Wednesday 28 January 2009



This charming band

(photo: Steve Gullick)

(photo: Steve Gullick)

Although initially turned off by the rather violent name, I have to say that I’m warming to New Zealand’s Cut Off Your Hands.  As tiresome as it may be for new emerging bands to be saddled with comparisons to older, more established acts, there’s no denying that the stamp of The Smiths influence is all over their debut album, You & I.  The guitar riff on first single “Turn Cold” is a dead ringer for “This Charming Man”.  This isn’t a radical rethink of the indie pop guitar sound, but then, why fix what ain’t broke?  The more listens I give You & I the more it reveals.  “Still Found” is a curious little nugget that reminds me of mid-80s UK indie pop without directly referencing any song or artist in particular.  It has one of those classic melodies that you’ll swear you’ve heard before but just can’t place where.  Same holds true for “Happy As Can Be” which clearly owes a debt to “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?”  It’s my favourite track on the album so far, very over the top in comparison to some of the album’s other moments, but I think it’s an indication of where these guys can go next, and that makes the future for Cut Off Your Hands seem pretty bright.

Cut Off Your Hands are on tour with Passion Pit and Ra Ra Riot through the U.S. for the next couple months, so if you happen to catch them live, please drop me a line and let me know how the show was.

MP3: Cut Off Your Hands “Happy As Can Be”
Facebook: Cut Off Your Hands
Myspace: Cut Off Your Hands
Buy: Cut Off Your Hands You & I





by J. Di Gioia | 2 Comments »

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 28th, 2009 at 10:00 am and is filed under MP3. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

2 Responses to “This charming band”

marcus warner January 28th, 2009 at 4:02 pm

I love this band, definitely see the Smiths influence, also the cure.

Shame there is no UK release on the horizon

Agnes January 29th, 2009 at 7:43 am

These guys are great. I too was put off by their name at first, and am still not a fan of it. but how bloody good is ‘Happy As Can Be’!

I saw them live in Melbourne in November last year and while I found their performance a little uneven, there was no doubt that they captivated the crowd. Definitely worth a look.