Stratford Upon Avon’s ANTIHERO are an ultra-confident bunch of lads with cool names like Pistol Pete Hurley, Davo Attitude, Jack Handsome and um, Marcus (anyone remember Vim, Den, Spider and Colin from Bad News?). They’re the nemesis of the current crop of art college bands, on a mission to recapture the Britrock crown and their chaotic punky pop is just the sort of stuff to leave those foppish types cowering beneath their side partings and wishing they’d never left film school.
"This Is An Emergency" is a well-rounded record packed with frenetic, furious blasts of rock and roll. Early track ‘Don't Trust The DJ’ is a snappy, dancey little number; ‘UK Garage Girl’ is full of slightly more chart friendly tunesmithery but still manages to be more hyper than a kids’ birthday party. The Ritalin comes out for ‘Trapped Inside The Record’, with its unexpected, simple piano and clean guitar and ‘Why Do You Look So Scared’ also shows that the Antihero boys can slow things down, a little bit at least. Don’t panic though, they’re only feigning subtlety, as you’ll realise when you put on ‘Feelbad Hit Of The Summer’ - it’s a right headbanger; you could imagine the Ordinary Boys coming up with something like this if they were locked in a room with nothing more than a case of Stella, some super-strength Korean ginseng and a copy of the Best Air Guitar Album In The World, Ever.
|
Placebo-ish current single ‘Body Rot’ is another one of the album highlights. As you can probably guess from the title, it’s a suitably angry affair, ‘Baby, baby our love is smashed and glued; baby baby, I sold my soul for attitude’, chirps the happy-go-lucky Pistol, ‘can’t stop, won’t stop; you make my body rot’.
"This Is An Emergency" is a self-assured debut record and this cocksure foursome have every right to be confident. They’ve got the tunes, the energy and apparently the looks to make an impact; surely their live show must be worth checking out too. In films, antiheroes don’t usually get too far, but this band have more resolve than Travis Bickle, more enthusiasm for their favourite form of recreation than Pat Bateman, and more malevolence and beef than um, evil Superman in Superman III. Antiheroes are also usually far too mental to have a proper plan and there in lies the biggest difference – the Antihero lads know what they have to do. It involves breaking into your house, smashing your stereo and waking you up with a sharp kick to the knackers. An emergency? Alarms are about to start ringing all over the land.
|
