If your brain is stuttering jalopy full of frayed neurones and a widely misfiring musical-taste projector, you might dismiss this as ‘sub-Levellers toss’. However if you’ve got a fresh mental MOT displayed in your frontal lobe, you’ll realise that I Can’t Believe You Fell In Love With.. is as epic as Arab Strap playing stadium rock. Leave work now, go home, draw the curtains, drink some whiskey, put this on and text your ex – it’s for the best.
Alex Miller (NME Demo of the Week)
""Scratch the surface of any geographical 'scene' and you'll find the real itchy-painted gimps and groovers hiding, cackling and priapic underneath the media sheen; so it is with Leeds' International Trust, who deliver an insistently gravely, pop-indie-punk growl that speaks of short-lived liaisons, gossip-mongers and burst brain-boils as it revels in its fuckup fizz. As befits songwriters of this calibre, this is way above average and, oooooh, not a half-inched Squeeze riff in sight, neither"
Music Week
"The International Trust are made up of various musicians who have the DNA of the 2005 New Yorkshire revolution coursing through their veins. But fed up with nik-nik guitars and the emerging cottage industries as lapped up in London, tracks like “Talk Of The Town” sound like Carter USM playing with Ramones tracks along the way spitting out their noisy but hellishly catchy rumbles. “Talk Of The Town” is also stuffed with little hooklines and enough memorable moments than some bands only mange to loosely pack into a whole album. As a four track EP it’s also quite epic, buzzsawing its way through “Disneyland” and the achingly tongue in cheek “I Can’t Believe You Fell Love (With A Bastard Like Me)”. Is this the sound of New,New Yorkshire ? - I hope so, as the other stuff chopping itself over the Pennines is beginning to exceed its sell by date. Thank god for those who dare to be different.
MMMM ½ - Single of the Week
Manchestermusic.co.uk
"International Trust don't give a flying fuck; after years as bystanders they've gazed through the detritus of other's posturing and image; experience has allowed them to hone what really matters - the simplistic immediacy and balls-out lyrical honesty of a life affirming, nicotine-compulsive tune. New single "Talk of the Town" might physically clock in at less than three minutes but it will be in your head for the next decade. "Bruce Lee" nonchalantly attacks the arrogant ambition of naive star-chasers, but by simple virtue of being the only Oi! punk terrace chant-laced bubblegum-n-grit Botempisynthpop anthem you'll hear this year or any other, effortlessly swindles the next potential pseudo-Kooky character of their requisite Warholian 15 minutes: when having their cake and eating it, International Trust puke it up and piss on it.
Tonight's pub-wide record night highlights a determination to shun predictable routes to fame, fortune, and the welcoming embrace of women with unfeasibly large breasts. It's already made them legends within their own milieu but this could steamroller into something much more spectacular.
Dave Beveridge (The Fly)
"International Trust are about as complicated as beans on toast. You think this is a derogatory statement? Think again schmuck. Why else, for years, has beans on toast been the staple diet of millions who crave something quick, tasty and satisfying? Because simple works, that's why! All too often of late that book for musicians "How to keep it simple and be ace" has been gathering dust on the shelf in favour of more modern titles such as "How to create a genre by adding the word NEW (or Nu) in front of it" or "How to combine trigonometry and music: 3.6 easy steps". International Trust are doing for punk what Andrew WK did for rock: they are putting the pleasure back in and they're not ashamed about it. Why should they be with melodies and hooks as tall as the latest additions to the Leeds skyline? It is no mean feat to write songs as instantly memorable as "Talk of The Town" and "Disneyland" while avoiding them sounding contrived or naff. It won't even take one listen to be singing along with Neil Hanson's badly looked after vocal as he gnarls out "We're off to Disneee-laaand", you'll be doing it by the third chorus. Like Carter USM replete with cheap keyboards but minus the annoying "we're from fackin Laandan" references this is a return to the purist days when disco beats were for disco and rave never spoke to metal. This is a manifesto for good clean noisy dirty guitar accompanied by a healthy "Oi" and dubious body odour. There are even bloody key changes... no-one does key changes any more, brilliant! Things only come off the boil for the relative ballad "I can't believe you fell in love (with a bastard like me)" which lingers slightly too long and pushes the keyboard too much into the realms of a Spanish hotel bar. But fear not, normal service is resumed with the sneering two-fingered salute to the shallow music industry by which we are all surrounded. "Show me the money" features one of the greatest examples of call and response backing vocals ever committed to... hard drive? Put it another way, if The Pigeon Detectives had done it, the kids would be happy to lick it off the pavement"
4 1/2 out of 5
Leeds Music Scene
"Leeds quintet International Trust are typical youngsters it would seem, citing 'chicks' as their influence... So, this wouldn't normally be a good sign but for once we can ignore this because, fortunately for them, the EP - available only via the boys' MySpace - is actually pretty good.
