Indulgent and sarcastically bland in the way that made The Fall or The Ramones great, this is Don’t Tread on Spiders from Cardiff. Led by the strange, ambitious and ever cheerful Sonny Day, the band released Russian Doll, their second EP at the beginning of the year.
Undoubtedly, Bearded’s readers will be falling over themselves to learn that DTOS are NME’s “#1 Breaking Band”. In their zeal for DIY, the record is badly produced: a shapeless and hollow mix that places too much confidence in the wonders of Cubase. These days of course, skill rarely matters and DTOS are exactly the kind of band you’d write off as a disposable novelty act aimed at teenagers, only to whip round to bite you on the ass later on.
It’s the title track, the EP’s opening that steals the show: a simple riff driven piece of hypnotic weirdness and spooky Post Punk glam. The tacky feel – the same enjoyable gothic tackiness of Beetlejuice – is topped only by its hilarious home made music video. Maybe ‘Get Up and Go’ with its dragging rock n’ roll repetition and unnecessary flanger effects never quite got up and went because it was quickly swept aside by the tender grunge of ‘Wasted You’ and the bitter love ballad ‘Like a Cloud’.
So after gathering support and an award, what’s next? Well, few bands manage to keep a good balance between the music and the show but if DTOS manage to soften their love of statement and theatrics then the music will have space to grow, as was proven in the recent surprise success of The Horrors last year. Russian Doll contains themes and material that will work in their favour. Given time, the fore mentioned Tim Burton tack could become David Cronenberg blood and guts. And even if this is not their desired direction, an ability to laugh at themselves will protect them from an unforgiving Music Industry and the fad obsessed Guardians of Cool over at NME.
(© Copyright 2010 Brendan Morgan)
No comments:
Post a Comment