Your new favourite band is Pris

Pris could well be my new favourite band. They don’t have a single out, just a fascinating web presence and some top tunes. Here’s why you’ll love them too;

1. They deploy the classic cool line up. That being a four piece, three girls with a bloke shoved away behind the drums.
2. They always look like they are having ridiculous fun. Probably because they are.
3. Their melodies course through the veins of their pop songs, before infiltrating your heart.
4. They are DIY and beautifully so. Not in an ‘I can’t be arsed to learn to play my instrument way’, but in a ‘let’s have a crack at this ourselves’ way, and part of the fun is the hiccups along the way.
5. Because if you love Kenickie, Shampoo, Voodoo Queens and their ilk, you’ll love them. Because you obviously have great taste.
6. They want to kill all indie landfill bands, and leave us with a purely glamour filled pop world.
7. Remember when the Manics were young and glam and proper dangerous? That’s Pris.

There you are, the magnificent seven reasons to love them. If you want one more, check out the video for Blue Tack Baby below or find them on Facebook or Myspace

The Go Team! – Rolling Blackouts

Recently I saw a documentary about New York in 1977. Crammed into an hour and a half was the emergence of disco, The Loft and Studio 54, hip hop, DJs and their street light hotwiring, punk and CBGBs, the Son of Sam serial killer, the blackout, the suburbs on fire and being looted, swingers clubs and chaotic mayoral elections. I’d wager this sensory overload is somewhat akin to an album by The Go! Team. As you’ll see from their third album, the appropriately named Rolling Blackouts, they were born for those times. Most of the stuff here could easily have been made then or soundtracked that documentary. For example Tornado sounds like a cut up blaxpoitation movie, with kids breakdancing outside the movie theatre and cops sirens blaring past, while Apollo Throwdown is like double dutching it around the floor. When the clouds part and some space is allowed in, such as on recent single Buy Nothing Day, it all makes perfect sense. When this happens the hundreds of disparate pieces gel together sweetly rather than elbowing each other for room. It does often feel like there is a tendency to throw everything into the melting pot and see what works, rather than pick and choose and use some quality control. An instance when they do take a step back on Yosemite Theme, things are spacious and less cluttered so they work much better. It’s beautifully panoramic and slow moving. There are good parts to this album, and a good band here, if only the producer or someone would step in with some good advice. One to cherry pick from.

Rolling Blackouts is out now on Memphis Industries

The Go Team! website is here