Albums : The Vaccines : Come Of Age
Albums : The Vaccines : Come Of Age
Listen To The Vaccines : Come Of Age
Listen To The Vaccines : Come Of Age
Who Are The Vaccines?
The Vaccines are an English indie rock band who formed in West London in 2010. The band's debut album, What Did You Expect from the Vaccines?, was released through Columbia Records on 14 March 2011and reached number 4 in the UK Album Chart. They drew comparisons to Ramones, The Strokes, Interpol and The Jesus And Mary Chain. The band, however, has spoken of influences ranging from "'50s rock 'n' roll to 80s American hardcore and good pop music". They have opened for The Walkmen, The Stone Roses, Arctic Monkeys, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Arcade Fire. Their second studio album Come of Age was released in the UK on 3 September 2012.
Formed in early 2010, the band consisted of Justin Young (guitar/vocals; formerly Stiff Records solo artist Jay Jay Pistolet), Árni Hjörvar (bass), Freddie Cowan (guitar, younger brother of Tom from The Horrors) and Pete Robertson (drums). The band was initially formed by Young and Cowan in the Summer of 2009 with a third member who soon left. After months of attempting to perfect their sound, the band uploaded the demo "If You Wanna" to YouTube in August 2010 and the song immediately received praise from people such as Zane Lowe, who named it as his 'Hottest Record in the World' on 18 August 2010. After playing their first gig in Leicester, they embarked on their debut UK tour between September and November 2010, and interest in the band led their first London performance (at The Flowerpot in October 2010) to sell out, with the audience including Alex Kapranos, Marcus Mumford, and members of White Lies and The Maccabees, and 200 people having to be turned away. The performance was awarded 4/5 by The Guardian and described by Clash as "fantastic, exhilarating and exciting". It was in this same article that the magazine predicted the band could help usher in a new era for guitar music.
On 29 November 2010, the band released their debut single "Wreckin' Bar (Ra Ra Ra)" / "Blow It Up", in the UK, which was limited to 1000 copies and released on Marshall Teller Records. Both videos for the double a-side were directed by Doug Hart of The Jesus & Mary Chain fame. Only one minute and 24 seconds long, Wreckin' Bar was named "Track of the Day" by Q magazine and was well received critically. The band continued to tour the UK for the remainder of the year (whilst concurrently recording their debut album), followed by documentary makers from Vice Magazine. They recorded their first ever radio session for Marc Riley's BBC 6 Music show in December 2010. The band also performed live on Later with Jools Holland, the first band ever to do so before releasing a single. (Read More)
Come Of Age Review
2011's much hyped What Did You Expect from the Vaccines? had some solid moments that skillfully blended the snarky dissatisfaction of the Kaiser Chiefs with the stadium-ready, sonic expansiveness of late-period Jesus and Mary Chain, but the overall effect was one of calculated redundancy. Like the Kaisers, the Vaccines feel like a singles band trying to hold out for a solid greatest-hits collection, and Come of Age, while not as immediate as its predecessor, gets the job done with workmanlike precision. Come of Age dispenses with the bombast of the band’s debut, offering up 11 relatively disparate tracks that aim for the main floor instead of the nosebleed seats, and at its best (“Teenage Icon," “Bad Mood,” “Aftershave Ocean”), it serves as a serviceable stand-in for the Libertines, the Arctic Monkeys, and the Strokes of the world. The band's statement of purpose is summed up nicely in the first stanza of the ramshackle opener "No Hope," which finds Justin Young declaring "I could make an observation/If you want the voice of a generation/but I'm too self absorbed to give it clout." It’s a fitting summary of what in essence is the job description for what the Vaccines do, and while they’re certainly not alone in their crusade to provide an appropriate soundtrack for the "meh" generation, they’ve got it down to an elementary science. Simplistic, smart ass lyrics paired with simplistic, semi-ironic melodies will always be relevant, and by turning down the reverb, learning some new chords, and laying to waste any notion that they're here to herald in a new era of English guitar rock, the Vaccines have crafted a perfectly acceptable sophomore record that neither helps nor harms them, which is probably exactly what they wanted.
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