The Horrors - Strange House Era (May 15th!)

[oscillations.]

I've been loving them since last summer, so I'm really giddy about this. I doubt many people here know them yet, but they have the potential to blow up huge.

WATCH MTV'S "NEXT BIG THING" CLIP ON THE BAND"

Their EP is out now & you can watch their brilliant Chris Cunningham directed video for "Sheena" here:
(it was banned in Europe)
youtube.com/watch?v=cDme6kRrBY8

Their new video for "Count In Fives" is tamer, but no less visually playful:
youtube.com/watch?v=7GPe0RjzRxU

www.myspace.com/thehorrors

Chances are if you like the imagery of Edward Gorey, the psychobilly antics of The Cramps, and the sound of 60's freakbeat & surf, you'll love this band.


The Horrors Debut Album Details
Published Thursday, 11th January, 2007

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The Horrors have finally announced details of their first album and we can reveal the track listing right here.

The twelve track record is entitled Strange House and will be with fans on March 5th on limited gatefold vinyl, CD, download and a limited edition CD/ DVD. A single named Gloves will also precede the LP.

Several other tracks have surfaced previously on past releases, namely fan favourites Count In Five, Jack The Ripper and Sheena Is A Parasite, while the UK issue of the album will also include the song Death At The Chapel, which The Horrors released last year as a single.

The Horrors recorded and produced Strange House in London with Ben Hillier, Jim Sclavunos of the Bad Seeds and Seb Lewsley.

Strange House Track Listing:

01. Jack The Ripper
02. Count In Fives
03. Draw Japan
04. Gloves
05. Excellent Choice
06. Little Victories
07. She Is The New Thing
08. Sheena Is A Parasite
09. Thunderclaps
10. Gil Sleeping
11. A Train Roars
12. Death At The Chapel (UK bonus track)

[oscillations.]

I might be seeing them in March.

The 'Gloves' video:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjBKd1sloxs&eurl=

The quality is shite, & I can't really tell what's going on in the clip, but when a better version is posted, I'll share it.

[oscillations.]

It's out March 5th in the UK; some time later here.

Early reviews:
NME 7/10
Vice 10/10 (!)
The Observer 4/5

I'm seeing them on March 10th & will hopefully be meeting & interviewing the band. I've been assigned this task, but whether the meeting will come to pass will be largely dependent on the post-performance moods & inebriation levels of both Faris Rotter & Myself.

[oscillations.]

do any of you even know this band? I'm sure some people here have checked them out.

[oscillations.]

PITCHFORK
The Horrors Build Strange House, Tour


Following hot on the heels of the "Gloves" single, released this week, goth-punks the Horrors will release their full-length debut, Strange House on March 5. The record is currently a UK-only release on Loog Records.

As previously reported, Strange House features production from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Nick Zinner, and the band coaxed director Chris Cunningham out of hibernation to direct the video for lead single "Sheena Is a Parasite".

The Horrors will kick off a UK tour on March 5 with three Virgin in-stores in England and Scotland.

Tracklist:

01 Jack the Ripper
02 Count in Fives
03 Draw Japan
04 Gloves
05 Excellent Choice
06 Little Victories
07 She Is the New Thing
08 Sheena Is a Parasite
09 Thunderclaps
10 Gil Sleeping
11 Train Roars
12 Death at the Chapel

Dates:

03-05 London, England - Virgin Megastore (Oxford Street) (in-store)
03-06 Manchester, England - Virgin Megastore (Arndale Centre) (in-store)
03-07 Glasgow, Scotland - Virgin Megastore (Argyle Street) (in-store)
03-10 New York, NY - The Bowery Ballroom
03-23 Liverpool, England - Academy 2
03-24 Manchester, England - Academy
03-25 Hull, England - Welly
03-26 Leeds, England - Cockpit
03-27 Birmingham, England - Barfly
03-29 Nottingham, England - Rescue Rooms
03-30 Cardiff, Wales - Barfly
04-01 Portsmouth, England - Wedgewood Rooms
04-02 Bristol, England - Thekla
04-03 Norwich, England - Waterfront
04-05 Newcastle, England - Academy 2
04-06 Glasgow, Scotland - ABC 2
04-07 Aberdeen, Scotland - Kef
04-08 Edinburgh, Scotland - Cabaret Voltaire
04-10 Stoke, England - Sugarmill
04-11 Brighton, England - Concorde 2
04-12 Southend, England - Chinnery's
04-13 London, England - Coronet Theatre

