MP3: Llama Farmers / Always Echoes (1998)

Okay time for my first Indie time-travelling forgotten band flashback! The Llamas formed at a London school in 1996 at the ages of 14/15, and by 1997/8 they had supported the Foo Fighters and started recording. First single was a 7"/CD release on Fierce Panda of Paper Eyes/PVC (Empty Head was the CD bonus track.) Always Echoes was the lead track of their second single, and to me is a great example of the type of stuff i'm going to be posting. I believe I saw them either twice or three times in the first year that I started going to gigs, and so listening to them makes me feel pretty nostalgic.

Although their music is obviously not that innovative and the lyrics are generally pretty uncomplex, I think in this case those things work in its favour. There's just something so great about this that is hard to describe, but I think part of it for me is the way it personifies the feeling of those years between leaving school and having to start uni (i.e. finding new friends, starting to think about jobs and other serious adult business).

The Llamas seem to sum up the Lamacq band pretty damn well. Great debut single on Fierce Panda, a little radio play and some support slots (I saw them with Cay), followed by a slightly patchy debut album on Beggars and a headline tour of English toilets. By the time of the second album press interest had generally dried up and you never heard of them again.

Singles following this were the rather classy Big Wheels, Yellow and Get The Keys & Go, all of which were from the debut Dead Letter Chorus, released late in 1998. The second album, El Toppo, was released in 2000 and is actually pretty damn good, the songwriting had clearly developed and its worth a listen if you can find it. I heard that the band actually split to go to Uni, so I guess that just adds even more to the whole poignant nostalgic teenage summer pop record thing I was talking about before. For more info see this biography, or the very out of date official English or American websites. Hope you like it.

Download - MP3 3.04mb (rapidshare)