Band of the Week: The Drums

Our guest reviewer's recommendations...

Another slice of clean-cut American Pie pop music here, courtesy of The Drums, currently playing across the UK as part of the NME Awards Tour in what’s arguably its best bill since The Killers, Kaiser Chiefs, Bloc Party and The Futureheads banded together on the road.

With a very crisp pop sound, New York’s The Drums have occupied a drowning British music scene with the kind of simple, melodious noise that takes the surf pop of Vampire Weekend and agitates it with Cure-like guitar riffs that unceasingly struggle with a beautifully sweaty vocal in a pastiche of every decent new guitar band out there. Their music is minimal at times, with the faintest wail of order, but live it’s a tetchy rock n roll show complete with Rakes-esque dance moves, harassing tambourine freak-outs and fringe bopping rhythm.

They’re theatrical, and camp enough to hint at sexual vagueness, but songs like ‘I Felt Stupid’ and ‘Let’s Go Surfing’ are the Strokes anthems of this here new decade. It seems without trying they’ve written songs that don’t sound the least bit original, and even throw some clichés in, but in that American way (see Cage the Elephant), have mastered the flawlessly frenetic pop song formula. More than that, they’ve become one of the most exciting guitar bands for 2010 in the Western hemisphere.

The Drums are playing across the UK this week with Bombay Bicycle Club, The Big Pink and The Maccabees as part of the NME Awards Tour. Their next single, ‘Best Friend’ is out on March 29th via Moshi Moshi / Island.

The Drums on mySpace