REVIEW: Deadwax (demos + She's A Queen release)

A year or so ago, the band Deadwax sent me their demo to do a review, which I had then published on another blog, closed now. As their first video has reached 1000 views on youtube this last few days, I'm re-publishing this "vintage" review ;). But first, to see their video, click here. Plus check out their facebook page right here. I'll do a review for their She's A Queen later on in the week. Maybe just a few words to say that it sounds freaking good.

When I received the well-known « add me request » on myspace, I thought « oh gee, Deadwax?? That sounds like some deathcore band with obscure references. Some kind of Iron Maiden's teenage wannabe. Yet, your humble servant decided (with some new professional conscience) to click and throw an ear at the band.


Happily surprised I was when I discovered 4 young Londoners with influences as diverse as cool. Deadwax are a cocktail, a BRMC-Kasabian Mojito with some pre-1996 Oasis aftertaste. Indigo starts the whole thing and sums up everything we, French people, are unable to do: powerful yet ethereal rock n' roll. Without any doubt, the best song on their myspace. Fly starts acoustically and sounds a bit like the Kooks. The whole song just perfectly demonstrates how the band has assimilated their musical background and let you see a naughty boy attitude with a baffling capacity to write catchy tunes. I'm holding back my breath when Put Your Feet On The Accelerator starts: the song is a BRMC soundalike A pity as I expected the band to be able to keep using their influences without copying them that much.


It's with some kind of apprehension that I directly go to song #4  Burn This Town. From the first chords there's no denying Deadwax's back. If it's true that we can hear the Kings of Leon and The Stone Roses, anyone over 27 will feel like they've been brought back to their teenage years, somewhere during a memorable smoked-out binge-drinking experience in an English park during a summer exchange program in 1995. This excellent song is followed by She's Automatic that I will pretend I didn't listen out of the good impression left by Burn This Town. Maybe just a few words to say that if you forget it, it's as good as listening to it. That's also probably why it didn't get as many plays as the others. Anyway, let's move to Tearing Each Other Apart which I would say is a strange though good mixture of 1980s Manchester sound and the noughties New York rock revival. Nowhere, antepenultimate song, reminds us of the Srokes' Last Night and the Libertines who would support the Beatles in 1966. They're blowing on the long-burning ashes of Revolver, that's for sure .Finally, Home a suburbian American-emo sounding tune will join She's Automatic. One of the couple of songs that should remain b-sides if they're on to release an LP.


A well-deserved B for a band who tried to encapsulate four decades of britrock . If they hold on to their course, they could get more than some internet success.

BLOG: doit-on laisser Mickael Miro chanter?

J'étais partie pour écrire un article sur Metronomy quand soudain, une révélation. Non, dans mon top des artistes qui me donneraient même envie de regarder la rediffusion de l'Ecole Des Fans spécial Colonel Reyel (cette émission existe!) , un seul atteint la première place en ce moment: Mickael Miro. Et pour l'occasion, je m'en vais blogger en français- faut pas rigoler non plus, le petit Lyonnais ne risque pas de franchir nos frontières, nos voisins ne sont pas totalement cinglés.
Pourquoi m'en prendre soudainement à ce variéteux élevé au bon grain, bien de chez nous? Pour la simple-et bonne raison- qu'au moins deux fois par jour, ce type se permet de me vriller le cerveau et les tympans avec son dernier single La Scandaleuse . Son premier titre était déjà une perle niveau paroles avec des réflexions pseudo-philosophiques dignes d'un mauvais dragouilleur qui fait les sorties de lycée mais le dernier atteint des niveaux que seuls nos « crooners » des années 80 avaient pu atteindre. Mickael Miro, fils spirituel d'Herbert Léonard?

Avec son look de geek qui aurait reçu les conseils de Christina « regarde ta morphologie, tou es un X » Cordula, foulard négligemment posé autour du coup, look de boho trop étudié (ou d'éternel étudiant de première année, option cafétéria), le lyonnais semble être capable de produire à la pelle des chansons qu'on espérait impossibles à nous refourguer depuis 1992. Fan de Cabrel, Goldman, Balavoine et Berger, Mickael Miro semble plutôt nous faire du mauvais Charlie Winston, en VF. Pourtant, par delà le fameux foulard, on sent le cousin sympatoche, un brin gentillet, qui aurait passé trop d'étés à regarder Champs Elysées chez ses grands-parents. Et on se dit qu'on ne devrait même pas lui en vouloir. Champs Elysées en a fait des dégâts sur toute une génération.

Doit-on pour autant le laisser chanter? J'ai choisi ma solution, rester sur Oui FM et éviter de tomber sur NRJ Hits lorsque je zappe.

NEWS: le top 1O de Sound Of Violence

Classique en cette fin d'année, le site pour lequel je chronique fait son best of. Allez y jeter un coup d'oeil en cliquant sur ce lien !

Petit rappel pour ceux qui ne connaîtraient pas Sound Of Violence, c'est un site qui chronique les sorties albums et singles, les concerts et balance régulièrement ses interviews avec la crème du rock anglais (PAS anglophone, hein ;) donc pas de rock US ni français).

VIDEO: Noel Gallagher- The Death Of You And Me@ Casino de Paris

Find the video for Noel Gallagher's The Death Of You And Me by clicking on this link:  The Death Of You And Me

BLOG: What I've learned from teaching English to teenagers: the death of rock n'roll heroes.

Let's make things clear: teaching is like being a contestant in Survivor. But it pays the rent, and the concerts, and the booze, and the Eurostar tickets and a few extras. So here I found myself, in a class, trying to insufflate some interest- if not love- for British culture through, guess what, music.

And the first thing I've learned is that kids have absolutely no idea about recent bands. Let's say that they have some vague knowledge of American hip hop and punk-rock (what the radio is feeding them) and absolutely none about indie music. But they do have requests.

And that's the second thing I've learned: kids have no kids taste. I mean, how come you can relate to Adele when you're 14? Where has teenage angst gone? Shouldn't they be asking for something loud? Well, obviously, not. Or not anymore I should say, because when talking about their musical/rock n' roll heroes, the names I finally got were : Led Zeppelin (« alright luv, but they're like you're grand-fathers age? »), Nirvana (« I remember the day Kurt Cobain died and you were not even born ») and AC/DC (same profile as for Led Zeppelin).

So coming third is the direct consequence of I've noticed just before: rock n' roll heroes are dead and gone. Who could socially embody rock n' roll heroism these days for 13 year old kids? When my mum was a teenager, she had a plethora of singers and bands- the 60s being the cradle for heroes. When I was a teenager, I had two brothers who didn't give a fuck about the rest of the world, about their band or their fans (or that's what they said). But being 14 in 2011 is living in a musical wasteland where old heroes try to re-enact old flames, where new bands and singers address a small part of the teenage population without being able to gather their contemporaries whose musical minds have become obese, listening to junk music.

Video might have killed the radio stars but internet probably killed the rock n'roll heroes, literally stuffing kids with tons of new bands without being able to push forward any of them.  And I'm not looking back in anger, I swear.