The Thing About Flats
Flats are a young English hardcore punk band with a logo that looks a good deal like Crass’ crossed-out cross and a sound somewhere between Black Flag and The Exploited. The band’s songs are rarely more than two minutes long and stick to one or two basic chord progressions for their short, furious stays on Earth. The band has recently been profiled on the NME website, has garnered itself opening slots for UK indie heavyweights The Klaxons, and was added to the fall NME Radar Tour. Dinosaur Jr.’s J Mascis, Spritualized’s J Spaceman, and Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine were all spotted at Flats show. Ok, fair enough.
But listening to Flats, you can’t help but think, what’s the big deal? So: Are they good at what they do? Yes. Are they exemplary? No, not really. Flats’ music is appropriately chaotic and furious, but it’s not any different than what hundreds of hardcore bands across the United States do on a daily basis. A shortlist of bands doing what this group does, and doing it much better, would include Outbreak, Ceremony, Blacklisted, and even Agnostic Front, who were doing what Flats does in the early 80’s, long before the members of flats were born. And let’s not forget to mention Gallows, Flats’ London peers, and one of the most exciting and original hardcore bands to appear in a long while.
And yet maybe that’s the point. Maybe the reason people are flocking to Flats, why a luminary like J Mascis would take it upon himself to fly to England to see this band is nostalgia. It’s all well and good for Flats frontman Dan Devine to say “Bloc Party and Franz was five years ago and people still think it’s acceptable to trot out an angular guitar riff and a disco beat. It makes me fucking sick,” but, well, apparently English teenagers still think it’s ok to trot out three-chord riffs and strangled shouts, and that’s been going on for near 30 years at this point. Maybe the reason Mascis and Spaceman and Shields got together to see flats is that a trio of middle aged guys thought it would be a gas to relive teenage years spent in sweaty basements rocking out to the first wave of hardcore.
Flats: Doing what they do live.
So that’s one reason people might be going gaga for this band. Another reason might be that the UK has no healthy hardcore or punk scene to speak of. This may be why Gallows were touted as being the next big thing a few years ago. Yet unlike Flats, Gallows actually are the real thing. Full of real rage, with a progressive sound that marries tradition punk with more contemporary influences will maintaining the DIY attitude and rage evident in first-wave hardcore. Gallows have a live energy and intensity few bands can match. Flats, meanwhile, sound like they should be playing town halls to twenty angry kids. But if don’t have a hardcore scene, any band that pops up will draw the attention of the national media.
Let’s look at it like this: Flats played their first show in March of 2010. As of August 2010, the band has released one 7” and has plans to put out an EP, though according the Flats’ Myspace, the band is currently unsigned. Now this could mean that the band is going to self-release it’s EP, but you don’t get an opening slot for The Klaxons without some kind of managerial staff working mighty transactions behind closed doors. But in a scene bereft of proliferation, it only takes one band to make a splash.
Whatever is really going on here—nostalgia, lack of competition, or even the time honored hype machine of the British music press—a band that is very much less interesting than its many contemporaries on this side of the pond has somehow managed to drum up a furor in the UK. Meanwhile, workhorses like the American hardcore bands mentioned above tour incessantly while working menial jobs to pay the rent. Well, life’s not fair. But it’s certainly interesting watching things like this pan out.
Check out the video of Gallows live below for a comparison point:
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