The Basics - Stand Out /Fit In

Mon 9th Jul, 2007 in Music Reviews

As a rule the drummer is usually the bloke in the background keeping time. There are of course exceptions where the focus is placed on the drum kit usually involving show stopping brilliance, wild antics or comical signing – see, in no particular order, ?uestlove, Keith Moon and Ringo Starr. The Basics, perhaps to their detriment, will be introduced to many listeners as – œthe band that Gotye drums for.’

Fusing the classic songwriting of Brill Building-era pop with the energy of early rock and roll, The Basics cram more hooks into this 39-minute gem than most bands will over their entire careers. There’s no stand out single because the Basics don’t believe in filler, they don’t believe in boredom and they definitely don’t believe in pretension. There may only be three voices in the band, but it’ll only take one listen before you’re grinning like an idiot and joining in of the choruses, responding to the calls and clapping along. Dancing is also a mandatory element of a Basics tune – yes, dancing to a new band that doesn’t involve florescent t-shirts or glow sticks. The Basics live up to the simplicity of their name, delivering instantly familiar songs that stand up well along side their Richard Berry and Leiber and Stoller covers.

Have Love Will Travel offers a crisp take on the much covered classic. If the recent version supplied by the Black Keys was a dangerous ramble through the backwoods in a stolen Ute, the Basics version is an open road glide in a restored open top Cadillac. Both bands get to their girl, but the Basics might politely ask their future father-in-law permission before taking their gal to the Saturday night dance. Though they do take their jackets off, or at least roll up their sleeves, to channel the sophisticated sleaze of vintage playboy with their version of Leiber and Stoller’s Three Cool Cats; when Vince Vaughan revises his Swingers’ persona and heads out for martinis with Leisure Suit Larry and Quagmire from Family Guy this is their strutting theme.

Their songs are as clean and finely tailored as the band’s sharp grey suits, but they resist the temptations of purely retro stylings. Yet while a band like the Pipettes coo their tributes to girl band harmonies and polka dot dresses, the Basics aren’t bound by the cut of their suits to just play one genre. Their songs are just as likely to take their influences from rockabilly, soul, rock- œn’roll and swing as from classic sharply styled pop. Hey There! features mariachi-esque horn stabs, while Bitten by the Same Bug and Lookin’ Over My Shoulder stir white boy reggae into the mix with the year’s second best imitation of prime Police – beaten only by the reformed Police. The Basics cop the vocal styling’s of Sting so closely on the verses of Bug that if the Police are struggling for new material for the inevitable comeback album this is their perfect guide tape.

If this album were a best of reissue of some sadly forgotten bands from thirty or forty years ago they’d be hailed with double page spreads in the Sunday arts supplement of the major broadsheets. And they’ll face fierce competition when their protégés Little Red launch their debut – the Little Red boys have the songs, soul, look, youth, hype and lack of a distractingly high profile side-project that will see them rise – but for now you’ll be hard pressed to find a more consistently enjoyable collection of pop gems.