Post War Glamour Girls
Ode to Harry Dean b/w Spitting Pearls
Sturdy Records

Post War Glamour Girls is another Leeds band, and like The Wind-Up Birds they're on the Leeds label Sturdy Records. Birds, girls, what's up next?

Post War Glamour Girls (from now PWGG) is a quintet who formed just over a year ago. They picked the band's name from a song by first wave punk-poet John Cooper-Clarke, but musically their far from both Clarke and punk as we know it. PWGG, who's in fact only one girl plus four lads. The label describes them as: '...Nick ' Cave fronting Portishead, or Tom Waits grappling with Modest Mouse.... And, yes, I do get some Cave/Grinderman and Modest Mouse flashes. The big difference is when co-singer Alice stand to the mike with her velvety voice, as a big contrast to the rasping, angry voice of singer James (yes, he's sometimes a sound-alike to Isaac Brock).

"Ode to Harry Dean" is the tougher and better of the two songs on this double A side debut single. This can't be nothing else than an ode to Harry Dean Stanton, one of the coolest actors around. "Ode..." for sure is a bit in Modest Mouse mode. I also get to think of Belgian 90s band deus, as well as Texans The Shoulders (well, they were a bit straighter, as I recall). "Spitting Pearls" is a more quiet, drama-filled song with twin-vocals by James and Alice (vocal-wise they're... and please don't get me wrong; the beast and the beauty). It's got some nerve as well, with some blistering guitar-work. Nice debut.

Copyright © 2011 Håvard Oppøyen