Thursday 2 November and it’s a mid-week sortie to Fibbers to check out the new Arctic Chiefs, er, Kaiser Monkeys, er, you get the picture. First up is the Duels, a five-piece from Leeds; Jon Foulger (vocals, guitar and keyboards), Jim Foulger (his brother, guitar), Jon Maher (bass and shouts a bit), James Kirkbright(drums), and Katherine (Jon and Jim’s cousin, keyboards, bells, branches and violin?). Duels formed from the ashes of band SammyUSA. Their first limited edition single ‘Potential Futures’ was released on the Transgressive Records label on 18 July 2005 and featured on the Fifa 2006 soundtrack. Their first album, ‘The Bright Lights And What I Should Have Learned’, was released on the Nude label on 31 July 2006. The band have since parted from Nude and this gig is part of their ‘The Barbarians Move In’ tour in advance of their new album of the same name. Their new single, ‘Pressure on You’, is due for release on 7 November 2005, bugger, too early! Duels toured with Graham Coxon, The Rakes, The Kooks, Kaiser Chiefs and The Zutons. They have played the V Festival, Reading and Leeds Festivals and opened the Main Stage at T in the Park in 2006. Apparently they’ve been together since 2004 and it certainly sounds like it. They are a tight band with the instruments producing a rich and complex sound that was breathtakingly good for a support act. My only disappointment was that there was no CD on sale at the back of the room; I was ripe for a purchase.
The next band had drawn its own group of devotees. I Was A Cub Scout are a two-piece from Nottingham (I can’t help saying Dottingham, as if I have a blocked nose; it’s from an old TV advertisement featuring a character called Malcolm.) IWACS consist of William Bowerman (drums) from Collingham, previously in Sixteen Hours, and Todd Marriott (vocals/synths/guitar) from Long Bennington, previously in Through Winter, both punk bands. Their first single ‘Pink Squares’ was released on 27 November 2006. They played over pre-programmed keyboards and frankly they need a third band member. How can you improvise when playing over a karaoke track? A bit disappointing really, a bit like Athlete (who I like) playing in their bedroom when they were spotty youngsters. A bit emo, a bit techno, a bit rubbish.
Finally, the star turn, the new saviours of music, iForward Russia! Oh dear. The vocalist moved like Kate Bush on speed and had a voice resembling Justin Darkness Hawkins. All their tracks (bar one) sounded the same, the double-time ska that is the trademark of so many bands these days. Apparently it’s called math rock. iForward Russia! Feature Tom Woodhead (vocals/synth), Whiskas (guitar/synth/shouts), Rob Canning (bass), and Katie Nicholls (drums/shouts). Musically, it's rock built on jabbing guitar lines, scrabbling chords, bruising rhythm-section riffs, jarring dissonances and irregular meters. The band formed in early 2004 from Leeds band The Black Helicopters, of which Tom and Rob were members. They joined siblings Katie and Whiskas (previously of Leeds band les Flames amongst others). In April 2005, they released ‘Nine’, a split 7-inch single with This Et Al, released on guitarist Whiskas' label Dance To The Radio. They’ve toured with We Are Scientists and played alongside The Automatic, The Long Blondes, Howling Bells and Boy Kill Boy on the 2006 NME New Music Tour. Their first album ‘Give Me A Wall’ was released in September 2006. Each track has a numerical name which allegedly indicates the order in which the tracks were written. Most of their output since GMAW has had conventional non-numerical titles. They are currently working on a new album ‘Life processes’ which is due for release shortly. Their track ‘Nine’ was featured on the soundtrack to the 2007 PSP game Burnout Dominator. In a slight support band link up, Katie remixed IWACS’s single 'I Hate Nightclubs'. The video for ‘Eighteen’ features cameo appearances from members of The Pigeon Detectives, This Et Al and The Playmates. The only track that sounded different, and that I liked, was the finale, a slow burning, torch song in the style of Four Day Hombre. I’m sorry, but if I wanted to hear 4DH (who I highly recommend) then I will go and see them, or play their excellent CDs.
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