It may seem strange for someone born right in the centre of rural England, but my first love was an American girl. She was sassy, she was brave and most of all, she was beautiful. She lived on a remote farm with her Grandfather and two (in my opinion over-protective) brothers, who dragged her along in their various capers. It was always a slight worry to me that she would end up on the wrong side of the law, with her brothers constantly committing various traffic offences, amongst other things – and I knew that if she did, my Mother would put a dampener on it, no question. I’m pretty sure they basically drove without a licence, and the car was a death trap or so it looked, pimped up and some fairly basic requirements for a car not working.
We went to my Grandmothers house on Saturdays, and it was there that I saw her most often. But I never spoke to her, and she never spoke to me. I began to realise it was never going to happen between us, and at ten, with her being at least mid-twenties, it would never work. I had a strong feeling she would never move to my village in any case, and her damn brothers never let her out of their sight anyway. I moved on with my life.
And now, all this time later, there appears to be something else from across the pond that I’m falling for. Shreveport, Louisiana based Super Water Sympathy are stealing my heart at the moment with their intelligent anthemic indie-rock, reminiscent of Florence/The Fray sort of direction. The band have recently announced a U.S. tour and are appearing at (yes, you guessed it SXSW) in support of their second album ‘Hydrogen Child’ following on from their 2011 debut ‘Vesper Belle’
Formed in 2010 the group is brothers Billy and Clyde Hargrove (bass and guitar, respectively), Ryan Robinson (drums), Jason Mills (keys), and Ansley Hughes (vocals). The album is due out on April 23rd on In Music We Trust Records. IN preparation for this album, they took the ideas and songs they had to sometime Flornce/Coldplay producer Cam Blackwood, decamping to London to do so. The first album may have been a mash-up of styles, but Blackwood worked his magic to bring an album of consistency, both in terms of sound and songwriting, out of the band.
Super Water Sympathy – Uh Oh
Although the band describe their sound as ambient pop-rock, the emphasis is on the pop and the rock rather than anything else. In fact they write catchy, cool sounding songs that tell stories and really feature Ansteys fantastic voice, Clyde Hargroves more experimental guitar playing. The whole album,according to the band (and they should know) is a concept, that being transformation, whether through love, death or rebirth.
Since getting back from London, Super Water Sympathy have been on Vans’ Warped Tour, added writing and production skills to B.O.B’s Strange Clouds with the track “Chandelier’ and have put in place tour plans both in their home country, and (fingers crossed) over her in Europe. You can pick up bits and pieces already from the band at your usual download sites, here’s a free download, courtesy of the record company.
http://www.inmusicwetrust.com/pr/freemp3s/superwatersympathy_sundayschooldress.mp3
So all these years later, I still didn’t get together with that one true love. Sat in my Grandmothers house, watching her, Daisy, straight after the wrestling on World of Sport, and her brothers Beau and Luke Duke, and that death trap of a car, the General Lee, getting mixed up with the law (usually in the shape of Boss Hogg and Roscoe P Coltrane) I probably never expected my love to be returned (what, you expected it was someone real? come on, I was TEN). Maybe I’ll have more luck with Super Water Sympathy.
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