Watch IDLES Make Their American TV Debut With A Big, Showy Kimmel Performance
In the past few years, the British quasi-punks in IDLES have become a reliable festival draw on both sides of the Atlantic, and now they’ve reached the point where they’re getting booked to play on American television. IDLES’ entire appeal is based on the spectacle of their live show, and that spectacle translates pretty well to TV. On last night’s episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live, IDLES got a chance to prove it.
Next week, IDLES will release their new album Crawler. Its first single is a big, howling ballad called “The Beachland Ballroom” — named, for whatever reason, after the venue in Cleveland. That’s the song that the band played on Kimmel. Frontman Joe Talbot really went for it, growling and testifying and banging his chest. The effect is a little bit like watching a minor character on Peaky Blinders attempting to become Otis Redding. It’s pretty funny. Watch it below.
In other IDLES news, the band just shared the new song “Car Crash,” the latest single from Crawler. This one is a little closer to the usual IDLES sound. It’s a noisy, skronky lurch with a deeply stressful vehicular-mayhem video from director Matthew Cusick. In a press release, Talbot says, “It’s the horrific, comedown hangover — waking up in the morning and realising the smashes, like, what the fuck am I doing with my life?” Check it out below.
Crawler is out 11/12 on Partisan.