The baddies

I wrote about this band I caught at the dot to dot festival in bristol...

"9.15pm. Baddies @ The thekla Here it is. One of those reasons that all the effort is worth while and why I love live music. I sat down in an empty thekla bar with 15 minutes to spare. I was whacked I was pretty much ready to call it a day, no one else on the roster appealed to me enough to move another inch. Sitting there flounced over the couch people started to filter in and soon enough it was a healthy attendance, I wasn't interested I just wanted to lie down on this suprisingly comfortable leather couch. They kicked off and BAM. That was it the place was on fire, I was up, forgot my woes rocking out to such an event. The Baddies have about as much energy as a particle accelerator. Mesmerising. The front man was as unique as they come. The greatest thing about festivals like these was seeing word spread about these guys. Calls, texts and tweets declaring a happening. Seeing people walk in and realise this was huge was fantastic. They stormed through an action packed set, including the lead singer getting a tooth knocked out and seeking vengeance on a few members of the crowd. I stood around to indulge in the excited conversation before heading next door..."

And here's their bio, I found it kinda amusing but above all enlightening-

"Cast your minds back to January 2007… where were you? What were you doing? Well, if you’re name was Michael Webster (and let’s face it, your name probably isn’t that, but please… work with me okay) you were hatching a scheme, a fiendish plot, a devilish desire… to start DUN-DUN-DUUUUURRRGHHH… A BAND! Yes! A band with guitars and vocals and drums and bass. Holy mother of fucking shitballs! Mike had the guitar and vocals, so far so good… but where do you go from there? Well, if you were Mike you’d go to see your twin brother who just so happens to be a fricking awesome drummer and ask him and guess what? He said yes. Brilliant. But that’s not where the fantastic train stopped… no sirree bob, those Webster twins kept a right on rollin’ and they picked up a Simon Bellamy and a Danny Rowton on guitar and bass respectively. So that was nice.

So there they were. One. Two. Three. Four. And they called themselves Baddies. Not The Baddies, just Baddies. Got it? Good.

After quickly writing a batch of songs, Baddies had discovered that not only were they: (a) pretty darn good thank you very much, but they had (b) discovered their sound. Yep that’s right sound in italics. So what exactly is the sound of Baddies? Hmmm, right okay… well, imagine this… Talking Heads (Good) + Queens of The Stone Age (different, but also good) + being from Britain and all that entails (???) = the Baddies sound (its okay to say ‘the’ there I think?)

The band worked hard. They gigged. They recorded some tracks, “Tiffany, I’m Sorry” and “Battleships” and before long industry types heard them and got all hot and sexy at the very prospect of the band, and industry types love getting hot and sexy, don’t you?

Within months the band were in hot demand, everyone wanted a piece of that Baddies pie. ZOOM! They played Eurosonic in Holland. WHIZZ! They played London Calling in Holland, again! KABLAM! They played In The City in Manchester and shitting crikey they went down a storm! “I love them” said one guy, “Fuck me! That was good” said another. Which was great y’know, that’s what Baddies wanted all along, the diabolical little tinkers.

So what would you do? You’re in this band, everyone’s spaffing in their pants because you’re so damn good, where do you go next? You release a single right? Yeah, a single! On vinyl, limited to 500 copies and then you sell them all. Yeah sold out. Can’t get it any more. Sorry. But that’s not enough for Baddies, no no no. You make a video too right? Not a big expensive thing, just a little performance video. Film it, discretely put it out there… see what happens… get to number 1 on the MTV2 / Myspace chart with like zero promotion. That’s what you do if you’re Baddies anyway.

Now Baddies face the next phase, second single and then the debut album which Mike describes as “an insight into 'the struggle' of getting to where we are now."

I saw a lot of great bands that day and hear a lot of great bands every day but this is the one that's stuck with me, not since fanfarlo have I been as impressed/excited by a new band. They were in all those Bands to watch lists at the start of the year, not sure how I missed them but it all comes around and here's the only mp3 i've been able to get my e-hands on...

Baddies- I'm not a machine