So often music flows as a vehicle of social commentary. From Dizzy and Bird innovating bebop in the '40s, emerging as the voice from the inner city--the wail a class of people demanding social justice--to Dylan peddling his lyrics in the early '60s in coffee shops, stirring a revolution in middle class America, to the poignant, graphic images of today's gangsta rap, music has served as the instigating force in many social movements. Not to go as far as saying that the Sneaker Pimps' music serves as such a revolutionary voice, but this British trio does deliver a fusion of electric hip hop, rock 'n' roll, pop and techno (well, a bit) which stands as a testament to a postmodern vision of diversity, eclectic harmony, cynicism and mockery.
"What is our music? How should I describe this?" amusingly speaks 22-year-old guitarist Chris Corner in his glib British accent. "Probably the best way to put it would be Post-Modern Sleaze (which is a name of a track off of the group's first album, Becoming X(Virgin))."
The Sneaker Pimps head into Chicago this weekend for the first time, playing a Saturday night 18-and-over gig at the Metro. In addition to Corner, the band consists of Liam Howe, 25, on keyboards and Kelli Dayton, 22, singing a sometimes haunting, sometimes vindictive and pointed, and often a teasingly flirtatious brand of song. Dayton, hair spiked, lips succulent and seductively tattooed, started down the musical path as a singer in punk bands around Birmingham when she was 16. The "get-the-fuck-out-of-my-face" punk visage still seeps into her lyrics, such as in plodding "Waterbaby" or the wickedly addictive opening track, "Low Place Like Home," but this edge softens with tunes such as "Spin Spin Sugar" and the title track. Still, she's the type of dangerous woman apt to devour any cowardly man, a pixie of enormous presence capable of dominating relationships, with a malicious yet captivating bite.
So with Dayton up front, Corner and Howe weave an addictive groove, eclectic to match the far reaching ideas of the lyrics (such as the edgy fantasy "Tesko Suicide," which tells of buying suicide kits at a well-known British supermarket chain). But this is not postmodern nihilism, but rather an invention of a whole from an array of disparate parts.
"It seems as if now days, the only way to move forward is through eclectic combinations. Music does not have to be set under one category, it can encompass a whole group of styles. People now days can get really into that," Corner says. "Ten years ago people weren't as open, and probably wouldn't have listened to a group like us." Becoming X definitely takes this to heart, with a healthy dose of looping samples, ethereal guitar hooks, pop beats, and so on and so forth. The music simply has to be heard. It was recorded in the summer of 1995, and included the collaboration of such high brow producers as Flood (U2) and Nellee Hooper (Soul II Soul).
Corner and Howe initially collaborated in '92, when in Manchester they were a part of the fertile early-'90s dance scene in Britain. They worked under the names F.R.I.S.K. and Line of Flight as DJs, and one night, at a pub in Birmingham, they saw Dayton sing. After convincing her to work on their Sneaker Pimps project (the name coined after a cat in the Beastie Boys' entourage whose job it was to locate a rare pair of Adidas), they got to producing the pop-edged electronic beats on the album.
The band spent '96 in Europe, and first came States-side early this year for a two-week promotional tour. Their current tromp through the States is their first full fledged tour here, and so far the buzz has been loud.
"Things have been going really well for us over here," Corner says, preparing for a show in Detroit. "Crowds here in the States are not quite as skeptical as those in Britain. There, they expect to be impressed, while here people just go to have a good time."
The band also appears on the soundtrack for the movie The Saint, with such buzz groups as the Chemical Brothers, Daft Punk, Orbital and Underworld. The band is riding the crest of the movement of electric to the mainstream, but Corner makes a point of differentiating the Sneaker Pimps from this movement. "There was a time when I thought that electronic music was the absolute way forward," he says. "But now I know that songs cannot be just all technology. They have to be strong enough to survive on a guitar; and if they don't survive, then there's no point in going on. But it's still a very powerful force in music today. Just look at hip hop and rap. They grew from samples."
And from samples the Sneaker Pimps emerged, but since hatching from this egg have sprinted into the world of Post Modern Sleaze. Where this progression will lead, I can only turn to the Buddha for an answer: "Things to do today: Exhale, inhale, exhale. Ahhh."
Centerstage Will Feed You
