Oooh look at this, a band who have picked up on the Batman theme tune, added a Hammond, put it on full reverb, and voila, “Death at the Chapel” is heralded as inventive and new; and the blatant Stranglers rip-off “Sheena is a Parasite” (DVD only release) is deemed a track that will “Save Rock n Roll”, and as a result, THE HORRORS are bunged on the front of the NME. Quelle
surprise.
Fair play to the youngsters, its quite a coup to be plastered on the front of a famous weekly music mag so early into their music careers. Or is it? Let’s take a further look…
The Horrors have been going for about 3 years (remember that bit, it’s important), and legend has it that Chris Cunningham (producer of Aphex Twin music videos) “picked” The Horrors off MySpace, to produce a low-budget yet blinding 1.5 minute video for “Sheena is a Parasite”, staring actress Samantha Morton, who is rather convincingly writhing around and flashing her intestines all over the place. Subsequently, their single “Death at the Chapel” (plus DVD single “Sheena is a Parasite”), has already sold out, and The Horrors are on the up, out of nowhere, a product of sheer talent (quite) and originality (debatable), brought to success on the crest of the wave of a solid and devoted fan-base.
So, their MySpace site to date has had 126417 views [figure subject to change], but saying that, although it has the odd comment from band members (apparently), it looks very typically like it is managed by some A&R lacky in a dingy office in London (forgive the poetic license here, but you get my drift). So what? You may ask…
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Well, if you have a MySpace website instead of a normal website, make it a bit personal, film a low-budget video (but with some highly credible names to give it more gravitas), and only release 1500 copies of the single (hence the rapid sell-out) - there you go, Automatic Plastic Authenticity. The most important bit here, and call me a cynic if you will, but the record label that The Horrors are signed to, Loog Records, was founded by former NME editor James Oldham, *about 3 years ago*. Yes folks, round about the time when The Horrors "formed". Miss Marple, eat your heart out.
The whole process looks organic and “Indie”, but in fact it is as much a cynical/elaborate PR stunt as the Sandi Thom palaver (recorded in a budget-basement in Tooting MY ARSE). In terms of origin, there is no difference between the two. Frankly, the whole deal smacks of manufactured Boy Band-ism, it patronises the fans, and in a nut-shell, pisses writers like me right off. B'stards.
Ps: For those out there who quite like the sound The Horrors are churning out, but want some real inginuity, check out bands such as Celebration(on 4AD), they've been doing it a lot longer, and they're scary as fuck. Proper Bo like.
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