NME:
"Prepare to have your love defribulated by the raw, garagey sound of these two reprobates, strutting on to our airwaves with more saw-riffed swagger than a dog with two dicks and cougar's yowl. Clark Westfield and Puppy Mills are bad, bad men, and we love 'em"
My Old Kentucky Blog:
"These guys are showmen with enough swagger, strut and snark to make the forefathers (Bowie/Mercury) of their genre proud."
Q Magazine:
“Loud, gaudy, contagious”
Rock Sound:
“Genuinely exciting genre-free music"
Day Trotter:
"There's something sort of legendary and epic in the way that they can come off as being the equivalent of falling down drunk or high as a kite every single second of the time spent in their company. But they keep it all together when they're playing their glamorous, punk rock."
ArtRocker:
"Big sounds, raw power and swagger..instantly catchy"
NYLON:
"a very intriguing group, with major potential for an instant dance party whenever they hit the stage."
Drowned in Sound:
"But really, at the end of the day 'Ghosts' is a completely mediocre record. It's got high-points, it's got low points, but really it just falls into a disagreeable, insufficient medium. At the best of times it's only good enough to forget that you're listening to it."
RCRDLBL:
"These guys don’t exactly wear their influences on their sleeves, but saying they sound like Crazy Horse messing with some Stereolab noise wouldn’t be inaccurate"
CMJ Festival Guide:
"If Freddie Mercury sang for Death From Above 1979, these guys would open the show."
The Guardian (UK):
"We're not sure whether they're out to debunk or celebrate rock'n'roll by embracing it at its most extreme and ridiculous, but whatever it is they're doing, they're good at it"
Alternative Press:
"Westfield and Mills hand out more head nods than should be legal for a band with only two heads; "Why Can't I Grow A Beard?" gets its David Bowie perennially stuck in its Brian Wilson, while "O Shot" ranks among the best songs the Arctic Monkeys never wrote"
The Village Voice:
"The Blades' real deal is their swagger-soaked live show. The roof (and your eyebrows) will be raised. "
Advocate Insider:
"Let me just say this was the best show of the week (SXSW). These random guys took a tiny stage and maybe 40 people and turned it into a Queen concert. Their songs are solid if ridiculous, and their presence on stage is the stuff of stardom."
The Deli Mag:
"This burly duo's blend of anxious spazz pop is accosting but sweet; it boldly confronts you with 'tude while courting you with delicate hooks and dazzling musicianship. Drummer Puppy Mills is a percussion juggernaut whose snare hits drop like the thousand clopping heels of a North Korean Army march, whilst Guitarist/Vocalist Clark Westfield fronts the stage with demanding showmanship. It can be a little in-your-face, but ultimately you have to respect the bravado because the songs are too good to dismiss."
Tris McCall:
"the Gay Blades did not learn their campy trash-pop moves from MTV or Hollywood. They’ve gotten their bag straight from the source – Bowie, Mott The Hoople, The Sweet, Queen. So no matter how much this sonic Venn diagram intersects with Ace Enders’s, or Kevin Devine’s, The Gay Blades are better understood as participants in the tradition of arch glam-rock revival."
"I caught the end of the Gay Blades set. I've never much been a fan of the Blades, and their set tonight didn't do anything to change that."
Absolute Punk:
"...For only two dudes, Clark Westfield and Puppy Mills output a HUGE product. With transitions, textures and elements to spare, these are not simple rock songs, even though they do simply rock. A song on Ghosts can hang a left turn at any moment, and none of these jumps are unfortunate. As spazzy as the album is on a whole, I am never lost in the mix. I think this has to do with guitarist/vocalist Westfield. He gives off an eager and emotional energy that matches the mood of the moment....There is an underlying (and sometimes obvious) absurdity/quirkiness on Ghosts that is part ridiculous and part brilliance."
The L Magazine:
"The Gay Blades have a shitty band name, and play something we assume they don't like to call emo, even though their singer does that stupid, annoying thing where he allows his voice to crack to feign real emotion."
Brightest Young Things:
"What seemed like more the persona of a Southern preacher than rock frontman, Westfield worked the crowd looking to convert everyone in the room to his own way. Backing vocals by Puppy Mills only helped to seal the deal, as Westfield’s stage presence ( often off-stage and in the crowd ) engaged, asking the crowd to sing along and clap, and the fans were eager to comply."
The Line of Best Fit:
"I believe this is rock music. It rocks. These men have not written a bad song yet, nor one that bears any relationship to another either. Just wait. I’d love to tell you what comes next but it would genuinely kill the element of surprise. Better it kills you. Viva NYC."
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