If there was ever a song to qualify for the title of ‘Chameleon’, then that honour would have to be bestowed upon a group of Novocastrians called The Seabellies and their second single, Prairie.
The band’s frontman and songwriter, Trent Grenell, has acknowledged that the song began life as a “fairly straight and hard electro song”, which was mainly driven by synthesiser. Time passed and one day the boys decided to strip the song back and play some accordion as a joke. They also doubled the tempo and added some guitars that meander by at half the speed of the incendiary drums. The result is that the song actually sounds like many different things. The accordion occasionally makes me think of an elderly man from Little Italy performing, while the dirty guitars sound like Nirvana. Moreover, the song generally sounds like Evermore crossed with Faker, thanks to its indie roots.
Although the name Prairie conjures up the image of soft plains, the song is a ballsy and eclectic hit in the making. Clocking in at just over four and a half minutes, the track really shows that this group is one to keep your eyes on.
