I’ve been promising to put up some White Rabbits tracks for awhile. The Rabbits are from NYC, and I keep seeing their name on fliers for shows and parties all over the world, but I’ve yet to see them on anything for the city in which I live and from which they hail. What gives? Did I just miss their conquering of New York while I was finishing graduate school?
In any case, their dramatic, beer hall meets Muse sound evokes pint glass swinging cabaret but is still decidedly NYC. At a time when everyone and everything seems to be moving to Berlin, it’s nice to remember that the city can also be a deep, dark, drunk place of mystery just as much as our European cousin. Blending piano styles borrowed from honkey tonk and Argentine Tango, guitar lines reminiscent of the Clash and the Specials, beats by turns afro-Carribean and militaristic, and the yearning bombast of a lead singer comparable to Matt Bellamy with cheeky backing vocals straight out of Revolver era Beatles, the White Rabbits may very well be the weirdest and coolest new band on the planet.
Opening with “Kid on My Shoulders,” Fortnightly is no-holds barred dance music that sounds unbelievably fresh to ears tired of the disco-wonkiness of Justice and Simian Mobile Disco but who want something with the same hip-shakin’ energy. As perhaps all six band members join in singing “We held our tongues through out it, one day we’ll laugh about it” alongside the jangling saloon piano, the boys evoke an energy rarely heard on record. If this doesn’t make you want to see them live, waving your beer glass in the air as you sing along, just wait for the reprise of the chorus at the end of the album.
Kid on My Shoulders — White Rabbits
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While many of their tracks depend on a sleazy, spooky, player-piano-in-a-haunted-house sound (”March of the Camels” and “Dinner Party” being two of my favorites), “I Used to Complain Now I Don’t,” is a sunshine-y calypso-tonk gem perfect for sipping frozen dacquiris and doing the cha-cha on a boardwalk– which you can do on July 21st when the White Rabbits play Coney Island’s Siren Fest.
March of the Camels — White Rabbits
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I Used to Complain Now I Don’t — White Rabbits
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The album, Fortnightly is now available on Say Hey records.
