The Bamboo Kids
The Bamboo Kids
Big Dipper
The Bamboo Kids were born in New York City, raised on a diet of Ramones and New York Dolls. They write songs called “Nothing To Do,” and have buttons strewed all over their denim outfits. Sound familiar? Yeah, garage rock revivalists Bamboo Kids don’t bring much new to the table, but still, this is one of the more excitingly raucous bands to emerge from this particular corner of the world in quite some time. Where their fellow New York retro rawkers too often bury themselves in self-righteous misanthropy and pseudo-VU melodrama, the Bamboo Kids offer unpretentious, no-frills, no-pose rock ‘n’ roll that doesn’t mistake mischievous sneers for musical value.
The band’s main influences stem from the punk rock basements of ‘75, but the Bamboo Kids emphasize rock over punk, and this album leans as much towards the young swaggering Mick Jagger and the pleading ’70s Springsteen, as it does towards Ramones. Offering unapologetic blues-based power punk in an incessantly catchy manner, the Bamboo Kids do this better than most NY bands, and they have the songs to match their appealing performance.
The album does suffer from a demo-like production quality, and quite a few of their lyrics are just a couple of steps short from plain embarrassment (check “Good Boy”). But overall, this is a beautiful, hard-rocking first album from one of the more vibrant NY bands lately.
The Bamboo Kids: http://www.thebambookids.com/
