They love Andy Warhol, Darwin, Jimmy Page and Beethoven. Their MySpace friends include Phil Spector, Houdini and Napoleon. Their frontman loves shaking his hips on Steinway pianos. They love playing theremins, going crazy with synthesisers, turning their guitars up to 12 and singing exuberant songs about love, drugs, and girls. They are Raygun: the brand new British band who want to bring excitement, pop, and magic back to rock and roll.
The band has just released their self-titled album, which includes the carrier single "Just Because."
More about their frontman? He's called Ray Gun. He's the man on "lead vox and sonic experimentation." Blue-eyed, slinky-limbed and razor-cheekboned, he looks and sounds like the velvet-voiced, finger-waggling progeny of a promiscuous session between Jagger, Bowie and Iggy pop. Then there's The Adj, the band's scarf-swaddled, beard-sporting songwriter, on "war guitar and audio discovery." Add Ben Lyonsmyth on bass ("hip shaker and bottom end") and Sam Embery on drums ("pace maker and heartbreaker"). Together, they summon up the razzle of New Wave and the dazzle of the Scissor Sisters' disco, the filthiness of INXS, as well as the rock nous of a band long ready to start a revolution.
But where do they come from? The mystical lands in the suburbs of London that bore The Stones and The Jam: those places where the pleasures of the big Smoke is tantalisingly close but far away to dream about, and inspire fantastic music. And why are they Raygun? Because of David Bowie who, like this band, sowed his musical seeds in Brixton, who sang about ray guns on his song, "Moonage Daydream," from Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars. Raygun's musical blueprint mixes pop, art and melodies that move your heart, head and heels.
Catch Raygun as they blast through Manila for their Philippine promo tour on October 17-20.
Raygun is now out in CDs under Sony Music.