Photos By Alexandra Leveque
Hello Stranger
The Duke Spirit is a strange story here. It's a story of an excellent band that the locals didn't quite understand.
"Oy mate, you're a garage-rock band and your lead singer is a girl.....WTF?"
Quite frankly, this attitude puzzled music fans here, and their story is a common one around these parts. A band trying to find its identity and differentiating itself from the mass of similar sounding acts. But fortunately for us, our neighbours across the pond are slightly more open musically than us and gave them a second chance to prove, yes, the formula works!
I can promise you that none of this matters once you see them live. They're simply contagious. Their frontman (I mean frontwoman) is a perpetual spur for debauchery and sex appeal. Their live performances are mesmerizing and magnetic.
Liela Moss stands out in a band full of masculinity. Luke Ford (guitar and vocals), Dan Higgins (guitar and keyboards), Tony Butler (bass) and Olly Betts (drums) fill their supporting roles enthusiastically. Unfortunately, it was nearly impossible to get a good shot of the rest of the band because the lighting guy had a fixation (or should I say crush?) on Liela, like almost every guy in the audience. And who can blame them?
But let's get back to the music. Even with some technical difficulties, the band won over the audience with a mix of old tracks but mostly newer songs from Neptune.
Their aquatically named album was recorded in the Californian desert of Joshua Tree with the famous Chris Goss (frontman of Masters of Reality, producer for Kyuss and Queens of the Stone Age, and known most recently for his collaboration on the latest UNKLE album War Stories). Somehow the irony of recording this juicy album in a sun-dried environment showed up in their songs with a certain crispness. Everything is a little bit louder, tighter, and stronger. Chris Goss, being the great producer that he is, enhances the topography of The Duke Spirit's music.
Anyway I think you can guess that I'm recommending The Duke Spirit for you to either listen to their tracks or to see them live. For the newbies, start with their track "Love Is An Unfamiliar Name" from their earlier album Cut Across The Land and see if you can resist Liela moaning at the end. Then dive into their newer track "Neptune's Call" on their latest album Neptune. You'll enjoy it, it's a promise ;)
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