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There is, be it fleeting or not, something unerringly
sexual about our current love affair with New York.
And it’s only human nature that you don’t want to overcrowd
your affections, not too much. Yeah, so you might start
off with good intentions and a steady partner (statistically
more than likely The You-Know-Whos), but with chalices
of musical aphrodisiac ten for a cent, giving rise to
the floozy inside, it’s hard not to start spending an
hour here and a sly night away there. We Brits may continually
tarnish Yanks in general with the stereotype of excess
and plenty, but we rarely get proved wrong and there
is a veritable abundance on offer here. Admittedly most
encounters don’t get past that stage (some, like the
Yeah Yeah Yeahs, may be pure dripping sex that you’d
happily settle for exclusively, but do you honestly
think she’d ever settle for you!?) and once the excitement
bubble has burst you’ll be retreating to, at the very
least, an open relationship with strict ground rules.
In this existence Longwave might never be your number
one, but they are potentially the bit on the side of
choice.
Despite some reported kinship with their royal stylenesses
The Strokes, they ain’t going to be strutting down rock
n roll’s catwalk anytime shortly themselves. And for
that they will obviously remain hidden from view in
the shadows of the trend mags. They are gawky in their
stride, a little awkward in facial expression, like
rabbits in a small flashlight. Essentially a bit normal
then. And while that may not win them many a cover photo-shoot,
you don’t need any glossy axis of cool list or en-vogue
fringe to get it. And anyhow, they still have their
subtle (and y’know, given time, loveable) oddities.
Front-wave Steve for instance sings like he has a satsuma
in his mouth and has hair like the later stages of a
volcanic eruption, somewhere between Mark Gardner from
Ride, Rivers Cuomo and Sideshow Bob. And he throws himself
around a space up there where he’s freefalling in his
own head. Which rubs off, and at frenzied points absolutely
makes up for static behaviour elsewhere on stage.
We do wonder about their sound. We wonder whether Dave’s
close-to-his-chest basslines and Mike’s sharply mechanical
beats (like he’s taken ‘OK Computer’ as a literal concept)
end up evoking U2 bombast purely by chance (on the immense
baron ‘Everywhere You Turn’ especially). Then we see
Mike’s U2 t-shirt. And we wonder how they weave Sonic
Youth guitar snideness so naturally into such a safe
framework, peppered with atmospherics from a tiny trinket
box that may or may not have fallen out of Kevin Shields’
ear. But an alarming lack of pretension in the air (obviously
all sapped up by their geographical peers already) gives
some kind of answer. That last single ‘Pool Song’ immediately
evokes The Strokes is unfortunate, because as good a
song as it is, it’s the others like previous double-A
side, the morose ‘Exit’ and the void of sound ‘Ambien’,
that take hold of them most when there’s a whole venue
there to fill with ambience. And the good thing is you
can creep home afterwards and look your CD collection
in the eye without feeling awkward. But then maybe you’ll
go back soon. After that, who knows...
James Berry
James Berry for Crud Magazine© 2002
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| 08/02 Beachwood Sparks Interview
08/02 Coldplay - A Rush Of Blood To The Head
08/02 Goldrush - Don't Bring Me Down
08/02 Montgolfier Brothers Interview
08/02 Wilco - Interview - Jeff Tweedy
09/02 Apples In Stero Interview
09/02 Audio Vent Interview - Band Of Brothers
09/02 Beck - Sea Change Listening Party
09/02 Bon Jovi - Everyday
09/02 Peter Gabriel - UP - Signal To Noise Ratio
09/02 Ikara Colt - Live - 100 Club, London
09/02 Joy Zipper - Ron
09/02 Kathryn Williams - No One Takes You Home
09/02 Carling Weekend Leeds Festival
09/02 Noise Therapy - Interview - Ron Thiessen
09/02 Splender Interview
10/02 Dragpipe Interview
10/02 Foo Fighters - One By One
10/02 Goldrush - Live - Camden, Dingwalls
10/02 Hell Is For Heroes - Live - Brixton Academy , London
|  | 10/02 Jetplane Landing - Live - Grage , London
10/02 Kinesis - Live - Grage , London
10/02 Ladytron - Seveteen
10/02 Longwave - Live - Water Rats, London
10/02 My Computer - Live - Camden Monarch, London
10/02 Polyphonic Spree - Tour Dates
10/02 Silvertide Interview
10/02 Simian - Live - Bethnal Green Working Men's Club, London
10/02 System of A Down - Steal This Album
10/02 Talib Kweli - Quality
12/02 A - Live - Brixton Academy, London
12/02 Audio Bullys - We Don't Care
12/02 Aurelius 7 Interview
12/02 Burning Brides Interview
12/02 D4 - Live - Mean Fiddler, London
12/02 Kickrollers
12/02 Top Ten Albums 2002
January 2001
July - August 2001
September - October 2001
November - December 2001
January - March 2002
April - July 2002
August - December 2002 | |
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