New England Roses - Face Time With Son

It does have to be said that I am a self-confessed Le Tigre geek (I know, I know... I am SUCH a teenage girl, it's disgusting) and I am also one of those creepy people that hunt down weird offshoots of their favourite bands. New England Roses is a side-project of Le Tigre's infamous JD Samson, with Brendan Fowler (aka. BARR, who incidentally sometimes plays alongside Matt and Kim who were reviewed on Big Static a short while back), and Sarah Shapiro who does solo folky stuff. How many lesbians does it take to change a lightbulb? Two. One to change it, and one to write a folk song about it. Ho ho.

So basically this album is what happens when some slightly eccentric but very fun friends get together and decide to make up some whacky songs and cover some unexpected classics, purely for the hell of it. Then somewhere along the line, they recorded them and now they're playing some shows, but I think it's fair to say that these shows probably won't be the most organised or polished of performances. But then, that's why this music is so great - there's nothing false or planned about New England Roses. They're just some friends making a racket and if you don't like it then just don't listen.

'Kids In The City' is my current theme tune for a variety of reasons, and anybody who doesn't smile when they hear this song deserves a good slap. 'Faith' is here because... it's a George Michael cover! A George Michael cover!! I never thought I'd say this but: "WTF?!"

New England Roses - Kids In The City
New England Roses - Faith

You can buy this album, a 7" and t-shirts from their label, Dogg and Pony, and they have a MySpace page.