Jakil - Click For Myspace

Click to hear Jakil – Ok I’m Ready

Jakil are a lovely little band from Edinburgh, Scotland who you cant help but fall in love with. They have an ear for a great Pop song, as Ok I’m Ready brilliantly demonstrates. Lively, quirky and disjointed verses and pre-choruses with busy ambient guitar licks preceed catchy and anthemic Pop choruses. If you like The Dykeenies, The Kooks and everything in between, and are partial to a brilliant Indie Pop song, check these guys out.

The Dykeenies & Look See Proof

 

Early last week I caught Glasgow Indie / Rock 4-piece The Dykeenies rip up the Camden Underworld. The ensuing epic, stadium-worthy Pop-Rock anthem-fest cemented my belief that Glasgow is a seriously exciting place to be in terms of music right now.

Hertfordshire-based 5-piece Look See Proof provided fantastic support: their brand of disjointed, pop-infused Indie-Rock, expertly performed complete with intelligent guitar work; subtle but effective synths; tight-as-fuck drums; and The Futureheads-esque vocal antics from (at least?) 4 of the 5 members, whipped an already enthusiastic crowd into a riff-induced frenzy.

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Easy on the eyes too, it was obvious that a lot of the audience were hopeful females aged late teens / early twenties, but that didnt detract from the fact that Look See Proof put on one hell of a show. Fans of the likes of  The Departure, We Are Scientists, Maximo Park and Johnny Foreigner will love this energetic Indie-Pop act.

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By the time The Dykeenies hit the stage The Underworld was completely packed and buzzing with excitement. I haven’t seen a small venue / gig generate this much energy and enthusiasm in what can often be a hostile market for a long time and it was refreshing to feel a part of such a positive atmosphere.

Tracks like Clean Up Your Eyes, laden with trademark pop-hook synths, drowned-in-delay guitar lines, driven rhythm and bass section and rich vocal melodies, were sung back by a die-hard crowd with such ferocity that if you closed your eyes you may as well have been at Wembley. The fact that these boys aren’t filling stadiums, while perversely bands like Scouting For Girls are still allowed to make music, is testament to the fact that the music industry is seriously fucked up.

Because the fact is that The Dykeenies take all the classic tricks from the masters of soft-rock: U2 and Coldplay, employing simple but intelligent reverb-soaked guitar licks, delicate synth lines, and epic, singalong, pop choruses: they tick all the right boxes. And yet somehow, by some quirk of fate; by some administration error by a careless label / booking agent / management intern, these boys missed the boat and nearly 4 years after The Dykeenies as a concept was conceived, this band is still (only) selling out The Underworld and the like.

Incidentally, when I mentioned to a few of the guys in the office that I would appreciate guest list to see The Dykeenies, I instantly became the subject of what can only be described as a music-industry-snob hate campaign. Turns out that there is something about these guys that makes them ‘not cool’ within the industry. One person went on to clarify that ‘they are everything wrong with music’ and that ‘they try too hard’. Upon telling a friend of this bullying I was reassured with the phrase ‘dont worry.. people just dont like people that like The Dykeenies‘. Throw off the shackles people.. The Dykeenies are an epic, stadium-rock band, that just haven’t quite made it to the stadiums yet.. who cares if they’re cool or not, they damn-sure deserve a listen.