I can't believe this is real

[Joe Wiz]

This band are being touted as one of 2011 great hopes. Surely someones having a laugh? Trotting out some of the thinnest Oasis esq cliches I've ever heard. They remind me of the "Indie" band in the Fast Show that have a song calling their record exec a twat.

I despair. But good for a laugh.

[evilC]

I can't believe this is real

Have you seen this, Joe?

[Joe Wiz]

I can't believe this is real

I hadn't, but fascinating in the extreme.
I've watched that video 15 times in the last day. I should stop now.

[EIM]

I can't believe this is real

Can I fight Brother? Please?

[Fussbudget]

I can't believe this is real

Are they definitely for real and not a bunch of art school students having a laugh? I don't know if it's the posh southern accent or the fact that they want to write "anthemic, big singalong songs" like their idols the Smiths (L-O-L) but I spent most of the video thinking it would turn out to be a big prank, or some kind of viral marketing for energy drinks or some such shite (Chelsea season tickets?)

Also, they're on a major label and they don't have a Wikipedia page? What are all those thousands of unpaid interns for, I ask you.

[epping2ongar]

I can't believe this is real

Indie Club

[super furry dice]

I can't believe this is real

I don't have a problem with bands regurgitating the past be it musical or image wise. The thing is to do it well and give it small stamp of yer own on top.

What I don't get is just how half arsed it all is. Muscially they are a poor version of the fratellis (a concept I can't get my head around I'll admit) and that interview, crypes they just looked like they couldn't believe they'd blagged it this far. Sort of like that fat bloke on the pitch at West Ham v Millwall who didn't know quite what to do when he realised he'd got past security. Its a dreadfull and charmless interview thats also really dumb. The one in the scarf can't keep a straight face as he describes his bands songs as being the best written in the last 20 years - there is no conviction. I think they know they are shite as well.

Shame the nme have latched onto them 'cos I thought it had slightly improved last year. Noticed that nme have also latched onto the vaccines, better than brother but hardly the future.

Great piece on the quietus. I didn't read all the comments after it (didn't have time there were so many!) but I share the view that it was as much, if not more, a critique of the music press as it was the band.

[steveeeeeeeee]

I can't believe this is real

I just, watched the video and listened to them. They don't sound anything like ladrock nor look it, they're just a very ordinary jingle jangle pop band. It must either be a wind-up (if so, a clever one because every indie cliché is included in that interview) or they're terribly misguided.

[Lucia Lanigan]

I can't believe this is real

I like to use bands like this to taunt myself about how old I appear to be getting. More time elapsed between Britpop and this lot than between punk and the Manic Street Preachers (and punk seemed like medieval history to my mid-teen self). Brother's hypothetical fans wouldn't have been born when What's The Story... came out.

All the same, I suspect their appeal is going to be very selective indeed. Desperate, desperate stuff from an industry that refuses to admit its rotten limbs fell off years ago.

[sw2borshch]

I can't believe this is real

Tim "Jonesy" Jonze had this to say about them in the Observer the other day.

I haven't read the comments, just the paper.

[N est à?]

I can't believe this is real

Ha ha, I love that Fast Show sketch more than I love my own mother.

The world is such a big big place/Can you make it a little bi-igger?

[Stumpy Pepys]

I can't believe this is real

Lucia Lanigan wrote:

All the same, I suspect their appeal is going to be very selective indeed. Desperate, desperate stuff from an industry that refuses to admit its rotten limbs fell off years ago.

Laughable they may be, but how many artists – in our exciting digital age – have gotten famous without a record company?

[Fussbudget]

I can't believe this is real

sw2boro wrote:

Tim "Jonesy" Jonze had this to say about them in the Observer the other day.

I haven't read the comments, just the paper.

Very pooer linkage there, man.

There you go

[slackster]

I can't believe this is real

I saw an article in today's Guardian once more sounding the last rites for guitar bands, citing the evidence of only 3 bands in the current UK top 100.

Tosh, of course, but understandable if twats like Brother are all the record industry has to big up at the moment.

[Lucia Lanigan]

I can't believe this is real

Stumpy Pepys wrote:

Lucia Lanigan wrote:

All the same, I suspect their appeal is going to be very selective indeed. Desperate, desperate stuff from an industry that refuses to admit its rotten limbs fell off years ago.

Laughable they may be, but how many artists – in our exciting digital age – have gotten famous without a record company?

I'm not suggesting you can do without a record record company; simply that record companies acting as if the last fifteen years haven't happened are unlikely to see much success. I was amazed when I heard that Geffen had signed them.

[sw2borshch]

I can't believe this is real

Ah, thanks Fuss, glad you were able to queuer that problem.

Anyway, I haven't heard this lot, what with no youtube/aural death wish, but I must confess to owning a Northside record.

LL's point stands I think, that Oasis are so long ago that this lot (or a similar band who aren't too bad) will have resonance with people who have a pseudo-nostalgia for that type of thing, listened to their, erm, brother's, cousin's, dad's records, like older Britguitar stuff that has some cred too, but want their own scene. Which is kind of ok if it doesn't turn into stifling shite.

I can remember being 15 and wanting "proper guitar music" in the charts, by the age of 17 I couldn't have thought of anything worse, then a few years later it happened. I'm so, so sorry.

[evilC]

I can't believe this is real

Lucia Lanigan wrote:

Stumpy Pepys wrote:

Lucia Lanigan wrote:

All the same, I suspect their appeal is going to be very selective indeed. Desperate, desperate stuff from an industry that refuses to admit its rotten limbs fell off years ago.

Laughable they may be, but how many artists – in our exciting digital age – have gotten famous without a record company?

I'm not suggesting you can do without a record record company; simply that record companies acting as if the last fifteen years haven't happened are unlikely to see much success. I was amazed when I heard that Geffen had signed them.

Stumpy - I think new bands are the ones that (perhaps obviously) need labels the most, since it's an unfamiliar world to them and they couldn't survive or have an initial flourish without them. But major labels are becoming like the big supermarkets. Good at dealing with shifting significant figures of units (usually via other big, established companies) but they certainly can't cover every base. So - once artists are (typically) a little more established - they can survive without conventional labels. Here's AWAL (Artists Without A Label) and a little about what they do.

[E10 Rifle]

I can't believe this is real

Wasn't the Fast Show at its best searingly fucking brilliant?

Now that's a cultural legacy of the mid-90s that might be worth reviving - non-lazy comedy.

[Joe Wiz]

I can't believe this is real

was the fast show sketch i was thinkig of.
Maybe Brother could do a cover?

[Bimbo Bred]

I can't believe this is real

This Fast Show sketch seems more appropriate

[Bimbo Bred]

I can't believe this is real

Sorry didn't see epping2ongar's earlier link.