The Silver Sun Pickups

Our neighbors across the pond have contributed allot to every wave of music that has come to America, in some respects even creating some in the process. This same idea applies to bands and there early counterparts. One of several bands that is taking a page from there earlier contemporaries is The Young Knives. They are a band of Three quirky English gents who hail from Ashby-de-la-Zouch North West Leicestershire, say that 3 times fast. There music is a blend of post-punk revival and Indie rock. The band formed in early 1998 with brothers Thomas “The House of Lords” and Henry Dartnall, and friend Oliver Askew. The band originally started out playing, as they quoted, bad funk and Ned’s Atomic Dustbin covers. Originally the band was formed under the name “Simple Pastoral Existence”, but soon there after moved to Oxford and changed there name to “Pony Club”.

After just a few months, the band changed their name once more to it’s current name The Young Knives. In October of 2002 the band released its first EP, The Young Knives Are Dead. Though the album did not chart, it created a buzz around England, and effectively started back up the Indie Pop movement which was dormant for a number of years. In that next year the band released a four song “mini-album” called Rollerskater through local Indie label Shifty Disco Records. On the heals of the Rollerskater EP the band toured in support of the album as well as opened for many bands touring through England including Hot Hot Heat and fellow country man The Futureheads. In mid 2005 the band moved too Transgressive records, and released the very successful Junky Music Make My Heart Beat Faster EP. Not much touring was done for the album due to the fact that the band was writing and preparing material for there first full length album.

Voice of Animals and Man, was released in August, and was the first time the band started to see international recognition. The second track off the album, “The Decision” was there first American single and even spawned a music video, which received heavy rotation on MTV2 and British and Euro MTV. Two months later the band released their second single “Here Comes the Rumour Mill”, which was their first charting single, and peeked at #36 on the UK’s top 100. This was followed by a UK and American tour. The band ran into a mishap when trying to get into the country and had to delay there America tour by almost a month. When they were granted a vacation visa, they played a hand full of dates in California and grabbed a spot on the 2006 South By South West Music Festival in Texas. After there return to the UK the band played, what they hailed, as there “biggest gig ever” at the famed London Astoria.

At the beginning of 2007 the band was nominated for a Mercury Music Prize and announced that they were going back into the studio to record their second album. The band headed to Scotland to record, and again chose Andy Gill to produce there album. The album as of yet is un-named, but the band has stated that the single would be called “Terra Firma” On October 29th the single was released and debuted at #43 on the UK’s top 100. The Album is scheduled to be released on March 3rd 2008, and is the second Full Length Album from the band. There is no word if there will be an American tour in support of the Album, but I wouldn’t put it past the trio in tweed.