Ladyhawk, not to be confused with Ladyhawke, sound exactly like the indie kiwi bands of my youth (they're Canadian apparently, increasingly a quality mark in itself). Low-fi, garage, post-punk, post-goth improvisational rock. Noise matters. A good guitar is a heavily distorted, scratched, beaten and abused guitar. Husker Du, Pixies, and Sonic Youth, the founding fathers of the genre, with pan Atlantic cousins in the Cure and the Jam. Contrasted with the stadium-friendly-epic, moody (or less generously, - a bit morbid - ) anthems by the likes of the Editors, the Doves, or Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, this is fresh, bright, unassuming. It sounds like they recorded it in their mum's kitchen. It's a universal law - you'll never be famous in music without pop songs, or at least, without one pop song, but there's nothing here to suggest that Ladyhawk would care. And fair play too.
It's music for students. It needs copious cheap beer and handrolled cigarettes, tattered jumpers and impressing girls with your 'sophisticated' 'alternative' tastes. It's both unpretentious and self obsessed in a way only the young can be. The world is a better place with people like this around.
Check out the Verlaines; this must be about 1985 or so I think. A true New Zealand classic.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eeuy8PD0bFM
note to self: Flying Nun... must write.
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