Some of you may have noticed a few things about the wonderful people who work here at hecklerspray. Keeping us entertained is extremely easy, for one thing. Give us some crayons and a colouring in book, for example, and we’ll be lost in our own little world of fun and amusement for hours on end.
Granted, staying inside the lines might be beyond a few of our capabilities but, hey, we’re only human and each day we’re getting better and better. One day we hope to be allowed to use felt tip pens! But for now that’s just a dream. But more importantly, there’s something else that we like to do. Finding kickass music on MySpace that isn’t shit and sharing it with you is one of our main priorities. It’s an uphill battle though; most days when we log in, we're saddened at the sheer amount of toss forwarded to us from bands who deludedly believe they're good. Most of them are just trying to copy other people’s sounds, and that just ain’t good enough for us. We have standards. We like something original and different. That’s why this week we're looking at the epic widescreen heavy western sound of Phillious Williams.
At the moment, everything in the charts only seems to be a success if its either got guitars on it or is a crappy dance song which blatantly samples a shit 1980s soft rock anthem, shoves a beat under it and calls it its own. Arctic Monkeys, The Kooks, Razorlight… it's all OK to an extent, and those bands grace the shelves of many a student's CD collection. But that’s all just indie! It’s starting to get a bit stale and crusty to us – it's time for something new, and boy have we ever found it.
If we mention 'Heavy Western to you, does it conjure up any images in your head? No? Well, it didn’t create any pictures in our minds either. But rest assured, after hearing the Heavy Western of Phillious Williams you’ll want to hear more of this scarily addictive new genre. Usually when western music is mentioned to anyone, the common thought is to go "yee-ha," make a cheap joke about Keith Urban and generally act like a cowboy. Westerns and country music seem to go together like Michael Jackson and Jesus Juice. Fear not, though, Phillious Williams don't deal in four-minute bursts of over-the-top rednecks strumming away on out-of-tune banjos, theirs is heavy western – a sound which we’ve never heard before.
Phillious Williams are the side project of another groovy band we fully recommend to you. They're always on the stereo when it’s not on the blink, and they go by the name of Ladyfuzz. Matt, their guitar/bassist and all-round sickening cleverclogs is in charge of Phillious Williams, and he brings the gritty sounds of western Americana and gives it a British flavour which we can only describe as utterly tasty to the ears.
The track Sweet Debris contains a simple and effective guitar stroke that, when we close our eyes, gives us the illusion that we’re in a real rough bar in the heart of America. Unless it’s our overactive imaginations getting the better of us – they usually do – we expect John Wayne to walk in and start bullying us around. The track could have been potentially ruined with some horrible over-the-top stern vocal but thankfully the people behind Phillious Williams realised that something calm works better. It’s almost as if the vocals aren’t being sung at all, but told as a story which draws you closer to the track.
While we haven’t had the privilege of seeing Phillious Williams live – but we will, oh we will – their sound indicates that one of their concerts would be an exciting thing indeed. A lot of bands rely on creating layers of noise to drive an audience bonkers, but with Phillious Williams the sound is stripped down and basic. Subtle guitars, drums and harmonics make you concentrate on what is being performed. We can almost imagine the band sitting around a blazing fire whilst they perform of a nighttime.
So far Phillious Williams are so new that they've only released one weeny little EP for you to get your mucky hands on. However the word about Phillious Williams is starting to spread, and for some bizarre reason the magic of MySpace means that their music has already been well-received in Mexico. Why? We have no idea, but it's all good to see someone out there experiencing the finer sounds of music.
Do the band and yourself a favour! Spread the word about a sound that is new and different, as opposed to the same old bedwetter music like Keane clogging up your ears. Do one of those chain-letter things on MySpace telling people if you don’t listen to Phillious Williams, a one-legged pirate will come and slaughter you while you sleep at night. They’ll be some sucker out there who’ll believe it.
And yes, the band name does seem similar to someone doesn’t it?
***Go and see Phillious Williams live! They're playing Upstairs At The Sheepwalk, Leytonstone, E11 on December 6***
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