Kubichek!

by Lisa Holmes

Pop sensibilities combine perfectly with their indie guitar hero posturing

"This is an angry album – for all of its pop posturing, tracks like ‘Opening Shot’ are bitter “I’ll find so much dirt that it sticks to your fingers…and ruin everything you touch”."

Fresh from a Northern stable that has so far given us Dartz! and The Motorettes, Kubichek! produce a gloriously riotous indie pop blend. It’s fast, it’s happy and the boys can carry a tune. So a good three or so years in to their history and following the success of their burgeoning live shows peppered with support slots for The Futureheads, Maximo Park and !Forward Russia! It is finally debut album time.

Al, Frog, McGreavy and Nelson have known and played together since university, their recent signing to 30:30 Records after leaving Kitchenware seems to have put a spring back in their step and with this album the sky is the limit. Day jobs are in the past and it would seem to be Kubichek!’s time to answer the ‘next big thing’ tags that have followed them for the last two years.

A re-recorded version of previous single ‘Nightjoy’ is the first to be released, and its simple pop sensibilities combine perfectly with the ‘chek’s indie guitar hero posturing. ‘Stutter’ meanwhile is penned by Frog and the angular choppy riff and punchy vocals make it an album highlight. ‘Outwards’ on the other hand could yet prove to be the band’s breakthrough track, drawing on The Killers and fellow Geordies The Futureheads the chorus of “say things twice / you should never have to say things twice” rings round the room. 

Their debut is an angry album – for all of its pop posturing, tracks like ‘Opening Shot’ are bitter “I’ll find so much dirt that it sticks to your fingers / And ruin everything you touch”. Their myspace page quotes ‘rubbish jobs’ as a big inspiration for their music and Al’s lyrics certainly give the impression that the boys are willing to push for that ‘extra half an inch’ (in the words of Posh Spice). ‘Hometown Strategies’ is another frustrated track; "your hometown’s not everything / Remove your home town", a grandiose statement from a band who are inextricably linked to the North East, their origins and who sing proudly in their Northern accent.

Listing The Verve as a key influence it is not hard to pick out the hints of Richard Ashcroft in songs such as the quieter introspective ‘Start as We Mean To’, we also return to the inevitable Oasis comparisons. Kubichek! are a band ready to take the next step, whether they will succeed with their brand of epic indie where others have failed remains to be seen but their debut is an impressive from a dissatisfied band.

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