ARTIST: The Long Blondes
TITLE: Someone To Drive You Home
LABEL: Rough Trade
GENRE: Indie
BITRATE: 221kbps avg
PLAYTIME: 0h 44min total
RELEASE DATE: 2006-11-06
RIP DATE: 2006-10-13
Track List
----------
01. Lust In The Movies 3:05
02. Once And Never Again 2:55
03. Only Lovers Left Alive 3:59
04. Giddy Stratospheres 5:06
05. In The Company Of Women 2:39
06. Heaven Help The New Girl 3:53
07. Seperated By Motorways 2:19
08. You Could Have Both 4:47
09. Swallow Tattoo 2:31
10. Weekend Without Makeup 4:11
11. Madame Ray 3:30
12. A Knife For The Girls 5:08
Release Notes:
They want to be as good as Abba. Seriously, it's not irony. As good at
writing hit songs as Abba were. Yeah, they like Joy Division and all
that, but not half as much as they like Dusty, disco and Del Shannon.
Everybody's talking 'bout Pop Music. Everybody's talking 'bout the
Long Blondes.
A quick recap, then.
The aim was to form a fantasy pop group: Nico, Nancy Sinatra, Diana
Dors, Barbara Windsor. Sexy and literate, flippant and heartbreaking
all at once. With this in mind, the Long Blondes went falling and
laughing headlong into the glamorous world of heaving amps onto trains
and applying eyeliner in National Express coach stations.
The first kindred spirit to notice the Long Blondes was hip south
London independent label Angular Records. Through them, the band
released a brace of exhilarating 45s; The Hitchcock-inspired
Appropriation (By Any Other Name) and bona fide cult classic Giddy
Stratospheres. Both have become indie dancefloor staples ever since, as
has most recent release Separated By Motorways, recorded by
uber-producer Paul Epworth (Futureheads, Bloc Party) at his request and
released on his own Good and Evil label.
The band were leading double lives worthy of Harry Palmer for most of
2005, taking odd days off work to play in New York, Stockholm and
Barcelona and signing autographs whilst their bosses weren't looking.
Meanwhile, word was spreading and all three previous singles were
capturing the hearts of pop music lovers all over the world. In
December, the band were personally asked to support Franz Ferdinand at
Alexandra Palace - A fittingly flamboyant way to end the year.
They kicked off 2006 as recipients of the NME Philip Hall Radar Award
(previously won by Franz Ferdinand and Kaiser Chiefs) and played to
increasingly frenzied crowds as everyone from the Guardian to Vogue
proclaimed the Long Blondes to be the Best Unsigned Band In The
Country. The band blushed at such proclamations but, frankly, even the
best unsigned bands have to be at the office by nine. Surely Marlene
Dietrich never had to work overtime? Even in these less than
productive conditions, the Long Blondes spurned the advances of many
inappropriate suitors until the right one came along. And it came along
alright. In April - almost three years to the day of their incarnation
- the Long Blondes signed to the legendary Rough Trade records. The
label that brought the world the Smiths, the Strokes and the Libertines
had done it again!
The band have recorded their debut album 'Someone To Drive You Home'
with Steve Mackey (Pulp, MIA), set for release 6th November, proceeded
by their next single, Once And Never Again (with B-sides produced by
Erol Alkan). To promote the release The Long Blondes will be performing
their first headline UK tour (with support from The 1990s), calling at
various venues nationwide throughout October.
So that's them; Sardonic style icon and protagonist-in-chief Kate
Jackson, guitarist Dorian Cox, bassist Reenie Hollis, keyboardist Emma
Chaplin and drummer Screech. The next chapter of Sheffield's
idiosyncratic musical heritage: The suburban disco fantasies of the
Human League, the opulent ridiculousness of ABC, the seedy glamour of
Pulp Truly a Carry On cast's worth of characters all with loves, hates
and passions just like yours. It's a Blonde, Blonde, Blonde, Blonde
world. Now just lie back and enjoy it.