The Beat Surrender

I put The Sugars on the front cover for the last issue based on a couple of things. The first being that they are a Leeds band and as a Leeds lad I want to do everything I can to support local talent and the local music scene in general. The most important reason though, was because when I put the local aspect aside for a minute, I actually think they are one of the best new bands in the UK.

The album that they have just released as a debut, something we are celebrating tonight (it’s a launch party apparantly) is The Curse Of The Sugars, an album that I instantly fell in love with and is a definite contender for album of the year so far for me. That though isn’t enough to judge a band on in itself, which is why I was keen to come along tonight to see how they measured up live.

Before we get to the main event though, we have two interesting local acts to to drink beer and casually observe as they ply their trade. First up is the oddly named Spodni Pradlo, not the name of the latest transfer target for Harry Rednapp, but instead a Bradford eight piece who seem to sit somewhere between Beirut and Los Campesinos!, they don’t scale the heights of either of them for me as their signing is woefully out of tune.

Effort, endeavour and good musicianship though they can give us and if they can either work on the vocals or leave them out completely i’d happily pay to see them. That fact gets highlighted even more by the epic last song they play that has the tropical funk vibe of a band like Quantic Soul Orchestra, until just over midway through they decide to throw some vocals into a track that I had hoped would be instrumental.

Next up is the much touted Jonojo Feather who are a two piece (at least live anyway) who seem to make a strange kind of lounge-blues meets pop, it’s kind of Chris Isaak doing indie and for whatever reason it actually works. The lead singer is striking but definitely needs to work on his interaction with the audience as we are treated to a few hushed thank you’s between songs.

The Sugars are bristling with confidence tonight, but then why wouldn’t they be with this album behind them. From the opening blues-rock assualt they are near enough faultless as they take us on a very modern trip to the 1940’s. The vocals are shared nicely between Matt Bolton and Anna Greenaway, while Alex Lewis delivers his drum parts like a bombastic arsenal of machine gun fire.

Continue