BRAND VIOLET: Retrovision Coma USA

Brand Violet

Retrovision Coma USA

© 2003 Riverside Records (828290000124)

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Put Blondie and The Pixies in a blender. Frappe, 3 minutes. Add surf guitar and some drum and bass loops. Serve chilled.

tracks

1 Zona di Anima
2 Alien Hive Theme
3 Voodoo
4 Razzle
5 Flashlight
6 Blink
7 Retrovision Coma USA
8 Head
9 Soul Patch
10 Argyle Gargoyle Grrl
11 School Disco
12 Vet
13 They Call Me A Tramp Because I Made A Sucker Out Of a Millionair
14 These Boots Are Made For Walking

notes

PIXIES MEET BLONDIE IN CRAMPED B-52

LONDON -- "It's a wild ride, hang in there," read one of Brand Violet's first reviews, and how prophetic that statement proved to be.

Record Collector magazine adds, 'This already-cult four piece have an ear for super slick songs ... if Tarantino is struggling for his next soundtrack, he need look no further. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs would kill for these songs.' Drowned in Sound calls them 'London's finest female-fronted guitar combo ... powerful girl vocals, catchy guitars and a hint of doom.'

First signed to Stevo Pearce's Some Bizarre label (Soft Cell, Depeche Mode, Cabaret Voltaire) on the strength of their home-recorded first demo. Clichéd self-destructive phase. Ex-Arista/Rhythm King head Martin Heath proposes a new singer (ex-Zomba, Jive, Stock-Aitkin-Waterman) for the band to work with on his new label. Kept the singer. Not the label. Picked up by independent Riverside Records. First two singles produced by P.J. Harvey's engineer. A couple songs licensed to North American TV shows. Danelectro gives them free gear, then promptly stops making it. Songs chart in Top 5 online via Garageband, MP3.com, Vitaminic. "Alien Hive Theme" video is the final clip before the Stereophonics take the stage on their current tour. Guitarist Brian James (The Damned, Lords of the New Church) expresses interest in producing the next release.

References to Pulp Fiction, The Pixies, Blondie, The Cramps and the B-52s roll in. Strange bedfellows perhaps, but Brand Violet sound like nothing else in the UK, maybe the world.

John Peel's 'Unpeeled' magazine adds, "How often can you say, 'Oh, I popped out to this gig last night and you'll never guess what? I saw this wicked band whose singer has the sex appeal of a very young Debbie Harry, the stage presence of Patti Smith on heat and a voice of pure liquid gold. And did I mention the cat suit?'
Doesn't happen does it? It does now. Tunes you'd quite happily admit to liking.
It's pop, but it's not. It's rock without the cock."

Maybe that explains their 'cult' status in London, UK. Formed Halloween Night 1999.

Brand Violet are:

Sally-Anne Marsh - vocals
'Baby' Igor - guitar
Henderson K. Shatner - bass
'Bones' Jones - drums

reviews

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  • Dangerous Bowl of Musical Candy
    author: Mitchell Rentzler

    Listening to this CD is like sampling from a bowl of dangerous candy. Some are sweet, some are packed with caffine and others with jalepenos. But all are worth the bite. I felt like I was in some sort of mad surf movie---and there is no better feeling.

  • Awesome!!!!
    author: Annie

    This CD is soo awesome!! My fave songs are "Razzle", "Alien Hive Theme", "Retroversion Coma" and "Head". I'd reccomend this CD to anyone who loves fun rock/pop and to everyone who loved their singles.

  • it would be worthwhile for any record company to stick this lot in a studio for
    author: Sound on Sound panel

    Andy Rogers (AR): "This is really good, it's easily the best thing I've heard tonight. I like the idea of having very harsh, punk music with such cute female vocals; I think that really gets your attention. I've actually seen this band play live and they're very exciting to watch. They've got quite a distinctive image — the band all wear suits and then the singer wears some sort of rubber or latex dress. "They've got some really strong ideas. I think it would be worthwhile for any record company to stick this lot in a studio for a week with a decent producer and see what they come out with. I think the music has definitely got potential and, like I say, they're interesting to look at, which is always important for a band."

