The Be Be See - Disney Eyes

I’ve been a fan of The Be Be See for a while now. Even if their manager was a total cunt when I tried to book them for a gig a few months back, it still hasn’t put me off them. This says a lot about the band, as usually my vindictive and bitter nature would make me have a pathological hatred of the band and management, but luckily, the tunes are strong enough to quash my vendetta.

On first listen, it’s not as instant as the “You K Gold” single, but it certainly has it’s own charm and deportment about it. The piano and guitar recall the sound that Supergrass went for on their second album, which is by no means a crime. In fact, pretty much all of the song has a distinct Britpop influence.

The vocals and lyrics do lack the social commentary and wit of a Jarvis, maybe more in line with Louise Wener, but still fun.

The only thing I dislike is the shouting and bawling about going to Tokyo and seeing Kilimanjaro in some sort of Shaun Ryder style. However, this bit is closely followed by my favourite lyric of the song, “some people walk between the raindrops all of the time”.

I love the chorus, it's uplifting and sing-a-long, it’s the type of thing that kids should be dancing to on the indie dancefloors up and down the country, instead of putting their hands round each others shoulders and jumping up and down to “I Predict A Riot”.

By your second and third listen you’ll be smiling, and after every other listen, you’ll be completely sold.

I suppose they can’t go on forever with the puns and play on words song titles, but it’s definitely great fun while it lasts. Enjoy them before they get massively popular and become public enemy number one.


The single was out on the 11th of June, get more information at The Be Be See's MySpace.

Here’s the video………….

Air Traffic - Shooting Star

Wikipedia reckons that Air Traffic took their name from “air traffic”, as they used to practice near an airport. It’s lucky that their practice room wasn’t next to a gigantic piece of dog shit, or they could’ve been called something quite different, but maybe more apt.

From the outset, I’m going to be lazy about this. It’s been a tiresome few weeks. I’m currently recovering from the burnout of examinations and coursework at university, I’ve had the stress of returning to work after four weeks off, the anxiety of the rapid rate that I’m going bald, throw in a handful or so of beers I’ve already had today - and it’s only 2.30pm on a Monday, so I thought it’d be best to jump back into the breech, Private Ryan style, and get my first piece of “work” out of the way for June. Hopefully it’ll start a snowball effect, as long as I can drag my sorry arse away from the beers and Football Manager long enough.

So what can we say about this band? Well for starters, they’re being touted as being good. Can’t see it myself. But we do have a fine line between what’s good and what isn’t these days. I used to think that good was music that was actually good. But nowadays, “good” is basically classed as any old two bob shite that will get played on the local wireless station and shift lots of units at the record store.

This band probably fall into the latter of what is classed as “good”. It reminds me (brace yourself for the lazy reviewer stuff) of Coldplay to start with. Not just for the piano, but also for the whiny vocals of the Chris Martin sound-alike, he even does the same little twitchy things that Free Trade tosspot Martin does.

The bits in between the poncey Coldplay/Keane bits are a bit like Muse or a very commercial Radiohead.

Radio One stalwart, Lamacq, has been championing this band, which doesn’t sit well with me, but maybe I’m just getting too old, too cynical and too indifferent. I remember a time when Lamacq and Whiley would make me go out and buy shite records many moons ago though, so perhaps things haven’t changed that much. Echobelly? Rocket From The Crypt, anyone?

Bad Company, Bob Dylan and Elliott Smith all recorded songs called “Shooting Star”, amongst others, so I don’t think we need to have any more flying meteoroid based songs.
Anyhow, if a bit of commercial, radio friendly guff is your thing, then you’ll probably like this. It’s not that bad, I just think that it is. But then we do have a fine line between what is bad, and what isn’t these days.

The single is out on June the 18th, folks.