NME cover stars The Horrors are vying for the best screamers of the year. The howls and screeches on their EP could have been lifted from a B-movie but instead belong to singer Faris Badwan. The characters in his songs also seem stripped from those movies but actually pay homage to long gone music acts. “Sheena Is a Parasite” is an obvious dark twist on The Ramones’ punk classic. “Crawdaddy Simone” shares the same title as the rare 1960’s freakbeat classic by The Syndicats. “Jack The Ripper” steals the hook from Screaming Lord Sutch’s 1960’s horror-rock hit. These grave robbers stitch their monster sound from rockabilly/gothabilly surf guitars, psychedelic organs, and hammering post-punk drums. Their wardrobe is black and white, combining a style of The Strokes meets Count Dracula mixing mod moptops with the gothic teased hair of The Cure. Faris Badwan, Tomethy Furse, Joshua Von Grimm, Coffin Joe, and Spider Webb could be the next pop-star heartthrobs of the undead.
The Horrors are ironically set to make their first U.S. appearance the week of Halloween at Stolen Transmission’s party during CMJ. But you should be sure to see them at Product Shop’s big show on November 3rd at Studio B (tix).
