Thing of the Day
Royal Bangs, the right band in the right place at the right time...
June 7th 2011
Knoxville Tennessee’s ROYAL BANGS have
that current North American alt.rock sound and feel nailed, they have a
new single called Fireball
out in the UK next Monday, and they’re the right band in the right
place to provide that of instantly satisfying rush of goodness…
The single review…
ROYAL BANGS – Fireball (Glassnote) - Royal Bangs, the indie alternative whatever-you-want-to-call-them three piece, are so much the current sound of alt.rock North America, and Fireball is probably the stand out definite track that nails that fact. The stand out track on the very well received most recent of their albums Flux Outside – certainly the most instant track, the obvious radio-friendly single. A bright breezy tingling ear-friendly tune with enough alternative colour and left-field edge to leave an impression. Royal Bangs are a band happening right here right now, they’re from Knoxville Tennessee, and what’s not to like about them? It isn’t that they’re dishing out any kind of musical revolution, more that they’ve just got the current flavour neatly nailed down, all here for you in bite size friendly chunks of instant musical satisfaction with their Battles meets Animal Collective sound. All distilled down to earfriendly alt.pop bites of instantly satisfying goodness, real pop art, the real art of pop.
Royal Bangs are that right here right now
kind of band, and Fireball
is a great single, it rushes at you, there is nothing here not to like,
likewise the current album – Royal Bangs are a band who clearly are to
be enjoyed right now, doesn’t matter that we might have forgotten all
about them ever existing in a couple of years, this is about now and
right now Fireball and Royal Bangs feel right…
And this is Royal Bangs performing Fireball
live on US radio station KCRW and “providing an explosive mix of
relentless passion when they perform live on Morning Becomes Eclectic”:
Watch / Listen to the full KCRW session here: www.kcrw.com/music/royal_bangs
And here’s a previous taste of the band who have actually been around
since 2001…
ROYAL BANGS and a video for WAR BELLS, from the 2009 album Let It Beep -
And here once again, for those who missed it, is the Organ review of the most recent album from back in April…
ROYAL BANGS – Flux
Outside (Glassnote) – Royal Bangs sound like
a lot of very contemporary North American alt.rock things: their bright
flow of constantly enjoyable energy, their tingly tunes, their
(poly)rhythms… A more than healthy serving of Animal Collective
flavourings, an alt.pop touch of Hella here and there, a lot of things
that are currently coming out on indie alt.rock North
America. Royal Bangs do it all very very well - clever sound,
lots going on in here, yet they never sound cluttered or forced though.
A busy dense mixture that somehow has space to breathe, their refined
sound and breezy songs flow in a smart (not too smart) way.
There’s no musical revolution here, nothing you
haven’t heard quite a few times already, but they do do their thing
very very well and Flux Outside is an intelligently enjoyable album, a
sound full of tingling detail, full of depth. Clever songs that never
need to show off or prove how smart they are, just enjoyably bright
North American currentness.
The album Flux Outside was released on May 16th in
Europe
Fireball is
released, as a single, in the UK on June 13th. Royal Bangs share UK
stages with headliners Cold
War Kids before they headline a London show of their own
on June 28th at the Hoxton Bar and Kitchen.
