Young Knives / Parka @ Academy, Manchester
Now Parka should go places. Not only do they have a pretty cool name, they play very cool music. In fact I should say cool as fuck because they have definitely listened to a lot of the Inspiral Carpets, Wonderstuff, The Farm, Happy Mondays and Stone Roses. They sounded very nineties and even had the Attitude to go with it.
It is tediously predictable to describe the music of a band like the Young Knives as angular but it does get to the point. Unlikely stars, they border on unique in their mix of spikeyness, bravado and intellect. Whilst the hype surrounding the band has faded in the last twelve months, tonight they live up to the high standards they have established for themselves.
Playing at Manchester Academy 2, the Young Knives easily manage to bemuse and belittle the regular student hecklers and it is worth seeing them just for that.
The band are quintessentially and wilfully uber-English (tweed suits, eccentric, self deprecating) and take their musical cues from the likes of Josef K, but there is an almighty and boorish thump hiding behind the facade of their art-rock sensibilites. Here Comes The Rumour Mill is an excellent stop-start number which is immaculately coiffeured, lyrically astute, yet churlish and unrefined.
Weekends and Bleakdays sounds like a wounded kitten impersonating Brett Anderson with Hot Hot Heat providing the backing track, but at the same time it could’ve knocked out by Frank Black.
Factor in that the Young Knives are as bizarre as nuns wrestling in gravy and you have a genuinely interesting band.
Liam Ronan, pic by Shirlaine Forrest
Original article: http://www.sandmanmagazine.co.uk/Web-147/131/05.pdf
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