my love of those bands from north of the Borders. Dante is a band of “Edinburghers and Shetlanders who make alt folk music,” but that’s just the very vaguest of overviews of what this band does. Yes, there is indeed folk in mass quantities in their music, no doubt about it. But these wonderful souls also incorporate hearty doses of traditional Scottish music into their fine, fine songs, mostly exhibited with that fantastic fiddle. It’s a delicate balance of old and new, and it works together seamlessly, beautifully. At times you might hear shades of my beloved Idlewild, be it in the dark contemplation of the lyrics to the building walls of instrumentation present in dante’s songs. And on certain occasions, you might just think you were dancing at a traditional ceilidh somewhere in the countryside as the fiddle does cartwheels all around.
Dante is a band not to be missed, ye lords and ladies. Whet your appetite with the pair of songs below, and prepare to fall in love.
mp3: Monochrome (dante from the Monochrome EP)
mp3: This Island (dante from the Monochrome EP)
As you know, we love Best Coast here at LET. And having asked them to open their UK tour for them, Best Coast obviously loves them some Sex Beet. Which means, as you might well imagine, that we too love Sex Beet.
