Oracular prep-tacular, it’s We Are Scientists. It was a time when the Wombats were a thing, Mystery Jets and Arctic Monkeys were still relevant bands.
If you grew up in the Naughties (00s) you’ll remember the dashing fringe and bespectacled duo of, respectively to their distinguishing features, Keith Murray and Chris Cain. Culturally we were still getting into irony, via the spork of randomness, and We Are Scientists hand a subtle hand in that move.
Their videos are buggy, see “After Hours” below, cribbing some Arrested Development style subtitling. Possibly because all the bands at this time were well into stand-up and improv. Being a decade younger, and thence a fan of all these groups, I thought it was pretty kwl.
So what do they sound like now? We Are Scientists have that funky, funny indie sound that is quintessentially Noughties Indie from Brooklyn. I wondered what the boys had been doing in the decade gone by, I imagined them being cute and eating in cafés, walking around the park in hats and gloves, baking sweet treats and making each other laugh.
Turns out they’ve been making new albums. I won’t go into that here though, because, importantly, vitally, the coming tour is to commemorate the 50th (wink, wink, those boysss) anniversary of With Love and Squalor.
Lucky London – two 50th birthday parties in one weekend, Gavin Bryars and We Are Scientists. Hot dog.
They sound like your teenage son’s angst and sense of humour that is certainly not what you were laughing at when you were his age. Byeck. Leicester is already sold out, rumour has it Jamie Vardy will be there wearing a fully buttoned Fred Perry, so be sure to be having your tickets soon.