Demos

LR Rockets - Spot on! (Demo)

Tim Miller 16/06/2006

Rating: 1/5

This demo from unsigned LR Rockets is an inoffensive journey through three tracks of straightforward mellow rock. First song Private Eye is not, sadly, a homage to the Ian Hislop run gag-mag, but a rather standard rock song with lo-fi rock guitars and angry, shouty vocals. The chorus, while vaguely reminiscent of the Von Bondies, doesn't hold the same sort of crossover into mainstream appeal.
Track two, Highway to Heels, builds up through drums and guitars, changing pace when the song actually gets going. Featuring the same angst-ridden vocals in the chorus - “you said you loved me!” they complain - and a similar arrangement of the pentatonic scale chords as Private Eye had, Highway to Heels also similarly fails to catch the ear.
Final song Lukelear Bomb (new version) is the last chance for LR Rocket, and it's the worst song here: I shudder to imagine how bad the 'old version' was. Clearly a track arising out of a muckabout jam, it features a monotonous two tone riff (to call it a riff is incredibly generous, as it's possibly the easiest thing to play I've ever heard), and the whole band joins in to shout Lukelear Bomb every two bars. The chorus sees not particularly in-tune vocals emulating a pub singalong. It isn't until the accompaniment visits the sort of stuff Maximo Park might dish out on a bad day that Lukelear Bomb becomes anything of note. Sadly, the pointless shouting of Lukelear Bomb returns to see out the track, and finish one of the least attractive demos I've heard in a long time.

In a time of DIY promotion, online fan bases and bands being made overnight simply through hearsay, or perhaps 'ear-say' (arf), LR Rockets have a long way to go before they can join the swelling ranks of bands that make it big before they're even signed, and this Spot On! demo is some way off target.