Formed in 2008 The Kapitals hail from the north side of Dublin. Despite their youthful looks, the trio sound like they mean business. With a unique blend of indie rock - sometimes raucous with a rock 'n' roll psychobilly flavour - traces of 80's post-punk bleed through the cracks of garage rock.
Nailed Down
It's a sound that's hard to nail down - charismatic garage rock balanced with melodies and killer hooks - a cut above the bravado of smash it up atonal punk - if you dig The Cure, The Strokes, Joy Division, The Clash then your ride is here.
The Kapitals are Evan Dempsey on vocals and bass, Mark Ryan vocals and guitar and Glen Guerin on the drums. Are they The Capitals, The Kapitals or just KAPITALS? This band is evolving fast.
Now the light's out
What's it all about?
No ethereal post rock reverb, no flash-in-the-pan programming, no phat production. No B.S.
The Kapitals' sound is as honest as it gets these days - straight up - they don't appear to waste time with a website, leaving a cold trail of dead internet pages wasting away in cyberspace. They're too busy kicking out the jams.
Take Everything
Songs like "Take Every Thing" and "Met a Woman" showcase a spectacular rockabilly swagger, but, it's when The Kapitals smash all their influences and rebuild their raw, high energy into honed songs that the sound soars.
"Save it Till the Morning" picked up the gloomy black and white glow of Joy Division - chemical & moody - before huge hooks sweep everything away in a blaze of burning flags, blistering guitar, driving bass and rhythms - an epic anti-love song, with an extraordinary vocal performance from Evan Dempsey - it's something else.
Ms Heartache
"Ms Heartache" proves KAPITALS can build a sophisticated, slow burning anthemic stadium epic, push their psychobilly roots to the back burner and pull a piano (and a new member "Mick"?) from a hat when they want to.
With the garage guitar stripped back, and the vocals pushed forward, the sound is smoother but that doesn't mean all the edges have been knocked off - there's still a ton of power and drama in the mix underpinning some fantastic songwriting harmony.
Paris is Burning
It took a few hours of digging up the internet to find an official facebook page - and the good news is KAPITALS are blasting back out of the debris with an intense, hard hitting new single "Paris Is Burning" available today the 11th of July.
Go check it out and fly the flag for your local anti-heroes.
