Thunder Bunny

It can sometimes feel a little false and pre-meditated when a modern band sounds exactly like the ‘sound’ from a specific era. Lots of the time it can be a sound fashionable at the time. The shoegaze scene is a clear influence on lots of the noisey and droney bands around today, and the Phil Spector wall of sound is seeing a good resurgence, too. IOf course it is increasingly difficult to be truly original, and it’s not necessarily a negative criticism of a band to sound exactly like the bands of a movement from yesteryear (The Horrors’ Primary Colours springs to mind, sounding a carbon copy of the likes of The Chameleons), but it can hint at a lack of personal creativity or just lazy song-writing.

If there’s one band that would be allowed some leeway with this, though, it’s Thunder Bunny, seeing the 90’s is when they were first active and all. Although lead man Christopher Padula – and pretty much the only ‘proper’ band member since starting Thunder Bunny back in 1995 and resurrecting it with some friends recently – denies the shoegaze (hence the 90’s reference) sound, the layers of noise, the distant vocals, and the distorted guitar sounds do at least hint otherwise; though beneath the fuzz does lie beautiful and almost folk-y songs with some definite hints of psychedelia and pop. Sometimes building from slow-paced acoustic guitar lines, a staple of the sound are guitars sounding like they were recorded in another room with the doors shut and Christopher’s calming, ethereal, and slightly effeminate vocals.

Head to their MySpace page for more information. Download “The World Gathered To Watch Him Fade Away” and “Sleepy Head” from Ashtapes here, stream and download Storm below, or here if that doesn’t work, where you can also buy tonnes of Thunder Bunny releases old and new.

Thunder Bunny - Storm

Well, This Is Just Darn Lovely: Teen Daze - Beach Dreams

I know it's not an especially sociable hour (in the UK at least), but Teen Daze have posted a new song on their bandcamp page and it's lovely. So lovely it even features Christmassy harmonies and jingly bells. Listen below, or at their bandcamp page:

Old Smile

Listening to my HypeMachine favourited blog-list whilst doing a bit of writing, two bands caught my attention enough to write a mental note to find out their name once I'd finished these few sentences - one with some wonderful psychedelic and jazzy pop reminding me of Connan Mockasin, the other bare and beautiful folk. Upon finishing the sentences and researching the names of these bands, the two bands were in fact just one, and this band was Old Smile.

Old Smile is apparently the project of a Tom Herman, who is apparently also of the band Arches (who maybe I should check out more of). This information isn't particularly important. What is important is that the music of Old Smile, and EP Hawkins Bridge, is lovely.

On his bandcamp, Tom tags himself with "ambient", "pop", and "psychedelic", which gives a good insight into his sound. "Mirrors" opens with a Portishead-like walking bass-line and rattling, jazzy snare rolls; slowly opening up with Tom's unusually high-pitched and effected vocals (again the Connan Mockasin comparison is relevant) and gently echoing guitar strums. "Swept Up With The Tide" continues in beautiful, psychedelic tendencies, this time with clear folk influences and "Want To Be" has at least a few Deerhunter moments - the EP rumbles and crackles, like the record you'd expect to hear in the basement of a vintage furniture store.

Stream and download Hawkins Bridge below, or do the same at their bandcamp. You can also purchase the cassette from Treetop Sorbet

Sauna Youth

Having an obsession with the Ramones is no bad thing. Try to search for the word "criticism" on their Wikipedia page and you won't find it. Proof, if anybody needed it, that the punks are a perfect band to aspire to be like.

Take Brighton's Sauna Youth. They might not sound exactly like the Ramones, but they certainly take a lot of influence from - from the simple, fast-paced, driving motorik-like drum-beat; to the raucous racket; to the general punk ethic. But far from being plain old punk rock (not that there is anything wrong with that, other than a band doing that today would be lacking at least a little in originality), the four-piece break up noisey, thrashing guitars and angry shouts with some experimentation; namely through lengthy moments of looping noise and drone, often combined with story-telling, with tales of swimming pools and masturbation.

Another advocate of doing-it-yourself, the band have self-released a number of limited-runs of cassettes and often put on their own gigs (often in less usual venues, such as an alcohol-free, all ages community centre) - although they will soon be teaming up Sex Is Disgusting (Mazes/Spectrals split, Prize Pets, Human Hair etc) which I think is an equally sensible move. According to MySpace, they have an LP upcoming which, along with releases from Pheromoans and Human Hair, makes 2011 looking like it will be an exciting year for DIY punk. Quite excited that my girlfriend now lives in Brighton, too.

Download the digital version of one of their tapes here, two songs from Pinglewood, and stream some (as well as reading some better words) at futuresoundstemporary. You can also read some of their band's own words at their blog, and buy the cassettes (the ones that aren't sold-out) at their online shop.

The Black Tambourines

Most holidays, I go back home to Plymouth to visit friends and family. It's nice to see them, but going back can be a little depressing with just how non-existent the music scene is in the South-West (beyond Bristol...) of England as a whole. That's why I assumed that the blog No Fear Of Pop must have made some sort of a mistake when featuring a band from "the very southwest of the United Kingdom".

Cornwall's (Falmouth, to be more geographically accurate) The Black Tambourines are the perfect blend of everything that's big right now; surf, garage rock, punk, and noise. It might seem like a band trying to jump on the hipster band wagon, but it's more likely a combination of a range of influences and a DIY ethic from a band simply wanting to make music that they love.

With a split release with New Years Evil out now on the exciting Art Is Hard Records and a slowly growing blog-buzz around them, The Black Tambourines both have an interesting few months ahead of them and have got me looking forward to going home for Christmas.

The split is available to buy from Rough Trade here or from Art Is Hard's online store here, or to stream the whole set from their SoundCloud here.

I Don't Wanna Be Yr Lover - The Black Tambourines

Tommy - The Black Tambourines