Young Knives

I don’t go out of my way to attend album launches. It’s hardly revelatory, nor especially_ new_, news that most industry sorts aren’t entirely pleasant people – most scurry from scribe to scribe at said events, buttering them lightly before verbally spit-roasting them to another set of ears once a designated safe distance away. Granted, that’s the scenario at any local boozer on a Friday night, but still: I really don’t take a great deal of pleasure from mixing with false smiles and insincere handshakes.

The Young Knives are perkily quirky sorts, though, so it comes as no surprise to me when the invitation to attend their evening of free booze and loud indie-rock confirms that it’s to be a peculiarly unique event. A summer fete-style party, featuring a series of games and challenges – the coconut shy, guess how many sweets in the jar, ‘splat the rat’ (at which DiS editor Colin Roberts excels, incidentally – should it become an Olympic event by 2012, the GB team need look no further for their star man) – the RSVP’s sent as soon as is physically possible. The band themselves play for thirty minutes, and the sweat soaked deep into their shirts come the combustive conclusion is the perfect indication of their commitment to entertaining those before them, even at an event such as this.

A simple playback this isn’t. The three-piece run through a series of album tracks to genuinely appreciative applause. ‘Mystic Energy’ is delivered first – an entirely appropriate gesture considering its inability to scale the heights achieved by other compositions, in these ears at least – before the likes of ‘Coastguard’ _and _‘The Decision’ _separate the liggers and free-booze-hounds from those actually losing themselves in the band’s sparkling yet raucously mannered indie-rock. No, it’s not wildly inventive stuff. No, the album in question, _Voices Of Animals And Men, is unlikely to be ranked as an all-time classic by Monthly Glossy Magazine X several years from now. No, the band don’t look the slightest bit like stereotypical rock ‘n’ rollers lapping up the syrupy hype that precedes said record’s release. But they are tremendous fun, and eminently watchable as they twist and turn their way through material of a strong-enough quality to infect dancing shoes the country over.

A pair of singles – ‘She’s Attracted To’ and ‘Weekends And Bleak Days (Hot Summer)’ – comprise predictable highlights, but the set isn’t punctuated by four-minute fillers: as this review so clearly states, The Young Knives’s debut is a strong long-player, full of itchy riffs and scattered post-punk beats. They’re one of the finest exponents of pop-punk around, taking the maligned term back from baggy-shorted upstarts residing across the sea. These songs fizz and bubble with boisterous energy, and leave next to everyone attending this entertaining, enjoyable album launch salivating for a longer performance.

I’m no exception: expect to see me down the front at their next ‘proper’ London show. Just don’t distract me with business talk about how your latest signing is going to set the world alight, okay…