Parvizi Listens: Whitest Boy Alive

Parvizi Listens: The Whitest Boy Alive, www.whitestboyalive.com

Rating: ****
Best Song: Keep a Secret

I am not a music critic though in a world where Jonathan Ross reviews films and his brother Paul television I feel it’s certainly worth a shot. I stumbled across The Whitest Boy Alive whilst playing FIFA10; an epic battle ensuing between Barnet Town and MK Dons punctuated by some seriously cool music. Using Shazam a very useful free application for the iPhone, which allows you to hold your phone to music being played and be told within 20 seconds who the band are I found The Whitest Boy Alive.

A German band, these guys are tough to pin down in terms of genre but electrindie comes to mind with a pinch of Latin. The lead singer Erlend Øye is also a member of the King of Convenience, a stalwart thirty-somethings who visit The Roundhouse favourite. The other members Marcin Öz, Sebastian Maschat and Daniel Nentwig along with Øye would seem to comprise a list of characters out of Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo but instead are a bunch of über cool Germans and Scandinavians, who not only put us to shame with our lack of foreign languages but like Björn and Benny before them also their way with words in what is most likely their second or third language.

Their second and latest album Rules seems to deal with modern-day relationships in a very Scandinavian way. From Courage “No love can be guaranteed/ It don’t come with no warrantees/ So wake up or wake up alone/ If you want me show come courage…”. The beats are similar to Calvin Harris though unlike our very own Scottish Jedward lover The Whitest Boy Alive use more gentle beats that are less Ministry of Sound and more a fantastic live set at Clare Cellars.

Their music is incredibly accessible and even my Iranian mother was quite a fan, a woman who normally cringes at the slightest hint of contemporary and hides behind Earth, Wind and Fire.

If you have Spotify do look them up, if not one of the millenarian 144000 chosen ones check out their MySpace page. And let’s hope they grace some ball or another during May Week.

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