Von Christoph Sepin
In summer people like to eat cooling fruits, for example green kiwis. Or dreams of being in places where birds are called that, kiwi. Places like New Zealand. Or you hear bands with kiwi in the title. Small bit modest bands that still put the junior behind the name. What is that, a Kiwi Jr.?
That’s something weird and that’s not the only reason it’s good. “Like The Monkees if they were in Blade Runner,” says the Biography. “The signs along the highway read ‘LESS BAR, MORE NOIR AHEAD'” then another time. Or “Ah, those late summer, Joe Strummer, Home on the Range Rover Blues” another time. Goes out.
Kiwi Jr. are not from New Zealand. Maybe more from the New Zealand of the North, the friendly Canada. Some still know the band from Toronto, consisting of Jeremy Gaudet, Mike Walker, Brohan Moore and Brian Murphy, from their very good choice song „Undecided Voters“ or her latest record “Cooler Returns”. Actually kind of a punk band, at least in terms of the humorous attitude. Definitely a group that fits their label very well: following all, Sub Pop Records is home to countless super bands, from Father John Misty to Weyes Blood.
- At Sunday songs on FM4
- The esteemed science and pop journalists Thomas Kramar and Heide Rampetzreiter are also present in the press on Sunday their thoughts on the same song.
“The Extra Sees The Film” is the name of the new song by Kiwi Jr. – and being so extra, i.e. being an extra, must be strange: you can sit in the cinema and watch yourself, between all the superstars on the Canvas. But somehow your job is to be inconspicuous, to stay in the background. You are so important that you have to be unimportant. Strange thought but fits the strange song.
That almost sounds like hits, at least very catchy and smug. Somewhere between Franz Ferdinand and the Strokes if you want to place that with bigger names. “The Extra Sees The Film” is a homage to Hollywood, or at least an observation of Los Angeles. It’s regarding the scorpion jacket from the movie “Drive”, regarding Kobe Bryant’s last NBA game, regarding “Bette Davis Eyes”. That’s why being pulled out of a crowd and put in the spotlight.
Once you’ve been in a band for a while, eventually you’ll write songs regarding being in a band. So also here: “Yeah, we might have to cut a few half-finished new songs”, it says and “there’s only twenty five more minutes until we go on”. Then they talk regarding touring, regarding driving around, from city to city, from show to show. Stories of life on the road. And for us it’s a soundtrack to the next very, very relaxed road trip. The summer is still long, so you can still roll down the car window a few times.