The title track 'Talk Of The Town' is a jaunty number with sexy, gruff vocals from front man Neil Hanson. International Trust have a typical punk-rock sound but with added melody. 'Disneyland' is a catchy little blighter - almost annoyingly so, kicking things off with a drum solo that'll have you hooked within mere seconds, and the vocals retain that rough quality blended with a good measure of angst.
Changing the mood and dropping the tempo with the penultimate track 'I Can't Believe You Fell In Love (With A Bastard Like Me)', International Trust slow things right down and take a closer look at the darker side of relationships - with Hanson casting himself in the role of the bad guy, which is quite refreshing when you think about it.
'Show Me The Money' sees the boys back on form with a track so loaded with angst and fury it should come with a warning of some description. As seems to be a popular theme with bands these days, 'Show Me The Money' is perhaps a slightly pretentious cynical attack on the music industry - "It's all about the money," apparently. It doesn't matter though - over all, 'Talk Of The Town' is a good record and these boys certainly know how to pack a punch or two."
RockLouder.co.uk
"Great music has been made on drugs. But what if someone made a pop song that WAS A DRUG?! By Jesus, the Daily Mail would have an orgy. Thankfully, the closest anyone’s getting to it for now is Leeds band International Trust. Their current single ‘Bruce Lee’ has a luminous but slightly frazzled keyboard hook that results in an instant ‘perk’ in spirits, but thankfully stops short of causing pale skin, teeth rattling and imaginary monsters.
The group, who have a (natural I’m sure) Russ Meyer sized admiration of female breasts, have been playing with fellow pop rock upstarts The Ripps, and somewhere along the line picked up a deal with Red Lace Records to release future single ‘Talk Of the Town’. For now though, you can hear and buy ‘Bruce Lee’ directly from their mammary worshiping myspace."
Ric Rawlins (Art Rocker)
"But, on this poppy track at least, the IT are smart, likeable and catchy enough to leave you acting like a parrot if not quite one of the undead. Sure their keyboard sound is pure Frank Sidebottom circa Remote Control, and the guitar/bass/drums arrangement feels pretty standard but there is something in the biting Art Brut style lyrics that crystallises the song together. Vocalist Neil Hannon climbs aboard the current wave of celebrity: "This is the position / The height of my ambition / I admit I'm on a mission to be rich and famous [Rich and famous]" And such is life. Footballers are tagged as the new George Best, the new Maradona. Bands are the new Nirvana, the new Strokes. Why try to be yourself when there's an easier shortcut? Why not become the new Bruce Lee? After all, you're convinced that you're "the only one to do him justice"."
Nic Rowan (Leeds Music Scene)
"International Trust are five lads from Leeds. They do a nice number in synth led singalongs, and apparently want to be Bruce Lee. They also seem to have some sort of obsession with signing boobs. More power to them, I say.
I’m not sure I’ve heard a more Leeds song than Bruce Lee for some time. Everything about it reminds me of that great northern city, from the lyrics to the chanted/sung chorus.
