Favourite band of the last couple of months – The Go! Team. I stumbled across them through the iTunes Music Store, where one of their singles was a free download of the week back in February or somesuch. Their album, Thunder, Lightning Strike!, I picked up as soon as I could find it. Three months later, I still absolutely love them.
They played on Later… with Jules Holland the other night – always a sure sign of a future hit – and they’re touring right now, in some weird places but notably the John Peel stage at Glastonbury. The album’s hard to characterise. It’s been likened to a blend of sunshine funk mixed with early hip-hop, but that description fails to capture its fundamental joyousness. It’s also been compared to the theme songs of early-mid-80s American pulp TV, which I find more of a stretch to recognise until I realise that pretty much every track I want to use as backing or title music.
They’re worth a listen; available on the iTunes Store, or via Amazon UK and US. Meanwhile, a previous favourite band of mine, The Baker Brothers, have their second album out next week – In With the Out Crowd. Well, it’s a live cut mostly of material from the first album, but it still counts. And I still want to use all their stuff in shows, too.