Low Cut High Tops - Lonely and Cold

1.   Who is this visionary and when will he lead us to the promised land?

Gaze on the majesty of David Burns a multi-instrumentalist who produces, mixes and records all his grunge pop music. This musical sage has a short player and a string of golden singles in his back pocket that coalesced into a stonking long player Eh, Whatever (Feb'16). Lonely and Cold (Jan'16) comes crackling off Eh, Whatever.

2. So what pearl of wisdom has Low Cut High Tops bestowed upon us to lighten the load of our menial lives?

One with a powerful stench of off-kilter sexuality, like watching teenagers on a public bus bump and grind. It's sexy but it's wrong. Gone before you have had a chance to duck, a cerebral, tormented number with thick wedges of Brit-pop, grunge and glam rock.

3. Who do Low Cut High Tops sound like?

The layered, androgynous vocals call to mind Riot Grrl acts like The Breeder’s Canonball and even indie gods the Pixies’ Velouria. The vocals, rhythmic stamp, and aura of overt sexuality, evoke comparisons with T. Rex’s Free Angel and Stone Temple Pilots’ Wicked Garden. The chorus takes flight with the rush of a jet fighter, like the chorus of  Feeder’s Buck Rogers. 

Indie Shuffle thought Low Cut High Tops sounds generally like Wavves, Cloud Nothings and Marc De Marco. Paste Magazine hears early Modest Mouse and MGMT. 

4. So what have our good friends in the press got to say about Low Cut High Tops music?

There is plenty of love for this prophet. Lonely and Cold is “another grunge anthem,” from,“a force of nature,” rumbled The Fat Angel Sings clearly up for it. “A lo-fi beauty that stomps around your ears like Marc Bolan in hob nailed boots,” lauded Best Tuna.

Eh, Whatever has a “raw rock ’n’ roll edge,” according to Brill Building, and oozes,“punk bravado and garage rock cool,” doted The Fat Angel Sings.   “Infectious tracks of prime-time grungey, gritty, gooey power-pop with a likeable snarl,” elucidated the Irish Times, and“swaggering electronic-infused punk rock,” thought Broadway World.

5. Who put the powder in Low Cut High Tops big artillery?

Mr Burns has said Buddy Holly, Nirvana, Weezer and John Cougar Mellencamp are all pertinent influences. An interview from Pop Culture adds Chopin, James Brown and Aphex Twin to the mix.

6. So why should I bow down before the shining magnificience of Lonely and Cold? 

Lonely and Cold is a fine melange of prime rock'n'roll influences, with none gaining ascendancy, creating the unique nature of this treasure.  Lonely and Cold’s magical je ne sais quoi bobs and weaves like Iron Mike Tyson in his prime, just out of reach, but with a killer knockout punch hidden up it's sleeve.

7. Do Low Cut High Tops have any more jewels of beneficience?

The first chapter is the shiny pop rock brilliance of Lets Runaway. The next verse is the majestic pound of White Stripe-seque Raise Hell. The last testament is the playful, lyrical, garage fuzz of Good Day. That will get you right.

8. Any more pearls of wisdom?

The origin story of the band name is amusing. “My dad was making fun of my brothers shoe addiction.” My dad said, “You got your fucking low cuts and your high tops.” “I thought it symbolized youth culture,” David says.

David Burns is clearly a man with no fucks in the bank. He quit a record deal at 17 because of artistic differences and quit art school to make music in his bedroom.

Mr Burns burning ambitions are to make bank and retire young. Beyond that he is aiming for the stars, “I want to direct a porn at least once in my life.”

This hard charging young stallion has a word to say about the counterintuitive, though no less real or stupid, straight jacket of non-conformity too, “Why do all these hipsters hate mainstream? James Brown was mainstream, and he was cool as fuck. So was Michael Jackson. Tell the hipsters you love Taylor Swift, and drop yo ass out.”

“Look at you on your knees,

Looking at me, so pretty”

Today's double treat is a stroll through some of the music that David Burns likes, with thanks to the man himself. The aperitif is one of the godfathers of rock’n’roll, Buddy Holly’s Not Fade Away (1957). The song never charted for Buddy Holly but the Rolling Stones cover became their first English top 5 hit in 1964. Not Fade Away is number 107 of Rolling Stone magazine’s top 500 greatest songs of all time.

“My love a bigger than a cadillac

I try to show it and you drive a me back”

The appetizer is Canadian punk rock band Metz's The Swimmer (May’15). The second single from Metz’s critically acclaimed second long player II (May’15). DIY magazine gave the album a 5 star review describing it as “a direct, gut punching affair.”

“I feel alone,

I can’t go back,

What have I done?”

The entree is from Jamaican dance hall MC and singer Sister Nancy. The world's first female dance hall singer, Bam Bam (1982) is her most famous reggae anthem and topped the I Tunes Reggae charts in 2015 after featuring in the comedy movie The Interview.

“Seh, what makes dem a taak bout mi ambition?
Some a dem a aks mi weh mi get it fram
Some of them ask me where me get it from
A chuu dem nuh know it's fram creation”

John Cougar Mellencamp provides the main course. The American roots rocker is famous for writing songs that “tell the truth on both the composer and the culture he is observing.” Hurts So Good (1982) came from John Cougar Mellencamp's most successful album American Fool (1982) and was the first single from the number one charting album of that year. John Cougar Mellencamp is politically active, a good bastard and a national treasure.

“I long for those young boy days,
With a girl like you”

Dessert is served by the Godfather of Soul, James Brown. James Brown had sixteen number one singles on the Billboard Rhythm and Blues charts and was named the seventh greatest artist of all time by Rolling Stone magazine. Get Up (I Feel Like Being A) Sex Machine (1970) was released as a two part single and charted at number two in the Rhythm and Blues charts in 1970.

“Fellas, I'm ready to get up and do my thing!

 (Yeah! That's right! Do it!)

I want to get into it, man, you know?

(Go ahead! Yeah!)

 Like a, like a sex machine, man”