Pete & the Pirates

Another music related post today, because I have to tell you about this band which has quickly become my new current favorite band! It doesn’t happen often that I like a band enough to give them this ambiguous title, but after seeing Pete & The Pirates live at Paradiso on July 19th, I knew that it was the only title befitting this cool band from Reading.

The quirky five some got on my radar a while ago. I heard news about their catchy tunes through the almighty waves of the interwebs, but for some reason didn’t manage to find any of their music just yet. Then, earlier this year, they started popping up everyone: Rough Trade was tweeting about them, they were included in my beloved BIRP and they played SXSW. All of this in honor of the May 23rd release of their second album One Thousand Pictures, which I first listened to streaming online.

Their music is best described as highly catchy indiepop with rhythms good enough to make you dance, but dark enough to have a bit of a brooding effects as well. Add in a big dose of a great sense of British humor (this really showed during the live show) and you have Pete & the Pirates in a very very brief nutshell. When I first heard their album I immediately wanted more and searched online for some more songs. I quickly found the first single of said second album, Come to the Bar and this has been stuck in my head for days. Why? Well you have to listen to it to find out:

How catchy is that? And many many of their songs are as catchy if not catchier. So I’m a happy bunny. Other songs that I love: Blood Gets Thin and Can’t Fish. Songs from their first album Little Death are also worth a listen as is proven by these two videos:

I was too far away to take any pictures or video of my own, but it was a great concert. It was a short but sweet set combining songs of both the old and new album. The band seemed a bit stiff (and quirky as mentioned above) but it all worked well with the stage act they put on. The audience seemed a bit bland though. I cannot understand how you cannot NOT dance to this music, but they somehow managed. At least I have found a band which will most likely make it to my-end-of-year-music-must-haves list!

Q: Which band/ artist have you gotten into lately?