Tenspeedracer – Yo-Yo


Tenspeedracer certainly had the pedigree to snatch the laurels but most of the world ignored their pretty audio dramas. Some of this can be put down to extraordinary bad luck, like when their make or break slot on college radio schedules throughout the US was set for September 11, 2001. ‘Eskimo Beach Boy’ was the bands debut, which brought together their three early singles that had up to that point only received an Irish release. They went on to record a second LP but the relative success of several solo side projects incrementally broke up the band. Joe Chester (once of hugger faves Sunbear) is responsible for the not so intrepid yet magical ivory tinkling on ‘Yo-Yo’, a ten-minute fuzzy indiepop song to serenade your fragile self. Terry Cullen’s vocals are a lot less bolshie than Dermot Barrett’s, approximating the best twee bandleader that ever was. This is one to soundtrack your workplace daydreams of a life not timetabled by the clock in/out card. KD

Tenspeedracer – Yo-Yo

More Info: Tenspeedracer
Buy Album: Eskimo Beach Boy
Year: 2000

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One Comment

  1. Richie
    September 30, 2006
    Reply

    These guys were my favourite Irish band for about three years, I was gutted when they split up. Eskimo Beach Boy is a fabulous album and would’ve been a big hit if they were from the UK instead of Ireland, I think. If you haven’t heard it you should definately hunt down their Girls and Magazines EP that was released in between the two albums, fantastic summery jangle rock and some of their best songwriting. It beats the slightly disappointing second album, anyway (I think the lukewarm reaction to that may well have been part of what killed them off). By the way this song Yo Yo (my favourite off the record, good choice!) is actually sung by the drummer Terry Cullen and not the normal singer Dermot Barrett. He continues to perform the song occasionally with his new band Dae Kim (http://www.myspace.com/daekim) who are promising good things in a shoegaze/powerpop sort of way. Long live Ten Speed Racer!

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