Ashtray Electric

My favourite thing (and smuggest moment) about working in the music industry is picking an unknown bands from a stack of faceless demos and new CDs, and marking them as a hit. I’ve had a few bad picks – I once thought I was being ultra-cool by buying the new Jesse McCartney CD never having heard his music. But thankfully, Ashtray Electric was one of the good picks. Nay, excellent picks.

They hail from Belville. Yes, that mystical place by the sea that churns out bands who don’t brush their hair and wear jeans that are too tight. That alone meant local music fans would welcome them happily. But then their debut EP made it a sure thing.

Their first single, “The Swing” (check out the video here) is easy rock and roll, immersed in jazz influences, that is something unique to the local scene (thank goodness!). “The Swing” won them acclaim – and probably a lot of free drinks – throughout the country, and made the release of their second single, “Quite Overstared”, a much anticipated event. This one did even better, and brought them to tours and festivals across the country, including the most recent Oppikoppi Easter piss-up.

Ashtray Electric are next in the line of SA’s true rockstars – they believe drinking is an integral part of their job (I concur), I think they have little to no regard for fashion, but could probably bed any 18 – 24 year old woman in their audience, and when they crank out stylish rock and roll, they make it seem effortless.

I can only hope that they’re not starting out on a high point and end up dropping the ball on their next record. But when you ooze funk like these Belville boys do onstage, it just doesn’t seem likely.