The Victorian English Gentlemens Club release new single 'Parrot'
Announce new UK Tour Dates June 26, 2009, 04:31 PM Views: 383
Comments: 0
by mark191082 [More from this Author]  September 2009 sees the release of The Victorian English Gentlemens Club's sophomore album, 'Love On An Oil Rig', heralded on July 6th by a new single, 'Parrot'.
'Parrot' started life as a sappy acoustic song written by Adam and was promptly assassinated by a revolted Louise, via the power of a triple distorted bass tuned lower than Josef Fritzl's parenting ability. It's a stripped down, isolated tale of loneliness caused by a silenced bird, a failed attempt at dub and guitars pushed beyond musical use, with a full thirteen seconds of a tune somewhere near the end.
Since the release of their first album The Victorian English Gentlemens Club toured for too long, then locked themselves away. They wrote 100 songs, disposed of 88 humanely, and have now laid out the remaining dozen on a 3? silver platter, for your dirty soul to revel in.
Their previous opus was based on a severe lack of musical understanding; their eponymous debut saw them groping their instruments like over-anxious teenagers, fast, furious and lots of fun. Their second is full of confidence and somewhat brutally, demands your respect.
'Love On An Oil Rig' takes triple distortion, the most obscure of harmonies and refracts them through the prism of pop. Where the first record wore its influences on its sleeve, this one stands alone. The stripped down primal ideas are defined and sharp, retaining their well-developed Art school sensibilities of the absurd, the outrageous and the other. A new drummer and fourth Club member has been recruited to enhance the ferocity of their sound, taking the noise to the next level with offset guitars, shouts and wails.
The first album dealt with foetal burials, plastic windows and banning gin in 1840. The second features parrots, the primitiveness of modern life and sexual yearning on long distance lorry drives. It's hard not be intrigued by the titles alone: 'Love on An Oil Rig', 'Women Versus Children', and 'Periscope Envy'.
This is the sound of the purest voices, guitars, basses, drums, circular saws, churches, hands, boots, thoraxes and lungs, juxtaposed to an awkward perfection. The band do not and will not use keyboards, synthesisers or system three acrylic.
In the last two years they have performed in three forests, two churches and one circus. They still live in Cardiff. They collectively enjoy: effects pedals, Sonic Youth, bells, taxidermy seagulls, yellow mackintoshes, distortion, bonsai, black gaffer tape, bone and ivory dominoes and Wire.
LIVE DATES:
JULY
3 Cardiff Clwb Ifor Bach (single pre-launch show)
6 London The Lexington (single launch)
AUGUST
3 Manchester Ruby Lounge
4 Edinburgh Cabaret Voltaire
5 Glasgow King Tuts
6 York Fibbers
7 Newcastle Cluny
8 Bath Moles
9 Birmingham Flapper
THE VICTORIAN ENGLISH GENTLEMENS CLUB / HOME
| |
Rockin Relief auction raises $40K for the RSPCA Victorian Bushfire Appeal