The Bloody Social - The Lit Lounge / Don Hills, New York, 13&15/12/07
4/5
By: Christiana Spens
I must admit that my memories of seeing the Bloody Social last month in New York are a little blurry now. I blame the band - their sound is liberating to the point of delirious. I'm an impressionable young writer, and they made quite an impression... but let's talk about the music.
I'd already heard the latest Radio Maniac EP and talked to Jimmy Caputo and Jamie Biden in the Belmont Lounge a week earlier, they'd been practising a lot apparently and it showed in the recording - addictive and brilliant. There's a shift in tone from the Sharpshooter EP already - less than a year and the songs that captured my attention and drew me a little closer to Manhattan have been given new diversity with the addition of the addictive 'Nosebleed' and 'Curtain Call' among others... They're more mature, stronger - less bravado and more grunge. Lyrics all decadent and edgy and vaguely corrupting.
"Baby if your nose begins to bleed
Don't worry girl, I'm a friend indeed...
Run away with me".
It was snowing that night after the Don Hills show, in so many ways. I held Jimmy's hand as we ran across the road in the snow - almost too cute for a rock band - until I got hit in the face with a snowball. Just enough to cool me down: it was a great show.
Jamie Burke performs as if he's been on the road for a decade rather than out and about in Manhattan for a couple years; he was born for it - the lyrics become him. Jamie Biden, Jimmy Caputo and Drew Thomas powerfully drive the song, a grungy melancholy, a rich melody given immediacy and strength with music all brooding and temperamental - a style of their own. There's something necessary about the music, something - some anger, passion, runaway tone - that makes it impossible to ignore or forget. Like a car running, "I need you to know / won't you carry me home / won't you carry me home" - it's music to run away to, run away with.
"I tried to run, I tried to hide
But the men in white dragged me back inside
And blue eyes never came for me..."
The more I listen to the Bloody Social, the more songs they put out and shows in which they perform, the more I respect them, the more I hear something familiar in the undertones and see through the smokescreen to something I can relate to, some sort of idealism, some sort of corruption. The snow quickly turns to slush - but never mind...
The music soundtracks the high desires and libertine ideas required of a great band. It's early days, but if the Bloody Social stay together and continue to put out music as real and passionate as the Sharpshooter and Radio Maniac EPs then that title is theirs. The blizzard continues, the music also, and makes a cold night electric.
Your Feedback
Login to post your comment