Wednesday, April 20, 2011

New Sounds of Scotland--Part 10: Penguins Kill Polar Bears; Johnny Reb

It seems that a large percentage of bands these days celebrate "the bear". We have Grizzly Bear, Bear Bones, Bear Driver, Panda Bear, Panda Su, and so on. Well, these lads from Edinburgh buck the ursine trend by unabashedly celebrating the little known bear killers--penguins. Penguins Kill Polar Bears describes their genre as loud, vocal post punk. You may notice a similarity to The Twilight Sad. They are signed to Mountain Halo Records in the UK and Dromedary Records in the US and have released a couple of EPs. The band sports a twin guitar attack, plus bass and drums. The members are Ben Proudlock, Gavin Cormack, Kieran McGuckian, and Fraser Sanaghan.

"Sapling" is a new video that will be released on May 23rd:



"Lungs"



"Homebound"



Website
Facebook
Myspace

Johnny Reb is a Glasgow pop band. Their album, The Portugal Years, was recorded near the end of 2010. The band is Matt Mellor (vocals/guitar), Felix Bucklow (drums), Phil Hunter (bass), and Joe Bucklow (lead guitar). I think I'd describe the sound as punky Celtic (think Mike Scott's Waterboys) indie pop, but if you need another opinion the producer called it "Dire Straits on speed". But labels aside, I really enjoy the album and hope you will as well.



The biography on their Facebook page is amusing, but perhaps not 100 percent factual.

Bandcamp -- Free download of album
Facebook

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