Hearing Towns, the four-piece coming from to the north Somerset by now located in Bristol, you may listen to what may have happened had somebody coming from Camp Baggy and someone from Shoegaze Central escaped their own respective HQs, loved a night of musical interest, and had a child. The band with James MacLucas (vocals), John Paul Beaumont (guitar), Adam Hastings (bass), Miles Hastings (drums), they are where baggy meets shoegaze: shaggy, perhaps. There is desire and energy right here, without a doubt, but it is of the louche, listless kind.
They combine the "sun-shines-out-of-our-behinds"/"wanna-be-adored" Manc Narcissus persona with the floppy-fringed, feedback frenzies of their southern-softie counterparts. Gone Are the Days, their debut single, has been produced by Owen (Oasis, Verve) Morris, and it really does certainly have the momentum of Rock'N'Roll Star as well as the neo-psych freakery of early Verve. It's a statement of blurry intent, the singer lisping distractedly like the scion of Tim Burgess and Mark Gardner. Remember that photo session for the NME cover featuring the aforementioned Charlatans and Ride frontcuties in all their luscious-lipped glory? Towns' James MacLucas sounds as though he'd look that good, that pout to lunch.
They combine the "sun-shines-out-of-our-behinds"/"wanna-be-adored" Manc Narcissus persona with the floppy-fringed, feedback frenzies of their southern-softie counterparts. Gone Are the Days, their debut single, has been produced by Owen (Oasis, Verve) Morris, and it really does certainly have the momentum of Rock'N'Roll Star as well as the neo-psych freakery of early Verve. It's a statement of blurry intent, the singer lisping distractedly like the scion of Tim Burgess and Mark Gardner. Remember that photo session for the NME cover featuring the aforementioned Charlatans and Ride frontcuties in all their luscious-lipped glory? Towns' James MacLucas sounds as though he'd look that good, that pout to lunch.
Fields, another Towns track, is even baggier, reminiscent of There's No Other Way, that debut hit by Blur, who themselves were bastard sons of Manchester and Reading, those two key early-90s loci of the mind. The song also reminds us a bit of that novelty baggy-era hit single rendition of the Beatles' Strawberry Fields Forever, but let's just hope Towns' career follows the Blur route rather than the Candy Flip one. Heads Off is like something from the Creation stable, which makes sense from a band whose members used to run a club night in Bristol called Feed Me With Your Hiss, named after an old My Bloody Valentine song called Cigarette in Your Bed (that's a shoegazing joke, by the way).
Towns' next single, Just Everything, not due out till May, features that classic MBV guitar-as-vacuum-cleaner sound and a soaring chorus that suggests Owen Morris, at the controls once again, has found a way to balance the laddish and fey. They made us realise they are the resurrection, and so forth.
ass seen at : the guardian
ass seen at : the guardian