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This U.K. threesome packs a punch!
I’ve listened to a lot of CDs this year. Very few of them, if any, inspired me to tear off all my clothes, throw open the windows and thrash around the living room. Only one actually had me DOING it. This is it. The best indie disc I’ve heard this year.
This U.K. threesome packs a punch. From the opening war-drums on “Squaddie Meat,” the arrogant funk-vamp of “No No No,” to the prize-winning best song title of ’05, “Vampire State Building,” the King Cheetah have got the power. It’s a gritty, dirty Brit sound; imagine standing on stage in a pile of broken beer bottles two feet thick, trying to sing as a leather sofa burns in front of the stage. That is the sound of The King Cheetah.
This group isn’t concerned with the neighbors’ sleep schedules. If you invite them to your party, they will most likely commandeer your stereo and play Iggy and the Stooges at maximum volume until the cops arrive, then retreat down the fire escape while you face the consequences. A risk worth taking.
They would hurl a mike stand at me for making comparisons, so let’s just say I can easily see them playing a double bill with the Manic Street Preachers, whom the Cheetahs probably hate. So much the better. That kind of rivalry makes for blistering shows. Bring it, boys.
If The King Cheetah isn’t scooped up by filmmaker Guy Ritchie for his next UK crime movie, ala Ocean Color Scene and Iggy Pop, it will be a sickening travesty. If you enjoy in-your-face music with fast-and-loose guitars and bass guitars set to “kill,” this is the disc of the summer. Why they moved from Jolly Old England to California, I’ll never know. Cali is Chili Pepper country, home of West Coast gangsta rappas and snot-nosed brat punk. The group sounds like it would be more at home in Detroit, where the dirty buildings and factory soot compliments their fabulous sound much better than sunshine and clear skies.
Reviewed by J. Wallace
Indie-Music.com
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