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Live Review
by SashaS
16-6-2004
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More on: The Ordinary Boys
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| The Ordinary Boys... not so, actually |
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Live: The Ordinary Boys
King's College
Tuesday, June 15, 2004
The Ordinary Boys: as silky as a cashmere codpiece
The ‘New Hope’ names currently occupying the UK media attention are The Libertines (for its mythology), Franz Ferdinand (its attitude), Keane (pose) and The Ordinary Boys. It is sad that the first one have chutzpah, the middle one the look but the latter one - everything. Image, attitude, talent and - songs.
Hyperbole is the first line of attack in the music business’ arsenal of continual process of ‘star making’ system. And, what the biz is particularly successful in is - regurgitating the processed into even blander clones. It also doesn’t want to dispose of its past, however dodgy. The Ordinary Boys do not subscribe to it but are still a quartet in development.
The songs on the debut disc 'Over The Counter Culture' are on a mission for an ID-sound [they only formed in March 2002] but it is already eclectic and hard-to-resist engaging. From rock via ska and ballads, ‘Week In Week Out’ in particular getting the crowd off their ale’d rockers, this is a celebration of musical history and honouring it with all enthusiasm they can harness. And, they show sounds as they know they are going places!
Now, in the perpetual archaeology of culture known as nostalgia, it’s become cool to like/admit influence by ELO, Yes and Bee Gees. Well, it’s the same with ABBA, nice songs but nought to do with the soundtrack of our reality. These pompous bands - like Yes, played songs lasting long enough to forget what they were playing [with solos that were like a sustained ejaculation]… Well, been there and tore me T-shirt when The 101ers fired off their riffs! Keep it succinct or it ain't worth playing. [The Ordy Boys’ maiden long-player clocks in just over 38 minutes!]
In meantime, we have traded taste for poses and posses. Music has become a lifestyle accessory and you buy it accordingly. People are walking billboards for their fave genre… Kill the nu-emo! Search and destroy genres and proffer knack-turnal blurs.
The Boys offer a cure tonight with a bounce, a flounce and the zest… A stage persona of some magnitude is emerging and, as the frontman/guitarist Preston says, “it’s about… honesty and passion.”
“It’s all just f**kin’ America at the moment and Britain’s gotta fight back. Britain doesn’t own Rock’n’Roll, but we’re the guardians of it, and everyone knows it. The Stones, Zeppelin, the Pistols, The Gallaghers… we’re in that line,” claims Tom Meighan of the fellow start-uppers, Kasabian.
In the world of wobbling mammaries and TV-faked ‘Idols’, we should salute imagination, hail innovation and scream Ave Liars! Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs! Modey Lemon! TV On The Radio! !!!. Fun - real - funereal. It is generally beguiling and made in the USA. There is a Brit-underground movement and The O-Boys are among its leaders.
It is hard not to feel the same way about the global chances of The Music, Haven, Keane, Hundred Reasons, Lostprophets and Franz Ferdinand... Only the local notoriety. We ‘ope that’ll not be The Ordy’s fate because they display a potential to carry it further up the commercial chain.
SashaS
16-6-2004
The Ordinary Boys' album 'Over The Counter Culture' is released 05 July 2004 by b-unique/Warners
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