Brevity is the soul of all wit, apparently. It’s not something that I always subscribe to in relation to music, but boy does Roxy Girls’ blistering debut single reinforce the idea. It’s a marvellously bold statement of intent from such a young band, ‘Dangerous Driving’ fits more into 65 seconds than most bands inaugural releases.
The elastic, infectious hooks and propulsive performance is smothered in coal black humour to marvellous effect. The band have been around for barely any time at all- but the single – and imminent EP- have a better control of aesthetics and ideas than most of their peers who have been around for years – in fact, I can’t think of a band who have been so fully formed and distinctive sounding from the North East of England for a very long time.
The Futureheads are an obvious point of reference, as are the Minutemen, but Roxy Girls have taken to the archaic tools of bass, guitar and drums to make something very idiosyncratic indeed- in part due to Aidan Rowan’s intricate, expressive drumming and Tom Hawick’s ability to take well- worn tropes (being drunk, being infatuated) and breathe new life into them with his surreal, darkly comic way with words. The band’s four-track EP clocks in at just under eight minutes – it’s absolutely jam-packed with ideas and begs for repeated listens.
Roxy Girls’ Debut EP will be launched on 16th February 2018 and the band will perform a launch show at Pop Recs Ltd. in Sunderland on the same day.
