If we were to judge a band simply on their dedication and work rate, then it would be difficult not to laud young west country quartet PINSTRIPE from the rooftops.
With an average age of 16 and a half, they may be barely past the bumfluff shaving stage, but have nonetheless been powering up and down the UK motorway network, honing their requisite cathedral-razing choruses in any toilet that will have 'em since the beginning of 2006, being handpicked by no less than Michael Eavis to appear at Glastonbury along the way.
So nuff respect is due on paper, and in many ways it's hard to fault their Editors/ Coldplay-bothering schtick with the inevitably massive, yearning choruses, skyscraping guitars and keyboards drifting in from the Urals all present and correct. In fact, if you're standing in the middle of a west country field, these tunes probably would do the proverbial business and have you weeping into your beer for a few unguarded minutes at least.
Trouble is, when sat sitting in yer front room with the clouds amassing outside and nothing but a mug of tea for company, these tunes simply don't catch fire. Yes, all three songs, 'Innocent', 'Did I Say?' and 'Memory' are faultlessly executed and burn slowly before they unleash those easy-to-spot, gasometer-toppling choruses, but when you're of this reviewer's vintage and you recall noble failures such as The Sound, The Chameleons, Into Paradise and Undercut - all bands who could have eaten Pinstripe for breakfast when making similar but more inspired sounds - well...suffice it to say it all sounds rather grim and derivative, I'm afraid.
|
Pinstripe will probably confound me and enjoy their fifteen minutes in the short term, but to these ears thy are cut from a well-worn cloth which all the would-be indie star commuters are wearing this season. They will need to don suits of a fresh design if they wish to avoid a fate similar to the pinstripe-wearing hero of The Jam's 'Smithers-Jones'.
(http://www.myspace.com/pinstriperock)
|
