To see tELLEY: “like your favourite band before they were famous”, as they would have it. Nice line, I thought.
My interest animated, I am at “The Comedy” (a most civilised venue - all carpets and real glasses, no less, although the overall effect is less than rock n’ roll), having arrived just as they are plugging in.
A female bass player is always a good sign. I love to see women play guitars. It’s like watching them handle a firearm or a big motorcycle. She’s good, all Kim Deal eye-rolling cool. The drumming is similarly impressive - a bricks-and-mortar solid foundation for them as a threesome to demonstrate their understanding of the nuances and sensibilities of their genre. The reference points in their sound (Buzzcocks, Sparks) are in evidence, yet its authenticity lies in their fluency in the language of guitar/power pop, rather than the wholesale plunder of the 80s that so many bands seem to be making their careers out of at present.
When tELLEY sound like the Buzzcocks it’s because their guitar sound has the same quality of seeming to come in at a 45-degree angle (bare with me on this one). It is their understanding of the “all pleasure is relief” dynamic that is key to their very 80s sound. At their best, tELLEY pummel and poke with jagged Gang of Four riffs before the warm stroke of a sustained powerchord and vox melody combination. Thus they build then dissipate tension. Stagger and then slide.
Singer Jim’s stage presence is pure new wave power-pop star. It’s a similar point-counterpoint dynamic that is in evidence here; his natural squint, coupled with his knock-kneed, pigeon-toed stance (a classic 80s affectation), adds to rather than detracts from his aggressive delivery of lines like “I’m tired of being nice” (“What I Really Want”), when I can imagine this apparently mild-mannered, slightly geeky chap secretly wanting to chain someone to a radiator and… well. You get the picture…
Stand out tracks: “The Artist and the Investment”, and “Aw Mum They Made Me”, both classy, cool-ass songs (keyboard backing track courtesy of “Ghost Member” Rene). In an ideal world they would benefit from going into the studio with Steve Albini (perhaps it would do him good – he’s producing a lot of Christian rock these days…)
Live, tELLEY caught me by the ear and dragged me along like my old headmaster. And, well, birch me rigid if I didn’t thoroughly enjoy it.
Walking home past the site of the old Marquee and the 100 Club, I remember the sweat, phlegm and violence of those old gigs. Do I really miss that? I decide that I do, although probably a lot more than the artists.
tELLY official website
tELLY myspace page