[joker]

I've heard of the band, and had listened to a couple of their songs. They have a cool sound, I dig 'em.

[oscillations.]

"Gloves" debuts at #34 in the UK.
34 1 Horrors - Gloves; Loog 1725532 (U)

[oscillations.]

Oh, and Faris won "Best Dressed Male" at the NME Awards.

[oscillations.]

WOW!

THE GUARDIAN
The Horrors
Strange House


Leonie Cooper
Friday March 2, 2007
The Guardian

Buy The Horrors now


They dress like extras from Russell Brand: The Musical, all back-combed hair, circulation-inhibiting trousers and shoddy eyeliner, but the Horrors have respectable influences. Count in Fives owes more than just its spiralling punk clatter to 60s garage rockers the Sonics. And their cover of Screaming Lord Sutch's spook-rock masterpiece Jack the Ripper shows ghost-train pop and instrument flagellation can be a thrilling combination.

Jim Sclavunos, one of the Bad Seeds, chips in on production duties, and the band bolster their indie credentials by touching on everything from Joe Meek (Thunderclaps) to the B-52s (She Is the New Thing) and the Fall (Excellent Choice).

[joker]

The Horrors have announced a string of dates in the US supporting their debut full-length, 'Strange House', out in the UK today (March 5).

The goth punks will hit New York's Bowery Ballroom on March 10 and play several showcases at Austin's South by Southwest Festival before heading further west to play two dates in Los Angeles on March 19 and 20.

The dates are:

New York, NY Bowery Ballroom (March 10)
Washington DC Rock & Roll Hotel (11)
Boston, MA Great Scott (13)
Austin, TX Red Eye Fly (15)
Austin, TX Village Voice Party (16)
Austin, TX Emo's Alternative Press Party (17)
Los Angeles, CA Echo (19)
Los Angeles, CA Cinespace (20)

www.nme.com/news/the-horrors/26840

[oscillations.]

Anyone in the NYC area should try to go to the Bowery show! It's only $13 for an evening of ghoulish debauchery! Oh, and my friends & I will be there! (Well, minus one, who will be serving a lengthy Saturday detention for throwing a pot of flour on a peer...)

[jaxxalude]

PLAYLOUDER

Strange House
The Horrors



Before we begin judgment, a word on the criteria by which we are judging. This is a band about whom many words have been written, and, by default, about whom many decidedly ill-judged words have been written. And it's not so much the kind of degenerates who'd consider a wardrobe full of polka dot blouses a question mark above a man's sexuality - because they're obviously degenerates - but those less obvious degenerates who offer such words of wisdom as, "they're a poor mans Eighties Matchbox", "listen to Thee Headcoates, and be learned my child!" How can you disprove these when only a cursory listen forces you to acknowledge that The Horrors aren't making nearly so much of a bloody racket as either of the aforementioned?

I'm not going to pretend that the heart of darkness beats inside The Horrors' pale, spindly chests. But I am certain that anyone who expects that the worth of any given album will be slowly unveiled in an hour long musical striptease will be mortally offended by The Horrors. Because their brilliance lies in writing the crassest, most obvious, lowbrow hooks. To give it an historical angle, where 'Louie Louie' goes Duh Duh Duh Duh - DUH DUH (pause) Duh Duh Duh Duh - DUH DUH, 'Count In Fives' goes DUH - Duh Duh DUH (pause) DUH - Duh Duh DUH; it's the kind of dumb hook that compels you to put the needle back to the start so many times you might as well be psychotic.

