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Jamming in your bedroom is great. Call over your mate ‘Joe’ and together you too can create Half Cousin. Technically its not that simple (you need to find some beaten metal containers, hack up a Tesco trolley and rob Tim Booth of his fashion sense) but the results are guaranteed to be similar and just as shit, but give 'em a little credit for bringing the chopped up trolley, brave people.
The Earlies are a musical and geographical melting pot: Two Texans, Two Mancunians and smatterings of ‘Burnlians’ who assembled a few months back to create the acclaimed ‘These are the Earlies’, an album that sees Mercury Rev nibbling at Mr Brian Wilson limp leg.
After numerous headcounts, a suspected eleven people scuffle on stage together with a few old faces from earlier bands, displaying the incestuous hinge of the nights gig. It’s a grand family affair where the crowd are as much a part of the performance as the band, and considering on a poor night they could rival each other in size it’s a good thing, but tonight its suitably rammed and sticky to match.
‘25 Easy Pieces’ showcases the relaxed honey laden vocals of Brandon Carr who glides effortlessly alongside piano, but it’s the lucky dip harmonies that impede the songs gentle flow. Luckily it doesn’t last long as ‘Song for #3’ manages to blow the vocal cobwebs clean from the defective suspects, presenting the true face of The Earlies, and its as beautiful as a tripping daisy.
The Definitive Earlies tune ‘Wayward Song’ follows directly teasing out the whooping crowd whom boarder on hysteria for their adopted brothers of Spree. It’s both inventive and idyllic and heavily steeped in cello, piano, flute and yet more beach boy style harmonies. Culminating in something the Super Furry Animals would cherish, it’s their ‘Mountain People’. Proceeding song ‘One of Us is Dead’ sees monotony build into euphoric horn solo’s reminiscent of Groove Armada, a fantastically crafted tune set to militant marching. New single ‘Morning Wonder’s steady groove flips the pastoral limp wrist into a blanket of distortion come the end, a welcome respite from shoe gazing and into slash soloing territory.
Penultimate track ‘The Devils Country’ displays a darker, sleaze driven sound almost Dandy Warholes-esque in parts, horn laden, proud and showing (for the first time) a confidence in a powerful new direction in song writing for the transatlantic gang.
For a hometown headline set it’s a relatively short, but its sweeter than glucose dipped in sugar. Basing most songs one dimensionally while sneakily introducing extra flavours isn’t gonna produce extreme music, but if its beauty in harmony your searching for then The Earlies might be it.
