Wake The President - You Can't Change That Boy

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4...according to our Brian on Thu 12 Mar, 2009.

Wake The President next with their CD album 'You Can't Change That Boy' on the legendary Electric Honey. Now listening to them for the first time (I've missed their few 7"s), I have to say they couldn't sound more classic Scottish indie if they tried. The main band they recall for me when listening to their melodic jangle pop is fellow Jocks The Close Lobsters, a C86 era band who wrote some of the most astute, affecting pop music of the decade, but WTP's music is imbued with a little more subtlety & grace. I can hear spots of The Orchids within the parameters of these joyful strumathons but also the full band outings you sometimes get from James Yorkston or King Creosote. It slots comfortably amongst the classics from the last 20 years of Scottish guitar pop basically. 10 perfectly formed tunes from a fine young band with a quality pedigree!

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Wake The President release their debut album, You Can’t Change That Boy, on 9th March 2009. The album was recorded at Chemikal Underground’s CHEM19 studios,co – produced by ex- Delgados’ drummer Paul Savage (whose recent credits include Franz Ferdinand, King Creosote, & Malcolm Middleton). Wake The President is the latest innovative group to be released on the award-winning student-run Glasgow label, Stow College’s Electric Honey Records (others include Belle & Sebastian, Snow Patrol, Biffy Clyro). Electric Honey is overseen by Douglas MacIntyre (The Creeping Bent Organisation) and Ken McCluskey (Bluebells / McCluskey Bros), and is a core element of Stow College’s Music Industry Management degree course. Wake the President have been tipped by MOJO as a modern independent group to keep an eye on, which follows on from their two previous singles being Record of the Week on BBC Radio 2 and XFM. Radio sessions have also been recorded for BBC Radio Scotland, BBC Radio 2 and XFM.
Gigging for a few years now, the band have built up a strong live following since their formation at Glasgow University back in the summer of 2005. They draw their influences from a variety of sources, with the Postcard - era GoBetweens / Aztec Camera unashamedly seeping through in their diverse harmonies and melodies. This is allied to Erik’s lyrics, which are a bit of a conundrum... West End debauchery and deceit seem to be a recurring subject, along with Jerome novels, infidelity and dipsomnia. Whilst Bjorn’s guitar is very much influenced by Orange Juice’s James Kirk and Felt’s Maurice Deebank. Wake the President’s music encapsulates and portrays the beauty of a city which has been in desperate need for reflection, in a manner not dissimilar to another one of their influences, The Smiths.

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