Cymbals Eat Guitars/ Milagres/ The Spills

Brudenell Social Club, Leeds  - 6/01/12

The first gig of the New Year at my favourite venue and I’m eager for some live noise. Label mates and fellow New Yorkers Milagres and Cymbals Eat Guitars are here  - both bands hotly tipped and with new records making a stir.

Wakefield band The Spills bring up the rear and their lively indie – pop seems vaguely disconnected from the smallish audience who have come prepared for minor chords, distortion and mayhem from the main bands.

You can tell Milagres are a brainy bunch by their loucheness and the style of their tightly fitting shirts.  Attention to image at such an early stage in their career is impressive and is, for the most part, backed up by their confident art rock. They sound like SO many other groups though – the stabbing 80s synths recall Grizzly Bear and the singer’s voice is a dead ringer for Wild Beasts’ aerated falsetto  - not quite the hydrogenated range of a Jimmy Somerville but an instrument in itself. Too many songs start and then seem to lose direction and their spatial elegance begins to meander down over-rehearsed cul-de-sacs. I want to shout ‘GET ON WITH IT!' but don’t,  of course.

Cymbals Eat Guitars, on the other hand, seem to have no pretensions. Their muscular work ethic is reflected in singer Joseph D’Agostino’s  massive arms. He is a compelling front man, capable of guttural snarls and sweet-voiced cooing. The drums are massive but deceptively sophisticated.

Many of the songs seem to move between differently-paced movements – it is dynamic and a little bit dangerous – there is a frisson about the body language of this band which adds an unspoken dimension, propulsive yet wonderfully free-form and indulgent.

All told I’ve preferred the rough edges of Cymbals to the unruffled ease of Milagres. It’s always been that way – heart over head. Maybe it’s the time of year and the need to blow away those cobwebs in readiness for a packed year of live music ahead.