Horrors, The

Source: The List (Issue 564)
Date: 21 November 2006
Written by: Doug Johnstone

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The Horrors

5 REASONS TO GO SEE

1 They’re horrible The zombie garage goth rock dafties (Faris ‘Rotter’ Badwan, Tomethy Furse, Joshua von Grimm, Coffin Joe and Spider Webb, apparently) hail from Southend, but look and sound as if they’ve just climbed out of some primordial rock’n’roll swamp, albeit with perfectly coiffured bird’s nest hair.

2 They fight other bands On a recent joint tour with The Fratellis, they had constant pops at one another. The Horrors knackered The Fratellis’ drum kit deliberately on several occasions, then put black paint on their hands before shaking hands with their rivals to make up. Nice.

3 They’re cover stars Before they even had a record out, that bastion of ridiculous overhype the NME stuck their scowling faces on the front cover, traditionally a kiss of death (remember Terris? Exactly). ‘They look awful and sound terrible, but so did the Sex Pistols. Why wait to put them on the front cover?’ gushed the editor. Quite.

4 They’ve got talented pals The video for single ‘Sheena is a Parasite’ was directed by Chris Cunningham, the award-winning dude behind Aphex Twin’s hideous videos, and stars Samantha Morton (with a squid on her head). Their debut album is being produced by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Nick Zinner.

5 They’re swots They’ve all got degrees. Guitarist Joshua von Grimm’s is in physics. He makes his own guitar pedals. So there.

Oran Mor, Glasgow, Mon 11 Dec; The Vaults, Edinburgh, Tue 12 Dec.

Watch the 'Sheena is a Parasite' video