Monday 7 February 2011

EXCLUSIVE PREVIEW BLOG:
2011- YEAR OF THE COMET.

Backed by Radio One favourites- Huw Stevens and Zane Lowe, and with number 6 album under thier belts, 2011 is set to be the year when Little Comets make it big!

L-R Rob, Mickey, Mark, Matt.
Now that we have January out of the way and the buzz around "2011's hottest new acts" has died down, we can get down to checking out the real talent that this year is set to offer. Their long awaited debut album In Search of Elusive Little Comets, released 31st January 2011, has been selling out in Hmv's for the past week. Reaching number 6 in the UK Indie Chart, it marks the start of  Little Comets dominating this year: Jessie J who?!






 Est.1987 takes a look back to 2010 as we went on tour with the boys from Little Comets, when their meteroic rise to the forefront of the music industry was just beginning. 




When Est.1987 hooks up with the Little Comets they are right in the midst of the rotating headline tour put together by the nice people at NME. It is day two which means Little Comets are top of the bill tonight in Fibbers, York. NME has handpicked three of the hottest bands tipped for the top;
 Even before Little Comets make it to the stage the crowd anticipates their set, chanting the ever popular “this one’s for dancing” at every hush in the music. From the first beats of Mark’s drum the crowd pogo up and down and only grow with energy as the set progresses. Every one of Little Comets' songs is single worthy – each one a musical vignette with contagious up beat melodies. Chanting and dancing is compulsory as lead singer Rob resonates cautionary tales of girls named ‘Johanna’ and ‘Mathilda’. Amid playing  the likes of the ingenious single ‘Adultery’, the band occasionally reach up to a washing line strung across the stage from which percussion instruments hang amongst the odd kitchen pan. The band are polished yet feel raw, mixing these basic percussion sounds with complex riffs. As their set comes to an end it’s safe to say that Little Comets have firmly marked their place on this year’s NME Club Special Tour and with that we excitedly head home for the night in anticipation for the next stop on the tour – Leeds. 

Out now on Dirty Hit
Day three of the NME Tour and Little Comets take some time out to chat to us prior to their gig at the Brudenell Social Club in Leeds later in the evening.

How would you describe your sound and who are your influences?
ROB: We might get influenced by a book we’re reading or where we are rehearsing or by a story we hear or just anything. I read a really interesting interview with YeaSayer the other day where they said that when you’re growing up you’re just a product of all your influences. You’re a product of language and society.
MATT: We try and make it very percussive and melodic. It’s quite light in a melodic sense but then against that the lyrics are maybe a bit darker sometimes.

 Have you always used the percussive washing line onstage?
MATT: We were just messing around trying to get percussion into the live set. When you’re trying to play and you’ve got a percussion instrument in your hand it’s really hard to put it down and pick it up. So, Rob came up with the idea that instead of smashing it on the floor we would try to hang it from the ceiling and me being able to tie ridiculous knots…
ROB: Matt’s a sailor so he could tie really good knots!
MATT: We also thought about a percussion chair. However, Mickey is an absolute health and safety pigeon because as soon as we had the idea he was like ‘you can’t do that because if it falls mid gig and hit someone in the face…’.
ROB: (to Mickey)- You’re quite happy to come up with ideas for disturbing the peace in public places but we can’t have a chair on stage.

And talking of disturbing the peace in public places you’re famous for your spontaneous gigs (on the Metro and in Marks & Spencer etc.) Do you play them anymore or are you still in trouble with the Police?
MARK: We can’t do that Marks and Spencer thing again because the last time we did it we got a lifetime ban.
MATT: We didn’t realise that many people were going to be there. Then Nihail from Radio1 was on our Myspace and said about the bakery isle gig on Radio1.

MARK: People think we don’t eat wheat for health reasons but it’s just we can’t go there now...

So...what does 2011 hold in store for L.C?
MARK: I need to wash my car and stuff…
ROB: Some festivals, release the album, write a new album. We want to call the album ‘In Search of Elusive Little Comets’.

Other than yourselves which acts would you recommend our readers check out?
ROB: Animal Collective, Grizzly Bear, Deastro- he’s mad. We did a tour with him. First gig was in Bristol and he went to Brighton! We had to look after him for the whole tour because his band left him the night before he was due to fly over. So he did all gigs as a one man act with a laptop and he didn’t have anywhere to stay so we adopted him for two weeks.
MATT: He’s a Master of Storytelling.

And the boys aren’t short of stories themselves; turning their analogies into catchy lyrics and melodies as we see again as they take to the stage in Leeds.

In Search of Elusive Little Comets is out now on Dirty Hit

Catch the Little Comets Boys @
08 Feb EXETER Cavern
09 Feb BRIGHTON Audio
10 Feb BRISTOL Start the Bus - FREE
11 Feb CARDIFF Arts Centre
14 Feb SOUTHAMPTON Joiners
15 Feb LONDON XOYO
16 Feb OXFORD Jericho Tavern
17 Feb NORWICH Arts Centre
18 Feb EDINBURGH Cabaret Voltaire
26 Feb NEWCASTLE Northumbria Uni
04 Mar DUBLIN Academy 2
05 Mar BELFAST Stiff Kitten
16 Mar SXSW Texas