God, this dude Julian Plenti sounds exactly like the lead singer of Interpol. Musically, his music is sonically similar, but with a little more spark and digital variety. Maybe the musical differences are due to the contributions from Ratatat’s Mike Stroud. Or maybe it’s because Plenti doesn’t rely on a band–he makes all his music himself, on a computer. I dunno. Plenti started making music back in 1996, but I guess the similarity between him and Paul Banks was too much to take, so he went underground in 2001 and let Interpol take the spotlight.
Interpol, of course, ended up being huge and got a major record deal under which they recorded an album that wasn’t nearly as good as the stuff they recorded as indie upstarts.
And now Julian’s back, with Matador Records, as if to teach Interpol a lesson?
Well, all I can say is: Lesson received! Plenti’s album, which will be officially released on August 4, is awesome. It has all the excitement of early Interpol, and then some. I can’t recommend it enough.
Too bad the majors didn’t sign Julian instead of Interpol . . .
