the history of apple pie

Ok.  This is a music post (not about pies & desserts).

Part of getting older (and music) is you find your favorite music and favorite bands and … well … they are your favorites.  And finding new bands to like gets tough.

But.

You keep listening and keep hoping. And with that all said.  Along came The History of Apple Pie.

I will begin this by saying “I like their potential.”  A very young band with a neat sound. My kinda sound.  But they are just beginning and time will tell.

I know.  I know. I admit that I am typically drawn to Britpop bands. For some reason they seem to write great poppy kooks (see my Scars on 45 post). And they seem to master the art of multiple singer melodies. So I often look to the Brits t give me some new young bands to listen to.

The History of Apple Pie is shameless indie pop. Fuzzy guitars, laid back melodies and relatively lo-fi production.  They are favorites of Yuck (another band with potential but not exactly my type of music).

They have a really interesting line up: Stephanie Min (vocals), Jerome Watson (guitar), James Thomas (drums), Kelly Lee Owens (bass, backing vocals), Aslam Ghauri (guitar).

It helps that Yuck has been getting rave notices and then the History of Apple Pie enters into a similar vein of music. In fact, they’re seemingly friends of Yuck, or anyway Yuck have been saying nice things about them, and like their London counterparts they appear to have a similar reverence for late-80s US and UK rock. The band claims to be influenced by Blur and Pavement (another reason to like them) and Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr and My Bloody Valentine.

Now.

Given that information it isn’t quite clear when you hear their debut single You’re So Cool. An awesome song which seems to nod more to 60s girl groups.

On the other hand on B-side Some Kind you finally get the burst of guitar that uses Dinosaur Jr’s pre-grunge generation model to near perfection.

Best review I saw? “Gloriously melodic slice of lo-fi noise-pop” – musicfansmic.net.

Best band quote? “Some of the songs are written about mine and Jerome’s own experiences,” says Stephanie, “But I prefer writing about hypothetical, sugar-coated situations, a soundtrack to situations we wish we were in but weren’t really at all; American sounds bursting through grey England. It’s more exciting that way.”

Link: http://www.myspace.com/thehistoryofapplepie

Written by Bruce