Dangerous Muse: two very nice guys
Not long ago I wrote on my blog about iTunes, Digital Rights Management (DRM) and what was then the free single of the week on the UK iTunes Music Store, the wonderful The Rejection by new band Dangerous Muse. In that post I praised the song to the hilt, because it really is very, very good – so much so I immediately stumped up the relatively paltry sum of 79p each for the remaining two tracks on the EP.
Imagine my surprise to find today an email from one of the band members, Mike Furey, posted to me from the contact form on this blog (which you can find, obviously enough, by clicking on the ‘contact’ tab above). I presume he’d been searching the Web for references to the band and had come across my review, and my site. I won’t post the content of his email because I’ve always considered it bad netiquette to forward emails without permission under most circumstances, but suffice to say he thanked me for my kind words and said that he and Tom appreciated the positive feedback from people like me who encourage them to keep writing.
This was a buzz for me. It’s not often I come across a band I take to so immediately but their musical style, the vocals, the look of the band all come together to make a coherent and genuinely different… something. It’s hard to define but these guys definitely have the talent and energy, judging from their website, to get wider recognition and fame. They deserve it. Think Pet Shop Boys put in a blender with Soft Cell, add a pinch of Scissor Sisters – only a pinch, these guys are a duo not an ensemble – and then, for good measure throw in some Human League, Ultravox, John Foxx and maybe, just maybe, a sprinking of another famous NY band, Sparks (anyone remember Beat the Clock?). I predict great things for these guys. And getting a ‘thank you’ email from one of them was kind of the icing on the musical cake.
For a limited time they’ve made The Rejection available as a free download here. You can listen to it online if you want, in streaming audio format, or, better still, you can grab the track and have a listen, keeping it forever close to your bosom, or rather, your ears – though it is a song I’ve developed a deep affection for. The guys’ main site says the free download was only going to be available on MySpace until March 7 but, when I checked today, it was still available. Don’t wait. You might miss the boat and the start of something really special. Go there now, then check out the band’s main pages which I’ve linked to at the top of this article.
I’m still playing all three tracks on the EP all the time, the single itself being one of my personal soundtracks of the moment along with Bowie’s Life on Mars, for which the BBC TV series of the same name is to blame. At time of writing, The Rejection sits at number one in my personal charts (which you can take a gander at anytime by clicking on the ‘charts’ tab above). It might well be time to dust down the Tukka boots and the cavalry shirts, maybe with a bit of lippy… But that makes it sound as though Dangerous Muse are a New Romantic tribute band, which they ain’t. They hark back to that era of glamour and disco and big time sexuality but they are definitely a band of the here and now. I only wish they could come and do a gig here in the UK. Leeds would be a good place, not far from me, home of Kaiser Chiefs and with plenty of gig venues (hint, hint, if you’re reading this, fellas!). Oh, and you can still get all three tracks from the iTunes Music Store.
6 comments on “Dangerous Muse: two very nice guys”
March 15th, 2006 at 5:28 am
A Pinch Of Scissor Sisters
Gotta love this description of Dangerous Muse….
March 18th, 2006 at 2:04 am
Hey, you tracked down a URL. Terrific! Thanks for this. =) Keep it up.
March 18th, 2006 at 6:58 am
Cheers matey! Yeah, it’s a cool site too. I don’t know what it is but they have something about ‘em that says they’re in the zone. If I was an astrologer, I’d say it’s in the alignment of their stars and planets. Actually, as a poet, I guess I can say that anyway! x
April 12th, 2006 at 3:53 am
I love dance music. I love synthesizers and drum machines, rhythm sections and boys with eyeliner. I love Bowie, Boy George, Fischerspooner and the Scissor Sisters. So by all rights, I should love Dangerous Muse. And I don’t. Although the rest ofthe gay music blog mafia have lost their minds over the duo, I am left totally cold by their soul-lessness. The limp songs seem weak and drab, and the two gay-vague musicians — who refuse to say what their preferences are, because they live in perpetual
April 12th, 2006 at 5:14 pm
As an update, I found a difference of opinion on Dangerous Muse today wherein I was referenced, because of this particular post, as being part of the ‘gay music blog mafia’ for liking the band.
It was strange to read because I’m not a scene queen, though once upon a time I was and have no problem with scene queens per se. It’s just that, if there’s a general consensus among us queer fellas that the band is great, then I’m not writing as part of that slipstream of opinion. I’m writing only from my own experience of the band’s music after downloading the single when it was freebie of the week on the UK iTunes Music Store. Sure, I’m gay; yes, I like Dangerous Muse. That doesn’t mean I’ve signed up to some joint declaration, though, does it? Hardly a gay music mafia member; more a free spirit and free thinker, actually. x
April 12th, 2006 at 5:28 pm
Here’s another link for Dangerous Muse fans:
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