Royal Blood, In Conversation

Photo by Ben Thatcher (@BenjiTalent)

Around this time last year, I heard Royal blood for the first time. “Out Of The Black” sounded at once violent, forceful and almost brutal yet it was very melodic and at times catchy. “Figure It Out” had the same force behind it but was more complex and had an undeniable swing to it. They had that incredible sound too. Big, thunderous drums and a guitar sound that seemed so meaty and sonically diverse that it was hard to distinguish between bass and guitar parts. But the overpowering thing about it was the tightness of the playing. These were guys who had played together for a long time and knew their material back to front, obviously. Imagine my surprise then as I found out that there was only two of them, there was no guitar and they had only been together for a matter of months before recording the songs. I was impressed before, now I was amazed. 

Face - Big Chief

I've heard it argued by people (especially with the recent 20^th anniversary of Nevermind) that Grunge was the last big movement in Rock and Roll. Since 1994 when Kurt Cobain chose to remove himself from the equation, there has not been a sub-genre that has equalled the resonance that grunge had with the general populace or even just the music press. And it's true that “the Seattle sound” was one of the last local scenes to make itself known to the world in such a big scale. Like Liverpool and San Francisco in the 1960's or New York In the late 1970's or Manchester in the late 1980's the Northwest scene exploded and then died down a few short years later. Like all of these local scenes that were suddenly popular, bands that didn't sound a whole lot like each other were all pigeonholed together based on their geographical location. For example, Mudhoney and Pearl Jam are a world away from each other in terms of the tone of their sound and their style, yet as they are both Seattle bands from the late 1980's and early 1990's they are “Grunge”. Even bands that were not from the Seattle area were given the label, just because they happened to be loud, indie-rock bands from America. It's a tag that many bands have tried to shrug off but some of them bear more similarities to the genre as a whole than many of the bands who originated in the Pacific Northwest.

Eyes Adrift - Eyes Adrift

The word supergroup, to me at least, has always had negative connotations. I always thought they were made up of musicians whose ego's have outgrown their current bands and have decided to go and make records with people more worthy of them. Plus the music is rarely as good as anything any of the musicians have done before. I once heard someone comparing it to food. Taking various aspects of your favourite foods and combining them isn't necessarily going to make something amazing. Music is not just about good musicianship, which is something that supergroups tend to overlook.

After turning my nose up at all of this, it may seem contrary of me to then extol the virtues of a band who are essentially a 90's alt rock supergroup. You would be right. But I'm going to do it anyway.

Get Saved - Pilot To Gunner

The second (and possibly last) album by Pilot To Gunner is one of the unheard gems of the early 2000's indie rock scene. Because they were a fairly new band from New York, that wore black t-shirts they were often unfairly lumped in with a lot of Emo bands that were becoming popular at the same time. The combination of loud guitars, shouted lyrics and angst got them tarred with the same brush as quite a few, lets just say “lesser” bands. The album's artwork doesn't really help them to ditch the tag though. That swirly font and the bright pink contrasting with the black and white photo of the band bound and gagged, is pretty typical of the vast number of commercial Emo albums that were appearing around the time. But Pilot To Gunner's lyrical content was rather more socially and politically orientated than most Emo bands. Very few of these songs seem to be introspective. The vast majority in fact are all about knowing what’s going on around you.

Moonhead - Thin White Rope

-->Guy Kyser scares me. At least his voice does. He is the only singer I have ever come across that I am convinced wants to kill me. But I do get the feeling he would feel sorry about it afterwards. Every word he sings on this record is growled with such ferocity and anguish that it can only come from a thoroughly dark place. He seems so tortured and carved up by these words that forcing them out of his mouth causes him serious pain. Whilst this should be a rather unsettling thing to hear, and it can be at times, it is also totally compelling. You can’t help but want to hear about what is causing this man to snarl so much. You are both wary of his anger and intrigued by it.

Thin White Rope are considered to be one of the bands from the paisley underground. A group of bands from the western states who were infusing 60’s rock with punk sensibilities to create some of the better records from the early 1980’s. However TWR really have little in common with bands like The Long Riders or Rain Parade. There are elements of that scene in this record but it’s altogether a much darker affair. The desert imagery, the big, wide open space of the sound and the anger of it all made Thin White Rope stand apart from their peers. Probably in a corner, looking a bit pissed off.