Listen Here: Shinies

Listen Here: Shinies

10 October, 2012
by: Domzig

Funny Games in the Fun House...

There comes a time in everyone’s life when it’s time to put away childish things and move on from the days spent eating Coco Pops and watching the Cartoon Network  to days spent staring at computer screens worrying about grown up things like relationships and money. Most people just throw out their cuddly toys and boy band posters, but Shinies could never do anything that mundane. No, instead in their new video ‘Ennui’, they kidnap Fun House host Pat Sharp, dowse him on kerosene and burn alongside Gordon the Gopher in some oddly disturbing Viking funeral.

As befitting band that seem dead set on lamenting a rose tinted version of the past, Shinies have a pretty retro sound. Part of the second wave of bands coming from Manchester, despite only being around since January of this year, they have already been breathing fresh life into what has been becoming an increasingly boring indie scene. Inspired by the likes of Dinosaur Jr, Elliot Smith, My Bloody Valentine and Teenage Fanclub, the two singles they’ve released so far are explosions of lo-fi guitars, frantic rhythms and happy go lucky melodies that comes across like a really happy version of The Las or The Stone Roses.

They also make some pretty messed up videos.



Is it true that you’re named after football stickers?
Adam: Yeah, a lot of people keep pronouncing the name wrong though; they think its shin–nies.

It’s shinies as in the shiny football stickers, right?
Yeah, it’s a bit of a stupid name thinking back on it. We kind of wanted it to hark back to a simpler time when we used to get excited about shiny stickers, holograms and stupid stuff like that.

Is that sort of where the video for ‘Ennui’ comes from then?
Sort of, yeah. We’d talked about the idea of getting a fallen celebrity to be in the next one; we really liked the kind of tragic angle of it. We bandied a few names around and the director really liked the idea of getting Pat Sharp, basically because he’s a person that resonates with everyone as he was on Fun House and that.

He came up with a bit of script, we tweaked it a bit, and it all ended up getting out of hand. We just wanted to push it as far as we could; I think it came out alright though.

How did you get Pat Sharp to agree to all this?
Through the wonders of the internet; we dropped him an email and he responded. I think he’s pretty desperate for work.

So you had to pay him?
A little bit. He doesn’t do anything for free. He’s a dead sound guy though.

So he was really into the idea of being set on fire by a bunch of indie kids?
Yeah, it’s a bit weird. We sent him over a script and he seemed pretty into it. As I said, he seemed pretty desperate for work.

So how’s Manchester for music at the moment?
Really good at the moment, it’s really vibrant, Manchester. I never used to notice it before I was in this band, but there is a really good scene up here,  it’s like every night of the week there’s a good gig on and there’s a loads of good bands like PINS and Temple Songs.

You’re not moving to London any time soon then?
Yeah, I don’t have a hatred of London, but there’s a pride of not having to be in London to see good music. I think the main thing is that the city has finally gotten away from the old Madchester scene when every band from the North had to sound like they were the Stone Roses or Oasis, there’s lots of decent bands doing pretty interesting things now.

Cool. Last question, who are you planning to kidnap next?
I don’t know. Dave Benson Phillips, I really wanted to do him. I used to love Get Your Own Back.

Oh yeah, I wonder what he’s doing now?
Apparently, he’s got a removal van service. We looked into it, you can hire him to move stuff for you, it’s called Dave’s Big Red Van or something.  

He should of called it Get Your Stuff Back...
Ha ha, that would be awesome. You should tell him – drop him an email!

'Ennui' is out on the 22nd November on Dirty Bingo Records. The band are playing single release party at Birthdays on Saturday.

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Domzig