As his track record suggests, Geoff Travis is a man who
knows what he’s talking about; the boss of record label Rough Trade has made
some hugely successful signings in his time, notably The Smiths, The Strokes
and The Libertines. So, inevitably when
he persuades an artist to agree upon a contract, music industry people (I always read
about these ‘people’ but who are they?) tend to sit up and take notice. One of his most recent coups was to snatch Alabama Shakes from the snapping jaws of rival labels; their album Boys and Girls has sparked much salivating from critics and punters alike
this year. And now he has caused a stir
by recruiting south-east London four-piece Palma
Violets apparently off the back of only one song. Unfortunately, we don’t even have that luxury
- the only available recordings are a few painful videos of live performances
on Youtube. But they must be good,
surely? To place that much faith in a
band with potentially only one good tune you must have fairly strong belief. No doubt we will find out pretty soon with
the record label sure to take advantage of the hype by rushing out a single.
Like many others with a keen interest in music, I get quite
excited any time there is lots of excitement surrounding a new band. I still remember hearing people feverishly
talking about the Arctic Monkeys before I had actually heard anything by them. And I think this is how it should be. The days when new music was shared by word of
mouth are a thing of the past so it is a real thrill to experience that buzz about a
mysterious new act.
Consequently, I am disappointed to see that ALREADY the
backlash has started. The Guardian has a
fantastic feature on their website called ‘new band of the day’ which has, on a
number of occasions, opened my eyes to exciting new music. However, in their piece on Palma Violets from
the 17th May, they are guilty of one of my pet hates - criticism for
effect. Paul Lester, author of the
article, has a right to express his opinion having watched them support the
aforementioned Shakes, but rather than constructively criticise the performance
or the music he has clearly set up camp on the anti-Palma Violets side of the
river and has no intention of deconstructing his tent and pouring water on the
camp fire any time soon. It is understandable
to take this anti-hype view if the artist is getting over-played by Fearne
Cotton and their face is on the front of NME every week but to come down so
strongly against a group who have not yet produced any music is confusing and
narrow-minded.
Unfortunately, the ubiquity of the internet means that
everyone wants to say something different and often this leads to comments not
based on thought or true consideration.
But why can’t critics just wait to see what the music is actually like? Who
knows, maybe Rough Trade will guide the group down a completely different
direction to the ‘garage rock’ genre in which they have been pigeon-holed. It would be nice to see critics not feel the
urge to be so vehemently pro or against for a change. A spot of fence-sitting ambivalence would be
strangely refreshing in this case. The
fence is certainly where I will be perching for the time being even if I may join
in with the excited whisperings and animated gossiping that will surround this band for a little while longer.
Here is the terrible live film that I mentioned:
And here is some stuff currently trending on the Milward jukebox:
