Friday Feature: White Arrows

It feels surreal to realize when you've seen a band play to a small audience somewhere unexpectedly and the next thing they're supporting some huge indie acts. This happened with LA-based quintet White Arrows. I saw them perform right after our company's band in London. Pretty soon after that they were opening for The Naked and Famous and this December for Santigold.

Usually, the music they play is way more popular in Europe than on the other side, but with them it seems to be the opposite. They can easily be called the American Miike Snow. Their music is full of great electronic pop hooks, and front man Mickey has a voice you can distinguish anywhere. I remember him being a nice guy too, after all he did say my Doors shirt was cool and had Lykke Li on his playlist.

It's interesting to watch the whole band play, they're literally colorful in a psychedelic way. One thing, which stands out though, is the fact that Mickey was born blind, but gained sight when he was 11. His world came alive in a burst of Technicolor light. Perhaps, that works as the base for the band's music.

Club Fandango

26.9.2011

It was the first time I brought my longboard to work, since we agreed to go longboarding in the Tower Bridge area with Linda. We were super excited about that, but then we realized that iremembertapes. were performing in London that evening.

We got even more excited!

A 20-minute show the previous Thursday left us craving for more from the lovely band. This time they were doing a Club Fandango, which "presents the best in alternative indie music with regular nights across London and the UK". This fandango was at Bull&Gate up north.

There were 4 bands playing, and iremembertapes. started the evening. I'm glad they played 'First Light' this time. It's probably my favorite song of the debut album.

 I also met the girl, who was in the 'Gossip' video. She looks completely different; 1. taller 2. Linda suspected the nose ring to be fake, but no it was real, someone just had punched it off 3. it's amazing what lipstick and hair spray can do to you.


The second act was White Arrows, straight from America, and it was their first time to play outside their country! I guessed they were coming from San Francisco, because of how they dressed up, but the right answer was LA, still pretty close! And they sounded like Swedish Miike Snow. We talked with the singer Mickey after the show, and it was nice of him to show his playlist on his phone, which had a lot of good songs, like Lykke Li. And he started to talk about The Doors documentary, when he saw my shirt, so cool. Also, apparently their manager used to manage Linkin Park or something?

The next to go on stage was Call The Doctor. I just loved the singer's attitude! She had a bit of a punk thing going on. Going to the audience and grabbing everyone. And we got their old EP for a pound. Now that was us being ripped off. Music should be free. Just kidding of course. People please support the artist.

video made from about 2000 still photos shot in a single afternoon on an apple iPhone

The last to play was Retraplayer. They have a song called 'Drinks in Helsinki', which obviously made us go *o/*


it's the first time i saw this video, and i thought they were joking when they said they tried to make it look like helsinki

Apparently they had been working with The Animal Farm before, then we figured maybe that was the reason for the song's name. But no, it was just a random pick.

photos by l.lundberg


All of the people we got to speak to were really sweet. Maybe I should be visiting more indie nights. Still when the bands have time to speak to their fans. And show were they spend their nights.

Last but not least our underground session: