Concrete Playground

I wonder how long you have to live in Brooklyn to say you're a Brooklyn band? Yeasayer, TV On The Radio, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Dragons Of Zynth, Animal Collective, The National, Grizzly Bear. Hmmm. I do wonder. There's no way that all of the individuals in all of these groups could be from Brooklyn. But it is definitely the place to make music these days. Mummy I want to be in a Brooklyn band!

White Rabbits are one of these bands, but at least in their bio they admit that they are from Missouri straight away. They play rhythm heavy, piano soaked alternative pop/rock — somewhere in between Cold War Kids (less earnest and Christian like) and Spoon (more attitude, less tongue in cheek), and in fact have been accused of being Spoon's protégé and didn't help this by enlisting Spoon's Britt Daniel to produce their second album It's Frightening. I even overheard a conversation the other day in a cafe, "they sound so much like Spoon, but they are better looking".

Their music is full of little bits that you can clap or sing along to, intricate and fun rhythms, tambourine shakes, snare rolls, errant backup vocals ahhhing. And Singer Stephen Patterson even sounds like Spoon's Britt Daniel, with a similar aggressive yet lazy vocal style — think John Lennon on Instant Karma. They apparently are amazing live, and just watching the video for Percussion Gun makes you want to go watch the 6 piece. So forget everything I said about Spoon, you should fork out and go catch their Falls Festival sideshow at the OAF.