Photo:
For those who feel umbrage towards bands who shamelessly mine sixties rock and roll, blues and soul, you might want to look away now. But for anyone who just loves a great tune, and doesn’t care that the band playing it seem to only buy records from before 1970, then keep reading because Vinny Vinny have some stonkers. What’s more they’re played with a rare energy and genuine passion despite a crowd who seem almost as frosty as the November night air outside.
With a flavour of early Beatles, some Northern Soul dancefloor thrust, killer basslines and more than a touch of Mod in both looks and sound, Vinny Vinny do their utmost to play up vintage chic. Admittedly their footing in this tradition of Brit rock means there’s the odd occasion where dreaded words like "Jet" or even "Oasis" float briefly across the mind, but what Vinny Vinny lack in originality they more than make up for in talent for writing and performing riveting pop. The sound may be familiar but the songs are fresh and vital, and lead singer Rick Nunn has the perfect voice, rough in all the right places, to drive them forward. The simplicity of tracks like forthcoming single ‘One Eyed Maniac’ doesn’t hold them back either, and the band rip through their set at such lightning pace that there’s never a chance for them to feel dull or repetitive. No prizes for innovation or complexity, just undeniably catchy, wonderfully danceable, foot-stompingly good tunes.
While you’d have to be blind and deaf or living in a cave to miss the British rock influences on Vinny Vinny, Make Model are an Indie band with a capital I, all messy hair, charity shop clothes and a youthful nervousness matching an eagerness to please. But all this fades away into some wonderful alternative shining gems of songs carried out through a fantastic triple guitar, triple vocal attack.
Pointed guitars leading into the kind of lushness you might expect at a Broken Social Scene gig. But as well as the North American influence, there’s something wonderfully Scottish about Make Model that puts them in line with the likes of The Delgados and My Latest Novel, even if their vocal drawl often belies the Glaswegian origin of the band’s voices. Pop sensibilities aren’t missing either though immediacy sometimes takes a back seat to a more subtle beauty that will leave you grinning from ear to ear without even realising. They’re not quite the British answer to Arcade Fire that some might have you believe, but if you’re looking for dreamy sonic euphoria then Make Model could be an exemplar.
