Monday, November 08, 2004
New York Cares
So far, Abstractboy's search for Bands To Believe in has been rather UK centric - it's fairly rare that American bands on the up get much attention at the moment with the current climate of creating a Marketable Scene (see NME's Libertines Soap Opera, co-produced by Alan McGee) in London/ all of the UK. One band that I have seen recently has been impossible to blog about due to a total lack of press coverage and a fairly empty official website. This band is the Prosaics and it is very hard to understand why they haven't had the NME slobbering all over their well-cut black suits. SO I will instead.
The Prosaics are a three piece, formed two years ago in New York. They are Andy Comer (guitar/vocals), Bill Kuehn (drums) and Joshua Zucker (bass). None of them are actually from New York, but then again Jonny Borrel is from Winchester, so the fact that they fled their middle-american roots in search for Something Bigger, Something Brighter shows that they have the right ideas. Their sound is dissonant, melodic, empowering, grand, sweeping. It sounds like a more grand, but slightly more abstract Interpol. They have that same sort of urgency and anguish that accompanies most of Interpol's debut album, but the vocals are more drowned in the heavy and powerful, Joy Division-esque music. The sound created sounds like it must be from a much bigger band than the three piece that they are and when they play live it sounds just as powerful and impressive as on their just released debut EP, Aghast Agape.
This EP is really quite excellent. It is a bargain, first of all. Five songs for £2.99, not a single dud track. Singer, Andy Comer, sounds like Morrissey at times, which is also very good. And the melodies in songs like Now the Shadow of the Column are blissful beyond belief and the basslines are just wonderful. Crawling is more angular and could be one of Bloc Party's finest moments. The Prosaics manage to sound both very very now and relevant, but also timeless. Like Joy Division, or even perhaps Interpol, this is so elegant and wonderfully crafted that you can imagine people finding it just as excellent in 20 years time. Their label, Matador (same as Interpol) has kindly put an mp3 of Teeth for you to download here.
posted by Unknown at 11/08/2004 04:50:00 pm
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