back to more Careless Demos
forward to Careless Talk

Wanderlust CDR

Review Will Write Itself (there’s a band name in there, surely) courtesy of Wanderlust: "Wanderlust aim to give the world a new and beautiful rock sound that it so badly needs... with grooves and hooks that despite their immediacy and accessibility belie their originality and eclecticism… The bands first foray into the music world led to them winning the universities battle of the bands. And it’s first prize of a support gig to Garbage…Jack is a baron and has a castle in Belgium and Jons family are all ex hippies. His mom is a leading member of the fairy society." All, very much, sic. The first track sounds like a middle-aged, reformed EMF warming up for a poorly-attended pub gig. I didn’t get any further. cabakeruk@yahoo.co.uk

Moonkat CDR

April Long apparently said that Moonkat’s debut sounded "like Kenickie being tortured by power tools." This demo, disappointingly, involves no gratuitous harm being inflicted on indie bands of yesteryear but does feature a corking slash-through by the name of My English Teacher Is A Mogwai Fan. It starts off like the Breeders under a layer of worn-out magnetic tape fug and ends like the Breeders under a table full of empty glasses. www.moonkat.co.uk

Mode, Mode demo CDR

Review Almost Wrote Itself (less chance of a band name this time) courtesy of Mode: "I am totally confident that if you can be arsed to listen to this you will love it. We beg you to give us some good quality coverage. Be the first to see the bands wagon leave the station." This is followed by (yawn) a dictionary definition of "mode"… Try looking "ideas" up in that big old dictionary, fellas. So I’m ready to dismiss Mode and sling the CD into the already full box that’s going to tile our bathroom one of these days when Shell-shocked rounds off a so-so go-slow with five minutes of pure and gentle, intimate brilliance. Jeff Buckley and Nick Drake the band say (don’t they all?) but they’re not far off the mark. www.modemusic.co.uk tumblecool@hotmail.com

The Party, Ockham’s Razor CDR

Scrawled on the back of the press sheet: "was wondering what happened to you Everett!" Well wonder longer, Mr Scott, Everett True might have more names than a timeshare salesman, but I AM AN ALIAS IN MY OWN RIGHT! Occam’s Razor is idea that the simplest answer is probably the right one. And these songs are simple ("lo-fi by necessity not design") and decent and honest, but they’re probably not the right ones jamesscott@theparty92.freeserve.co.uk

Fuzbuni CDR

This is so tinny that Heinz have started packing baked beans in it. I’m thinking The Membranes and The Members with a side-order of awkwardness and a fetishistic interest in treble. 24 Naomi St, Apt #2, Chicopee MA 01020 USA

fuzfukr@hotmail.com

Kemmler CDR

"If you’re pushed for time, we recommend track 2 as a starting point." Hilarious. Track 2 is nine and a half minutes long and I don’t usually give a demo nine and a half seconds. They’re nothing if not eternally hopeful, nothing if not persistent, this Kemmler. Over the last three years they’ve sent three demos under three different names. The latest regeneration has dropped their previous incarnation’s trip hop and introduced instead trip opticals. Languorous music for sad black and white pictures about loss and regret, or Mercury Rev’s filmic moments at half the speed and considerably less than half the price. kemmlermusic@hotmail.com http://members.lycos.co.uk/kemmler

Brazen Hussies CDR

"The world doesn’t need you" sing Brazen Hussies on Crawfish. They could be the Wise to my Morecambe: just set the gag up over there lads, and I’ll deliver the punch line shortly. Crawfish is rubbish. On their earlier demos, the lack-fi would’ve disguised the fact. Not so here. Luckily, Sleep It Off was recorded somewhere dark and dank and that brings out the full value of its subterranean sick blues – think Penthouse. Feeble’s next. Back to Ernie Wise, it splices what sounds like Kajagoogoo at the wrong rpm and then some music from a Chuck Jones cartoon into what would otherwise be a perfectly average Sabbath/Zep trogathon. Odd. And that’s odd meaning odd, not odd meaning good. scrape100@hotmail.com

Wintergreen CDR

Pop Shouldn’t Review Itself (make up your own comment) courtesy of Wintergreen: "Inspired in equal quantities by weak maize-based snacks and contemporary metaphysics… after frittering away the last three years annoying a great many people without even trying… playing in front of increasingly parochial, narrow-minded, insular crowds… [Wintergreen] set about mercilessly deconstructing the tyrannical stranglehold of all that is inane, complacent and irrevocably wrong in the world today." Jesus, another candidate for the bathroom wall. But wait, It’s OK to be Confused wends a wierdy lo-fi, lo-folk way through tin-pot beats and aggravating speed-synth riffs - it’s Radiohead caught with their pants down in a primary school music room. It’s not OK to be this confused, computer. http://listen.to/wintergreen

www.carelesstalkcostslives.com