  • ‘Retrovision Coma USA’ is all at once cute, smart and deadly, dare you succumb?
    author: Mark Barton - Losing Today

    Look I ain’t prepared to argue the point, take it from me, things don’t get any better on a hi-fi than a spot of top of the drawer twang pop blazing out, things get slightly more interesting when you dick about with the chemistry and arm it with sci-fi backdrops stripped from ‘Barbarella’ and then have the nerve to have the whole thing fronted by a girl. Welcome to Brand Violet, a gang of 60’s surf addicts who sure know a thing or two about how to get you ticking and shaking your boots as though bitten by the grooving bug, a laboratory experiment that takes several parts early B-52’s and the Cramps, a smidgeon of Altered Images girly floss (check out the dippy child like naivety of ‘School Disco’), several parts femme fatale Transvision Vamp (especially on the sultry ‘Head’), 60’s Marvel comics, classic ITC retro TV and a whole load of Man or Astro Man and Link Wray, the whole thing supervised by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson had, that is, they swapped puppets for pop. ‘Retrovision Coma USA’ is the quartet’s debut album and follows on from a few well-heeled singles that have recently included the infectious ‘Alien Hive Theme’ (included here). An album that oozes sexual tension, vocalist Sally Anne Marsh prowls throughout one minute purring sensually, the next menacingly vengeful sometimes wide open baring hurt all the time lurking in the shadows the suited and booted zigzagging engine of the band: ‘Cat’ Shatner, ‘Baby’ Igor and ‘Bones’ Jones (obviously secret agent nom de plumes kids). From the outset ‘Retrovision’ locks it ray gun target sights, its great feature is that is doesn’t over elaborate, instead it plays to its strengths by serving up an inviting dish of good wholesome straight forward infectious pop that from the opening b-movie film like credits of the brief 'Zona di Anima'which manages to conjure images of ‘Earth Vs the Flying Saucers’ or maybe ‘This Island Earth’, Brand Violet don’t hold back with their twisting pop shrill. By far the albums stand out track is the recent single ‘Alien Hive Theme’ a hip shaking killer of a cut that possesses some of the best surrealist sci-fi pop heard here since the B-52’s ‘Rock Lobster’ and motored by a grinding hot rod dynamic dispersing cutting riffs and twanging menace as though its going out of fashion and capped perfectly by Marsh’s ‘black widow’ like charm while the eerie ‘Voodoo’ clubs you to death with the kind of melodic hook that takes up residency in your waking conscious and redecorates it to its own taste. The feisty rumble pop of ‘Blink’ marries together prime Blondie and classic Pixies to a devastating conclusion, the Blondie fixation deepening on ‘Argyle Gargoyle Grrl’ where things get very ‘Plastic Letters’ in terms of style while in sharp contrast ‘Retrovision Coma USA’ instils a distinct sense of lunatic comic horror appreciation pretty much as though the Munsters had been invited to a pogo party If it’s something a little more sentimental you want then you couldn’t do better than cast an ear over the goofy 50’s bubblegum pop of ‘They call me a tramp’ which in all honesty takes ‘Beauty School Dropout’ from ‘Grease’ to adult rated extremes keeping you fixed till the end half expecting Frankie Avalon to turn up in the middle in full S and M gear with chains ‘n’ whips. Then there’s always the alluring fix of emotionally torn ‘Soul Patch’ which will lay you to waste. ‘Retrovision Coma USA’ is all at once cute, smart and deadly, dare you succumb? MARK BARTON

  • Someday all pop will be made this way, the way it used to be.
    author: G Nash

    Brand Violet "Retrovision Coma USA" (Riverside) Released: 24 May 2004 Perhaps this is where the Transvision Vamp revival begins. A damning comment? Not a bit of it; for evidence look around you for the influence of Sigue Sigue Sputnik, rehabilitated and happy in the hands of King Adora. Oh… Not to worry, here’s the point: Transvision Vamp started the kiddie-pop rot, and it stops here. Sally-Anne Marsh’s creamy-girlie voice is a close cousin to Wendy James’, but imbued with the attitude of Debbie Harry, lending Brand Violet’s grab-bag of B-52’s, Cramps, Jan and Dean and B-Movie horror an edge of sex, danger and real pop class. Someday all pop will be made this way, the way it used to be. Gillian Nash

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