2 b or ykb
Tim Rogers told Rock City a few weeks ago that ``youth is foisted, then wasted, on the young.''
Correct if you're talking about Macaulay Culkin or the little fat kid from Hey Dad. Grossly incorrect when the indictment is directed at Yves Klein Blue (pronounced Eve Kline Blue). YKB have a well spent youth.
Only a couple of years ago in Brisbane, superbly quiffed lead singer guitarist Michael Tomlinson bonded with axe-wielder Charles Sale over music at school, then tapped drummer Chris Banham and bassist Sean Cook to join them and gave themselves a catchy-but-difficult bandname.
Triple J let them throw the leg over (read: gave them a leg up by flogging Polka ) and then they won the first MTV Kickstart competition.
Dew Process signed YKB and put out their dashing EP of pop oddities Drawing Attention To Themselves. The quartet have supported The Fratellis, Tokyo Police Club, The Living End, Ben Kweller, You Am I, The Grates and Sydney's most underrated band Ghostwood, as well as smashing slots at Big Day Out 2008, SxSW 2008, Pyramid Rock Festival 08 and Splendour in the Grass 2008.
But all that means jack until you have a debut album to foist at people and that debut album is Ragged and Ecstatic.
``By the end of the second week of recording we sounded better than I ever thought we could ever sound,'' remarks Tomlinson, sipping a red wine in Southbank on a smouldering day.
Recorded in Studio City in North Hollywood with Kevin Augunas (Cold War Kids), YKB had similar battles to the ones described in this column last week between Chris Colonna and Wolf and Cub. And, just like last week's episode, music was the real winner.
``We picked out a song called Soldier as the first song to work on and Kevin the producer said `This song needs a lot of work!' It was our first experience with a producer,'' says Banham.
The band become rather dejected at the memory before Tomlinson looks towards the sun. ``One of the highest points was actually that same day I went out to get some lunch and when I came back Chris and Sean were really grooving, then Charles picked up his guitar and something happened, something rose from the ashes,'' he says.
Ragged and Ecstatic begins with Make Up Your Mind, a fizzy number that's John Hughes doing Cheers The Movie. ``I was attracted to making a positive statement to begin with,'' Tomlinson says. ``It just clicked,'' agrees Banham.
The album title comes from Jack Kerouac's quote about life being ``the ragged and ecstatic joy of pure being.''
First single Getting Wise has infiltrated XFM in the UK and along with album track About the Future, it is a buoyant reminder the boys - all now 21/22 - are finding their feet.
``You can't cling to any predetermined destination,'' Tomlinson says, sounding like a man older than his skin suggests, ``you have to just let it take you where it takes you.''
See: Yves Klein Blue, Northcote Social Club, 301 High St, July 10, 8.30pm
taken from: http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,,23883986-5017344,00.html
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