New London Music: Doe

Chris Lockie
By Chris Lockie Last edited 116 months ago
New London Music: Doe

DOE

By calling yourself Doe you run the severe risk of implanting Julie Andrews warbling her way through Do-Re-Mi into the heads of potential fans. Therefore you'd better make your music catchy and memorable enough to dispel a deer. A female deer.

Thankfully our latest new music tip manage that with aplomb. Doe are a trio from the Finsbury Park/Caledonian Road neck of the woods, who make an infectious, indie-punk sound that draws inspiration from a specific set of (mostly American) bands while successfully avoiding aping any of them. Nicola Leel (vocals, guitar), Jake Popyura (drums, vocals) and Matt Sykes (guitar) don't really sound like Helium, Pixies, The Breeders or Sleater-Kinney but the influence of that quartet is detectable. Weezer may be their closest musical relative, but thankfully these Londoners never veer towards that band's more lamentable output. If you need a British reference, they're like Echobelly, but hard. And good.

In the 18 months they've been together Doe have put out a handful of EPs, and they've just announced that these will be released together as a collection LP on Specialist Subject Records later in the year. One of the tracks on this record may or may not be the excellent C.A.E., which you can listen to below.

Doe claim to like "feminism, horror films and beer", which probably makes them quite unlikely to be fans of The Sound of Music. Thankfully for us they're more likely to be found at the Montague Arms in Peckham (on 18 July) than skipping gaily atop Primrose Hill with Maria and the children. They'll follow that up with a show at Power Lunches in Dalston (11 August) and a charity gig at The Windmill in Brixton (6 September), before heading out on tour with Bangers and Pale Angels in October.

And we have no reservation in declaring them one of the most exciting new London bands we've found so far, even if we can't quite shake the fear that Nicola's suddenly going to break into 'When you know the notes to sing, you can sing most anything!'

Doe can be found on Facebook and Twitter.

See other London acts we recommend.

Last Updated 10 July 2014