Le Reno Amps
Friday 9th March - Nice 'n' Sleazys
The last time I saw these guys play live, they were filming the video for their new single ‘Wound Up’ and had the normally subdued sleazys crowd (as anyone who attends the Nice ‘n’ Sleazys open mic will know) chanting “Amps! Amps! Amps!”, whilst laughing along with front-men Al Nero and Scott Maples’ oddly geeky yet fantastic banter. Fresh back from supporting Brakes on the Scottish leg of their U.K tour, the Aberdonian quartet did not disappoint this time around.
Their set is a mix of old and new as they kick of with the sprightly paced ‘If You Want a Lover’, before playing some material from their 1st album. Soon after, they launch straight into some songs from their forthcoming set, with joyful country number ‘Beautiful’ and the 7/8 fanfare of ‘How You Did Me Wrong’ standing out as the most irresistibly addictive tracks. The thing about the Amps is, love them or hate them, their songs are so catchy that you are almost guaranteed to find yourself humming at least one tune the next day, and the show they put on is always entertaining.
Sounding like a spaghetti western gone mad, it’s hard to pin them into any particular genre, with the next few tracks sounding like a warped mixture of Country meets Frank Black. People start to dance as they loosen up, and the end of the gig really gives testament to the band’s ability to please a crowd. They round up the evening with a mashed up version of ‘Once You Know’ that periodically stops and starts, then seamlessly breaks into Cher’s ‘If I Could Turn Back Time’. Bouncy new single ‘Wound Up’ is saved for the finale, and as the band perform it they freeze on stage for a good minute or so near the end of the song - much to the confusion of a mostly drunken crowd - before picking up the riff right where they left off and finishing their set in style.
After the gig, I managed to catch up with the Amps very own Al Nero, who kindly agreed to answer some questions about the band…
The Lick: Congrats on a good show! We understand you have just returned from touring with Brakes, that must have been quite something…
Al Nero: Yeah it was great, a few rock'n'roll tales but y'know what happens on the road stays on the road right? We're all fans of Brakes music so it was good to play with a band we all enjoy. Plus we went down really well at all the gigs… which doesn't hurt.
The Lick: We were talking earlier about trying to pin Le Reno Amps into a particular genre and I heard someone describe the band as ‘Alternative Country’, would you agree with that?
Al: I guess alternative country is a strong element of our music, especially on the latest album. Scott and myself do the writing and we both listen to a lot of different stuff, but kind of meet in the middle somewhere… I guess you could say Leonard Cohen, Cat Stevens, and Johnny Cash are the classic songwriters… especially Cohen. Then there’s Beck, Cake, Violent Femmes, The Pixies, things that are maybe seen as a little left field but as long as there's a good song at the heart of it, we're up for it.
The Lick: The new single is sounding good, what’s the rest of the new album going to be like?
Al: Thank you. I guess you could say it's our stab at doing a really coherent sounding record. With the first album we we're trying to capture that lo-fi mixtape, everything but the kitchen sink sound. This time we just wanted to have a set of really strong songs and record them as well as we could. It all sounds really fresh!
The Lick: So I take it you guys will be touring the new album then?
Al: We're touring Scotland in April and the rest of the UK in May. There’s a bunch of Album launch gigs around Scotland, the closest to here being Firewater in Glasgow on Thursday 5th April. It's the Horrorshow Clubnight too so it should be really good. Then there's others including Aberdeen and Inverness. We also have a few dates at the end of April supporting Electric Soft Parade. Then come May we're doing a bunch of dates around the UK with a great band called Actress Hands… So yes, you could say we're quite busy at the mo! But looking forward to it as ever.
Lick: It certainly does seem like it’s going to be a busy few months for you, what do you reckon the future holds for Le Reno Amps?
Al: I guess we'll be plugging away at promoting this album most of the year, hopefully do a couple of festivals in the summer, and providing things all fare well we'll maybe try and get in the studio again later in the year to work on record number 3. For now though, all our energy is going into ‘So For Your Thrills...’
The Lick: Nice one, cheers for talking to us.
Al: No problem min!
