Love is All
Review by J. Edward Keyes:
I don't like to overstate these things, but every so often I get to have an "I Was There!" moment and last night, at a small bunker in Brooklyn that reminded me of nothing so much as the late, lamented Philly punk club Stalag 13, I had my first in a long time. Swedish band Love is All has been driving me bananas since maura first played their not-out-yet debut in our apartment. It's a shot of pure joy: unself-conscious, unpolished, raucous, fucked-up, dirty and ecstatic. It reminds me of everything I loved about Delta 5 and The Raincoats, music that clunks along on square wheels at silly, impossible velocity.
When they played last night I thought the whole room would shoot up through the roof in some sort of colossal musical rapture. Pint-sized cutie-pie singer kept pogoing into the audience, and no one could seem to stop jumping for more than a few seconds. This is what indie-pop was supposed to do, before it got so fucking polite: deliver pure pop charge with dirt under the nails and a proper punk pout. Nothing was overthunk or second guessed, and for once you could feel the pure thrill that comes from hundreds of people all at once not caring if they look like idiots. The sound sucked and the songs sounded great, elastic chords and hard, honking sax. I kept thinking over and over: "Holy fuck, I'm seeing The Slits in Don Letts' loft." It's not coming out till 2006, but 9 Times That Same Song is the best record of the year.
Download :: Love is All - Turn the Radio Off.mp3
Click here to visit Love is All's site
Thursday, December 01, 2005
