the duke spirit

red weather

over the years i have sometimes wondered about the influence of "geography" on music. it certainly seems that cities rise and fade in terms of their output of "good quality" music. think seattle way back when and montreal today. what i find more interesting, however, is the continental divide. why is there so much music coming out of the states and so little out of the uk? it might just be the size but in my estimation it doesn't account for the differences. there are simply very few british bands that i like these days. trying to think of a few i can come up with arab strap, mogwai, 22-20s, and british sea power. and, well, chris clark and aphex twins. when i first got serious about listening to music the situation was almost reverse. of course, flipping through my collection i have to say happy mondays were shit and the stone roses weren't really much of anything - though they certainly were a notch. still, my bloody valentine, jamc, and ride have stood the test of time. so maybe it is just a matter of taste. but of the bands above two are scottish and the rest (excl. the electronic) sound pretty american. anyhow, the duke spirits also sound american. except that the singer sounds like pj harvey but pj harvey always sounded a bit american to me. her early stuff certainly appeared more related to babes in toyland or hole than any british artists i can recall from the time. at any rate, the point is that i like the duke spirit. resorting to lame comparisons i think they bluesy version of sonic youth (read: w/o the experimental edge) mixed with tricky's reading of public enemy's black steel in the hour of chaos. and of course it comes nowhere close to describing the sound. but at least i tried. just check red weather from their first ep out.