Le Reno Amps new album ‘So For Your Thrills…’ is released on Monday 9th April on Pet Piranha Records.
www.lerenoamps.com
www.myspace.com/lerenoamps
Words: Jamie Russell
The last time I saw these guys play live, they were filming the video for their new single ‘Wound Up’ and had the normally subdued sleazys crowd (as anyone who attends the Nice ‘n’ Sleazys open mic will know) chanting “Amps! Amps! Amps!”, whilst laughing along with front-men Al Nero and Scott Maples’ oddly geeky yet fantastic banter. Fresh back from supporting Brakes on the Scottish leg of their U.K tour, the Aberdonian quartet did not disappoint this time around.
Their set is a mix of old and new as they kick of with the sprightly paced ‘If You Want a Lover’, before playing some material from their 1st album. Soon after, they launch straight into some songs from their forthcoming set, with joyful country number ‘Beautiful’ and the 7/8 fanfare of ‘How You Did Me Wrong’ standing out as the most irresistibly addictive tracks. The thing about the Amps is, love them or hate them, their songs are so catchy that you are almost guaranteed to find yourself humming at least one tune the next day, and the show they put on is always entertaining.
Sounding like a spaghetti western gone mad, it’s hard to pin them into any particular genre, with the next few tracks sounding like a warped mixture of Country meets Frank Black. People start to dance as they loosen up, and the end of the gig really gives testament to the band’s ability to please a crowd. They round up the evening with a mashed up version of ‘Once You Know’ that periodically stops and starts, then seamlessly breaks into Cher’s ‘If I Could Turn Back Time’. Bouncy new single ‘Wound Up’ is saved for the finale, and as the band perform it they freeze on stage for a good minute or so near the end of the song - much to the confusion of a mostly drunken crowd - before picking up the riff right where they left off and finishing their set in style.
After the gig, I managed to catch up with the Amps very own Al Nero, who kindly agreed to answer some questions about the band…
The Lick: Congrats on a good show! We understand you have just returned from touring with Brakes, that must have been quite something…
Al Nero: Yeah it was great, a few rock'n'roll tales but y'know what happens on the road stays on the road right? We're all fans of Brakes music so it was good to play with a band we all enjoy. Plus we went down really well at all the gigs… which doesn't hurt.
The Lick: We were talking earlier about trying to pin Le Reno Amps into a particular genre and I heard someone describe the band as ‘Alternative Country’, would you agree with that?
Al: I guess alternative country is a strong element of our music, especially on the latest album. Scott and myself do the writing and we both listen to a lot of different stuff, but kind of meet in the middle somewhere… I guess you could say Leonard Cohen, Cat Stevens, and Johnny Cash are the classic songwriters… especially Cohen. Then there’s Beck, Cake, Violent Femmes, The Pixies, things that are maybe seen as a little left field but as long as there's a good song at the heart of it, we're up for it.
The Lick: The new single is sounding good, what’s the rest of the new album going to be like?
Al: Thank you. I guess you could say it's our stab at doing a really coherent sounding record. With the first album we we're trying to capture that lo-fi mixtape, everything but the kitchen sink sound. This time we just wanted to have a set of really strong songs and record them as well as we could. It all sounds really fresh!
The Lick: So I take it you guys will be touring the new album then?
Al: We're touring Scotland in April and the rest of the UK in May. There’s a bunch of Album launch gigs around Scotland, the closest to here being Firewater in Glasgow on Thursday 5th April. It's the Horrorshow Clubnight too so it should be really good. Then there's others including Aberdeen and Inverness. We also have a few dates at the end of April supporting Electric Soft Parade. Then come May we're doing a bunch of dates around the UK with a great band called Actress Hands… So yes, you could say we're quite busy at the mo! But looking forward to it as ever.
Lick: It certainly does seem like it’s going to be a busy few months for you, what do you reckon the future holds for Le Reno Amps?
Al: I guess we'll be plugging away at promoting this album most of the year, hopefully do a couple of festivals in the summer, and providing things all fare well we'll maybe try and get in the studio again later in the year to work on record number 3. For now though, all our energy is going into ‘So For Your Thrills...’
The Lick: Nice one, cheers for talking to us.
Al: No problem min!
Le Reno Amps new album ‘So For Your Thrills…’ is released on Monday 9th April on Pet Piranha Records.
www.lerenoamps.com
Words: Jamie Russell
