SONG(S!) OF THE DAY No.4 Little Girl / Crawling by Miss T & The Japanese Tourists

How me and my girlfriend laughed as we listened to Andrew Eldritch’s benchmark album Floodland one quiet Sunday afternoon. Pompous, pretentious, melodramatic etc, yeah well of course it damn well is, this is The Sisters of Mercy, not Oasis or something.

Along with Black Metal, ‘Goth’ is one of those genres that I have been listening to a little more regularly than I probably should have, primarily in the shape of Bauhaus and Siouxsie and the Banshees, with a hint of Type O Negative, and I was glad to see a new band flying the Goth flag, albeit half-cocked. I picked up on Miss T & the Japanese Tourists on a message board and was extra happy to find downloadable tracks on their website. And what cool songs they are, one uptempo one and one slowy. It would be too obvious to compare them with S&tB, plus Miss T (the singer) posits Stevie Nicks as a big influence (“the surreal spine chilling voice of stevie nicks....beyond amazing!”) and although I wouldn’t say it’s the most obvious influence, if you listen carefully you can hear it, honest. I suppose it would be fair to say that they do a frikking good job of making old influences sound new, which is what all the best music does, or has done I reckon since the 50s, what better compliment I can give.

By the way check out the weird Siouxsie and the Banshees ‘cardboard box’ shop on Borough High Street.