indie rock cafe

wewerepromisedjetpacksScotland alternative pop band We Were Promised Jetpacks appeared on the indie music radar last year when the band went on tour with indie rock band Frightened Rabbit. Now the buzz around We Were Promised Jetpacks is getting louder thanks to their new debut album These Four Walls. The album features a mixture of alternative rock, post punk and indie pop music, at times reminiscent of the Editors, The Strokes.

No good explanation can be found online for the origin of the band's name, but it does, and yet also does not, seem to fit. Prefix Magazine put it nicely: "Their name, though quite clever, indicates that they might traffic in the nerd rock of They Might Be Giants or the hipster pop of Phantom Planet. When the earnest voice of Adam Thompson first cuts through the thin veneer of dissonance that blankets nearly every song on These Four Walls, it is almost disorienting."

In addition to Thompson, band members include Michael Palmer (guitar), Sean Smith (bass) and Darren Lackie (drums). The Glasgow band was 'discovered' when folks at Fat Cat Records - label of Sigur Rós, Múm, Animal Collective, The Twilight Sad - had heard some of We Were Promised Jetpacks music on MySpace while browsing the friends section for Frightened Rabbit (who, by the way, are also signed with Fat Cat).

As one of the best debut albums so far this year, These Four Walls, demonstrates that We Were Promised Jetpacks are a band to watch.

"Quiet Little Voices" - We Were Promised Jetpacks from These Four Walls (2009)

"Conductor" - We Were Promised Jetpacks from These Four Walls (2009)

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  11:07 AM July 24, 2009      MP3 Policy  View Labels/Tags

7 Comments:

At 5:21 PM , Blogger Tender Branson said...

Excellent review...Quiet Little Voices has been stuck in my head all month.

 
At 3:51 AM , Blogger iant 55 said...

Fantastic album. If you haven't heard it already buy it -you won't regret it.
Conductor has to be one my favourite tracks of all time. Brilliant!

 
At 5:15 PM , Blogger Daniella said...

great album, great review.

 
At 12:32 AM , Blogger Albert Anglo said...

dddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddaddy

 
At 12:44 AM , Blogger Albert Anglo said...

I listened to "Quiet Little Voices" and "Conductor". The first thing that I noticed was that the same two-note riff appeared in both,This suggests a somewhat limited musical ability. This may not be the case, but this suggests it. The lyrics in the first were a bit repetitious. And both had the same inward-looking self obsessed mood permeating them that I detect in so many indie songs. Now I am being very subjective here, but the vocals SOUND adolescent. The Beatles/Stones etc were very young when they started, but they did not sound it. This bands sound immature. Now as I said, I am being very subjective, and the girls m ay love it.

 
At 2:48 PM , OpenID ninaeatsbees said...

Excellent, first time hearing them and I'm quite impressed with everything on the new album. Love it.

 
At 11:43 AM , Blogger Mark said...

Great review, think I may look into their other tracks before making the purchase decision. Conductor is much more mature than quite little voices.

 

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bands to watch 2009
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Current and upcoming releases (US dates)

12/7/09 Ólafur Arnalds - Dyad 1909
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3/16/10 The Whigs - In The Dark
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Best 2009 Indie Releases

2009 best indie albums
Favorite 2009 indie albums in no particular order; strongly recommend these for your music collection.

Roman Candle - Oh Tall Tree In The Ear
Built to Spill - There Is No Enemy
Fanfarlo - Reservior
Family of the Year - Songbook
The Middle East - The Recordings of the Middle East
Freelance Whales - Weathervanes
Echo & The Bunnymen - The Fountain
The Sun - Don't Let Your Baby Have All The Fun
Kings of Convenience - Declaration of Dependence
Foreign Born - Person To Person
Real Estate - Real Estate
Elephantom - Swim. Towards The Sun
Wiretree - Luck
Them Crooked Vultures - s/t debut
Volcano Choir - Unmap
Au Revoir Simone - Still Night,Still Light
Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
The Raveonettes - In and Out of Control
Ramona Falls - Intuit
Holiday Shores - Columbus'd The Whim
Why? - Eskimo Snow
Neon Indian - Psychic Chasms
Cage The Elephant - Cage The Elephant
The Dead Weather - Horehound
Portugal The Man - The Satantic Satanist
Port O'Brien - Threadbare
Broken Records - Until The Earth Begins To Part
Headlights - Wildlife
Bango or Freakout - Upside Down EP
The Clean - Mister Pop
Sin Fang Bous - Clangour
Passion Pit - Manners
The Flaming Lips - Embryonic
Brazos - Phosphorescent Blues
Spring Tigers - Spring Tigers EP
Sea Wolf - White Water, White Bloom
The Big Pink - A Brief History of Love
Bodies Of Work - Flyers
The XX - XX
The Black Hollies - Softly Towards The Light
Sonic Youth - The Eternal Youth
Dinosaur Jr. - Farm
Modest Mouse - No One's First and You're Next
Generationals - Con Law
BLK JKS - After Robots
White Denim - Fits/Exposion
Rodrigo y Gabriella - 11:11
Monsters of Folk - Monsters of Folk
Atlas Sound - Logos
The Avett Brothers - I And Love And You
Califone - All of My Friends Are Funeral Singers
Taken By Trees - East of Eden
Chet - Chelsea Silver, Please Come
Julian Casablancas - Phrazes for the Young
Washed Out - Life of Leisure
Camera Obscura - My Maudlin Career
Deer Tick - Born On Flag Day
The Clientele - Bonfires of Heath
Iron & Wine - Around The Well
Pete Doherty - Grace/Wastelands
It Hugs Back - Inside Your Guitar
Peter Bjorn and John - Living Thing
Conor Oberst & The Mustic Valley Band - Outer South
Paper Route - Absence
Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest
Throw Me The Statue - Creaturesque
The Dodos - Time To Die
Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion
M. Ward - Hold Time
Deastro - Moondagger
The Decemberists - Hazards of Love
Matt & Kim - Grand
The Antlers - Hospice
Arctic Monkeys - Humbug
The Brakes - Touchdown
Andrew Bird - Noble Beast
Wilco - Wilco (The Album)
Yo La Tengo - Popular Songs
Franz Ferdinand - Tonight
Frightened Rabbit - Quietly Now
We Were Promised Jetpacks - These Four Walls
The Times New Viking - Born Again Revisited
A Sunny Day in Glasgow - Ashes Grammar
Pet Lions - Soft Right
Paramore - Brand New Eyes
Bonnie "Prince" Billy - Beware
Bishop Allen - Grrr
Cage The Elephant - Cage The Elephant
Birds of Avalon - Uncanny Valley
Sunset Rubdown - Dragonslayer
Ben Kweller - Changing Horses
The Acorn - Heron Act
The Twilight Sad - Forget The Night Ahead
AC Newman - Get Guilty
Dan Auerbach - Keep It Hid
Cursive - Mama, I'm Swollen
Beirut - March of the Zapotec & Realpeople: Holland
The Most Serene Republic - And The Ever Expanding Universe
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Woodpigeon - Treasury Library Canada
Wye Oak - The Knot
Vica Voce - Rose City
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The Mary Onettes - Dare EP
Odawas - The Blue Depths
The Veils - Sun Gangs
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It's Blitz
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Loney Dear - Dear John
The Lonely Forest - We Sing The Body Electric
The Uglysuit - self-titled debut
Handsome Furs - Face Control
Vampire Hands - Me & You Cherry Red/Cuz It's a Beach Funeral


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