Caution: This band may be addicting. If acts of toe tapping, air guitar and singing along ensue turn up stereo and repeat until satisfied with the love of one of your new favorite bands. You are about to read about a the best band you have never heard but your cousin in the UK loves.
The Wildhearts are a band that have several charting singles and a top ten album in the UK that are often overlooked in North America. I think you should not only know who the are, but also give them a listen. I am sure you will love them. I do! One might believe they have not received commercial stardom do to the their problems within the band often as a result of drugs and depression. Often billed as the UK's most dysfunctional band because of break-ups, revolving members (Ginger being the only regular member) and extracurricular activities. At any point The Wildhearts are an all over the map/energetic band that writes catchy well written rock and roll.
The Wildhearts are a band I have really gotten into over the past year. They are based out of Newcastle England and formed in '89 after Ginger the singer, guitarist and predominant songwriter of the Wildhearts left/got fired from his former band the London Quireboys. In the Quireboys he was more or less a rhythm guitar player for hire and pursued the lead role with the Wildhearts after his leaving the Quireboys. Ginger's influences are stated in their song "29X The Pain", a take on Hüsker Dü's "59 Time The Pain" and list artists such as The Replacements, Hüsker Dü, Beatles, Rolling Stones, Ramones, Sex Pistols, Starz, Big Black, the Queen album Sheer Heart Attack, Cheap Trick, The Clash album London Calling, Jason & the Scorchers, Stiff Little Fingers, Blue Öyster Cult, Kiss, Heart, The Damned, Twisted Sister and Kurt Cobain. These artists combined should give you a pretty good idea of the kind of band the Wildhearts are. Ginger writes almost all of the bands material.
Their songs are often times punk, sometimes poppy, sometimes heavy and all the time rock n roll!!! For example songs like "Suckerpunch" and "Life Is Like A Lovebank, I Want An Overdraft" are for the fans looking for something on the heavier side. Where as "My Baby Is A Headf***" has kind of a surf feel with some well placed keyboards in it. "Lily's Garden" is a more elegant light song. "Red Light/Green Light" is a fun 50's style meets modern punk that calls and answers with nicely added hand claps. "Beautiful Me/Beautiful You" is strictly a power-pop tune and "Aboria" is a pop tune that mixes 90's alt. country with an 80's pop feel and gets rockin' in parts.
With over a dozen variations of the band, currently the band consists of Ginger - vocals and guitar, Scott Sorry (Brides Of Destruction & Amen) - Bass and vocals, C.J (Another original member) - guitar and vocals and Ritch Battersby - drums. The band has ten studio records, four live records, eight compilations and two E.P.s. They have a new record due out August 31 2009 entitled "Chutzpah!" If you are going to check them out, take your pick of any record... minus "Endless Nameless". This was a record from 1997 that was a lot less commercial and really distorted. It is nothing similar to their pop-rock past. Some fans think it's brilliant other like myself find it hard to swallow. It sounds as though Mushroom records whom the band was signed to just before making this record, recorded it in the machine shop using machine shop tools. The rest however are amazing!! Some cool non-studio work is 1999's live "Tokyo Suits Me" and 2008's cover record "Stop Us If You've Heard This One Before, Vol 1."
This band can do no wrong... OK, other than "Endless Nameless" they can do no wrong!
Check it 'em out Rockers!
http://www.myspace.com/thewildhearts
please! endless nameless is the greatest albums of wildhearts! by the way, ginger always says that is his favorite album!
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