Admittedly, this is the only song the band have made available for us to hear, but here’s hoping there’s more to come!
And yes, a lot of my motivation was contained in the picture."
Downandoutmusic
"Downstairs former Playmates and LesFlames! Outfit INTERNATIONAL TRUST begin to set the place on fire. Stomping basement riffs and firecracker guitars are illuminated with piercing synth sounds and the acerbic wit of singer Neil Hanson. Acrobatic, domineering social comment and scene debasing rhetoric flows out as the lyrics fly so close to the danger zone that the very wings of this vehicle could catch fire. Scruffy, intelligent underground noise."
Manchestermusic.co.uk (In The City)
"International Trust have quickly made themselves infamous in leeds. That's how this gig - their fourth in their hometown - sees them take the rather prestigious headline slot at the Teamtime Shuffle.
Frontman Mr Neil (formerly of short-lived NME-endorsed Les Flames!) handpicked the good, bad and ugly members of various other Leeds bands and gave them his songs to play. Before they'd played a gig or recorded a demo, they had a single deal with Organic. A sure sign of the power of hype.
Neil is simultaneously the best and least likely frontman in Leeds. Small and balding, he growls and shouts his way through seven gloriously poppy, punky rock numbers, including their debut single "Bruce Lee". It's not groundbreaking, but it is fun, though stopping the gig halfway through to form a conga line while Black Lace's "Do the Conga" blares out of the PA pushes things a little too far.
Still, we can't be serious at all times. Excuse us, we have a line to join."
Tom Goodhand, (Leeds Guide)
"Bruce Lee is the kind of easy-as-ABC shamble-along your three year old cousin would bash out on a kingfisher xylophone if he thought anyone would be interested. But more fool the little brat for not doing because its sneering pop punk is Seasame Street simple brilliance."
Vibrations Magazine
"Then the belligerent little bloke in glasses, who's been gleefully laying into the near free-for-all of the beer fridge, gets up on stage - this is Neil Hanson of The International Trust, and the most brilliantly unlikely genius frontman I've seen in ages. Keyboard player Simon, meanwhile, looks like Shaggy off Scooby Doo, which Neil helpfully points out. And they play gloriously deranged powerful post-punk with the keyboards wibbling just on the right side of cheese and Neil venting his speen on a variety of semi-comprehensible topics whilst ricocheting around the stage or doing a strange vibrating-from-the-waist-down dance like he's got electrodes strapped somewhere unfortunate. The mic stand doesn't last very long. "Anything over 20 minutes is shit" might well be a song title or maybe just a general comment on the vagaries of the unsigned scene - something he has more than a little experience of following a stint in bonkers Leeds underground legends Les Flames alongside a pre-Forward Russia Whiskas. Then he snogs the bassist. Properly. And calls another band member "sillybollocks" before addressing himself "Shut up Neil you cock". Now I can't be doing with bands normally who blether on too much between songs because mostly they have little to say of any relevance (see above) but by this point my mate and I are pissing ourselves (not literally, although with Dry Bar its usual "fragrant" self nobody would notice anyway). And we're already 90% of the way to in love with this band by the time they get to their (relatively) slow number, a swayingly drunken ballad entitled "I can't believe you fell in love with a bastard like me" punctuated by large slurps of Stella and disconcertingly swivelly eyes. Staying true to their own principles the set is over far too quickly, ending on the brilliant organ-drenched punk-pop fun of single "Bruce Lee". And the fact that the whole thing looks permanently on the brink of falling on its arse but crucially never does just makes them even more enjoyable."
Cath Aubergine (Manchester Music.co.uk)
"With a uniquely fun and infectious sound, and a strong fan base beginning to build, it surely can't be too long before International Trust attract the attention of the larger music labels. Catch them now while you can, and tell everyone you were there when it all began..."
Danny Brown (Suite101.com)
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