MySpace Trawl - Seventythree
August 24th, 2006 at 14:00 by Matthew Laidlow
After a three weekish stint of being away, the feature that you all know and more then likely love has returned to prod you in the direction of music featured on MySpace that we believe should be heard by you, our beloved readers.
This week our discovery has taken us up to Sunderland, where our ears have fallen in love with the sounds of the funky breaks combo Seventythree. Sunderland, and the North-East music scene as a whole, has recently been churning out more bands then you can shake a stick at. At one point, anyone coming from the North-East could only say that Lindisfarne, Sting and crap rapping from Ant and Dec were the only semi-successful musicians. Not the hippest stuff to stick on your iPod. But with the rise of guitar bands like the hound-loving Futureheads and pressure-applying Maximo Park, some credible stuff has finally arrived. Hoorah.
But Seventythree are not just another guitar band rambling on about love, broken dreams, friendships and other related rubbish. Seventythree are here to make you dance your ass off with their combination of funky grooves and cool basslines. When we first had a listen here at hecklerspray towers, most of the writers could soon be found putting on their dancing shoes and trying to strut their stuff. Not very successfully, mind, but more to everybody else’s amusement.
The tracks available for you to hear on the Seventythree MySpace page could easily fit the bill in any nightclub and instantly fill a dying dancefloor. Why not take a listen? Usually we don’t make challenges here at hecklerspray but we’re semi-confident that for once we’ll win this bet. Team Spirit, one of the tracks featured for your listening pleasure, is in our opinion, the best of the four available on the Seventythree MySpace page. We defy you not to nod your head, or any other part of your body, as you hear its combination of scratches, samples, bass, funky breaks which add up to make a record that should have sent this seven-piece combo to the dizzy heights of the music industry.
But, alas, it hasn’t as yet, more than likely because the bigwigs of the business are scared to pick up something that is different and unique. They're to happy to pump out the same boring stuff every week. Thankfully though, Seventythree have had limited releases on a local label, but nothing major has released their music to a wider audience. If you’re reading this and have been totally confused by our words, we can sum up Seventythree in a nutshell:
They are the British equivalent of New York funky indie rocker dudes The Rapture. But miles better. Seventythree are making music that only the future has heard of and brought it to the audience of 2006.
So far, only 6519 people have been privileged to the music of Seventythree and they have 3011 loyal followers, including us now. We want those numbers boosted rapidly. If you’re looking for a totally unique and different sounding act, then Seventythree have the hecklerspray stamp of approval.
We wonder what miseryguts Bob Dylan would think of them. No wait, it's modern music, so in his eyes it’ll be rubbish. The twat.
Hello! Who are we talking to!
Kenny - Lead singer, Mackem born & bred. Was my birthday last week, just about to go to bed!
What’s so special about the number seventythree?
Loads of things, Google it! It's a prime number, it's the year Sunderland last won the FA cup, it's a model of Fender Rhodes keyboard which we use, it's used on so many clothing brands, and we like it.
How long have you guys been writing and performing together?
Over three years with a few slight line up additions and deletions in that time.
With the success from The Futureheads, has this given other acts from Sunderland like yourselves more exposure?
Maybe for those bands who look and sound like them, but we don't fit into that category. We cater for a different market so have to create our own exposure. Saying that, we get plenty of Indie kids and rockers coming to our gigs looking for something a bit different.
What’s in your pocket at the minute?
Bit of cash, bit of this and that.
Can Sunderland leap back to the dizzy heights of the Premiership? Or do you not care?
Some of us are season ticket holders, so we all do. The new consortium with Quinn at the helm, seem to have the right ambition, and Keane will install some 'Team spirit' and take us back up, if not this year, then next. 'If we pull together, we can realise our dreams'
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[story by Matthew Laidlow]
