Plata O Plomo,
Winnebago DealPublic relations folk can be some of the weirdest people on this Earth. Most of the time they are as helpful as a hooker with a fistful of dollars, but as soon as they get into press release writing mode a sense of reality goes out of the window. Let me quote from the Winnebago Deal release: "Winnebago Deal are two twenty-something blokes from Oxford. Both are called Ben. One plays drums and the other plays guitar and screams. Together they sound like Fu Manchu and Black Flag conspiring to murder The White Stripes." Now excuse me Mr Press Release person, but this sounds nothing like Black Flag. And there's certainly nothing like the melody and hooks the White Stripes drop with ease. So nice analogy, but very wide of the mark.
'Plata O Plomo' is interesting in that it makes a hell of a racket for just two guys. One guitar and one drumkit - but that's the only thing worthy of noting. For the band play turgid and stale garage rock which is as boring as it is unoriginal. Riding on the back of the success of the likes of The Hives and The White Stripes (without sounding much like them), the mainstream music press have jumped on this lot as the saviours of the UK music scene. To quote Jim Royle, 'my arse'.
The likes of opener 'Manhunt' and 'Maximum Overdrive' are tracks that merely soak heavily distorted reptitive guitar riffs around bland drum patterns and shouty vocals. You can almost sense the long dark hair being flailed in all directions and plenty of metal horns being given out. Having somehow managed to score a support slot with Fugazi last year, Fierce Panda snapped them up and this is the result. But WD are to Fugazi what Simple Plan are to Green Day. One set of bands are legends, the other pale imitators.
Unfortunately each song on this mini-album sounds exactly the same. The drums pound, the riffs come out and are repeated over and over again. The tone is exactly the same, there's no variation, and the vocals bleat in a throaty, shouty kinda style and it's all very dull indeed. 'Whiskey Business' is so bad a play on words that I feel embarrassed on behalf of the band. How cliched is it singing about bourbon when you're clearly in a band that worships the heavy drinking stoner rock bands of the US? Kerrang gave this 4 Ks and the NME have claimed they are one of the UK's brightest hopes. I think that says it all really. The only thing worse than a garage rock band is a bad garage rock band. File Winnebago Deal under ones to avoid.
Paul
