Alternative rock. It might sound boring, but The Duke Spirit seems to find their own way to blending the sound of the alternative noise rock/garage bands both with psychedelia and rock and roll and as bonus they also added a smooth taste of R&B, soul and Motown. The result is something like a scratchy and raw collision between The White Stripes and Blondie. Old obsessions dies slowly, still, almost every woman singer wants to be the next Debbie Harry or dreaming about becoming the next Alison Mosshart. And well, Liela Moss actually do a great job.
“Bruiser” is simultaneously honey and dust, raw rock and bitter-sweet melancholy.
And the band’s 3rd album, “Bruiser” consist of the same dusty, but forever fresh and scratchy bluesy and garage rock as their previous releases.
The band was formed in London in 2003 by Luke Ford (guitar), Liela Moss (vocals) and Toby Butler (bass). Ford and Moss met at art college in Cheltenham where he was studying Photography and Moss was studying a Fine Art Foundation Course. Butler and Ford also met at the same college at around the same time and briefly played in a band together. Creating The Duke Spirit they set about writing, recording and self-producing a bunch of songs that formed the basis of their first single and EP.
The band released their first single “Darling You’re Mean/Bottom of the Sea” in May on the City Rockers label, without having performed live. The line-up was completed by guitarist Dan Higgins (who also created the woodcuts that served as the band’s early artwork) and drummer Olly “The Kid” Betts, and the band played their first show at the Brixton Windmill later that year. They released the “Roll, Spirit, Roll” EP toward the end of 2003, which won the band critical acclaim from publications such as NME.
The band’s debut album, “Cuts Across the Land”, was due to be released in September 2004 until their record label, City Rockers, ran out of financial steam. They moved over to Loog Records/Polydor and released the album in the UK on 16 May 2005. The album’s producers were Simon Raymonde (formerly the bass player in Cocteau Twins, and now Bella Union Label boss) and Flood.
In early 2007 the band signed to You Are Here a new independent Anglo-Canadian label. The track “Mayday”, a collaboration between UNKLE and The Duke Spirit was released on the latest UNKLE album, “War Stories”, in 2007.
The band’s second album, “Neptune” was released in February 2008.
THE DUKE SPIRIT WEBSITE – MAIN PAGE PLAYLIST by thedukespirit
Tracklist:
01. Cherry Tree
02. Procession
03. Villain
04. Don’t Wait
05. Surrender
06. Bodies
07. De Lux
08. Sweet Bitter Sweet
09. Running Fire
10. Everybody’s Under Your Spell
11. Northbound
12. Homecoming
The Duke Spirit – Official Site
The Duke Spirit @ iTunes
The Duke Spirit @ MySpace
The Duke Spirit @ Facebook
The Duke Spirit @ Twitter
