Album of the Week: The Go! Team – Rolling Blackouts
When samples-based Thunder, Lightening, Strike emerged in 2004, the Go! Team were a breath of fresh air for the UK indie music scene.
A mash-up of American cop show themes, jangling guitar and cheerleader chants, they were an incredible live proposition and, if reports are to be believed, came within a whisker of the Mercury Prize.
The criminally underrated Proof of Youth landed in 2007. A more band-based affair, it didn’t quite have the impact of its groundbreaking predecessor, but is every bit its equal.
Fast forward to 2011 and third album Rolling Blackouts is about to drop. Chief Go! Teamer and songwriter Ian Parton must truly believe in the old adage ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ as there are no real deviations in sound here.
You’ll have hopefully heard single Buy Nothing Day on 6 Music – all pop hooks and chugging guitar, given added gravitas by a soothing vocal by Best Coast’s Bethany Cosentino.
She’s not the only one who takes on mic on a record that’s more guest-laden than its predecessor. Pint-sized MC Ninja is back, spitting bullets on fiery opener T.O.R.N.A.D.O., a call to arms and a rousing way to open any album.
Deerhoof’s Satomi Matsuzaki lends her distinctive tones to Secretary Song, the perfect collision of both bands’ styles.
Much of Rolling Blackouts uses similar ticks and tricks to their older material. A feeling of nostalgia runs through the record heavily indebted to early ’80s America – Bust Out Brigade sounds like a High School marching band and old skool hip hop prevails on tracks like T.O.R.N.A.D.O. and much of the breakbeats that run through the album.
Fun from start to finish and even more songwriting and live instrument-based than Proof of Youth, Rolling Blackouts deserves to find a fresh audience for the band. If you’re already a fan you’ll love it anyway but if you’re not then give it a go – it’ll put a huge grin on your miserable face.
I caught up with Ian Parton last week…
Was there a fresh approach to the songwriting this time round?
This album’s definitely driven more by songwriting and features more singing rather than the Double Dutch chants people know us for. I wanted to make strange little pop songs – I’ve always been really into catchiness and melody cos it’s the hardest thing to do, but not to have a hit or get into the charts. So on this record, I was really putting melody first and letting it run the show. When you’ve got something you think is watertight, that’s when you can start fucking it up. The record’s different for a few reasons – it’s more sing-y, more melodic, more panoramic, has more bass, its more eclectic, plus it features a live teenage community brass band!
There’s plenty of guests on the new album. Were those tunes written with a fresh voice in mind?
I would write a song and then think about the kinda voice that would suit the song – so it was back-to-front really. I had one song called Secretary Song which made me think of a ’60s office in Tokyo, and secretaries all typing in time, hating their jobs and it had a melody in the chorus which reminded me a little of Deerhoof. ‘Cos we kind of know Satomi – they asked us to play a festival they were curating in Belgium earlier this year – it was easy for us to ask her and I knew it would work perfectly. With Bethany from Best Coast… I had a song called Buy Nothing Day that had a Californian girl group kind of feel and I discovered Best Coast on Myspace and loved her voice. This was about December 2009, so before all the hype. Maybe I should be an A&R man?
The album title could be open to interpretation – it makes me think of a slightly Dystopian future where electricity is at a premium… am I being too bleak? is there a particularly meaning attached?
No it doesn’t refer to unreasonable fuel bills! In the same way I collect samples, I also have notebooks full of phrases and slogans going back to the early 90s and ‘rolling blackouts’ jumped out. I like the image of a power cut spreading across a city – it has movement…..
You always go down well in Scotland – excited about your imminent return?
Oh yeah! Without sounding like I’m kissing ass when ever anyone asks us where the crowds are best, we always say Scotland – damn right!
You can have a listen to Buy Nothing Day below…
The Go! Team are on tour throughout February with support in Scotland coming from recent Album of the Week winners the Phoenix Foundation.
February 3, Glasgow Oran Mor
February 4, Edinburgh Liquid Room
February 5, Aberdeen Lemon Tree
February 8, London Heaven
February 9, Cambridge Junction
February 10, Birmingham Institute
February 11, Bristol Anson Rooms
February 13, Falmouth Princess Pavilion
February 14, Bournemouth Old Fire Station
February 15, Oxford O2 Academy 1
February 16, Brighton Concorde 2
February 18, Leeds Cockpit
February 19, Manchester Academy 2
February 20, Liverpool O2 Academy 2
February 21, Nottingham Rescue Rooms
February 24, Norwich Waterfront
February 25, Sheffield O2 Academy 2
February 26, Leicester O2 Academy 2
February 27, Cardiff Millennium Music Hall