By the by, this writer never actually listens to whole albums, preferring to find one track she likes and play it repeatedly until it bores even her. The very first time she took amphetamines she put 'You Cant Hurry Love' by the Supremes on repeat and danced like a harridan for six whole hours. To me that's the pinnacle of existence, it's what I'd choose to do twenty four hours a day if I didn't have to sleep, eat, or go to work - and I believe The Horrors were brought into being to facilitate it every bit as much as dear old Diana Ross and her Supremes. But apparently most people call that torture and if you do it to someone else they lock you up under the Geneva Convention.

My strictly scientific method for reviewing this album, then: I brought a bottle of vodka, pumped 'Strange House' through my headphones at Deaf By Thirty volume and danced. Each track was judged by the number of repeat plays and exactly how unhinged I would have looked had anyone been looking.

'Jack The Ripper' is a non-starter as some fool has slowed it down so that it perfectly conveys the disappointment of a promising one night stand totally and utterly failing to get a bone. The skip button is pressed at exactly 1.13 so nil points, we move onto 'Count In Fives'. The first time we listened to this it was like being trapped on a new-rave Wurlitzer with the lights out and some girly goth boys shouting lewd comments from the next carriage. We stayed on it for about an hour then, but through repeated experience its pleasures have been tainted.

It is clear from exactly two seconds into 'Draw Japan' that I am about to listen to something even better than 'The Best of the Supremes', 'Horse of the Dog' and 'Gravity's Rainbow' put together. They've got an organ riff that'll get on your nerves, get on your nerves etc and NOT ONLY THAT but every element of this song is as stupidly brilliant as some horny indieboy peeling off his too tight trousers and nailing you against his front door without protection. Out of ten I would give it twenty.

That 'Bang bang the witch is dead' riff in 'Gloves' is so corny as to be Grimm's Fairytales on Noise Guitar, and thus it makes me feel like an especially contented pig rolling around in it's own effluence. But the spoken word ending is unpleasantly chaste. 'Excellent Choice' begins along the same lines but this time fulfils its intention of giving you the kind of come down that'd see you jabbering and thrashing about on a stranger's bed. Then it hits the reverse button and lets you live your sixth hour of amphetamine addled dancing all over.

'Little Victories' is a cliché of what a Horrors song ought to sound like, made to formula etc etc… but then cake is made to a formula and you still eat it, you fat c**t. I also stuff myself full of the goth-ified sixties corn that is 'She Is The New Thing' despite the - god forbid - sentimental lyrics. This, to me, is more enjoyable than the atypical 'Sheena Is A Parasite', which sees said formula lobotomised, its remaining intellect spooned out and eaten. Some would say 'thrillingly visceral' but my feet remain staunchly unmoved.

Here on in we confront 'Strange House's most obvious weakness - namely that a pop album, like a teen model, should be a perfect ten, (or preferably an eight or a six) while here we're presented with a flabby twelve. Please kindly make like Sigmund Freud with your skip button and repress tracks nine and eleven. Thankyou. 'Gil Sleeping' is like realising all your friends have left the club and you're addled and dancing to Captain Beefheart - a sincere compliment. You finally stagger into the light that is the truest representation of the vision we set out at the beginning of this piece; 'Death at the Chapel'. My feet sore and my bottle of vodka empty, it's safe to come to the conclusion that 'Strange House' as a whole is hardly as perfect as their pulchritudinous young faces. You'd do a lot better to deviantly exploit every appealing track with repeated listening - my feet, for one (or two?) have got plenty of punishment to take.

Sarah Stilletos

reviewed on 07 Mar 2007

[oscillations.]

tomorrow.

