ARCHIE BRONSON OUTFIT THE KIDS ARE NO LONGER ALRIGHT Having been awarded the 'Breakthrough' award for 2006 by the London Times, blues-rock trio Archie Bronson Outfit are on the rise. That's if stuck up students don't get in the way. There was a time when youngsters were willing to set fire to buildings and go to jail for the sake of music. The devoted few who worshipped The Doors believed Jim Morrison was the Messiah and Sex Pistols fans would've rather topped themselves than change who they were. Fifteen years ago kids were carving 'KURT' into their forearms when Nirvana came to an abrupt end. It's therefore a little hard to understand school students who protest against a band playing a gig because it might interfere with their studies. Yes, you read that right: students protesting against, Archie Bronson - the London three-piece - for performing on campus. As singer and guitarist Sam Windett explains: "We were going to play with (Liverpool band) Clinic and it was their show really. We'd been fans of them for a while and when we got the chance to support them, we were really happy about it. It was at (Central St Martins College) in London. But the students there are pretty strict about their studies and they held a sit down protest and got the show cancelled because they were worried it would disrupt some of their work. It was pretty funny behaviour for students." A blues-rock band from London is hardly an original concept anymore but Archie Bronson Outfit are one of the handful of recent groups who actually sound exciting and new. Their debut album, 'Fur', was released in 2004 and ever since then the former art school students have been steadily building a no-fuss, straight-down-to-business rock and roll sound that is a breath of fresh air. Their new LP, entitled 'Derdang Derdang', seems to give the overused hype machine a wide berth and does the job of a top album with surprising ease. "We didn't really have a criteria for a second album," Windett remarks. "We just wanted to write something we were happy with and not be too influenced by what was going on around us at the time. Our sound hasn't changed massively since our first album. The only real change has been a different producer and studio and that meant that we changed a bit as a band in terms of how we played together. The album that's just coming out in Australia is quite old for us now. It was all written about two years ago really. Touring an album that is that old makes us feel like we should be getting on with other stuff. Hopefully we'll be playing new stuff on this tour. It's been a slow process really. When this album was released, there was no big deal about it and nobody really took that much notice. So in that sense, touring it two years later doesn't feel too weird because we knew it was good without any of that press and hype around it. We stayed as a low-key band and that's good." The recording process of their second album was unique in itself. Rather than walking down the road to the studio in London, the band decided to travel halfway around the world to Nashville, Tennessee. "It was our joint decision but it was Domino (Record)'s idea. There was this producer called Jacquire King (whose previous work includes Kings Of Leon and Tom Waits) and that's where he lived so it actually worked out cheaper for us to travel there to the studio. He was a very nine-to-five kinda guy so we got some time off to have a look at Nashville." Next month sees the band travel to our fair shores for a whistlestop tour that includes playing alongside bands such as Yo La Tengo and The Sleepy Jackson. "I don't know much about the Laneway Festivals so we're not sure what to expect," Windett confesses. "I've been to Australia once before and I've only got vague memories of the atmosphere. But we're looking forward to it and we'll see how it goes. It'll probably be nicer than touring England." David Rayfield Archie Bronson Outfit plays the Brisbane leg of the Laneway Festival on March 3rd. 'Derdang Derdang' is out now through EMI/Domino Records. back to top ^

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