Get your rock on
“The Coast is Always Changing” by Maximo Park
Ok, so I saw these guys perform in NYC with Hot Chip a little while back, and at that point I’d not really heard what they were about, only had one of their songs, etc. But I was really pleasantly surprised at how much fun they were, how tight they were as a band, and how genuinely funny they were. All dressed up sharp, with the lead-singer a spastic bundle of energy, trained in the Ian Curtis school of hand chops, mic stand smashes, and wide/wild-eyed facial tics.
Basically, they were a lot of fun to watch, and despite not knowing their material, I found myself singing along to the choruses. It was fun too because it was their first show in NYC – I spoke to the lead singer for a bit after the show, told him I enjoyed it a lot and he seemed genuinely pleased to hear it, as he had been both really excited and nervous about playing for a New York audience.
The band is made up by Tom English (drums), Duncan Lloyd (guitars), Paul Smith (vocals), Archis Tiku (bass guitar) and Lukas Wooller (keyboards). They’re from the northern English city of Newcastle Upon Tyne – when I first heard the vocalist sing, I thought maybe they were Scottish, but that’s just the strong northern accent at play.
Now I’ve come across their EP of four songs, collecting the two 7″s they’d released previously – all the songs rock loud, each one blasting off with martial drums, rubbery basslines, real guitar chops and great keyboard lines. They’re all great little songs about life and love – what rock music is supposed to be about, right? I think this is my favorite song of theirs that I’ve heard so far. However, there’s a new single, “Graffiti” coming out this next Tuesday – its another garage-y burner with a really massive sound. Its good stuff for sure.
You can buy their music from the band or download their songs from their label, WARP – yes, they’re one of the very few rock-bands on the experimental electronic WARP label. I also highly recomend catching their live show if you can – they’re playing loads of dates in the UK in May, and hitting mainland Europe near the end of the month and beginning of June.
7 Comments
mpc
i don’t think it’s possible to even slightly appreciate maximo park if you’ve heard anything by the futureheads/
herr waldar
i think it’s completely the other way round: futureheads don’t really impress me, i’m enjoying “a certain trigger” far more than “the futureheads”…
Jill
I’ve never really caught on to the futureheads. I think their songs are just a bit too jerky and angular. I think Maximo Park have the perfect combination between that jerkiness and pop melodies.
Greg
Fairly crap. Good for the masses and those who want to pretend Warp records is still innovative (the irony being that these guys are horribly contrived).
Suki
Boo. This song is lovely, and the singer’s accent is totally adorable. I was having a pretty crap day, and it made me smile. screw the pretensions. Have fun with your music.
Greg
Watch Steve Beckett lead them around by the nose, note their perfectly manicured presentation, and you can start drawing parallels to The Bravery and The Killers. Read their interviews — pretentions abound. Have fun with your music, indeed.
Chris
The comparisons between Maximo Park and The Futureheads are easy to draw – both singing in Northern English accents (Newcastle and Sunderland respectively) and pursuing a brand of jittery art-pop – but its not impossible to enjoy appreciate Maximo if you’ve heard the (musically superior) ‘Heeds. Maximo Park’s remit is F.U.N.
And as for Greg’s comments, yes Warp seem to be putting a lot of weight behind the marketing of Maximo Park, but surely if you judge music based on the amount of money spent on them and not on the quality of the songs then LIFE IS WORTHLESS?