cassette kids

That guitarist is fucking awesome.
Rest of the band: average.

you don't rate the blonde?

cassette kids are a really fantastic live band

(can't see any comparison to galv-wankers)

the hype is comparable but

not really,

galvatrons are touring with shihad and signed to the worst label in australia

casette kids play cool parties at oxford arts factory and supported new young pony club and matt & kim and are playing playground weekender festival

galvatrons are touring with shihad and signed to the worst label in australia

bidding war is over. define 'worst'.

Now signed a Major Label deal with Sony BMG.

discuss

got roasted today in the smh by Bernard Zuel.

got a link there anon?

haven't found it online yet usually a lag between sat edition and it going up. I'll keep checking.

a quote to to keep everyone going.

''Nothing on Tv is possibly the worst album i've heard since the last Rogue Traders album and for many of the same reasons.''

hahaha thanks mate.

Bet Galvatrons never drove around in a van with their faces and band name painted on the sides.

nah, they had a spaceship.

nah, they're too busy hanging with their groupies at Yellowbird.

so they are pr they aren't the new nü-galvatrons?

my 2 yr ago prediction is wrong? well, i never.

haha - that Bernard Zuel review is scathing !

Ouch.

I feel sorry for Katrina and her band.

The marketing knobheads at Sony or Warner do this to naive bands like Cassette Kids or The Galvatrons. They 'launch' a band with no understanding of what makes people like a band. They kill the band with promo, they encourage the band to do marketing exercises, and it makes people hate them. Then Triple J decides not to get on board, because they don't see the band as 'real...but the band are 'real', whether you like the music or not.

I'm not a Galvatrons fan, but I think they were treated terribly by the 'industry'.

Hasn't come up online, was going to throw out old papers, so thought i'd transcribe, assume any errors are in transcription.

Sydney Morning Herald, April 17, 2010, Spectrum page 19

Cassette Kids
Nothing on TV
(Sony)
2/5 stars

Given the man apparently was tiring of Helen Mirren in his dotage (frankly, even an ascetic shouldn't be that blind or stupid), I don't feel bad about misappropriating Leo Tolstoy: great albums are great in their own way but terrible albums resemble one another.
It could be hubris or (lack or) humour, paucity of imagination or excess of ambition, flatlining intelligence or flagging energy. Whatever it is, if you line up two bad records you could in almost every instance tick off the similarities for some time as you punish yourself listening.
This thought occurred to me and then, like a potent takeaway curry, repeated itself regularly as I listened to the debut album from much-heralded Sydney four-piece Cassette Kids.
Since rising out of the Triple J Unearth swamp two years ago, and particularly since signing to the most corporate of corporate record companies, Cassette Kids have had about them the smell, and look, of success. You don’t get this much money spent on you, you don’t get styled up to the wazoo, without expectations of rapid returns.
And you don’t get this much push by the suits if you’re doing something radical. Best to be based on a successful formula, with a twist, and then work that proven formula hard. Which brings us back to Leo’s aphorism. Nothing on TV is possibly the worst album I’ve heard since the last Rogue Traders album and for many of the same reasons.
Nor is that a coincidence, for the very young cassette kid are clearly modelled on the older Rogue Traders, who have made a lot of money in recent years without displaying any discernible talent. And with that model it’s not surprising that the intrusive hands of too many “smart people” who “know how this should be done” can be felt across the 12 songs.
Let’s tick off the similarities, beginning with the slightly straining female led vocals and the substitution of energy for originality. Spin tries for the militaristic dance-floor moves but can’t help turning into a Kylie tune in the choruses, as if it’s scared of making a bold move. That it’s preceded by Insomnia, which starts with Gossip-style jerky disco in its verses only to soften considerably in the mushy chorus, and is followed by Lying Around, the source material this time being Franz Ferdinand meeting Berlin but the effect is much the same, tells you that there isn’t a fresh idea here
There are also the by-the-numbers rhythm tracks that have the plod of a flatfoot walloper and cheapjack copies of retro electronic sounds that sound more like Mattel then say, Trevor Horn. And there are those Saturday morning kids’ TV melodies that sound like Taylor Swift cast-offs (and highlight just how much better the oft-derided Disney machine is at doing teen music) and lyrics every eight-year-old can learn in one listen.
To be fair, Cassette Kids are young, probably sweet and hopeful music fans who can play, sing and maybe even write well. It’s not necessarily their fault they’ve been shipped into this prepackaged farrago of clichés. But they don’t have to keep doing it: that Sony contract will end eventually and maybe they’ll make a good record.
Or at least their own record.
Bernard Zuel

There's also a pie chart with influences/sounds alike, it split:
62.5% Rogue Traders
25% Video Hits
12.5% The Veronicas

I enjoyed that review a lot more than I would probably enjoy this record. So, nice one Mr. Zuel!

Wow. That's the first honest and considered review I've seen in a newspaper in a long time. Although wasn't Bernard zuel a character in ghostbusters?

Luckily for Sony, this album's target demographic is unlikely to include too many SMH readers.

selling for $10 at most cd emporiums at the moment.

didn't chart

The morons at an Australian major label sign a band, tries to make them 'cool' and totally fucks it up. Why is nobody surprised?

I don't think anyone was surprised. With the possible exception of Sony.

I don't think Sony is surprised either. They haven't put much cash into Cassette Kids anyway.

I've never heard of these guys before and decided to check em out on Myspazz. I disagree with the article- I'd substitute Rogue Traders with Vanessa Amorossi, but with Ladyhawke Graphics. Wtf is this?

If Bernard Zuel doesn't like the album, then I probably will. That's the way it is with us.

What's so cool about the 80s anyway? When I think about the 80s, I think

a) This is the decade when I was never older than 8.

b) The decade when Thatcher and Reagan started to fuck the world, leading us to our present environmental and economic malaise. THE 80S ARE NOT SO COOL.

the 80s were cool because they gave us siege and reagan youth. not human league and flock of seagulls.

i love this car crash.
sorry to the poor 'kids' in the band, but i lov how sony have no idea.
next time kids, dont do things that dont feel right.

bump for weekday.

Seriously hilariously bad how this is indie cool songs that they let the suits dictate to them, its like they let their dad program the synth while mum busted out the lyrics!
put a record on baby, we can let it spinnn! while everyone goes crazyy yeah!

After watching a couple of their new video clips, they've certainly changed since I saw them live. Agree with beebop above, in that it's more Amorossi / Ladyhawke than Rogue Traders, which would probably be ok if it was 5 years ago.