A band that have been wooing us with their punkish take on shoe-gazing (whatever that means…), Vivian Girls are in the middle of their debut UK tour. We got Dan Jaustin to pop along and take some shots at their Manchester show last week.

We love the Vivian Girls. Tom Whyman, always one to get enthusastic about great music, suggested that EVERYONE should own a copy of their self-titled debut, and who are we to argue? So, what better time with their UK tour occuring RIGHT NOW, to catch up with the girls and find out a bit about what makes ‘em tick.

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If indie labels manufactured girl groups then they couldn’t do a much better job than if they’d manufactured Vivian Girls, three geeky-cool, er, girls named after those gender-ambiguous sisters that that Henry Darger guy drew, with a sound that recalls the best, glittery-blurry-shiny-punky moments of Husker Du and three-part cooing-shouting vocal harmonies that sound like if Lydia Lunch and Kim Gordon were in The Shaggs or something. More to the point, this record is just 22 minutes long, and every song is a close-to-perfect pop song along the lines of that basic formula described in the last sentence. Like ‘Never See Me Again’ for example. Or any of the others. Continue Reading

Day 6
And so I get home and all is calming. And clammy. There is no band to see across town at 1pm. Or 1am. There are no more Yellow Cabs and sleek black Car Service glides from Brooklyn into the pit of Manhattan, no more subway rides overground in the glistening morning sun. No more beards (I shaved off mine own on arrival at home) and probably less beer, weed and pizza than has been the norm this last week. Certainly not for breakfast anyway.

So, was it all hard work? Well, yes. And no. Don’t get me wrong: 15 hour days of bands and beer are great. I have to admit is a little daunting when you stack 5 of them back to back. Especially rolling straight on from two days on the road with new Swedes, Air France. But I have skills and methods and coping strategies. Continue Reading