Years ago when I lived in a student room, I had a neighbour down the corridor who always started his partying nights by playing Joy Division. He was always an extremely happy and outgoing person, so I was struck by the contrast as the tones from this mellow music was heard around five pm in the afternoon. As he was very hospitable and generous with all kind of drinks, his closest friends also discovered it was a good idea to start the party in our student corridor. Usually they were around 10 people, and they were called “The ants” by the other neighbours.
When the ants arrived the music was mixed with songs from Echo and the Bunnymen, The Cure, Waterboys and Sisters of Mercy, and the party moved out to the kitchen we had in common. The music listening was solved in the way that the door to the neighbour’s room was kept open with the loudspeakers on full volume. You could call it corridor radio, or streaming corridor audio. The most popular drink was Irish Coffee, which was rather obvious the day after, when around ten abandoned creamish, brownish glasses could be seen in various places in the kitchen, together with the remains of the party food of pickled herring, eggs, chips and cheeze doodles. And considering that my friend partied approximately five times a week during the semester, I never quite felt the need to buy the records of these artists, even if I did like the music. At least I like it nowadays.
Party atmosphere or not, it is in this musical region that I find Icons On Television, at least with the two bands mentioned first. Somewhere between Joy Division and Echo and the Bunnymen, if you could draw a line between these bands. And they do this really good. Listen for yourself in the songs below.
If you want to listen more on the net you can visit the band on Icons On Television’s Myspace page. If you want to see them live you can visit the club Mental Nights in Solna the 3rd of January.
Disharmony
Simple End
Icons On Television, which I told you about last year, have earlier this year released some new tracks. They continue to produce good songs in the same style as before. A dark alternative rock with a trace of the eighties, is the theme in these tracks too, even if the sound has developed into something that sounds closer and a little less eighties.
