Red Dons & TV Smith!

Wait? There's a new Red Dons single - and they got the legendary TV Smith to guest star on lead vocals?! How did CNN not report on this momentous event?! Sometimes dream collaborations like this one end up disappointing or at least failing to meet the impossible expectations we create in our minds. But "A Vote For The Unknown" is every bit the tremendous creation I was anticipating. And it just makes so much sense! If you had to name a surviving icon of '70s punk who would be perfectly suited to Red Dons' dark, punchy sound, TV Smith would surely be the guy. And Red Dons have got to be huge Adverts fans. Smith wrote lyrics and provided vocals for this track - which the band recorded in a Swedish bomb shelter back in 2011. Desperate and chillingly tuneful, this song is exactly what you'd expect from this singer and this band. Smith sounds a little like Bruce Springsteen going through a bleak phase - his voice frayed and crackling with world weariness. And lyrically, his insights into the state of things are as sharp as ever. Longtime Adverts/TV Smith fans will absolutely want to own this track. Yet in the way it marries modern post-punk influences with a straight-ahead melodic punk sound, this song is classic Red Dons. Even though Smith only appears on "A Vote For The Unknown", you can flip to B-side "This City" and discover how perfectly these two songs fit together. The single is currently available from Deranged Records, and Taken By Surprise Records has a European version in production right now. An absolute mandatory purchase!



-L.R.


http://takenbysurpriserecords.bandcamp.com/album/a-vote-for-the-unknown-7
http://derangedrecords.bandcamp.com/album/a-vote-for-the-unknown
http://reddons.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/pages/RED-DONS/48874580030