Sexy Kids - Sisters Are Forever (Slumberland Records)
January 24, 2009 – 12:08 pm
Sexy Kids are a pop band from Scotland. Featuring three former members of the sadly departed Royal We. This release snuck out at the tail end of 2008 on Slumberland Records on beautiful pink vinyl.
The ‘A’ side ‘Sisters Are Forever’ is as perfect a piece of pop music that you are ever likely to hear. It’s got a beautifully hypnotic tune that gets inside your head within seconds of hearing it. Stunning stuff. If that wasn’t enough the ‘B’ side ‘Drown Me’ is equally beguiling - albeit a slightly lighter flavour of indiepop but still a top tune with handclaps and hi-hats to the fore.
Links: Slumberland Records | Sexy Kids
The Second Hand Marching Band are a band of 22+ people from Scotland that play untraditional folk music. They are also members of another 20+ Scottish bands, such as Eagleowl, Q without U, Dananananaykroyd, The Just Joans, Lula Maes and How to Swim. They’ve garnered comparisons to Beirut and Sufjan Stevens but the band think their sound is more informed by Glasgow’s post-rock crew, bands such as Mogwai, with the songs building up in layers, albeit with acoustic instruments and not distorted guitars.
I’ve had this LP on fairly heavy rotation for the past week and I am starting to fall for it in a rather big way. At 20 songs and just over an hour in length - it’s rather on the long side and I usually can’t take LPs that go on much longer than 40 minutes. But after repeated listens to ‘Frankenstein Songs’ I’d imagine the band had the same trouble as me - which songs could they have discarded to bring the LP down to the 40 minute mark - there really is little (none?) filler on the record. The songs here are beautifully crafted, with a sound that floats between jangle pop, alt country and sunshine pop. The bands that spring to mind after listening to Dog Years are those like Beachwood Sparks, The Tyde and maybe a tiny nod to the Broken Family Band - albeit with less of a country twang.
Sheffield continues to churn out a wealth of new bands and that could mean that some don’t get the attention they deserve – the Interiors deserve your attention! They play spiky power pop that is hugely listenable. Imagine The Pixies joining ranks with The B-52’s, which might sound a bit scary, but that’s what you get! There’s plenty of targeted energy throughout, with some splendid guitar riffs and entertaining lyrics.
A curious one this. A limited 10″ split single with the ‘A’ side being Lydia Lunch’s electro shock version of ‘Frankie Teardrop’ and the ‘B’ side is a version by Suicide. The version being a 1976 Demo called ‘Frankie Teardrop, The Detective Meets The Space Alien’. It’s released on Blast First Petite - which seems like an attempt to revive the Blast First name from the 1980s - but it is somehow linked in with the current Blast First/Mute Records label. I obviously don’t know enough about the label - but I find the whole idea a little curious.
After reviewing Lovvers excellent ‘Laughing Man’ single on the old 
