Singles

The Oxfam Glamour Models - Kick Out The Grams

Bill Cummings 01/05/2006

Rating: 4/5

North East upstarts The Oxfam Glamour Models release their debut single “Kick Out the Grams” (the title being an intentional pun on the classic MC5 track “Kick out the Jams”) on hip cat record label Marquis Cha Cha, and by God is it filthy! Disgustingly trebly guitars squelch and screech, repeatedly dunking your head down the toilet, then front man Emmet's vocals kick in with the sound of a sleazy Brett Anderson being injected with Johnny Rotten's bile above a careering, out of control punky, Fall-esque sound. The lyrics are a bitter polemic railing against the scenesters and Doherty wannabes that populate your local indie dive every Friday night - “I wanna try coke just to see what the crack is/ Somebody kick out the grams/ Don't worry Mum I won't get addicted/ Don't you know who I am?”

B-side “Postmodern Stars” is just as self-referential, with a more sedate, stinging guitar riff and a slower rhythm revealing more refined Bowie-esque vocals .The lyrics are a blatant attack on the vacuous celebrity culture and a music scene where the attitude is currently face down in the gutter of plagiarism: “Nothings worth doing/ Its been done before/ Facing the future/ Is like facing the wall.”

These two tracks aren't musically perfect, but who cares? It's refreshing to hear such spite and anger at the world at large. On this evidence, The Oxfam Glamour Models are downright unhinged and full of raw, unabashed potential.