Life has a funny way of doling out coincidence. This morning, your reviewer was wading through a newspaper article about the rise in female gang violence in his Cork hometown, and this very same afternoon he's confronted by a single about youthful urban violence by a buncha talented, lippy upstarts called THE KAISER CHIEFS. Weird or what?
But, surprise over, who are these chaps? The one-track promo and lack of a press release gives little away, but some web-based searching (culminating in arrival on www.kaiserchiefs.co.uk ) finally reveals they are a quintet based in Leeds, who run a local club night called 'Pigs' (well, obviously) and released a debut single much beloved of Steve Lamacq back in May called "Oh My God".
That expression wasn't far from these lips when your reviewer got his head around "I Predict A Riot", too, as it's dramatic, muscular and quintessentially English power-pop of the superior variety. And also - for a band who've been playing lowly support to The Ordinary Boys and The Others - showing itself to have a surpisingly wise head on its' shoulders.
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"A friend of a friend he got beaten, he looked the wrong way at a policeman," they lament before the song hits the energised, title-repeating chorus and the guitars and shadowy organ cut thrillingly to the chase. Sure, it's nothing that radical musically, but - to these ears - outclasses many of the current urchin rockers with ease and suggests The Kaiser Chiefs will soon be demanding a much higher billing.
It's very early days and I'm not sticking my head out of a moving train after only one tune, but on this evidence The Kaiser Chiefs could well be disciplined dark horses in the new UK guitar rock stakes. Keep them in mind.
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