Review of The Blueskins's CD "User Friendly"

The Blueskins: User Friendly

An out of nowhere an A&R buzz for this mysterious band took a fair few folks on the scene by surprise around the turn of the year. Just who were The Blueskins everyone was asking, just months ago. All that was known was that there had been an inauspicious and unplaced performance in the Morley Battle of the Bands in the autumn. Next thing we know this live studio taster disc appears with super-cool indie Domino Records stamped on it along with some release blurb and tour dates from a top-ranking PR company. It transpires that the four-piece are straight outta Gawthorpe and formed in September 2001. The fact that they have just completed a short string of dates with hot Lincoln property 22:20s gives a clue to the type of sounds they deal in. So after all the fuss, what exactly do they sound like? Well to be honest 'User Friendly' is all a bit White Stripes with a bassist. It's new British blues-rock. The drum intro isn't quite in time but that's soon a distant memory as we dash headlong into a energetic stream of poppy blues, zippy-ish kazoos, down-home mouth harp action and wibberly woo-oo-woo-oo backing vocals. The equally catchy 'Cry Baby' comes at you like a less uptight Stereophonics clocking in at a speedy two minutes. Fun stuff indeed, though not exactly groundbreaking. Early days yet though and with The White Stripes doing rather well to say the least, make sure you're ready for Yorkshire white boy blues to be all the rage.

• www.theblueskins.com

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