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Milk Teeth, 2 Pigs, Cheltenham

  • Published in UNX

Smiling Politely is the album and 'Swear Jar' the anthem. Milk Teeth are still pretty new but already have a respectable following in the West, playing bigger and bigger crowds as the year snowballs on – they’ll be at 2000trees festival this year and I cannot bloody wait.

The female lead singer has a sweet and crisp voice that cuts through the grease that is grunge so well. They hark back to the Eighties and Nineties grunge greats like Nirvana and The Breeders. The respected pop formulas and simple catchy chords are not forgotten but instead are used as good frameworks over which to go a little apeshit.

Then it’s the stuff to tap your creepers and bob your bleached fringe at (we don’t say bangs, that’s just silly). At other times they have that pure slowness so you can stand around and sway a bit, check out that person you’ve been eyeing up, to keep cool to. Grunge perfecto.

But this is a review of two halves. While I like MT, they didn’t have my attention nearly so well as Floorboards. I’d feel I was doing them a disservice if I didn’t mention them, because they were an unexpected surprise way better than anything you’d get from a Kinder egg. It being an underage night gave the feel of a Christian Rock concert somewhat before these guys came on. I have to bear in mind that I’d been drinking mulled cider and other things and I was warm and buzzy inside, but still we all felt it, that thing when something is just really good and you forget who you are and where you are, even that you have a body – you’re just a pair of ears and eyes, feeling.

'Stoned' really creates that easy mood, that sort of cushioning, that happiness. Listening again on Facebook I realise it sounds great live and big. 'Feel' sounds great from small, ineffective laptop speakers or if you’re actually there. The guitar had that sort of looping quality that makes you feel like you’re not in the room, tranquil yet blazing. Overall, I’m reminded of Creed, Chilli Peppers, The Pixies, even Feeder ('Turn') and The Charlatans ('Weirdo') – a pick ‘n’ mix of these and other great influences that I cannot name because like they clearly do, I like a good mixture of music.

Back to my ears, I know they’re actually a decade (deary me) older than a good number of the bodies I was sharing the room with that night and so the things they made me think of won’t all be the same – but the feelings I’m sure will be, pretty much, and that’s the beauty of music, right?

Here Smiling Politely here and Floorboards' debut EP here.

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