Breakthrough Band: Yuck

Although their Myspace profile has just been created a few months ago and they have only played a handful of live shows so far, Yuck are ‘all the rage’ over in their hometown London right now and all of their songs currently circulating on the web are earning vast amounts of love and praise. So who are these kids? The original founders and guitarists Danny (who is also the lead vocalist) and Max have previously played in Cajun Dance Party (recording their first album for XL Recordings at the age of 15), drummer Jonny left New Jersey to join the band after meeting Danny in Israel and female bass player Mariko was just looking for a new band around that time. Occasionally Danny’s sister Ilana contributes additional vocals but according to an interview of the band by our friends over at Dummy, she is still at school.

So considering the band’s line-up and especially the fact that all members are around 20 years old, it’s no surprise that the term ‘youth’ is mentioned in nearly all write-ups dealing with Yuck – most likely also because the fuzzed out guitars and their catchy indie pop songs remind long-time slackers like me of the soundtrack to our own adolescence, in my particular case being Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine, The Apples In Stereo and Yo La Tengo. In order to show off further pop-historical knowledge, the band has also been connected to an ongoing ‘shoegazing revival’ and even grunge, probably because of their decision to fight teenage angst with noise.

But I’ll agree with the band’s leaders, all this talk is just ‘slightly overcomplicating things’, as they ‘just want to write lots of songs’. Damn good songs, if I may add, because seriously, when was the last time you checked a new band’s myspace player and every single song was stunning and showing new facets of their greatness? Watch my current favorite ‘Georgia’ after the jump and watch out for Yuck’s debut, coming soon on Transparent.