Tonight is the first of four consecutive night's gigs at the Buffalo Bar this week as part of the Artrocker Festival. I have always hated Artrocker and, having listened to the band that were headlining this gig on myspace yesterday where one of their 'songs' is just the lead singer reading the Jabberwocky section from Through The Looking Glass over some mediocre, moody music, it is hard to not just continue with this hatred by posting negative things about them on the internet whilst ignoring that this festival ever existed. But sadly I have started to like some of the bands that they have been championing and tonight's openers are one of those bands.
THOMAS TANTRUM
Thomas Tantrum sound like a bunch of indie kids who want to play modern indie music but were raised on The Pixies, Sonic Youth and Weezer. Mixing somewhat chunky, guitar riffs with unnerving, almost off-key guitar twiddles, they still manage to sound somewhat pop. I'm not a fan of The Pixies, Sonic Youth and that entire musical movement, but Thomas Tantrum manage to keep me interested and this is in no small part due to Meg Thomas' lead vocals. Managing to sound like a nine year old private school girl who can't quite hide her accent, and she's better for not hiding it. Kate Nash similarities are almost certainly going to come about if they haven't already, but these would be lazy. Speaking between songs you can hear that the dialect is entirely natural and this makes her all the more charming.
The two songs that were played that I had previously heard, Shake It Shake It and Why The English Are Rubbish, stand out from the set as obvious singles amongst the otherwise album tracks and these are where Meg's vocals are even more prominent which brings me to the band's only real fault in my eyes. While they're an entertaining and promising outfit, who seem bound to get a little more attention even if they're never likely to reach the charts, Meg's vocals are their selling point and without them they really don't stand out from the crowd. I will definitely be making sure to see them again sometime soon though, but will try to make sure that it's on a better bill free of arthouse toss.
http://www.myspace.com/thomastantrumband
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2 comments:
Nice work, Simmo. Thomas Tantrum are ace. I'll be bookmarking Shit Talker and expecting big things from you. No pressure, obv.
Thanks Gem. You took my comment virginity. I feel a little violated but I enjoyed it. And I'm putting so much pressure on myself that I don't think that I'd feel pressure by other people, so it's fine.
Thanks for reading.
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