LA Lore
- 19 Feb 07, 02:40 PM
Back in 1935, an Ulster songwriter called Jimmy Kennedy was so enthralled by a Portstewart evening that he wrote ΅®Red Sails In The Sunset΅―, a tune later recorded by Louis Armstrong, Nat King Cole and Bing Crosby. Fast forward to 2007 and some young punks from Whitehead called Switch 14 are also writing about the Antrim coastline.
However, there΅―s no rosy glow to their tune. ΅®By The Sea΅― is a sustained moan about the lack of rock and roll facilities in this seaside town. Verse by verse, they mither and rubbish the place, while the guitars clatter and a very youthful singer makes petulant faces. Every day might be like Sunday in your world, but does your music have to sound like it?
Welcome to the second year of ATL Rock School, a clearing house for imminent talent and flailing chancers. In Switch 14΅―s case, the average ago is 14 and so their ill-aimed attack is forgivable. Some others are visibly dying in front of the cameras. The Humbleweeds play lumpen indie-synth, and the judging panel (Neil Hannon, Michael McKeegan and NME΅―s James Jam) is quite savage. Derry act The Q are probably too cool for this sort of thing while Post Mortem noodle and thrash with empty precision.
But hooray for Nice ΅®N΅― Sleezy, a band made of hairspray, leopardskin and rock lore. They come from Enniskillen but their metier is the sound of Hollywood and Sunset Strip. Neil Hannon says that it΅―s a bag of star-spangled clich¨¦s, but fun with it. The others agree. And so it΅―s a Sleezy triumph, another milestone on the corpse-spattered road to Wonderland Avenue.
΅°We΅―re the saviours of rock and roll,΅± they promise. ΅°If you don΅―t know us, then your daughters will.΅±
And by the way, mine aren΅―t coming out.
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