[jaxxalude]

INDEPENDENT

The Horrors
Strange House, LOOG
By Andy Gill



The Horrors are what you might end up with if you held a Goth Idol talent contest: they have all the credentials but little credibility, despite banging on about The Birthday Party every chance they get, and drafting in Jim Sclavunos as producer. It's just hard to take seriously a band that's so obviously trying to look like spooky Victorian guttersnipes, when one suspects they're probably as privately educated as Keane. And, while Nick Cave has always taken on big issues - God, sex, death, art, that sort of stuff - I don't recall him ever getting steamed up, as frontman Faris Rotter does here, about his glove collection. Time to rearrange that sock drawer, Rotter! Musically, Strange House is in effect a routine series of footnotes to The Stooges, with added organ fattening up the racket. "Excellent Choice" has the bonus of twangy psychobilly guitar, and the sinister instrumental "Gil Sleeping" the bigger bonus of Rotter's silence, but the best thing is probably "She Is the New Thing", a disdainful dismissal of a passing fancy, which concludes with Rotter admitting, "Through no fault of my own, I am a new thing." But not that new.

DOWNLOAD THIS: 'She Is the New Thing', 'Gil Sleeping', 'Excellent Choice'

[oscillations.]

Drowned In Sound 6/10
Daily Record 4 stars
Manchester Evening News 4 stars

Well, guess what? I didn't get to go see the Horrors yesterday.
Oh, yes, we had (will call) tickets (which turned out to be a godsend, as I won't lose my money).
So, we went, but because my brother was 17 (or rather, he couldn't prove HE WAS 18), they wouldn't let us in. I couldn't exactly abandon him, so I forfeited the show (albeit, furiously). I've never actually seen an 18+ age limit enforced once in my life...appalling. Luckily, they will be opening for BRMC & will be in NYC on May 31st. I will definitely be there.

I hate the Bowery.

[oscillations.]

MUSIC OMH 4 stars

Also, they will be opening for Black Rebel Motorcycle Club on the following dates:
alt Lake City, UT In The Venue (16)
Englewood, CO Gothic Theatre (17)
Omaha, NE Sokol Underground (18)
Lawrence, KS Granada Theater (19)
St. Louis, MO The Pageant (20)
Minneapolis, MN First Avenue (22)
Milwaukee, WI The Rave (23)
Chicago, IL Vic Theatre (24)
Detroit, MI St. Andrews Hall (25)
Boston, MA Avalon (29)
New York, NY Webster Hall (31)
Philadelphia, PA Theatre Of The Living Arts (June 1)
Washington, D.C. 9:30 Club (2)
Columbus, OH Newport Music Hall (4)
Indianapolis, IN The Music Mill (5)
Nashville, TN City Hall (6)
Atlanta, GA Roxy Theatre (7)
Fort Lauderdale, FL Culture Room (9)
Orlando, FL The Social (10)
Birmingham, AL Zydeco (12)
New Orleans, NO The Republic (13)
Houston, TX Meridian (14)
Austin, TX La Zona Rosa (15)
Dallas, TX House of Blues (16)

Exciting news & wonderful pairing!
I have a feeling this American itinerary will coincide with the Stateside release of STRANGE HOUSE.

[tortuga]

wow, no CA dates?


EDIT: Nevermind, I just saw the L.A. date from Joker's post.

[oscillations.]

15 May Tuesday
The Horrors - Strange House

YES! We know the US release date.
A single will be serviced to US radio next month.

[roentgenizdat]

The Horrors thrown out of own gig for smashing Elvis

Boston show ends early after disrespecting the King

The Horrors have been thrown out of their own gig at the Great Scott venue in Allston, Boston after a fracas.

According to Boston Herald blog, three quarters through their set on Monday (March 13), singer Faris Badwan climbed onto a ledge and grabbed a two foot tall porcelain bust of Elvis Presley from near the ceiling of the venue.

He then carried the bust back to the stage and smashed it onto the dancefloor of the venue.

This caused the set to be aborted and the band were told the leave the venue.

A brief scuffle then allegedly took place between Badwan and a member of staff as the band left, with the singer later telling the local paper he was spat on during the incident.

The band are now set to play the following US dates:

Los Angeles Echo (March 19)
Los Angeles CineSpace (20)

[oscillations.]

The Horrors are pulling a Vines!

