Indie Rock and Roll
Remember when Nathan Barley hit our screens a few years ago? First thoughts were that the media and fashion scene of Shoreditch would implode in a fireball of self-aware irony and everybody would start wearing proper clothes and get proper jobs...well, it didn't. Far from it, the cult TV series managed to throw fuel on to the raging furnace of skinny jeans, tiny phones and even tinier bikes, showing everybody with an N1 postcode how to be, in Dan 'Preacher' Ashcroft's words, 'an idiot'. The latest lampoon of East London culture comes from the cultural news website 'The Poke' in the form of a catchy song with an accompanying video entitled, 'I Love My Life As a Dickhead'; anyone who has not seen it, prepare yourself by making a funeral pyre/shopping list for jeggings, retro necklaces and 'just-the-frame' glasses, sit back and enjoy/cry.
Anyway, the funniest line in it is when the song's protagonist offers listeners a +1 to see his band, in which, "I play synth...we all play synth." (Trust me, it's funny, OK?) Well, after this blatant piss taking of the synth-band format, I was concerned that Films of Colour would cave under the pressure and choose another instrument to create the epic soundscapes that underlie their melodious pop-rock...("we all play Kazoo?!") However, the boys did give into this fear and, flying in the face of cynics, the bassist exchanged his guitar for the keys and triggers provided by his synthesizer and laptop, giving the well crafted tunes a stadium-sized feel.
On stage the band exuded a confident swagger, showcasing a selection of their back catalogue for a crowd made up of other bands artists, journalists and music executives and, fortuitously, not a dickhead in sight. They saved most of their energy for the final number, 'Actions', a glorious, hook-filled foot stomper complete which is to be released as a single over the coming weeks. Of all the bands on the indie scene in East London, Films of Colour are amongst the cream of the crop, serious musicians who clearly put their heart and soul into what they do; so please buy their new single or they might be forced to sell out and get dickhead jobs in media!