Turns out the day of the advert-fueled band formation are not a thing of the past - just ask Knickers, the British five-piece formed after bandleader Simon's Gumtree ad entitled "French Girl Wanted" was answered by Sarah Eisenfitz. After trading Simon's home recorded demos and adding Sarah's sultry but sweet vocals the group decided to form an actual band and from there Knickers were born.
The result is a band of 60s/70s invoking pop that makes their slot of retro-leaning Elefant Records a bit of a no-brainer, even covering Dave Davies' (of The Kinks fame) "Are You Ready Girl?" for their debut My Baby's Just A Baby EP. And yet there's more to the band than just a love of the music of yester-year. As the band infuse a sort of modern twist, most notably on title track "My Baby's Just A Baby (But I Love Him So)" as Sarah croons "He's not too clever, he's kinda slow" and other rather tongue-in-cheek examples of ways her man isn't really that great all the while affirming that she still loves him.
On "Darling", Simon's want for a French girl becomes all the more clear as Sarah slips in a couple French phrases that are guaranteed to make you fall in love. There's handclaps after a rather sparse old school rock n' roll bass riff before the track explodes into a jangly jam that practically radiates with charm.
My Baby's Just A Baby is a delightfully sweet set that demonstrates Knickers familiarity with all things retro while not cling feebly to it. Knickers do more than imitate; rather making tunes you'll have a hard time putting down and won't simply think "Oh, this sounds kinda like...". And that is one of the greatest things a relatively young band like there's can do. Here's hoping there's a full length on the way because anything less would be downright criminal.
Knickers' My Baby's Just A Baby EP is out May 21st on Elefant Records, available on iTunes and limited edition red vinyl 7". Until then you can listen to some of their tunes to your heart's content on Bandcamp or below:
