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- The Subways »
It's not often you come across a band as badly dressed as The **Dirty Feel**. Looking like New Jersey natives desperate to blag their way into Studio 54, (or extras from Austin Powers), their willfully sleazy, but ultimately pedestrian pub funk is fleetingly entertaining if only for their gurning onstage facials. Although they will never do for white-boy funk what The Darkness did for falsetto hair metal, their current B-side 'Love In' is at least an amusing, testosterone-fueled grunt-fest.
You'd be mistaken in thinking that The Subways are some tweenie indie chancers plucked from obscurity by Eavis just nine months ago; in fact they've been toiling away and tirelessly touring since the end of 2002. They've cut their teeth, paid their dues and with their sophomore single 'Oh Yeah' soon to be released, their fanbase will increase exponentially. But tonight things do not start well for the Welwyn Garden City three-piece. Young Billy Lunn is not happy with the sound quality: between songs he asks politely for adjustments, before giving up and swearing at the soundman the aplomb of a down and out wino. But it's this frustration that spurs on drummer Josh**, Billy and his other half, bassist Mary-Charlotte**, igniting the spirit of rebellion as they surge towards a heady finale, their set scarcely grazing the 30 minute mark.
Billy might be barely out of his teens, but his howl is note perfect and certainly belies his age, coming in somewhere between Jason Von Bondie's squalid snarl and Craig Nicholl's petulant wail. However, it's bass minx Mary-Charlotte who is the true focal point. A rake thin dynamo, a whir of razored blonde hair, a coy bra strap slipping, she thrashes about the stage like a cat hawking up a fur ball. There's a reedy quality to her vocal which can grate, but it has enough bubblegum cuteness and rebel girl bite to be the perfect foil to Lunn's bluesy delivery, particularly on the fiery 'Rock 'n' Roll Queen_'. The Subways are not going to change the world, or re-arrange your brain. It's just party music, so go see them in some dingy dive bar, drink copiously and get scuzzy and sweaty and they'll make perfect sense. KTB
From the archive
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Going for Golden: Sky Larkin talk debut album
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In Photos: Sunset Rubdown @ Brudenell Social Club, Leeds
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In Photos: Bat for Lashes @ Sheffield University
The Subways
Re: The Subways
So, should I just avoid this lot altogether?
Re: The Subways
The Subways
Re: The Subways
The Subways
You WHAT!? Methinks the editor swapped the names there...
The Subways
The Subways
Whoever compared them to the Von Bondies should be shot too. The Von Bondies can PLAY for a start....

The Subways
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