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The Review - MUSIC - grooves with CHARLOTTE CHAMBERS
Published: 7 February 2008

Savy Brooklyn boys are back on form

PREVIEW
LES SAVY FAV + GUESTS
London Astoria

MAYBE it’s their indecipherable name, but Les Savy Fav (pronounced “lay-sah-vee-fahv”, blurted out really fast, as if it’s the most obvious thing in the world) have never quite had the credit they deserve.
Not that the Brooklyn rockers are remotely interested in courting public favour. Since their formation in 2001 they’ve had numerous opportunities to cash themselves in as trendsters and art rockers: they pre-empted the edgy, experimental soundscapes of the Liars; they were rediscovering the joys of disco before The Rapture’s debut Echoes. And by the time those bands were doing it, Les Savy Fav were onto something else, not just to be different or cooler-than-thou but to become a better band through trial and error.
It hasn’t always worked. The art-school group have assaulted a few eardrums along the way, but new album Let’s Stay Friends – their first full length offering for six years – is approaching their eclectic, angular best. And when they’re good, they’re really good.
But it’s in the flesh, live and direct, that LSV is best enjoyed. Hirsute frontman Tim Harrington (pictured) has a penchant for dry-humping members of the audience, cracking a cat o’nine tails, climbing the walls, wrestling and changing his wardrobe on stage. Nudity is frequent.
It’s like what the green man is to traffic safety or Ronald McDonald is to malnutrition: if you see a bearded, balding, pot-bellied man covered in sprinkles at the Astoria on Sunday, you know you are in the right place for some seriously fine music.
SIMON WROE

Les Savy Fav play the London Astoria on Sunday February 10

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