Comprising of Jen Hingley, Chris Warr and Josh Sellers, Manchester’s False Advertising describe their sound as “fresh, melodic fuzz delivered by an idiosyncratic trio who swap instruments sometimes”. Judging by their debut single ‘Wasted Away’, the self-dubbed fuzz popsters’ description isn’t far wrong. Blending the best elements of garage rock, grunge and pop punk and citing The Smashing Pumpkins as an influence, the power chords, noisy guitar and pleasantly surprising radio-friendly hook of ‘Wasted Away’ makes the song unashamedly catchy yet just on the right side of cool.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFGHQQH4S8I&w=740&h=422]
In fact, you’d be forgiven for thinking that this Riot grrl-esque track is straight off the soundtrack of a 90s teen movie (think The Muffs’ 1995 cover of Kim Wilde’s ‘Kids in America’). False Advertising’s brand of fuzz is indulgent but not too nostalgic, fitting nicely somewhere between the Pixies, The Primitives and Yuck. Part-time frontwoman Jen says that ‘Wasted Away’ is a song about “frustration and unfulfilled potential”… hopefully that won’t be a problem here.
Words by Kristen Sinclair