The Recommender

Does anyone actually read these rambling entrances to each Recommender post?!? We use them as a way to talk more generally and occasionally directly to the audience. Still it’s often pointless, but then that’s perhaps our little way of allowing all roads to lead to the important stuff, the music. So here it is – dive in.

YES GIANTESS

We met up with this Boston collection a few weeks back at The Great Escape and had the chance to back slap them after we’d seen what was a wonderful live performance. At first I woke the next day thinking that perhaps it was my booze-induced haze that made me love them so much, but in the cold light of day I returned to them to find that my drunken instincts are all in working order. Nice. Getting releases on the Neon Gold label, whom we love so very much, as well as the below song getting onto the ‘Sisters’ compilation from white hot French label, Sister Phunk, they are clearly getting the uber-cool backing in numbers. You will likely think of Passion Pit upon first listen, but there’s some great fried keyboards and a stomping, yet lo-fi thump beat in there which is as fresh as the sea breeze. It’s happy, it’s sophomore, it has themes about girls from geeky guys, but all in all it’s totally endearing. Somebody fucking sign them!!

Find them here:      Myspace

Hear them here:      YES GIANTESS – TUFF N’ STUFF (ysi)

FILTHY DUKES

The inbox of any blogger’s email account is both a blessing and a bastard. It’s irritatingly overflowing with crap recommendations from a hundred useless promo companies and equally it’s a fantastic resource for discovering new bands that you would have otherwise missed. Well, Filthy Dukes, have suffered from our inbox fatigue. They’ve floated in and out of it for months and although we try to listen to each and every track we’re sent, except for those from repeat offenders, it sometimes means it can take a while to get around to all of them. We knew these guys from their famous Kill Em All nights at Fabric, as well as many hot spots around London, with their awesome, pounding Electro-Rock. It’s with the track we attach below that the energy was found to finally take them out of the inbox and onto The Recommender. They released their album, Nonsence In The Dark, back in March on the Polydor label. Try it out, or feel your way through the many remixes they’ve produced, from Late Of The Pier, to White ies, To Bloc Party, as well as the band listed below, Hockey. Now that’s the smoothest link we’ve ever done. We should be radio DJ’s!!!

Find them here:         Myspace

Hear them here:        FILTHY DUKES – NONSENSE IN THE DARK (ysi)

HOCKEY

Pop-Rock that follows the bassline as it’s leader is what you get with this Portland gang. With all their funk and clap-along beats we really should love them here at The Recommender, but when we caught their live set recently, supporting Friendly Fires, with whom they share a box of tricks, we found them coming up a little short. Although they have the samples and the hooks and influences from LCD Soundsystem, to The Strokes, to the aforementioned Friendly Fires, their parts sadly don’t quite make up the whole. Their tunes are boring and lack a pair of bollocks. It’s fancy dress Pop-Rock that lets you down in the same disappointing way The Killers manage to. It’s trying too hard, right down to the trendy haircuts and sweatbands. We are perhaps being a little harsh here, as lots of blogs love them and we must admit that they sound better on our stereo than they do live, as the basslines stand up stronger. Perhaps that’s just our stereo though. They seem to be pulling their showboat around almost every major festival in the UK this summer, followed by a UK-wide tour through September, so you are bound to get a chance to judge them for yourselves some time in the near future. Of course, you should let us know your thoughts as always…

Find them here:        Myspace

Hear them here:       HOCKEY – TOO FAKE (ysi)

We would love to end on a more profound note than we started, but we ain’t sure if you read this bit either, so balls to it. Until the next one folks…
Mike