Levi’s Ones to Watch: Cut Off Your Hands / Cazals / Ox.Eagle.Lion.Man

Levi’s Ones to Watch: Cut Off Your Hands / Cazals / Ox.Eagle.Lion.Man

Barfly – Birmingham

Thursday 21st February 2008

“Thanks, this has been the most depressing night of our lives”

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For all the dodgy corporate sponsorship, these Levi’s Ones to Watch gigs have launched the careers of some cracking little bands over the past couple of years. Last year’s tour featured the likes of Foals, Wombats and Jolene and the Jing Jang Jong, not to mention past heroes like The Fratellis, The View, The Pigeon Detectives and other such band’s beginning with ‘the.’

So for all the moist anticipation, it was a bit disheartening to stumble into a drafty Birmingham Barfly to find more photographers than audience members, meaning the solid, if not revolutionary sounds of Cut Off Your Hands, Cazals and stupidly named Ox.Eagle.Lion.Man were belted out to a stark, cold, empty room.
The feeling must have been mutual too, Cut Off Your Hands vocalist Nick Johnson’s only words throughout his bands concise set was the ludicrously bleak closer:

“Thanks, it’s been the most depressing night of our lives”

Which to someone once subjected to a Sex and the City marathon, I find a tad melodramatic. Still, it’s hard to get exciting about any band when there’s a greater atmosphere on Mars.
But what of the music that elucidated this empty cavern of a venue? Well it all started well enough, hardcore fans of punctuation Ox.Eagle.Lion.Man opened proceedings with an epically ambitious cacophony of sinister darkness that sounded like a long-lost Joy Division EP. As we venture into their set, things take unexpected twists as lanky haired guitarist Jareth takes us down ever more experimental avenues.

If anything, the band suffers from too much ambition, despite a few impressive direct songs oddly reminiscent of a non-shit Horrors or even Black Sabbath, other tracks try and squeeze twelve songs into one, and for all the brief flickers of genius, it all ends up rather directionless. Although despite that, they emerge easily as the most interesting band of the night.
Next up in front of the dozen or so media types that inhabit tonight’s BarFly are London’s Cavals. With explosive guitar strings that lick the amps dry and an enveloping, tumultuous sound, Cavals certainly have potential. Live, they’re as tight as a nun’s vaj, but you just can’t help feeling they’re crying out to receive the giant phallus of a great tune.

Particularly irritating was Cazals lead singer, besides the fact that he looks like a rat and mumbled about how cold it was throughout, it’s sad to say that front-man Phil just doesn’t isn’t a great front-man. Plus, the lyrics that were distinguishable had the poetry of a Speak n Spell. Their best song of the night To Cut a Long Story Short, proudly stands out like Peter Crouch in a sea of midgets.
Finally, Kiwi’s Cut Off Your Hands amble on and deliver a furious set of Razorlight meets The Smiths avante garde rock n’ roll. It’s slick and tightly played, with ball shuddering bass and amp achingly loud guitar, topped off with an elastic limbed front-man akin to a young Mick Jagger. Cut Off your Hands have all the right ingredients to make their name heard, yet somehow lack that certain something.

It’s something that typifies all three young, hopeful bands at tonight’s gig; for all their obvious merits of each band, it’s all been done before. Maybe it’s due to this hacks’ perpetually high expectations to discover a band to revolutionise the tired indie scene – with all its ludicrous pretentions and shallow hypocrisy, but so many new bands just seem to equate imitation with invention.
Now there’s nothing essentially wrong with that, but when every new band takes influence from the same small handful of acts, it’s a struggle being enthusiastic about new music.

www.lifeisboring.co.uk
www.oxeaglelionman.com

www.myspace.com/cutoffyourhands

Thanks to Hannah @ Exposure

By: Dave Allen