Apparently Johnny Foreigner are 'Brummie noise pop'; I suppose that's fairly close to the mark - if that means they sound vaguely like a cross between Bis and Million Dead. Actually scratch that a better comparison would be between Johnny Foreigner and the numerous also-ran underdogs that traditionally found a home on beggers banquet and the zoo that is Fierce Panda, Livid Meercat et al... Bands like Seafood, the Llama Farmers and Art Brut. Bands that promise a lot, if you can get past the rough and ready production (or like me fall for its rough-as-a-badgers-arse charm), but nearly uniformly fail to deliver on the initial promise and surf wave after wave of relative obscurity, never quite hitting the tsunami of the big time. Bands whose career highlight will probably be supporting Idlewild (and surprise, surprise Johnny Foreigner have indeed supported Idlewild in London) or similar 'bigger' Indie bands.
Its a shame that all signs point to Johnny Foreigner either massively compromising themselves musically to survive or becoming one of the also-rans. That said there are favourable comparisons to be drawn with Bloc Party (particularly
'Suicide pact, yeah?') with its infectious handclap intro.
'Sofacore' also sounds 'a little' like a hyperactive Bloc Party but I swear blind
'That this band is killing us' is (in Hollywood terms) a 're-imagining' of Weezer's
'The sweater song'; well, '
The sweater song' as if performed by Seafood anyhow.
I really do quite like this truth be told but I lament that Johnny Foreigner have emerged at a time when the influences they reject (from the blurb - "No gang of four stop-starts, no post-Libertines jangle, no post Klaxons keys and punk funk...") pretty much compose the NME sponsored Zeitgeist.
A band out of time, but a band worth a listen for older Indie kid farts like myself.
Johnny Foreigner's -
'Arcs Across The City' is available from the 26th November on Best Before Records.
http://www.myspace.com/johnnyforeigner
