Standard Fare – Fifteen

A biscuit off being Single Of The Week this one. This Sheffield three-piece have been together for a while now, although this is the first time I’ve come across them, and with a single “Dancing” out last year (video below) on Thee Sheffield Recording Company and an album due later in 2010 following this single, it looks like they’re finally getting busy. Normally, indiepop can just all blend together in a twitching great pile of steaming vintage clothing. Standard Fare seem somehow to make it all seem a bit more… well, grown up. It’s like a band with years under their belt who have decided to have a bit of fun for a change – there are some astute songwriting chops in here, and no mistake. This single relates an infatuation with a no-doubt pale and pretty teenage indie boy, with short, choppy Housemartins-y guitars, and Emma’s vocal veering between spoken-with-a-raised-eyebrow and a banshee wail, it’s just one of those records that’s fucking right-now immediate. Charming, charming stuff. The album’s called The Noyelle Beat, and it’s out in March – brilliantly for me, they’re also playing SXSW, so you can guarantee we’ll be trailing this lot around like baby bloody ducks.

VIDEO: STANDARD FARE – DANCING

The Fresh And Onlys – Second One To Know

From Sheffield indiepop to San Francisco garage psych, with The Fresh And Onlys. Taking a whopping cue from the 60s – specifically, and to an almost bonkers level, The Who – The Fresh And Only nevertheless still manage to come up with a song that’s catchy enough to cut through the rigidly fashionable wave of ‘cooler’ records this week., despite sounding like it genuinely was recorded forty-plus years ago. I always find bands that ape such an old sound to such a huge degree to be a bit weird – in this case though, it’s actually just plain old refreshing.

Campfires – Stormy Late Fall

Thought I’d listened to a taster of this but – in fact – it genuinely is only one minute and eighteen seconds long. Admittedly, it’s 78 seconds of booming and crashing drums, clanging and vastly distorted guitars and vocals being beamed in by phone filtered through a plane crash, so it’s not exactly light on substance. It is also deeply, deeply addictive. I must have listened to it twenty times today, and it’s genuinely made me question why all songs aren’t this short. Their lo-fi shoegaze (honestly, it’s a good idea),  all comes together like My Bloody Valentine channeling Japanther, which I think you’ll agree is pretty a tasty proposition. The only thing that’ll get annoying is getting up every minute to get the needle back to the start.

THE SINGLES THAT’RE WARDING OFF THE COLD THIS WEEK:
Campfires – Stormy Late Fall
Fresh And Onlys – Second One To Know
Fyfe Dangerfield – She Needs Me
Good Shoes – Under Control
Lyrebirds – Closer
Plan B – Stay Too Long
Standard Fare – Fifteen
Voice Of The Seven Thunders – The Burning Mountain
White Rabbits – Percussion Gun