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Pops Noble Underground - Nobody's Perfect.
Self-sufficient, self-financed, self-critical and self-penned. That's the story of 'ar kid'. Crud unearths an independent pop-gem and predicts big things ahead in this man's music-cupboard.


01/12/01

POPS NOBLE UNDERGROUND

If you think by us saying that legendary British label Parlophone picked up and passed this guy over some 6 or seven years ago, that this meant Kidbrother was in any way shape or form pretty much spent by now, you'd be wrong.

Whether or not the unflinching, English home of Sparklehorse, Radiohead and Blur was right in passing him over (for being a little too 'obscure' and a 'little rough round the edges' by all accounts) it's fair to say he's found his moment.

" They thought I had the right ideas but the wrong approach. Whatever that means.." suggests Kidbrother (and who's totally unwilling to disclose his real name), "...and to be perfectly honest, I haven't changed. I'm still as crap now as I was then. But crap's in now, isn't it?".

Not being remarkably pretty or adept musically may go some way towards explaining Pops Noble Underground's failure to grasp the limelight during those halcyon years of the nineties. That and the fact he doesn't perform live. But hasn't he ever been tempted?

"Truth is, it scares me shitless", Kidbrother concedes. "The few times I've done it, I've done it rather badly, so it would be pretty foolhardy to pursue it now, wouldn't it? "

Not that he shrugs it off lightly. Kidbrother states emphatically that his failure to 'hack it live' ruined one particularly inspired project, at one particularly inspired time.

" It was sometime around '93 or '94, just when I was starting off. I'd stepped into a band at a point when they'd just lost their bass player-singer. It was a grungey kind of thing. A little bit bluesey, a little bit retro - very New Yorky to be honest. Mojo Pin - that was the name of the band. Just three of us. Things were really beginning to happen. Creation sounded interested and were eager to see us play...but it was at that point it just gave way".

Creation were indeed interested - not least perhaps because the band had just been voted Making Music's Demo of The Year by McGee's critically endorsed Teenage Fanclub members.

" They loved it. They thought it was cool, which was great 'cos we thought they were cool. But I was just feeling kind of phoney. Christ, we sounded like the Velvet Underground! We had somekind of cod New York thin going on, and I sounded like a parallel universe Lou Reed who'd been brought up in Burnley or something. And this wasn't cool. That was my problem. And becasue of that I neshed it. But if I'd known someone like The Strokes, The White Stripes or Andrew W.K was going to come along and scab it five years later, I'd have just kept on going with my head down.

Better to be famous for scabbing it than not being famous at all?

"Exactly. But at the time I was being a little bit sheepish. I had a lot to learn."

And so back to the bedroom it was for our Kidbrother. With little more than a DR-5 and $250.00 4-track to his credit, Kidbrother went about stringing together a number of chemically inspired lo-fi recordings in the vein of....

" Well Daniel Johnston always gets mentioned of course, But most people thesedays are aware of him through his influence on bands like Sparklehorse, Grandaddy, Flaming Lips - all those slacker type things they've got going on. Basically anybody with a 4-track and limited vocal range."

Well you certainly can't argue with that. Not that Pops Noble Underground - Kidbrother's latest project - suffers demonstrably from this particular deficit slant. Vocally quite capable but bare, unfinished 'kitchen-sink' style mannerisms performance wise ensure the lo-fi slacker generic tag. Songs like "You Shouldn't Really Tell Me Anything" and "Little Titanic Ship" are unashamedly English however, cutting off clean any inferences that he's just another Daniel Lanois wannabe.

" They're lo-fi and surreal becasue they're done on a budget. I had a publishing deal with a company in London some years ago, when I was writing stuff for other artists - and I did these on the sly. I recorded most of what you hear in a music-cupbaord I have in my kitchen. It was the only means I had of cutting the traffic out, and then I added some guitars in a studio, locally. All done very secretly. All done very cheaply. And if they're smart enough they'll figure out that they probably own the rights to these songs... and others. But as they're not so smart, they'll stay with me."

And yet we couldn't possibly leave it there, without first asking about his name.

"Why Kidbrother? I'm the youngest of four in our family. I'm eight years somewhere behind the second youngest in the family. I'm eight years somewhere behind the times musically. It what I get called. It just kind of fits. But if you'd prefer a different story, I could prepare one.."

We like that story just the way it is, our Kid. Just the way it is..

FREE DOWNLOADS HERE

Relevant sites:
Popsnobleunderground.co.uk

Crud Magazine© 2001

 
 
 

 

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