Get down to the Purple Turtle in Camden and check out new boys indie rockers The Bishops for some foot-tapping fun
Every band is a product of its influences, at least to a certain extent, but with indie-rockers The Bishops, those influences are laid bare from the first note. Suited and booted in monochrome with pudding-bowl crops and beatnik strides, London-born identical twins Mike and Pete Bishop, together with Scots drummer Chris McConville, were clearly born too late… about forty years too late. The sounds and styles of the 1960s and 70s pop-rock groups they profess to love – including the Hollies, The Everley Brothers and Hermans Hermits – come back to life in every single track on The Bishops self-titled debut album. The boys may hail from the capital but their vocals and guitar riffs are pure Merseyside.
Yet, such obvious devotion only adds to their charm and is far from surprising given the fact they’ve been nurtured by producer (of The White Stripes and The Zutons, among others) Liam Watson, whose Toerag Studios is a throwback to the facilities of the late 50s and 60s, complete with a Studer 8-track recorder, ex-Abbey Road mixing desk and vintage amps. In these times of mediocre-manufactured-band-overload, an injection of such assured identity is decidedly refreshing and even if their sounds are not wholly unique, they may well be to today’s teens, for whom Beatles-mania rings no bells at all. And, according to the boys, there is a darker, more contemporary edge thrown into the mix. Think Kaiser Chiefs with a more analogue-induced, 60s indie-pop feel.
The sharp, rocky future single Breakaway is “a cross between The Kinks and Black Sabbath”, they say, while soon-to-be-released I Can’t Stand It Any More, has something of the Russian folk song about it that makes you think of squat men with bushy moustaches and fur Cossacks shuffling with glee… Another strong single contender, The Only Place That I Can Look Is Down, is fun, upbeat indie-pop at its best: a tight vocal and tuneful beat that gets lodged in the brain.
The Bishops’ sound is easily distinguishable and the style fairly constant, but each track stands up and deserves its place on the album. Aside from the songs themselves, the boys are attracting attention for their quirky twin status, which they now embrace wholeheartedly, it seems. “We used to play down the fact that we're twins but now we emphasise it,” says Peter. “We get our hair cut at the same time, just like when we were kids, and we wear our old school blazers to get that neat fitted look. It creates a unity which is in the vocal sound and adds to the freaky onstage symmetry going on!” Whether or not they’ll prove different enough to sway today’s young folk remains to be seen, but we hope they do and will be heading down to The Purple Turtle later this month to see the twins and long-haired Chris in action (See Diary pages for your chance to join us there).
The single I Can't Stand It Anymore is out 16 April, and the self-titled debut album follows on 23 April. In the meantime check out The Bishops at www.thebishopsband.com and www.myspace.com/thebishopsuk.
