Little Red Harmonies
Mr Joseph Pearson is back in the world of blogging. We’ve snared some comments on musics here, but you can also read his fine work over at Make Believe.
Right. I ducked into the Tote the other night to check out the Melbourne’s fresh-faced, self-proclaimed ‘Harmony Kings’, Little Red.
Actually, I was a bit curious whether the Tote’s tweeters were even capable of emitting harmonies, after years upon years of serving up the crunch and wail for which the back room is renowned. But Little Red found the range, and produced chorus (in the original sense of the word) after chorus of astutely nostalgic harmonies.
I think you should know that it’s totally unfair how much fun these guys and their fans are having. I reckon I have at least a handful of years on most of them, and the music of my late adolescence was mostly heartfelt or ferocious or maudlin. Even the pop was usually saccharine or psychedelic or both. And I loved it of course, and furthermore it meant that that you only needed two moves in your dancing repetoire: the mosh and the rock-back-and-forth. It was all very serious.
I guess the angstiest excesses of this music eventually coalesced when a name was given to it, and thus we have the perplexing genre of emo. To which, in being about as un-fun as music can possibly get, we should be thankful — because the backlash is producing some genuinely enjoyable music. The tuneful, informed retro of Little Red (and, in a different way, Panda Bear’s Wilsonesque harmonics, and arguably the melodies of the better garage revivalists) is really unlike the retro of the entire fifteen years before it: it’s not music-nerds-only, and surprisingly, it’s not kitsch.
Not that there’s anything especially serious about Little Red (or their limbo-ing support on the night, Magnum Gumbo Detonator). But their music never succumbs to heavy-handed Irony, which might just be the scourge of our entire generation. There’s no strutting pretensions to cool: but they are pretty cool, and it just blossoms outta the fun they’re having, from an ebullient shout: “we’re getting a kick out of this, we sure hope you are too!”
- Little Red
- Coca-Cola
You can hear a bit of it in ‘Coca-Cola’, though recording it has given the fun a bit of liposuction. Lyrically, the song’s like a sonorous, hipper, all-ages response to the Andrews Sisters’ Rum and Coca Cola. It’s got a rollicking bassline and a very fifties croon is peppered with ‘Woohoo“‘s of a more contemporary aesthetic. But to be honest, you’re better off heading to the Tote tonight, because they’ve got the May mid-week residency. Get there early for the BBQ, and wear sensible shoes — you might have some fun.