I wrote about Los Campesinos! last week, 15 years on from their debut album. And was subsequently reminded about a gig around that time, where they were supported by Johnny Foreigner (Dananananaykroyd, who were class, may have also been on the bill but I can’t remember and Google is inconclusive). I got a sweet t-shirt at the gig, which had a similar design to this EP cover. I wore that to death for a good few years, before eventually losing/outgrowing it somewhere along the way (Johnny Foreigner, if you happen to read this, then you should totally bring that design back; and I’m a large now).
Johnny Foreigner
Arcs Across the City EP
So I’ve been down a bit of a Johnny Foreigner rabbit-hole this week, in particular this EP, released in late 2007, which is also 15 years old now. They feel quite similar to early Los Campesinos! without necessarily sounding alike. They do both have the duelling boy/girl vocals, which I’m a sucker for. But it’s more of a frantic youthful energy that they really share. I largely lost track of Johnny Foreigner after their first couple of albums. But they are still going, and seem to be working on new material. I described Los Campesinos! last week as becoming a bit of a cult-favourite. So I suppose Johnny Foreigner would probably be something like your cult-favourite band’s cult favourite band.
My quick description of their sound would be noisy, pop-punk. It’s quick, it’s heavy, it’s screamy, but it has enough hooks that there’s a poppy joy underneath everything. They don’t obviously sound like many other bands (or at least, not many that I’m familiar with). There is a pretty standard verse>chorus structure to most of the songs, but it’s all just a bit off-kilter. The rhythms don’t quite go where you expect and the vocals often blur across lines, not peaking when you think they will (I’ve now learned that this is called syncopated).
Vocally, there’s the aforementioned screamy parts; but otherwise they’re a quick-fire mumble and often incomprehensible. I did start to look up the lyrics to see if I could decipher any deeper meaning, but actually that doesn’t matter. Whatever it is they’re singing about, there’s so much urgency and conviction from them that you believe it’s important and will be sing/shouting along unintelligibly.
At 21 minutes, the EP feels like the perfect length. It’s short enough that their hectic onslaught doesn’t overwhelm. And it’s just long enough that it still feels complete, cramming plenty of different ideas into its 6/7 songs. The first four songs are a rush of punk bangers. Sofacore still bangs, but there’s just a hint of things easing up. And the aptly titled …This Band Is Killing Us seemingly brings things to a weary close. But then there’s a hidden track (remember them?) where they’re like “ah, we can also do nice songs” and it’s a sweet twinkly ballad which properly brings things to a close.
My favourite EP of the era; a concise blast of singalong songs that you can’t quite singalong to.
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