BeXatron are your new favourite band – you just don’t know it yet.
Blending gritty punk with glam-rock reminiscent of the heyday of legendary New York venue Max’s Kansas City – breeding ground for the likes of The New York Dolls, The Velvet Underground, and Wayne County – BeXatron’s debut album, Hey You, is one of the strongest releases I’ve heard in quite some time.
I’ve been lucky enough to catch the band perform twice recently – once at their video launch for the single ‘Dirty Disco’, and again at their album launch at Two Tribes Brewery in Kings Cross, and both times, they’ve completely blown me away. When listening to Hey You, the energy the band exudes on every track is palpable, and live, they’re simply something else, giving it their all on every number and completely winning over the audience. Visually, the band are are eye-catching as their music, looking straight like they’ve stepped out of the ’80s. Fronted by the Debbie Harry-esque Rebecca Bex, BeXatron make as much of a statement visually as they do musically, and it’s an extremely welcome breath of fresh punk air to see a band that is obviously so incredibly passionate about what they do, and that has the talent to back it up. Drawing comparisons to some of my all-time favourite bands – namely Blondie, and The New York Dolls – due to their sound and strong glam aesthetic, it has to be noted that their music is anything but dated. They take the best elements of the ’70s and ’80s glam rock scene, yet bring it up to date, adding an energetic, punk edge that makes them one of the most exciting rock bands currently around.
Sometimes when an album opens with a track as strong as Hey You opener ‘Out Of My Tree’, you worry that the rest of the album won’t live up to the first song – however, no worries are necessary. If anything, the record just gets stronger and stronger, spearheaded by second track and first album single, ‘Dirty Disco’. It’s hard to pick out a standout track when the quality is as high as it is, so I’ll settle on three – ‘Subway Freeks’, ‘Mandy Meltdown’, and the closing track of the record, ‘Hex Your Ex’. ‘Hex Your Ex’ features some of my favourite guitar playing off the album, but again – it’s so difficult to choose a standout when they’re all just this good. It’s one of the strongest debut albums I’ve had the privilege of listening to for quite some time, and if you get a chance to see them live: go. You seriously won’t regret it – hearing tracks recorded is one thing, but seeing them performed by such a talented and incredible bunch of musicians is truly something else. Plus, a glam-rock cover of ‘Gimme Gimme Gimme’ by ABBA? Don’t mind if I do.
You can catch BeXatron playing their last London show of this year at The Monarch in Camden on December 15th, as part of the Camden Rocks Xmas All-Dayer.
PHOEBE HAGAN