With indiepop going through something of a revival, it might be a good time to cast a glance over a subgenre that seems to have been all but forgotten; Shambling. People seem to forget that a lot of the progenitors of indiepop could really play. Orange Juice,The Smiths, etc- proper musicians, could tune their guitars and everything.

In the UK, especially in the late 80s/early 1990s, there seemed to be a glut of Bands that really COULD NOT play, that had ‘no business being on a stage’. I can see them now; fearful glances across at other members, unsure of the (musical) time or the place; the Amen of ’sorry’ when whatever song was being attempted ground to a halt. Don’t get me wrong- i loved a lot of them. Sometimes, their complete ineptitude would coalesce into something oddly beautiful, that no amount of ‘technique’ could ever account for (see “Her Jazz”, “Truck Tractor Train” “Don’t Slip Up”- and i know some may take issue with these songs being described as ’shambling’, but hey, it’s my list).

There was still a certain level of shambling in relatively mainstream bands- Belle and Sebastian used to be castigated for loooong pauses between songs, but they were pretty together where they actually played- same with Tallulah Gosh/Heavenly. These bands seemed to merely wear the clothes of shambling, slightly embarrassed that they knew what a middle eight was, or when it happened in the song. It was all but killed off by the bleeding of Slint/Rodan/Tortoise post rock sounds into the underground. Suddenly having chops was ok (again).

So who are the shamblers of today?

The above band are called Pens. They’re three girls from London, making what can only be described as Shambolic Pop.
They used to be in the (better named, but worse musically) Look Look Dancing Boys. I haven’t seen Pens yet, but i have seen LLDB. they were, without a doubt, the most untogether band i had seen in years.

There was something refreshing about that. The lack of ego in their playing, the thrill of discovery, the getting to the end of a song as a major accomplishment. This is even more evident in Pens.

freddie

hate-your-calendar

Freddie (yes, their myspace picture page confirms it’s about mr Kruger) is everything that a shambling band should be; constantly on the verge of falling apart, it’s held together by the sheer ‘i can’t believe we’re doing this’ forward motion of the song. The vocals are distorted. Everything’s distorted. They obviously just plugged everything into a pedal, thought it sounded punk, and went for it. Fantastic. There’s crosstalk, and stick clicks; it was obviously recorded live on some antiquated four track- not in a Toerag/Daptone posing way, but it’s genuinely all they had to work with. 

they have a casette (of course) out now, and are releasing a record on De Stijl in 2009. may they never tune their guitars.