Midlands band Curb are just one whirring cog in the great wave machine of Britpop/reverb bands flooding out of Birmingham recently. ‘So High’ is the newest of two tracks that they have online and has to be the one which pushes the band to the forefront of an overcrowded Brum scene of laconic vocals and apathetic aesthetics.
The song itself is led by a haunting bass line which gives way to muted guitars and the main focus of the song, which is the chorus. Frontman Tom O’Ryan’s chorus of two words will be ringing around your head for days as it enters into a cacophony of chaos and noise, but still within the clutching grasp of the band. If this does not make people stand up and pay attention, I don’t know what will.
The chorus does take centre stage, but let us not forget everything else. There a muso-loving delicacies from a band that have only taken around 6 months from conception to their imminent explosion onto the Birmingham scene, while Bands like Peace have broken out of the city onto bigger things, Curb will now be looking towards the same goals. So High shows a lot of potential for a band in their infancy and hopefully 2014 will bring more music from the midlands four-piece and with it further establishment of a regenerating Britpop nation.
Curb have concentrated their efforts on songs ‘So High’ and their first song ‘How Are You Now’ for now, choosing luscious quality over scratchy quantity. With these tracks available for free for your listening pleasure there is no better way to get yourself noticed in an ever decreasing physical market, excluding barnstorming live performances. Luckily, they are also set to support another Birmingham band, Dumb, in the coming months including a live London date at Old Blue Last on Tuesday, March 11. We suggest you get yourself a ticket,
Sam Gunn