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SXSW review: Cults
Up until last fall, New York-based Cults were an unsigned band without a MySpace page. They still don’t have one, but they did finally sign with a label and are releasing an album in May. As of right now, they are still something of a mystery. A handful of songs are available on their bandcamp site, but that’s it. It’s fitting, as they are based on a twisted premise that sounds like an idea someone may have come up with in a conversation at a party — sweet-sounding, Phil Spector girl group-influenced pop played atop samples of recordings from Jim Jones and other famous cult leaders. The result is that when lead singer Madeline Follin sings about what would normally be considered pretty run of the mill subjects like love and relationships gone bad, it’s creepy. Layer that with happy-go-luck vibes and the net effect is something akin to the kid from “The Shining” making his finger say “redrum.”
While that’s going on, though, it’s almost impossible not to get lured in. These guys can play. When they broke out what can probably be considered their hit (or at their most well-known song), the infectious “Go Outside,” Follin did a sort of mod dance and the audience began to join her. The song is just too catchy a groove not to. The same was true for “Oh My God,” with its Partridge Family “I can run a-wa-aay” chorus. Once in a while they would throw in a bit of distortion, static serving as a reminder of the sinister joke they’re telling, something along the lines of “ha ha! we got you to dance to our disturbing vision! (In a church!),” but never enough to make the music sound at all threatening.
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