We do understand. We don't care.
Thurston Moore. Gil Norton. Rick Rubin. Three people who would come very near the top of a list of “People who can craft a deceptively intoxicating, noisy song of immeasurable depth”. Their latest appearance sees them sitting within only 9 short lines on Australian four-piece Violent Soho’s press release. Is it possible they’re going to the be best we’ve seen in years? No, not at all. Unfortunately no-one has let the lead singer know. If someone made countrymen Jet very, very angry they’d sound a lot like Violent Soho.
While it would be impossible to sing such utterly banal lyrics with the conviction of Kurt Cobain or the energy of Iggy Pop, to end up sounding like an ill Billy Corgan with the tenderness of a Rottweiler is inexcusable. Of all the bandwagons that should be an easy jump-on, Grunge must be it, repetitive guitars, simple down to earth lyrics and a fuzzy delicacy/vulnerability/innocence to the proceedings. As it is his nauseating delivery overshadows a band that is capable if not revolutionary, providing adequate hooks and angst-ridden trashes. The disaffected chorus ends with a very immature sounding “No-one cares or even understands”, as if seconds later he slammed the door and punched the stereo (which may be the best course of action). Yet it saves lowest depths for the obligatory quiet bridge, where the vocalist proves his sheer monotony can leap the divide between screaming and soft singing.
The B-side is utterly derisible, titled “Bombs Over Broadway” as if plucked from a Greenday waste paper bin and wheeling out “Run away and fuck the system!” as the most clichéd chorus you’ll find in a song in 2010. Let's hope the system is not near you, then, running away would be a terrible mistake. I know it’s a hard concept to approach but just imagine if Towers of London were actually, somehow, much worse and not even slightly funny...