Badlittlekitten

28
The Strokes - The Modern Age
Is This It
2001
Of course, rock revivalism is an exciting thing in the right hands. Before the Strokes came along it seemed like Britain’s rock landscape was populated by screaming nu-metal babies and post Oasis/Radiohead dadrock buttock leechers. The snappy guitars, ennui, sex and decay, Motown riffs, and snappier trousers of New Yorks Strokes was like a short sharp shock; like a post card from a time that felt rock and roll (the roll being crucial) could change the world. It all kinda seemed like it was cynically concocted in the studio by Julian Casablancas and producer Gordon Raphael using an abacus, cello tape and stray bits of Marquee Moon, but it didn’t matter, cos when Julian nonchalantly drooled “In the sun sun having fun it’s in my blood, I just can’t help it. DON'T WANT YOU HERE RIGHT NOW LET ME GO. WOOOH! Go Go Go Go Go Go “ with sexual relish, he showed up all the rap rockers and pub plodders as the spoilt whingebags that they are. I can say with confidence that this is the most important track on this humble list and throughout most of the last decade it was hard to find an indie band that didn’t cop the Strokes hooks and looks.

So why ‘The Modern Age’ and not ‘Last Nite’ or ‘New York City Cops’? Well confession time; I played Is This It the other day and I’m at pains to say that it hasn’t aged very well. Maybe it’s something to do with the ubiquity of the sound and style. Maybe it was always a bubbly turd puddle all along. Regardless, ‘The Modern Age’ still thrills me with its ska guitar scratching and buck toothed caveman snare thumping in the verses and the garage guitar solo and the bit where the singing bloke goes “I took to many varieties”. For me the Strokes weren’t it, as they felt too cool and detached too actually love and relate to – and it would come the following summer – but 2001 was a musical climate that had time for heroes, even false ones.

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'Said do you feel it? Do you feel it when you TOUCH ME?. THERE'S A FIRE! THERE'S A FIRE!' The Stooges. Dirt.

https://soundcloud.com/bad-little-kittens
My Top 100 LPs
My Top 52 Indie Tracks Of The 21st Century (incomplete)

Laurent Quinn Proper

RIP Trish Keenan!

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Badlittlekitten

27
The Dirtbombs - Ode To A Blackman
Ultraglide in Black
2001
Mick Collins former band The Gories were a vital influence on the garage rock revival scene of the early 00’s, returning valve amps and fuzz guitars to the modern studio. With his next group, the Dirtbombs, he released the Ultraglide in Black LP, an album consisting mostly of covers of classic 60’s and 70’s soul rock. Personally, as a man of colour myself trying to make it in the rock world I can occasionally feel disconnected, or like an underdog even. Afro – American Collins took rock n’ roll back to its black roots with Ultraglide, and ‘Ode To A Black Man’ is its most poignant track. It’s a cover of a Thin Lizzy B-side which rages down the desert freeway, swampy harmonica in tow, and feasts with Robert Johnson and the devil on them bad drugs stashed in the trunk. Phil Lynott’s tribute to Johnson, Stevie Wonder, Hendrix and the right to be a rock negro reverberates down the ages and serves as a solid middle finger to the slack jawed and dull minded.



26
The Coral - Dreaming Of You
The Coral
2002
But if there's one thing that The Beatles taught us it's that black pop is just as joyous in the hands of a bunch of cheeky scallies from Merseyside. 'Dreaming Of You' gives motown a sprinkling of ska and a sweet coating of MerseyBeat. Some timeless 'oooh aaah oooh's ring out as James Skelly wails "Up in my lonely room where I'm dreaming of you. What can I do?", sung with enough soul and sincerity to keep it from sounding melodramatic. The Coral would never come close to matching this again.

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'Said do you feel it? Do you feel it when you TOUCH ME?. THERE'S A FIRE! THERE'S A FIRE!' The Stooges. Dirt.

https://soundcloud.com/bad-little-kittens
My Top 100 LPs
My Top 52 Indie Tracks Of The 21st Century (incomplete)

Flume

Man that Coral song was such an instant classic.

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''I must know - How can someone so young sing words so sad''

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Sneer

The Coral are generally decent, one of the better English bands to achieve a modicum of mainstream success last decade. The s/t and Magic & Medicine are really good albums.

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YorkeDaddy

For the most part I'm not a huge fan of these songs...

But, 1234 is an awesome song