Artrocker Magazine’s Single Reviews for the week commencing June 14th

Kele
Tenderoni
(Wichita/Polydor)

Try to escape the fact, for a second, that 'tenderoni' sounds like a particularly romantic brand of pasta, and you'll find a single in which everyone's favourite Blochead gets his techno groove on.
The sci-fi beats and distorted synths here are so perfectly aligned that they might just swallow up success in both Clubland and the indie disco - raising the possibility that Kele is about to become some kind of astronomical Deity of Dance. With blue strobe lights shooting out of his nostrils. Hopefully.
Ric Rawlins


Little Fish
Am I Crazy?
(Custard/Island Records)

Here’s what we know about Little Fish: they’re from Oxford; there are two of them; and they’ve spent a sizable chunk of time touring with Miss Courtney Love.
Sounds fairly normal, doesn’t it? Which is a shame because we rather hoped they’d be as mad as a sack of badgers – if only because it would make reviewing a song titled ‘Am I Crazy?’ that much easier. Still, you can’t win them all and this track is so good that it deserves more than a series of cheap puns – even though we’re sure they’d all be bloody hilarious.
What we can tell you is that the grizzly 60s production and striking female vocal of ‘Am I Crazy?’ make it sound ever so slightly like The Duke Spirit – a band close to Artrocker’s heart – and that fact alone is surely enough to make Little Fish worthy of further investigation.
Rory Carroll


Turbo Fruits
Get Up Get On Down
(Ark Recordings)

Beloved of Drew Barrymore and originally conceived as a Be Your Own Pet side project before the dissolution of the Tennessee hell-raisers, some may remember Turbo Fruits from their appearances at Reading and Leeds back in 2006.
Dealing in the kind of messy, shambolic rock stylings that briefly made their parent band such a hot ticket, Turbo Fruits amp up the big, dumb choruses as evidenced by the title track. There is a strong melodic sensibility to each of the EP’s five tracks, with a relatively uninspired lyrical repertoire, which pays ample tribute to the delights of girls and guns.
The frantic soloing which introduces stand-out ‘Colt 45’ suggests healthy sparring of egos within the band. Trashy, hedonistic and liable to inspire many a ‘whiskey-soaked’ cliché, Turbo Fruits undeniably sound like they’d be a riot live, although Cage The Elephant may just have snuck in and stolen their thunder while they’ve been away.
Lewis Hingston


Funeral Party
New York City Moves to the Sound of LA
(Jive Records)

You could make a snap judgement about this band and draw the verdict that they're basically children creating yet more cooler-than-thou shoutiness. Or you could listen to it a second time.
This is actually quite likeable, and you can see why they’re supporting Julian Casablancas; they’re perfect for the younger fans – the ones who can’t remember the Strokes.
I can’t shake the alterno-teeny-bop feel from Funeral Party, but at the same time it’s completely unfair to hold the fact I would have loved this song at 15 against them.
The band are guilty of many of typical garage rock sins (slightly whiny vocals, somewhat generic music), but weirdly enough, ‘New York City Moves to the Sound of LA’ feels like a guilty pleasure. So much for snap judgements.
Shan Vahidy


Ice Black Birds
As Birds We’d Be Fine/Doors
(Laissez Faire Club Records)

That strained-to-the-point-of-cracking voice, words spat out in staccato, is very Kings of Leon. Unfortunately, in ‘As Birds We’d Be Fine’, the energy required to make that style work is sadly lacking.
There’s nothing else really major to criticise it for, but then there's nothing that makes you spout gushing praise either (apart from maybe the gratuitous Jagger impression near the end. I assume it’s meant as a joke?). Despite pleasant harmonies, it remains a bit nondescript. You wouldn’t turn the radio off, but you wouldn’t turn it up either.
‘Doors’ opens with unusual chanting and, unexpectedly, rock n roll guitar – suddenly it’s all gone oddly Zutons. Self-indulgent rock star posturing on the part of the band it may be, but it sounds like they’re having fun. That energy communicates itself, and suddenly you have a song that might not be hugely sophisticated or innovative, but is nonetheless memorable and catchy. It will be interesting to see what else they produce.
Shan Vahidy


Veronica Falls
Beachy Head
(No Pain In Pop)

Straight up, ‘Beachy Head’ is a poor single. The lead vocals are mediocre and the droning background vocals sound like they’ve been stolen from an old garage band’s record, whilst the music itself is very basic and the sound does not develop within the song.
It’s like a poor man’s Martha and The Muffins thrashed together with 60s psych sounds; if done well that could be awesome, but Veronica Falls can’t pull it off.
Emily Warner


Limozine
Mutiny Girl/She Rocka Rolla
(Open Plan)

‘Mutiny Girl’ is the third single from West London punk rock ‘n’ rockers Limozine, and with its opening lines of "You’re looking good and you know it / You’re looking cooool and you show it", it’s about as dumb as rock ‘n’ roll gets.
That’s not to say I don’t like it. Inspired by bands like the Ramones, The Stooges and The Cramps, Limozine’s latest offering is in fact a fantastic adrenalin fuelled riot of a single that’s guaranteed to get my head nodding and foot tapping from the minute it starts. Second track ‘She Rocka Rolla’ is even better than the first, mainly thanks to its immensely catchy riff.
Limozine have been making plenty of waves and picking up airplay from the likes of Tom Robinson and Gideon Coe, this latest release a heady mix of punk, garage rock and junkyard blues which seems sure to aid their march forward. Altogether now, “you’re looking good and you know it...”
Mark Cousens


James Yuill
On Your Own
(Moshi Moshi)

Electro-pop numbers have a habit of being all silver suits and no soul, but with this single Mr Yuill seems to be offering up a third dimension; “What to do when you’re on your own?” he ponders, as stained glass chimes and phat bass entice you to sieze the day.
Cindy Suzuki