"Guitar pop with a smile on its face" - Oxford Nightshift, January 2008
"Welcome to a harmony-led paradise... 8/10" - Ben Marwood, Drowned in Sound, May 2007 album review
"One of the finest, self-assured debuts you’re likely to hear this year. Get ready to fall in love." - David McLaughlin, Alternative Ulster, May 2007 album review
" 'Who Invented Love?' acts as the curve-ball to their melee of concise pop-punk delivery. String quartets pepper the album, and the arrangements push the boundaries of indie-pop with gleeful reverie." - Jonathan Falcone, Playlouder, May 2007 album review
"Jam packed with sparkly jangly guitars, catchy choruses and delicious harmonies, tales of the highs and lows of love, the heartache of being apart, and each with the optimistic pathos that celebrates the zest and vibrancy of being young." - Rob Barnett, Music News May 2007 album review
"This is sun-scorched power pop that drips with the sass of teenage abandon and the bent harmonies of mid-period Pavement. Its optimistic, American-tinged indie rock..." Josh Temple, thedownloader.co.uk - Yr So Fit (For Me) single review June 2006
Watch the BRAND NEW "Hot sex with a Girl I Love" video
Director: Will Hodgson / DP and Camera: Andrew Alderslade
Starring: Abi Barragry, Bateman, Jors Truly, Tibor, Jas, Mark, James, Roger, Rosie, Jane, Jillian, Kirsten
Watch the video for Yr So Fit (For Me)
Director: Will Hodgson / DP and Camera: Andrew Alderslade / Acting advisor: Tim Neville
Starring: Bateman, Jors Truly, Tibor, Abi Barragry, Amy, Mark, Will, Tim
Hot Sex with a Girl I Love - Live at This Ain't No Picnic, September 2008
THE YOUNG PLAYTHINGS started playing together in a tiny shitbox of a rehearsal room in Elephant & Castle, the armpit of London, in October 2004.
Someone called me BATEMAN, after the American Psycho anti-hero, cuz slicking my hair back and wearing a suit helped me feel less insecure at a time when I was pretty unsettled in my life.
Pat chose JØRS TRULY as his stagename cuz he’s a goofy entertainer at heart and has a clever but strange way with words. We quickly shortened it to JT, in a nod to Timberlake and Pat’s dyspraxia.
TIBOR couldn’t decide on a pseudonym so just stuck to his real name, maybe because he’s a little more down-to-earth than me and JT. And as it is, though Tibor’s a pretty common name in Hungary, it’s pretty weird here in the UK.
Since those first tentative steps we’ve grown into a 40 stone toddler. We released three handmade singles between September 2005 and May 2006, then a real, proper album in May 2007, that we were originally going to call ‘What Have They Done With Your Daughters?’ but changed at the last minute to ‘WHO INVENTED LOVE?’ So, you see, only the question mark didn’t change.
In between writing and recording songs we kept playing them live too. Since we first emerged from that practice room in Elephant & Castle we’ve played, on average, like, once a week. Sometimes we were drunk, sometimes we didn’t get to soundcheck, sometimes one or more of us just didn’t feel like playing that night. But a good few nights we were shit hot and on the best of nights we might just have become your new favourite band, even if only fleetingly.
As for our influences? In between the songs about different girls we know in different cities all over the world we have one about staying around, one about growing up, one about a porn star, one about Christina Ricci, one about Britney Spears and one about The Replacements. That about says it all.
As for the future? More songs, more shows, more all-night parties, more friends, more drinks and lots more love. And if you catch us on the right night, we still might become your new favourite band.
Thanks for the add, loving your tracks guys. When is your next gig? We'd be interested in coming to see you play live.
Come and check out our next gig night this Monday (17th Nov - The Alexandria Quartet are headlings, awesome band!), would be ace to meet you and have a chat.
how the devil have you been? haven't seen you in ages.
this is just to let you know, if you don't already have a copy, that my new mini-album This Is Not What You Had Planned is available for free download for a whole 24 hours this Monday, 8th September from benmarwood. com. Neat, eh? For sure. It got played on the radio and that kinda thing, so it can't be that bad, and Artrocker said nice things about it.
sorry for the random comment invasion, i'm just trying to get as many people as possible to check it out!
hope all's well, maybe run into you at a gig soon xx
Yeah it's quite a laugh really, did those recordings on the space in dave's living room with one mic so it's pretty rustic! ah let me know when it does and i shall purchase a copy. Nah it's not all bad, just we've got no customers and we're all down to contract hours, good times! how are you getting on? i thought you'd be area manager by now!
