Baffled and Beat

caitlin — Sat, 04 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0000

There must be something in the Oxford water that breeds talent. How else could you explain the abundance of good, great, and truly classic music that has emerged from the southeastern English city over the last twenty-plus years? Need examples? Ride, Supergrass, and Radiohead all hail from there. I say it is not an overstatement to also count raucous duo Little Fish among these ranks.

This wouldn't be the first time I've sung their praises; earlier in February I wrote a glowing review of their “Darling Dear” three-song maxi-single for Elevate Difference. Little Fish's particular brand of intense swaggering rock, which has drawn comparisons to fellow garage punk group The Kills, has landed them on the video game “Rock Band” and helped to earn the duo opening spots on tours with Placebo and Courtney Love's latest incarnation of Hole. Now there's Baffled and Beat, Little Fish's highly anticipated full-length debut engineered and produced by Linda Perry, and released on Perry's Custard Records.

Perry's handiwork is as visible on these tracks as fingerprints on a cell phone touch screen. In keeping with her well-established professional reputation as a singer, songwriter, and producer, these twelve songs are the perfect blend of radio-friendly and rock-tastic. That's not to say that Little Fish sound like hapless puppets under the sway of some Svengali. Quite the contrary, singer/guitarist Juju and drummer Nez came to the party prepared, with their own fine-tuned ferocity at full throttle. Juju bellows, growls, and pleads her way through a barrage of breathless sweaty angst, while Nez pounds the ever-loving daylights out of his drum kit. Perry just happened to come along and give it all a little spit shine.

Sometimes, a band can crank out a smattering of quality tunes to attract the attention of radio and record folks, but are then incapable of sustaining said quality for a whole record. It would seem as though they had only those singles in them, and that was it. Unfortunately, many tantalized listeners don't figure this out until they dive in for more, only to come up thoroughly disappointed. Happily, that's not the case with Little Fish.

The three songs from the “Darling Dear” MP3 single—“Darling Dear,” “Sweat & Shiver,” and “Whiplash”—each find their passion and intensity put to good use within the overall context of a full-length release, and most of the album's other nine tracks are just as stellar. Stand-out songs include wailing banshee love song "Am I Crazy?," night-on-the-town rocker "Bang Bang," and proletariat anthem "Hallelujah," as well as the astoundingly sexy, self-destructive swagger of "Die Young."

Sadly, not every song can be a winner. "Luck's Run Out" practically implodes under the weight of its own tragicomic pathos. The lyrics "My records are old/My cat’s dead/I’m bored of the radio/I’m waiting for promises/Of something that never came/Don’t push me now/I am the life of the party" sound as though they were lifted straight out of some mournful "tear in my beer" country ballad. There's also the final song, "Sorry State," which features the following chorus: "Why does misery like company?/You’re such a sorry state/Throw your anchor out at me." Downright maudlin, it's an anti-climactic note on which to end an otherwise outstanding debut.

Written by: M. Brianna Stallings, December 3rd 2010

Darling Dear

admin — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 09:00:00 +0000

By Little Fish

Motown Records

At one point in the chaos of alley-crawling and narrow escapes that is the “Darling Dear” video, Little Fish frontwoman Juju beats up a guitar-wielding hipster boy, steals his guitar and straps it on before she launches in a furious bout of The Rocking. It is precisely this raw frenetic energy that attracted the attention of Custard Records, the label launched by singer/songwriter/producer Linda Perry (4 Non Blondes). Baffled & Beat, Little Fish's full-length album from Custard produced by Perry, is scheduled for an early 2010 release. In the meantime, we have Darling Dear, a three-song maxi-single guaranteed to rock off the socks of every music fan lucky enough to listen.

Winners of the “Guitar Hero Best Rock Act” at the 2008 UK Indy Music Awards and the subject of fawning adoration from BBC Radio Oxford, Little Fish released Darling Dear in mid-October. In short order the group has gone on to share the stage with the likes of Juliette Lewis and Alice in Chains. They're a rare breed of band—self-aware without being self-important. They know full well that they're making stellar wall-shaking rock n' roll, but they're not pretentious about it.

Self-taught guitarist Juju is a singer/songwriter whose warm raspy voice has been compared to Patti Smith and PJ Harvey. To me, there are also hints of Johnette Napolitano, and yes, even a bit of Linda Perry. Drummer Nez is right there keeping up every step of the way, which is a mighty undertaking, especially given the rapidly escalating rhythm of “Darling Dear.” It starts out slow then builds to a glorious pulsating frenzy. Here, Juju's voice struts and swaggers like one of a seasoned rock star; she looses pitch perfect screams with a precision that Janis Joplin would envy.

As a second track, “Sweat and Shiver” is cleaner-sounding, almost poppy in comparison to the song that preceded it. Thankfully, though, it's not pristine. Not by a long shot. Harmonies beautify scuzzy febrile lyrics like “My eyes are glazed/I'm pretendin' to sleep” and “Hands and knees/crawlin' on the floor/Cigarette burnin' on a cockroach floor.” Little Fish is following a classic pop/rock music formula with this song—stuffing grimy unpleasant imagery in the sweet swirling center of harmony and repetition.

Of the three tracks, “Whiplash” sounds the most up-to-the-minute British post-punk. At two minutes and fifty-one seconds, it's the shortest of the three tracks, and ends abruptly. It has all the earmarks of a set-ender. It's the short upbeat track you hope will be played at the close of a brilliant show. It's a song that gets a crowd dancing before BAM! Throw down a guitar grown heavy on exhausted shoulders, fling away drumsticks and walk off panting backstage for a pull from a bottled beer before stumbling back out for an encore.

And believe you me, after everything Little Fish puts in their music, you'll be screaming yourself hoarse for an encore.

Written by: M. Brianna Stallings, February 3rd 2010