T54 are a band from Christchurch. They used to be called Joe Sampson and the T54. They played at Glastombury, which was effectively a microcosm of the messiest parts of CALH, over New Years 2009 vs 2010. It was dusk, and it was pretty refreshing, after a few sloppy sets from bands that had already played at the festival, to have a band play a furious set that managed to be ‘hella tight’ too. Via bandcamp, T54 now have two collections of tracks – one which appears to be ‘pre-54′, and another of demos recorded voer the course of 2009, entitled ‘12 Songs Madras’. Hoooly. Many of the tracks are plain disgusting – like, 3Ds ripoff disgusting. Really, really good disgusting. ‘I can’t afford to record anywhere good yet which is a fucking shame because I’ve written some really good songs’ disgusting. Squalls of rackety guitar parts, which mould themselves into a pretty arrogant struts (a la Big Time) or Spaghetti Western punk in Localism. . It’s not all clamour and swagger, though – tracks like Chicken Roll Model exhibit restrained guitar pop that manages to echo Mestar in it’s frail higher-range vocals and simple, chugging distortion. Easily one of the best bands operating in Christchurch at the moment.Good cover of Hey Seuss every now and then too, for good measure.
T54 Bandcamp (Everything available for free download there)
(Photo by Chris Andrews)
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STOP SAYING SWAGGER BEAVIS