demos'n'EPs

Are you local? If so, Jamie Crossan may be interested in your self-released material.

Recliner - demo
Recliner's demo is a cross between Oasis now and Foo Fighters around their most poppy days of 'Learn to Fly' and 'Breakout' - at times the Glasgow 5-piece try and sound like they are old school rock’n’roll at the stadium-belting limits. Even though I would describe the equivalent of the band’s sound to being more like a Ferrari engine in a go-cart - all power, no substance or control. On second track (no songs have names, well on the demo CD I have anyway) the very very....very long guitar solo is mind-numingly painful, I would rather eat my own testicles than have to sit through the 2 minutes 20 seconds (yes, you heard me) of axe battling. The Foo Fighters influences become most evident on the third track when for a brief second you think it’s big uncle Dave Grohl singing 'All My Life' before another lengthy guitar solo comes into play. All in all it’s a half decent demo, the lengthy guitar solos are incredibly boring, but if it’s stadium rock for the basement garage then Recliner will be up your street.

Blind Pew - You're Claimed
‘You're Claimed’ is another fantastic face to the ever-sounding-different-every-time-I-see-them Blind Pew. The band sound more dirty and heavy when seen live, but the production on this EPsounds crisp and almost 'poppy', whatever poppy means. But that’s not to say they have totally changed their sound to be a bit more commercial. 'Uh Huh' still sounds butch and manly as ever but with a 'silly French bit at the end'! Yes, they can be girly when the want to.
However,the award for best song on the EP goes to first track 'Devil in I' which sounds like a cross between 'Shaft' and a 70's porno, in a good way.
'Experiment' makes the Bee Gees sound like at the very least, a manly woman - singer Ian must surely have to squeeze his balls tightly to manage to get near the notes he sings on this brilliant 70's-esque funk-fuck (a song about experimenting sexually - why, what else would “I like it, I want it, experiment” mean?)
If you catch this Glaswegian four-piece live expect dirty garage rock, listen to 'Your Claimed' and expect garage-funk-70's-porn-head-fuck. Blind Pew may have more faces than a town hall clock, but each one of them is bright with musical prowess.

Aviator Shades
(Love Me) Back/ She's So Dull EP
Ahh, Aviator shades how pleasant and poppy they are. They just make you want to jump up and down a lot and eat smarties and wine gums until you spew, over-indulging in E numbers. They sound like the equivalent of a 4 year old on sweets (not the ecstasy kind, however). But does this actually mean they are any good then? Well the long answer is yes but no but yes… but well kinda.
The first track on this double A' side - ‘(Love Me) Back’ - is a glorious pop song, full of ooo's and ahh's and the obligatory handclaps. They sound, on this song, like a Scottish Ash - which is a good thing surely.
But unfortunately, they let their side down with the very poor second song ‘She's So Dull’, which really shouldn't have been the other track on this double ‘A' side, because quite frankly it is shit. The band sound like a poor man’s Busted on this track - a cool riff, but the rest of the song is very easily forgotten.
‘Lilac Limo’ is a brilliantly titled and excellently crafted pop song, and really should have been the 'other song' on this EP instead of being a 'bonus track'. The song resembles a modern Stereophonics, with a great verse and even better chorus, which builds before soaring into an oblivion of all things poppy.
A decent EP, but let’s not get silly and say they are a great band, they still have a long way to go before they write anything worth getting excited about. However, if they write more songs like iLilac Limoi, we would all be (prepare for cliché) buying our Aviator Shades.