The very cool Hruki (pronounced Harooki) T-Shirt company launched at the Assembly this past Friday along with the help of an eclectic mix of bands Dear John Love Emma, Shadow Club and Jonny Neon. The Hruki T-shirts are pretty awesome and have been created for cool SA bands like Dear Reader, Johnny Neon, Fire Through the Window and KidofDoom, and I am not just saying that because am I biased and went to art school and am friends with the designer of the Hruki label but because they are truly awesome. The Hruki label belongs to brother and sister duo Mary-Anne and Dan Hampton and will be taking over the world pretty soon I'm sure.
The bands on show that night were all quite different with “I am not sure how you would classify them” unique band dear john love emma kicking things off followed by bluesy rock band Shadow Club and ended by electro duo Johnny Neon.
dear john love emma |
dear john love emma are a very interesting band with seven members and many different instruments, not to mention interesting vocals and lyrics consisting of lots of aahs, ohhms and bop bops they certainly stand out from the usual run of the mills bands and are quite charming in sound and presence. My only criticism is that the band always looks so sad and serious on stage and you can count yourself lucky if you manage to catch a member cracking a smile.
Shadow Club |
This was my first time seeing the trio from Shadow Club perform and was quite impressed they have a bluesy Rock and Roll vibe that is both catchy and soulful. The vocals were pretty indistinct which at the time I thought was the usual Assembly sound issue but I managed to score one of the free copied CD's they were flinging out into the crowd and seems like their lyrics on their recorded music is just as inaudible. Not that this is necessarily an issue just look at Kings of Leon. They have quite an old school rock vibe and I found some of the tracks quite reminiscent of Bob Dylan. Shadow Club is Jacques Moolman on lead vocals and guitar, Isaac Klawanksy on drums and Alex Hing on bass. And boy can Alex swing that bass and kick his long legs around the place at the risk of those standing in the front.
Johnny Neon |
The electro act Johnny Neon consists of Johnny Kotze on vocals and synths as well as Nicholas Nesbitt on synths. They describe themselves as Electro Rock Powerpop. And they seem to be one of those hot right now bands like KidofDoom and Isochronous that are fusing rock and electro and taking it to the masses. Those there at the Assembly were lapping it up and most seemed quite familiar with the songs and lyrics yelling out all their favourite lines.
All together a nice little Friday night of fashion and music get your slice at
www.hruki.com.
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