Etiquette To Ride

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THE DEBRETTS/ HAMMER VS THE SNAKE/ GEORGE PRINGLE – The X, 3/2/07


Diaristic takes of mild debauchery over trendily lo-fi laptop with the odd moment of little girl simplicity thrown in: hey, it’s Lily Allen Ginsberg! Rather, it’s George Pringle with her spoken tales of smoking, frustration and favourite records. We can imagine George sitting on a rumpled bed with a typewriter and hundreds of ashtrays, dreaming that a photographer from The Observer Magazine is snapping from the rafters, like any number of sophomoric hipsters, but she does have a certain something to offer: not least killer lines like “I’m going to kick that indie witch in the tits”. Ultimately George is a much better writer than performer or programmer, and it would be interesting to hear her read without accompaniment…and, err, a little more slowly.

Our recent brush with Hammer Vs The Snake’s recorded work was disappointing, but clearly their New York stutter funk needs to be experienced live. True, the first couple of numbers shared a failing with the EP, in that they couldn’t get going; “fragmented” is one thing, “disconnected” is another, and it’s only the singer’s horrific Giles Brandreth jumper that holds our attention. Given time, however, HVTS come through with cheap Devo gyrations and sly Beastie Boys smirks to unexpectedly win us over.

There’s a big difference between a vocalist and a frontperson, and Vonnie DeBrett is a textbook exemplum. She stalks, screeches, leaps, and – when the music demands it – even sings rather winsomely, holding the audience captive. When Vonnie’s on the prowl you forget the rest of the band.; then again, you probably wouldn’t notice them anyway as The Debretts play astoundingly mediocre new wave, pleasant but utterly anonymous. “You Can’t Fix It” is definitely the best tune, and that’s a cheap peroxide Blondie with little to offer. We’d love to love The Debretts, but they’ll have to write something first. Why not call George Pringle? She’s got loads of lyrics that she doesn't seem to know what to do with.