The Strange Boys

The Strange Boys

13 August, 2009
by: Domzig

Has there ever been a band as aptly named as The Strange Boys? Not this year at least. Recent times seem to have been one long parade of bands obsessed with loop pedals, tape hiss and shoe gazing, so any band who keep the weirdness down to a minimum and play straight-up, old fashioned rock'n'roll are bound to stick out like a sore thumb.

Four kids from Austin, the capital of the most 'in your face' state in America, The Strange Boys sound like all the bands you like, but don't know you do. Whilst the core is built around some pretty solid garage rock riffage, the band hang syncopated grooves on these foundations, creating music that is both weirdly familiar and at the same time pretty raw and avant garde. It's like Kings of Leon, The Sonics and Wire's 'Pink Flag' all rolled into one neat, smiling, well mannered package, and should by rights be the soundtrack to drinking beer and playing pool from now until forever.

They also have a drummer called Matt Hammer, which you have to admit is pretty cool.

So I read somewhere that this is your first time in the UK. How are you finding it? Looking forward to steak and kidney pies, cricket and binge drinking?

Ryan Sambol (guitar): We've been here for like, three hours, and it seems pretty nice, we've had a good kebab, and with the rain it looks just like London should, I guess.

As for things we're looking forward to, we're looking forward to meeting the Rough Trade people as we're working with them in the future and it's always cool to meet the people you're working with. Plus we have a lot of friends here, which we haven't met so we're looking forward to finally putting some names to faces.

Not looking forward to British food though?

Well actually when I was 17 I lived in Oxford, and I loved it.

That's weird, it always gets such a bad rep from Americans

I loved it, so I don't understand where that comes from. We don't think so much about food, we just kind of eat it. Anyone who makes that big a deal about it is sort of a wuss.

Has growing up in Austin been a big influence on your sound?

You can get any type of music anywhere nowadays, so I wouldn't say it influenced our sound so much, but definitely the history of Texas music is kind of there. It's cool to listen to a record of someone you really dig, like Man Slips Comb, and find out they grew up in Texas, lived in Texas and wrote in Texas, but as far as everyday influences are concerned, not so much.

A lot of people would describe your band as psychedelic, would you agree with that?

We like a lot of bands that could be considered psychedelic, but I don't take acid before I write and I don't take acid before I play, none of us do, so I wouldn't say we're psychedelic, but if someone says I'm psyched to see your show, then, yeah, that's cool.

Have you found that you're better received over in Europe than in the States? Even bands like No Age and that seem to be a lot more popular here than in the US.

The crowds have been a little better in all these places we've played for the first time, usually in America we'd have to come back to a city three or four times to get a big crowd. I mean you can never have a bad show.

There's a bit of a 'grass is always greener' thing going on, you always want what you can't have. Someone who lives in LA can always see No Age, just walk out of their house and go and see them, but if you've only heard a band through their records and what you can find on the internet, things just kinda build up and up I guess.

What's next for you guys?

We're going to go home next fortnight and record a new record and write new songs, and play. The kind of things we always do.

The Strange Boys are playing a bunch of shows around London over the next 2 weeks, including this amazing looking secret warehouse party in Hackney.

Check out more Live Music
Check out more Things To Do in London

Domzig