Saturday, March 25, 2006

KCRW Music Exchange and the Post-Libertines

Each week, I tune into the KCRW Music Exchange podcast, in which Nic Harcourt checks in with BBC DJ Steve Lamacq to hear about an up-and-coming British band. Given that the first bands I fell in love with were all from the mid-sixties "British Invasion," which was followed by an obsession with "Britpop," the UK is the first place I look for new sounds. Recent episodes have featured The Infidels, Editors, and Gomez. When asked about the post-Britpop backlash that seemed to take place in the States, Harcourt said, "No matter how big Oasis were in England, they really upset a lot of people here in how they did business; and they put a lot of people off British bands - people who make decisions on cover stories and articles and airplay." He added, though, that "The thing about the America market that is perhaps not quite understood by the folks in the British industry is that nobody here really cares where the music comes from."

Recently, Lamacq played the debut single from Dirty Pretty Things (pictured above) - a band I am pretty excited about. The quartet features three former Libertines, including vocalist/guitarist Carl Barat, and hopefully they find more success that Pete Doherty's post-Libertines venture, Babyshambles. In fact, it's possible Dirty Pretty Things could live up to the high expectations everyone had for the Libs, seeing as how Doherty has set the bar pretty low. Funny enough, Doherty may be the most well known UK musician in the states right now, but more for shit like this...


...than for anything music-related.

Dirty Petty Things' debut single, "Bang Bang You're Dead" will be featured on an upcoming NME compilation. In the meantime, you can watch the video...

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I thought Oasis is done. Did the brothers finally just kill each other in a duel?

Anonymous said...

I've always liked the Libertines and not just for the homo-erotic tension within the group. It's become quite clear that Carl was the talented Libertine, as I've quite liked what I've been hearing of Dirty Pretty Things so far. You cannot deny the entertainment value of Pete, however.

Anonymous said...

I think Pete is an enormous talent. It's just that he's such a Prick. I've heard the new Barat single, it's OK, and I'll probably buy the album.

Anonymous said...

Phoenix - they are still alive and kickin.' They have a habit - since the early 90s - of releasing a record, trashing their previous one, and then saying "This is the record we wanted to make." Then they do it all over again.

Barbara - I like the Libertines too, and I hope for the best from Dirty Pretty Things. Shame they can't use Pete's antics to promote themselves.

Ben - He is talented; sad his vices get in the way.