Woah only just noticed that this is one of my best friends's brothers band..hmm know that before you added me? didn't realise sorry guys! haha how much does warwick look like mim lol! good tunes guys keep up the good work!
Join us for another Big City Redneck Presents! Another wonderful eruption, nay, ejaculation of good music at the Buffalo Bar this month!
What can I say? We won’t disappoint.
Buffalo Bar June 19th £6 on the door… 8.30pm till they kick us out…
Mama Shamone – THESE GUYS AREN’T PLAYING LIVE (except one acoustic) EXCEPT AT GLASTO FOR THE REST OF THE YEAR! http://www. myspace. com/mamashamone “Put Mama Shamone on at any venue and they are likely to take the roof off, this was one of the best live shows I’ve seen in years - certainly one of the best in London. In my opinion these guys are destined for greatness, it felt like I was witnessing history being shaped-something was just so right about what they were doing up there.” Vibe Bar
We Yes You No www. myspace. com/weyesyouno “We Yes You No sing about the end of the world, the end of everything. But in an apocalypse that would sound like this I would buy god’s last EP” – Big City Redneck
Language http://www. myspace. com/languageuk “"The verbosity of funk, the poetic twang of intelligent pop. The bridge between Franz Ferdinand and Smashing Pumpkins perhaps" – Bugbear
I want to invite you to my MySpacefriends group. Can you join my group "HIROHO music friends"? Do you have any informations or news? If you join to the group, please post it at the group BBS please!! And then we can share the informations or news of group members!!
TOMORROW NIGHT >> @ ISLAND BAR, BIRMINGHAM! Come join the SCC club night party – we’re gonna bring you some all 3-Piece Kung Fu action with Oxfords Pop-Punk Messiahs THE YOUNG PLAYTHINGS (Smalltown America Records) // we’ve also got you Brum’s very own Mutant-Grunge Post-Punkers SABOTAGE LEFT // and rising Alternative DisChord Wizards SHANA TOVA // £3 ENTRY 8.
Big City Redneck Presents the third installment of our ongoing series (which have been gathering quite ridiculous momentum) of showcases for up and coming swellegant, magnificent and downright stupendous bands on Thursday April 17th (this thursday!!) at the Buffalo Bar in Islington.
The Laurel Collective www. myspace. com/thelaurelcollective “The Laurel Collective are 6 nice, affable young bachelors and two sick, ultraviolent delinquents who play a simmering stew of musical influences. ” – Channel 4
The Great Statesmen http://www. myspace. com/thegreatstatesmen “The Great Statesmen live show is more than just a gig - it a full body workout with a massage at the end. Go and see them!” – Clubfandango
Greetings The Young Playthings, The stickers hugging the fruit smell better than the perfume of ambergris. The expanse of your beauty is a void no universe could ever fill. Entranced by the sweet harmony of your lips, I gaze beyond reason to find the oasis of your brilliant soul. Polished rock candy comes ever to mind when thinking of you. I relentlessly desire cotton candy lollipops. Your sweet voice is like the application of aloe vera upon a sunburnt back. Your wonderfully bright soul keep the demons from torturing me. Your beauty is equal to the smoothness of a polished gem. You have not yet reached the height of your creativity. Wood nymphs sprinkle your path with rose petals while you dance and prowl in the sequined moonlight with leftover cupcake sprinkles. I love your body, even when you inflict me with wounds of paranoia and desire. I find your eyes to be a wondrous amusement park filled with neo-plastic pleasures and turkish delights. Come, let me suckle your fingers that I may absorb and lose myself in the wise and beautiful starlight that is you.
Hey, it's perfect you have arrived well and all your mini-tour has finished without problems, and happy for all i hope.
We have really enjoyed with you, and the same in Murcia ... and sure than in Benidorm, too. For us the most important is what you have told "your hospitality made us feel incredibly welcome". We aren't a great club or organization, we don't have a lot of money but we try to give all we have to our bands.
Remember, here you have some friends, and Pat's family.
And yes, look forward to seeing you in the UK sometime in the near future. All the best, JM
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