IC1s Rock Birthdays

Down within the depths of the basement of a Dalston music venue, Birthdays was the showcase of a new era of British rock music…with attitude!

Last Thursday, Harrow-based quintet, the IC1s, put on a stellar performance in support of Frankie & the Heartstrings. Discovered by Libertines drummer Gary Powell and headed by lead singer Daniel Coburn, the band essentially creates pure, raw and distressed rock and roll.

Drawing critical comparisons to The Jam, Oasis and The Clash, the set certainly did provide a lively climax as promised by such lofty expectations.

One particular highlight of the show consisted of Beautiful Ugly, a heartfelt song depicting the contradicting emotions of a break up. Most listeners will easily be able to relate to this if they have ever found themselves collecting the shards of a shattered romance. Whilst starting slowly, this is soon followed by an explosive and dramatic inclusion of heavy drums and guitars once the chorus comes around.

Followed up immediately by their jewel in the crown, Growing Up, Going Down, the mellow undertones soon were eradicated and replaced by a lively and youthful track. Reminiscent of the old times of drinking in the park, playing football for hours on end and encouraging passers-by to purchase cigarettes for their under-age selves, the song partly tackles the issue of boredom during the summer holidays as a youth. However, the main focus of the song is the disappointment at the lack of progress since these days, and the ever-growing regret that this time wasn’t utilised more productively.

Closing the set, the audience were overjoyed by the incredibly lively Wack Jack, a song glorifying the notion of being a little bit mental. Certainly, this incredible number closed the show on a vigorous note, with many of the audience members jumping around as the lead singer danced amongst them.

Whilst the band self-confessed to being ‘arrogant fuckers’, their outline of ‘standing up for guitar music in the age of electronic flatulence’ is certainly admirable. ‘Kids nowadays are settling for shit like Gangnam Style in the charts, what happened!?’, states Dan, ‘How are these people going to inspire a generation to pick up instruments and create music? They aren’t!

‘We’re inspired by that void and want to put something out there that we enjoy making and hopefully it can be remembered for being good; not some autotuned retard sitting in his bedroom, filming themselves doing a stupid new dance move along to a shit song they made on their iPhone. I’m not saying we’re the saviours, but someone’s gotta do something.’

…and for this reason alone, we are right behind you with that!

Recording of their debut album, In The Blink of an Eye, is currently underway with assistance from producer Barny Barnicott (Arctic Monkeys, Editors, Kasabian) and is scheduled for release in March 2014.

Find out more about the IC1s and upcoming gigs on their website.

IC1s performed with Frankie & the Heartstrings on 29 August 2013 at:

Birthdays
33-35 Stoke Newington Road
Hackney
N16 8BJ

Image by Marek Puc