Leading the way for a generation of American groups that are more indebted to the sounds of the U.K. than anything on their own doorstep, The Drums arrive for their first Japanese tour riding on a wave of incessant hype.
The Florida-born, Brooklyn-based four-piece have been adorned with the "next big thing" tag, having been placed in the coveted first-on-the-bill slot on January's prestigious NME Tour, a position that in the past has been the springboard to success for Franz Ferdinand, Coldplay and Florence and the Machine.
So to the eternal question: Is the hype justified? The short answer is: For the most part, yes it is. Led by the strikingly charismatic Jonathan Pierce, The Drums may look, as Boy George infamously stated, "like four rent boys," but their effortless style is matched only by the seeming ease in which they create their own world out of the best bits of other peoples'.