VENUE review
From the backstreets of Bath (always gritty, especially after a hard frost) come gobby white-boy three-piece Bloody Tourists with this ridiculously enjoyable half-hour of dirty, daft, in-your-face garage punk allegedly produced Art Brut-style on secondhand instruments by complete beginners. Drawing audible inspirations from The Fall, The Stooges and 'Come on Pilgrim'-era Pixies, and with a wry, dry sense of humour informing songs about slimy amusement arcade-owning pornographers, foxy divorcees, idiot friends and fit Danish dentists, it's surely a matter of mere seconds before someone tags them - ooh, here we go! - as Bath's answer to The Arctic Monkeys. "He talks in cockney/ He thinks he's cockney/ He comes from Wiveliscombe", should elicit shrieks of mirth from all those unimpressed by the worldly posturings of local wannabes. Truly, there's never a dull moment. Seek them out at a heritage site near you as soon as possible. ***** 5 stars
Also, ABOUT.COM had this to say about us:
Billing themselves as the "Velvet Underground meets the White Stripes", Bath UK's Bloody Tourists are doing themselves a large disservice. While I can hear the Velvet Underground reference, specifically in frontman Lee Elkins and his Lou Reed-influenced vocal stylings, I think this band has a lot more talent and style than the White Stripes.
The Bloody Tourists play no-nonsense garage punk. The sound is raw but crisp, without the low-fi production that many garage bands use to hide a lack of talent. It has a great sound, a kind of thrift-store swagger, that makes it easier to compare them to a better Detroit garage rocker, one Iggy Pop, than to the duo they've currently hitched their name to.
You can check out (and download) four tunes by Bloody Tourists on their MySpace site. If you like what you hear (and you will if the taste buds in your ears are working), the band is also offering a special deal on Kink, their debut album. If you buy it now, the band will autograph it, throw in an unreleased MP3 and a pin, and even offer a money-back guarantee if you don't like it. Because even if they mention their similarities to Jack and Meg, I think they realize they're better, too.
RYAN COOPER - ABOUT.COM
So, if you are still with us we'll see you on 12th January.
www.bloodytourists.co.uk