I see their career following the same trajectory.
Huge hype, divisive critical consensus, exhilerating live reputation (coupled with "incidents" such as this), a big single (not sure which that will be), followed by drugs, intraband tensions, someone getting kicked in the face, and commercial failure.
Enjoy the ride!
(By the way, I love both bands.)

Creation & destruction. My two favorite principles.

[oscillations.]

I forgot to mention.
Album debuted at #37 in the UK. Not bad.

[oscillations.]

Suck on it, haters!
www.metacritic.com/music/artists/horrors/strangehouse

78/100

[oscillations.]

I'd say The Horrors, Girls Aloud, Arcade Fire, Bloc Party, and Clinic are my favorite bands right now. And Lily Allen.

[oscillations.]

And Klaxons.

[busyboy]

The Horrors announce new single

It features exclusive tracks

The Horrors are to release their new single 'She Is the New Thing' next month.

The track, out on May 14, will be released on CD and two limited edition seven-inch singles including a Caveman remix of 'She Is The New Thing' and 'Sister Leonella', produced by Yeah Yeah Yeahs guitarist Nick Zinner.

The band are also set to play the final two dates of their current UK tour.

They will play:

Southend Chinnerys (April 12)
London Coronet Theatre SE1 (13)

[oscillations.]

I wonder what their first US single will be. Hopefully, SITNT. It's the catchiest new song.

[roentgenizdat]

The Horrors Snub Arctic Monkeys

The Horrors have revealed that they were forced to turn down a support slot on the Arctic Monkeys current UK tour.

Front man Faris Rotter told 6 Music that Sheffield quartet had approached them but his own band had their own commitments.

He said: "We had our own show booked and we're not going to say to our fans, sorry we've got a bigger date somewhere, see you later. We wouldn't do that."

And the singer added that it's not the first time they've had to turn down such a big name.

He went on: "We get support offers from all kinds of bands. My Chemical Romance asked us another week, we couldn't do that because we were in America. It's funny the kind of bands that are into us."

[oscillations.]

Both the Fratellis & The Horrors have pulled out of the BRMC tour:

From David of BRMC:
Due to an intense 2-year touring schedule, The Fratellis are suffering from extreme exhaustion and unfortunately had to pull out of the first 7 West Coast dates as well as all their own headlining performances.

The Horrors, however, were forced to drop out for very different reasons. Their record label, Loog Records, is currently experiencing dire financial difficulties and consequently, could not afford to fund a North American tour.

We're truly sorry for anyone who was looking forward to seeing either of these support acts state-side. A new opening band will be announced soon, so keep an eye out on the news page.



I was super annoyed about this, but I'm over it now.

[roentgenizdat]

The Horrors cancel tour with BRMC

The Horrors have cancelled a string of dates supporting Black Rebel Motorcycle Club in the US.

The London goth rockers were originally set to open for BRMC at several North American shows from May 13 to June 16.

They will now play their own headlining dates instead, beginning June 4 in Brooklyn, New York and concluding in Seattle, Washington on June 20.

The Horrors are supporting their debut album, 'Strange House', which is due out in the US on May 15.

The new headlining dates are:

Brooklyn, NY Luna Lounge (June 4)
New York, NY Fillmore at Irving Plaza 
(5)
Boston, MA Paradise
 (7)
Washington, DC Rock N Roll Hotel
 (8)
Philadelphia, PA Northstar 
(9)
Montreal, QUE Petite Campus (10)

Toronto, ONT Mod Club
 (11)
Cleveland, OH Grog Shop
 (12)
Chicago, IL The Abbey Pub
 (14)
Minneapolis, MN Triple Rock
 (15)
Los Angeles, CA El Rey
 (18)
San Francisco, CA Popscene 
(19)
Seattle, WA Crocodile (20)

[oscillations.]

I will be seeing them on June 5th. Ironically, this time the show is only 16+, so my brother COULD theoretically come, even though he screwed me over last time. They better commit to this date, though. No more nonsense or I'll have their heads.