madsquirrel

I always thought it's only the english who eat sausages for breakfast. sausages and toast. that is: sausages and toast and baked beans. and added to that some bacon and fried egg. every morning. possibly in the evening as well.:-)

How else would it be possible, that flat, dull and uninspired crap like the Horrors or White Lies gets celebrated here? Because of the high standard of their music?! Please!

and that guy should definitely stop singing.

Because PENS are just pretentious, there's nothing remotely real about this band. DIY coolness here is completely mistaken for an inability to write good songs or being remotely original let alone creative. There are gazillions of bands all over the country playing primitive punk similar to this outfit, the main difference is: they're honest in an unfashionable way. PENS are just fashionable. There's nothing substantial behind them. The music is shit. Can you imagine how their second album will sound? Do you think there will be any progression? Thank god that's exactly why they will be forgotten very soon.

it get's even worse here...

The are a force live, too.

it's dull, repetitive, steals from the past and is overall depressingly shit and overrated, they can't play and the guy can't sing. so, this is the pinnacle of british indie? poor country.

What a poor and dislikable review. No-one likes the Twang here anyway (me included), so the review is just giving the majority of the readers what they want. But then the reviewer addresses 'Twang fans' (as if there are any on here) and says something totally brave IN CAPITALS. Wow... that's so... brave, right?!

certainly not. all of them are more like softened down indie. oh, and by the way, all of them are completely shit, too.

...then we live in truly dire times. And her vocal quality has absolutely nothing to do with it. But just copy and pasting the sound and style of early 80s synth pop, that was once cutting edge (and since then of course never was again), is just lazy und unimagainative. And so dull. It's as fresh as doing the whole 60s thing again. So if this is the sound of 2009, by 2010 it will be completely forgotten.

are great! They're really good live, they have perfect pop songs and the singer, Hacker or what's his name, is really funny. They deserve more attention. Good luck to them!

but partly judging a band though on their fanbase is a bit...wrong, right? and I'm not even a kasabian fan, never were and never will be. what counts is the music - and that alone. for me anyway.

it's not AGAIN another band putting on synths and drum machines in a desperate attempt to be different. it has been done too many times and mostly really really badly. plus it's really commonplace these days, right?
they're not the best band in the world, but they're quite good and fairly distinctiv. couldn't say anything bad about them although I haven't heard this album yet.

you don't really 'get' what's 'cool', do you?

what, you want even MORE songs about love, joy, sex, hatred and anger? I prefer reading books about these things. And btw it's hippie, not hippy.

but this isn't any worse than, say, White Lies and the Horrors. They are aqually contrived. Why White Lies or the Horrors get more Kudos is beyond me though. As I said, don't get me wrong: I dislike the Enemy. As I do the other two bands.

It's not as great as many put it, but it's good. These guys kinda try to do something different at least and for that they're credible and therefore better than most other UK bands...

is the guy's name.

Then I probably won't like them...

I know.

yeah. but hey, they LOOK cool and use synths, which is enough for the lipster. same with lissy trullie some weeks back: she really looks cool on her myspace pix, with that leather jacket and fag in her mouth, although her music is AT LEAST so 2004 and utterly forgettable...

he just can't sing. have you heard their music? I think it's comlete crap anyway.

I can't see anything that's 'breathtaking' on this record. sounds dull, the guy can't sing, absolutely no dynamics in the song. every single songs just plods along. breathtaking?? more breathtakingly uninspired.

guys are too easy to impress.:-)

are a terrible live band.

...made my cat puke a couple of times. it's very sensitive. so whenever they are played on the radio, I switch it off quickly.

...is the new female bon jovi.

...says so?! soul, funk, jazz is just for black people then? classic just for teachers?! kids can't listen to...say... black sabbath? and it's wrong for my older sister to listen to...whatever...cajun dance party?
sorry man, but what a superficial argument...

It still doesn't even come close.

I mean.

how comes this gets a 6 and something ridiculous like white lies gets a 7 here?!? the world turnde upside down...

...should have some talent instead of pseudo-hip clothes.

it's only 3 minutes, but it manages to be so damn boring.

...the Trail of Dead are back!!! Whatever any critic says or not, one thing is for sure: this is a band that easily outdoes any other guitar band on the planet, in every aspect. I haven't heard it yet, but even the bad reviews of the last two albums couldn't stop me buying them and hey - they are indeed good! it's strange but this band really means something.

from my personal experince I can only say, that the whole development has a lot to do with the people who run labels, publishing companies etc.
I'm in a band and some years back an indie label wanted to sign us. the first thing on the agenda of the label for us was to meet a stylist. I mean... excuse me?! what about talking about the deal, the music, prospects? no, it had to be the fuckin' stylist. so learn this folks: to labels, even a small indie label!, the most important thing is how you look - that seems to be te biggest selling point. the deal didn't happen needless to say...
then some time later, a publisher wanted to sign us. it took our manager some time to bargain for the right deal, I think it was 6 months or so. they cancelled the deal literally at the last minute, because some-one from their company saw us play and deceided we look to old. on that ground, it would be not possible to market us in the UK. again, it wasn't the music that counted. again, it was looks.
I think these stories aren't exactely new. but it explains why even small labels don't have any credibility anymore, because many act exactely as major labels do. that's why even 'indie' labels don't even release good bands anymore because it's more important if you and your dress code fit into a scene - if the music's good, that's a bonus. not vise versa.

...is just so middle of the road. And boring...

...good! I really enjoyed that video. seems to be a good band.

is it great though? I'm not sure.

...at all.

...black kids are a band with kinda nice, fun pop songs. a band my older sister would like, my mum and dad and probably my gran too. nice jangly harmless indie pop (I came to really hate the term), once again. nice pop hooks and everything and at the same time dead boring and so predictable.

why for god's sake aren't there any more REALLY exciting bands out there, I mean bands that are REALLY exciting, not the kind of fake stinking media stunt and PR excitement??!?

portishead's ok, the rest is average and foals pretty poor. one of the most boring albums so far this year, repetitive and shallow and every song sounds like the one before...

pissing!

you've got no idea how I regret missing this show! one of the few musical acts that have something to say. I love them a lot!

in a time without any heroes... it's good to have the boss!
hey, what about tunnel of love?

kind of sad what indie has become, innit? this is one terrible example... fake fake fake and awfully dreadful.

this man made a fair point.