Summer fun has begun, and whether you are spending the lazy, hazy days by the pool, in the mountains, at the shore or simply soaking up rays off your apartment rooftop’s tar beach – good tunes are always a priority.
One debut album, Lionel, It’s a Complicated World by the Injuns provides the right blend of originality and strong musicianship.
Before mounting the high horse of political correctness be aware these boys are from Scotland – the Isle of Skye precisely – far from where Native Americans roamed. Coming together in 2003, they chose the name as representative of being outsiders. Four years later, the Injuns still resonate with a renegade spirit and sound.
Consider their recent independent album launch.
Far from the hipper Glasgow or London, the band instead celebrated with their loyal fan base in a converted barn on Skye.
Why?
Hector MacInnes, co-creator, drummer and other assorted dutymaster for the Injuns, credits the high musical literacy of the island’s bar band aficionados for encouraging them during the early pubs gigs.
So what is the Injuns’s sound? Eclectic with a capital E!
Beginning with the explosive IYO, the mood suddenly turns from frenetic to a charged plaintive plea by the second track of Madeleine. Just when you think you have the Injuns’ sound down – it rears up and charges in from another direction. Is Shelia Invited?, a melody with a modicum of the macabre through references of "spiders in the caviar", and the brass rich pulsating Brady are perfect examples.
Deeming its sound as “ugly duckling”, the band draws inspiration from a wealth of diverse musical sources like Levon Helm and Steely Dan and then seasons with their own flavor.
Flush with storytelling abilities and beginning in their post-graduate days, while living in a damp cottage near Clan MacLeod’s Dunvegan Castle, both MacInness and co- Injuns creator, Leighton Jones, write words of colorful situations and people.
The title track lyrics include:
"If you’re torn between
What you’ve thought and what you’ve seen
Then don’t be afraid, oh Lionel."
For those who wake up on Monday mornings already longing for Friday afternoons – consider up-tempo Brainville your new theme song.
“So hello Monday and don’t be late.
Cos you are my ticket out of this place,”
Hailed as one of Scotland’s top five new bands – the Injuns are now based in Glasgow and appear with regularity there and on Skye.
Always popular at open-air concerts the band is scheduled in the lineup at the environmentally friendly Outsider Fest in the Scottish Highlands, near Rothiemurchus, June 22-24 and July’s Skye Festival.
If seeing the Injuns in person is not in your budget this year – you can always catch them on I-Tunes, purchase a CD through their website or keep updated via their ever expanding myspace.com site.
Infuse your summer with the Injuns, and banish boredom!
For more information see: www.injuns.co.uk/
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