Sheffield Leadmill

Although already impressively accomplished, there are hints tonight that [a]Llama Farmers[/a] may outstrip any expectations foisted on them...

Not since [a]Kenickie[/a]’s debut album, ‘At The Club’, has there really been a young band capable of combining the dumb with the heartbreaking. Before, there was Ash‘s affecting honeyed punk scrawling, but since then… nothing.

Which is where Greenwich’s narked teens the Llama Farmers come in. Tonight, on the eve of releasing their debut LP, ‘Dead Letter Chorus’, they offer a visceral, turbo-charged experience. ‘Get The Keys And Go’ arrives in a haze of tangled, claustrophobic disorientation, and ‘Jessica’ is the sort of sun-kissed baby-punk that Ash used to do before they got all grown up on our ass. This is stuff that causes people to play air guitar, stuff to put your make-up on to, this is unashamedly going-out music.

Not that the Farmers are one-dimensional. Next single, ‘Yellow’, for example, despite its low-slung fuzz and lack of clarity, matches the worldly-wise weariness that characterised [a]Kenickie[/a]’s second album, ‘Get In’, while the guileless, awkward honesty of ‘Always Echoes’ means it’s almost embarrassing to watch singer Bernie Simpson as he reveals, [I]”Watched the stars again/And deceived my friends/Cold and comfortably insane”[/I].

Although already impressively accomplished, there are hints tonight that Llama Farmers may outstrip any expectations foisted on them. This may not be the future of rock’n’roll quite yet, but hell, it sure beats Hanson.

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