Praise For (The) Kaiser Chiefs

(The) Kaiser Chiefs are the best new band I've heard in a long time. Mix The Clash with Adam & The Ants, simmer for 40 minutes, add a sprinkling of vintage Blur et voila!



Ricky Wilson is a better singer than Joe Strummer and Damon Albarn combined and can really belt it out in a theatrical way. The backing vocals too are more interesting than most "indie" bands and where my Adam Ant comparison comes from. I saw them in interview before I'd heard any of their songs and they instantly endeared themselves to me because they dress well and are genuinely amusing people who I'd love to go down the pub with. I can't say the same about Oasis.

There's a playfulness in their music too: Caroline, Yes is a response to The Beach Boys' Caroline, No and their debut album is called Employment. Like Marvin Gaye's Here, My Dear, which paid his divorce settlement, I like it because it acknowledges that they could really use the cash!

They sing about how half-naked girls out on the town on a Friday night are "not very sensible" and how getting mixed up with drunkards who just want to fight (Oasis again) is "not very sensible either". Personally, my fondest lyric is "all I wanted to be was a million miles from here, somewhere more familiar". It's followed by a quadruple refrain of "oh, my god! I can't believe it! I've never been this far away from home." (What Alan Alda says in Crimes And Misdemeanours is true: comedy = tragedy + time.)

So, this is me procrastinating about cleaning the house before my father comes home from vacation tomorrow. Just like (The) Pixies, there's no "The" in their name anywhere on the album yet trying to observe this convention when writing or talking feels really awkward. Grammatically speaking, what's a boy to do?