Band of the Week: The Drives
Stumbled upon a very good indie-pop band on MySpace today. The Drives, which I think is currently based in Kuching, Sarawak, plays a commendable version of mid-90s British indie-pop; with sprightly drums, confident vocals and swirling guitars. If there’s a current and local comparison it would be the recent version of Bittersweet, where Brit Indie reigns surpreme.
The Drives however doesn’t seem to be that much into the fashion end of it, well, at least from what I saw on their picture. According to their MySpace abode, the band is made up of veterans of the used-to-be-vibrant Kuching indie-scene, ex-members of Radish Fan, Nice Stupid Playground and Groover’s Lum – bands which I’m quite familiar with while doing the Blasting Concept column in The Sun years ago.
The Drives started as 2002 as Bandwagon, probably a hint of their love for Teenage Fanclub, and they actually recorded a demo back then which was never released.
The band recently resurfaced as a trio and now has just released an EP called Waiting For You, a seven tracker most of it featured and listenable on their MySpace page. There are four songs featured there and the first one, Robot Maker, really tugs at my indie-senses. A relaxed but snappy mixture of newer, rawer Brit-Pop sound and the guitar swirl of old C86 pop, Robot Maker suffers a bit from a rather out-of-tune backing vocals (around the chorus) but you can see a hell lot of potential there.
Anyway enough babble, just head up to their page; The Drives @ MySpace, and listen for yourself. Personally, The Drives, shows a lot of promise and if you are supportive of local indie-pop/rock scene, they could be another band which should be inducted into the merry “gang” featuring Couple, Free Love, Bittersweet, Lucy in the Loo, Harmacy and Muck.
Band contact: email Ricky and if you’d like to order the EP, write to umara
Baru lepas check out The Drives, memang cun! Dari dulu lagi Sarawak memang banyak band-band sedap. Thank you Joe for the link.
hermmm
baru je dengor lagu diorg! best ‘got to feel it and waiting 4 you’!
so..gud lak kt korang!
Everything seems to be coming back to the 80’s in terms of sound.
I’m waiting for the new Gary Numan to surface.
When I first saw that logo, I thought of The Cars. I love The Cars. Lest you soddin punk rockers still wanna diss them baggy-panted, blow-dried New Wavers, one must remember The Cars’ Ric Ocasek produced the first Bad Brains album! Now, take that!
Joe, dont forget that Ric Ocasek from The Cars also inserted Bad Religions’ Brian Baker in one of his solo album!