Finally back home and re-settled after a very busy week, including a trip to Spokane Washington, featuring a delicious meal at my all-time favorite restaurant Mizuna. My free time is still fairly limited for the next few weeks, but I’ve got such a backlog of things to post on that I’ll try to catch up at least a little bit.
First things first, a band that I’ve had a vague awareness of for a while, but never really got around to exploring: The Scotland Yard Gospel Choir. Given my love for silly and awesome band names it’s actually kind of surprising that I didn’t get into them earlier. After hearing a couple songs from their upcoming record, I’m seriously hooked.
I Never Thought I Could Feel This Way For A Boy – The Scotland Yard Gospel Choir
Aspidestra – The Scotland Yard Gospel Choir
They play some of the very best fast-paced jangly chamber pop I’ve heard in years. To me, they sound like the band everyone always insists that Sloan is. These two tracks have almost everything you could ever want: a killer guitar riff that sounds straight out of a late 90s punk record, clever lyrics, handclaps, boy-girl harmonies, all packed into songs just barely longer than two minutes.
In short, it’s exactly what I was hoping to hear on the new Belle and Sebastian last year and which (apart from “Another Sunny Day”) they completely failed to deliver. If these tracks are any sign of what we can expect, The Scotland Yard Gospel Choir won’t let me down.
The record is out October 23 – mark your calendars.