The History Of Apple Pie – Live At Rough Trade East

The History of Apple Pie made an in-store appearance at Rough Trade East last night to celebrate the release of their debut album Out Of View.

The History of Apple Pie have a quirky name, but a fantastic sound that combines a wall of sound guitar with lush (or should that be Lush?) vocals with great melodies and harmonies. Guitarist Jerome Watson has an effects-driven sound – the man has a fuzz box* and he’s gonna use it. The band, also consisting of Stephanie Min (vocals), Kelly Lee Owens (bass, vocals), Aslam Ghauri (guitar) and James Thomas (drums), remind me at various times of My Bloody Valentine, The Horrors, Sonic Youth, Lush and Blur, and play the sort of catchy tunes that Brit-pop bands used to come up with in the nineties whilst appearing on TFI Friday and going for drinks at The Groucho Club. The band is signed to Hackney-based Marshall Teller records (the label where The Vaccines released their debut single).

New single See You (not the old Depeche Mode song) is a gorgeous, noisy, summery slice of fuzz-guitar-pop that deserves to be heard on radios across the land.

Out Of View, recorded in London, was self produced by Watson and engineered by Joshua Third of The Horrors, (Joshua Hayward to you and me) who also plays on the albums closer Before You Reach The End. The album includes singles Do It Wrong, Mallory and last years debut You’re So Cool. Listening to these three songs shows how the band’s songwriting has progressed in a short space of time from the shoe-gazing-Dinosaur-jr-style debut to the muscular-indie-riff-with-sweet-harmonies of Do It Wrong – which is just a great tune…

They’re a young band. I’d wager if you added their combined ages, you’d still have a two digit number. The girls peered shyly from under their fringes, whilst quietly slaying everyone with their harmonies – particularly on See You – and breaking out the occasional smile. Kelly Lee Owen’s driving bass lines and backing vocals are especially effective live, and combine fluidly with Stephanie Min’s laid back lead vocal. In the meantime, the boys did what boys like to do (no, not that): make very loud noises and weave sonic tapestries on their guitars – to serious effect. In case you were wondering, Jerome Watson won the “who has the most intricate guitar rig” contest with well over a dozen pedals – compared to Aslam Ghauri’s almost-paltry-by-comparison seven. But then size isn’t everything….

I once described Joshua Hayward as a sonic wizard – well I think Jerome Watson may be the sorcerer’s apprentice.

Like any band, whether The History of Apple Pie will cut their own slice of History will depend on a lot of intangible things, but if you compare Out of View with the debut album by Hayward’s band The Horrors (and what that band has gone on to do) and then consider how The History of Apple Pie’s songwriting has developed over the last year, then you might conclude they have made a really good start. Their in-the-moment joyous and noisy pop is intoxicating and makes a perfect start to 2013…

Out of View – the debut album by The History of Apple Pie was released on 28th January 2013 on CD, download and Gatefold vinyl.

Last night’s set list:
New song
The Warrior
Malory
Tug
See You
Do It Wrong
Long Way To Go
Glitch
I Want More
Before You Reach The End

*He had a whole heap of pedals, but “He’s got a Boss overdrive OS-2 with a delay, pitch shifter, chorus and ten other pedals and he’s gonna use them” just doesn’t have the same ring to it.

Record #147: The History Of Apple Pie – Do It Wrong