WooWoos (No 1,127)
Sassy and smart, these angels with dirty faces look set to be a subversive girl-pop group along the lines of Sugababes
Woohoo for the WooWoos. Photograph: Laura Crouchley
Hometown: London.
The lineup: Nicky, Tasie and Jess.
The background: WooWoos are a girl trio with the potential to fill the gap left by Sugababes. Yes, we realise Sugagabes are still going, but we mean Sugababes when they were good, when Keisha, Mutya and Siobhan were in the group, not the three ciphers they've got now. We're not sure if WooWoos write their own songs as did the aforementioned Buchanan, Buena and Donaghy, but they have about them an air of credibility. They're even releasing their debut single on Moshi Moshi Singles Club, like Florence and the Machine, Friendly Fires, the Drums and Lykke Li before them, ahead of their first release for Island next year. And there's a smartness and sassiness to their songs that suggest they had some hand in their creation, that they're not just three Auto-Tuned high-street honeyz. They're funny, too, adding weight to our theory that they didn't just turn up at the last minute at the studio and sing the lyrics – which, probably not coincidentally, are sassy and smart – like blank automata. They did a terrific sparky piss-taking, self-deprecating interview with PopJustice recently in which one of them, Jess, announced her proudest moment was wrestling a blue whale while Tasie declared her intention to offer a two-hour lecture on String Theory. OK, maybe you had to be there, but it made us laugh.
We'll overlook that they failed to bring their obvious intelligence to bear on the titling of their debut single, Fizzy Lettuce, because the music's not half-bad, and besides, the naming of it signals a desire to delve beyond cliches and rote relationship rhymes, to balance out the glossy surfaces of their music with some gritty plain-speaking. Fizzy Lettuce? Apparently it's about when an affair has lost its lustre and ends up like the last bit of titular dried-up salad at the bottom of the fridge. The music itself is 90s trip-hop revisited, with a pop chorus that hardly panders to daytime radio playlist constraints ("And I yell at her, and I'm begging her, just compelling her…"). We've heard two more of their songs, and they're just as fine. Lotto is neo-Motown with a hip-hop undercarriage and another strong chorus that, again, secretes its sting within something sweet (it's about the random nature of pulling in a club). And there's one called America that is, basically, Round Round (slight return), and makes us wonder whether WooWoos have around them the same (writing/production/marketing) team as Sugababes did at their peak. The song features some name-cannibalising "woo-woos" on the chorus. But what is a Woo Woo? Their press release tells us it's "a person readily accepting supernatural, paranormal, occult, or pseudoscientific phenomena" while Wikipedia informs us that it's an alcoholic drink made of vodka, peach schnapps and cranberry juice. One website couldn't help thinking that it sounded like cheeky innuendo for female genitalia, and whether it is or it isn't, you can't help feeling that these WooWoos are sugar-babes with subversive intent.
The buzz: "Combining the cute, effortless vocals of Sugababes 1.0 and the trip hop-meets-pop production of Sugababes 2.0, WooWoos could be out new favourite girl band" – like1999.blogspot.com.
The truth: They're angels with dirty faces.
Most likely to: Acquire a cult following.
Least likely to: Acquire an occult following.
What to buy: Debut single Fizzy Lettuce is released on 21 November by Moshi Moshi Singles Club, with an album to follow on Island in 2012.
File next to: Sugababes, Remi Nicole, Girls Aloud, Mutya Buena.
Links: soundcloud.com/WOOWOOS.
Monday's new band: Family of the Year.
The lineup: Nicky, Tasie and Jess.
The background: WooWoos are a girl trio with the potential to fill the gap left by Sugababes. Yes, we realise Sugagabes are still going, but we mean Sugababes when they were good, when Keisha, Mutya and Siobhan were in the group, not the three ciphers they've got now. We're not sure if WooWoos write their own songs as did the aforementioned Buchanan, Buena and Donaghy, but they have about them an air of credibility. They're even releasing their debut single on Moshi Moshi Singles Club, like Florence and the Machine, Friendly Fires, the Drums and Lykke Li before them, ahead of their first release for Island next year. And there's a smartness and sassiness to their songs that suggest they had some hand in their creation, that they're not just three Auto-Tuned high-street honeyz. They're funny, too, adding weight to our theory that they didn't just turn up at the last minute at the studio and sing the lyrics – which, probably not coincidentally, are sassy and smart – like blank automata. They did a terrific sparky piss-taking, self-deprecating interview with PopJustice recently in which one of them, Jess, announced her proudest moment was wrestling a blue whale while Tasie declared her intention to offer a two-hour lecture on String Theory. OK, maybe you had to be there, but it made us laugh.
We'll overlook that they failed to bring their obvious intelligence to bear on the titling of their debut single, Fizzy Lettuce, because the music's not half-bad, and besides, the naming of it signals a desire to delve beyond cliches and rote relationship rhymes, to balance out the glossy surfaces of their music with some gritty plain-speaking. Fizzy Lettuce? Apparently it's about when an affair has lost its lustre and ends up like the last bit of titular dried-up salad at the bottom of the fridge. The music itself is 90s trip-hop revisited, with a pop chorus that hardly panders to daytime radio playlist constraints ("And I yell at her, and I'm begging her, just compelling her…"). We've heard two more of their songs, and they're just as fine. Lotto is neo-Motown with a hip-hop undercarriage and another strong chorus that, again, secretes its sting within something sweet (it's about the random nature of pulling in a club). And there's one called America that is, basically, Round Round (slight return), and makes us wonder whether WooWoos have around them the same (writing/production/marketing) team as Sugababes did at their peak. The song features some name-cannibalising "woo-woos" on the chorus. But what is a Woo Woo? Their press release tells us it's "a person readily accepting supernatural, paranormal, occult, or pseudoscientific phenomena" while Wikipedia informs us that it's an alcoholic drink made of vodka, peach schnapps and cranberry juice. One website couldn't help thinking that it sounded like cheeky innuendo for female genitalia, and whether it is or it isn't, you can't help feeling that these WooWoos are sugar-babes with subversive intent.
The buzz: "Combining the cute, effortless vocals of Sugababes 1.0 and the trip hop-meets-pop production of Sugababes 2.0, WooWoos could be out new favourite girl band" – like1999.blogspot.com.
The truth: They're angels with dirty faces.
Most likely to: Acquire a cult following.
Least likely to: Acquire an occult following.
What to buy: Debut single Fizzy Lettuce is released on 21 November by Moshi Moshi Singles Club, with an album to follow on Island in 2012.
File next to: Sugababes, Remi Nicole, Girls Aloud, Mutya Buena.
Links: soundcloud.com/WOOWOOS.
Monday's new band: Family of the Year.
