Pitchfork: Johnny Boy Complete Album, Shop for Labels, Shoes

Johnny Boy Complete Album, Shop for Labels, Shoes

Every once in a while, a song comes along and wraps itself �round your velvet rims and straps its hands across your engines. It�s happy and sad and glorious and devastating all at the same time, and you want to marry it and make babies with it. Last year, for so many of us geeky interweb types, that song was �You Are the Generation Who Bought More Shoes And You Get What You Deserve� by the British duo Johnny Boy. The track wasn�t released anywhere outside England, but its sweeping post-girlgroup fantasia hummed across the blogosphere and into our hearts, earning the Pitchforkian distinctions of Fiftieth Greatest Single of 2004 and Ninety-Fifth Greatest Single of the Decade (So Far). But after that brilliant sonic flash, Johnny Boy faded back into the shadows of obscurity, never to be heard from again� until now!

Band members Lolly and Davo revealed to Pitchfork via email that they have completed their debut album and are currently fielding offers from several labels, including Vice, Sony, and V2. (Hey corporate stiffs, here�s a clue: this band deserves bazillions of dollars�err, pounds.) The basic tracks were recorded in a London flat, and then polished up in various studios by producer Dave Eringa (Kylie Minogue, Ash, Idlewild). James Dean Bradfield of the Manic Street Preachers co-produced �Generation� and �Johnny Boy Theme,� and famed garage rock purist Liam Watson (the White Stripes, the Kills, Holly Golightly) mixed �Generation�, allegedly allowing a computer in his notoriously archaic Toerag Studios for the first time. Lolly and Davo also added, �A Japanese drummer called Mako plays on �Generation� and a lad called Greg Havers plays on �15 Minutes� and �Formaldehyde�.

Johnny Boy describe the record�s sound like so: �Each track on the album is different, though they have an overall sound and spirit. There's a hip-hop/Bo Diddley/spaghetti western track(!), for instance. A Revolver/London Calling attitude means from the get go we wouldn't be pigeonholed and be free to do whatever we wanted. For us, a big part of the spirit of rock n roll was the shock of hearing something fresh and new-- from Little Richard to the Pistols to Public Enemy. And hopefully tie this to timeless melodies!� Sounds like they�re, aiming for the hilltops, and if �Generation� is any indication, by golly, they�ll make it there!

No Johnny Boy shows are planned for the moment, but that should change once that fat label advance comes rolling in. �We get offers for live gigs every day,� the band said, �but at the moment can just about make the rent, so a rehearsal room�s out of the question. However, the gigs we have done have been great, so we're hoping to put this right as soon as possible.� Yeah Yeah!!!

href="http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/top/2004/singles/ ">Top 50 Singles of 2004