Add us to MSN as
plastictoysband
@gmail.com
Review in Classic Rock
Review in Rock Sound
Interview with Jon by Amped Reviews
Interview by Cherry Pullinger www.ampedreviews.net
1) AmpedReviews.net is now based in Southampton and we are working to include more Southampton based bands in our WebPages. On your website you describe yourselves as a Southampton phenomenon; what do you think you guys bring to the South?
We play music that no-one else around here plays. Everything tends to be quit indie orientated, but we're aiming for a bigger sound, a bigger show and production but doing it in a INDIEpendant way if that makes sense. Indie attitude, major ambition.
2) What other local bands are you guys fans of?
I'll confess I haven't been out often enough recently, I'm just too broke but bands that have got my foot tapping in the last year are Stout, Dead!Dead!Dead!, Scarlet Soho, BabyDriver and My Passion (who aren't local, but one of the best unsingeds out there).
3) We were first introduced to you guys when you played a supporting slot at a Mindless Self Indulgence show back in October. How did this opportunity come around and how do you think you went down with the crowd?
We have a great relationship with the promoter for the Joiners as we have made them plenty of money in the past by selling lots of tickets! (how about a pay rise guys?!). They deal with the Brook now and thought we'd go really well with MSI style wise. A lot of the crowd were fans of ours already so we went down well with them, but I think we won over some new people too despite having the sound cut 30 secs from the end of the show!
4) You're touring with My Ruin in January, how are you going to wow the crowds with your live shows?
Well we're on 1st so that means 30 mins max and NO onstage lighting or production extras so it's going to be all about the music. So basically we'll go out there, play as many songs as we can in the time we have and play them with some fire. No-one wants to hear a record perfect rendition, they want some noise and some sweat and that's what we'll deliver.
5) You've set up your own record label 'Hill Valley Records,' what are some of the upsides and downsides of being on and running an independent label?
The upside is creative control, basically if there is something we wanna do it then we do it. The downside is being held back by lack of funds. So we had great ideas for CD packaging for example but had to cut back as we can't afford the up-front costs of getting them printed…it was a choice of fancy CD's or gear that worked for the tour. The gear is a necessity so won out. I recommend doing your own label to people all the time but only if you're willing to work hard at it. It has become a full time unpaid job for me at the moment but it's a vehicle for releasing the music I love so I'm happy.
6) You've received a lot of positive reviews for your music, if you were to review one of your tracks, which one would you pick and what would you say about it?
Wow, so much room for self deprecation or total ego mania here! My favourite song on the album we have coming out in Feb (4th) is probably The Tragedy so I'll pick that one. I wanted to do a song that was a story of 2 starlets killing eachother for fame and losing sight of why they began performing in the first place. I have no idea if people get that from it, but I'm proud of the lyrics and the music that I feel really captures the vibe of the song just how I intended. So I'd say "piano meets synth meets fuzz guitar in this Chicago like story. Played and recorded satisfactorily". That ok?
7) Your eagerly awaited debut album 'For Tonight Only' is being released in February 2008; can you tell us what the fans can expect from this debut?
Well it's the songs people have heard many times at shows as well as a handful of new ones. Its more diverse than our live show as we tend to only get 30 minute slots and can't be as expansive as we'd like. So there's a couple of slower tracks here and some deeper music and lyrics as well as the usual all out rock stuff. We aimed to create an album that would run like the perfect live set, hence the name 'For Tonight Only' and I think we did ok. We're idealists though and what I hope people get most from the album is a general vibe of seeing the dark humour in life when everything seems bleak, of creating your own little fantasy world to cope with day to day life because that's lyrically what the whole thing is about to some extent.
Oh, and the 1st 500 copies have 3 bonus tracks which we just finished up recording. Let me just say they are pretty different from the album and will interest any hardcore PT fan, I don't want to give away more than that!
8) What is to come in the future from Plastic Toys?
Well the next year looks like a tour-a-thon which is great. We have spent so long wanting to just get out there supporting bigger bands and play to people every night. We have paid our dues I feel and we're ready to take it all up a notch. I'm writing a lot of new material now and over xmas too, in fact album number 2 is pretty much half written already.
I just want to say again that we are 100% independent, this is our own money going into the recordings, into the live shows and videos so if anyone digs what we do, believes independent music is the way forward and wants to help us out by street teaming or posting myspace bulletins, whatever, please drop us a line. jon@plastictoys.co.uk Our fans have been exceptional in this regard and our main goal is to please them with everything we do.
Komodo Rock - Online Album Review
Plastic Toys
For Tonight Only
Rated 9.2/10
Theres a good reason why we've been so impressed with the Toys, both at recent gigs with Spit Like This and just recently as they supported Trashlight Vision, and that's because they've honed their skills, and kicking out the most exquisite sleazy sound with driving guitars, dirty samples, and lyrics that would make your dear old mum run for the nearest church to pray for your soul.
After you have gone out on bought this album upon it's release you will hold in your hand (or your computer will cuddle them for you if you prefer to download) an album that is full of ass kicking rock n' roll that those of with a narrow mind will tell you is shit because it has bleepy bits in it. Those with any sense will be screaming along to 'Let Me Feel The Love', 'Dirty' and 'God Damn You All'.
It's dirty, it's naughty and one day it'll probably be illegal, but right now this is possibly one of the best debut albums on the planet. The sooner someone out there gets them out on full tours supporting the likes of Trashlight Vision on every show rather than just Southampton the better off everyone will be.
Top track goes to Dirty. 'I get a kick out of this, I'm making love with my fist'. Dirty? Fuck yeah.
The Mag - Online Album Review
Plastic Toys
For Tonight Only
Rated 9/10
Rejecting a plethora of recording contracts in favour of stiking out on their own label, Hill Valley Records, Plastic Toys now have the chance to deliver on their massive display of confidence.
Well, you'd be a bit cocky yourself if you knew you had a album like this in the offing! There's no let-up in the kicking electro-rock and barely a moment passes without a quality hook, stomping dancey beat and lyrics delivered with balls the size of bus-wheels.
They've crammed so much into every song, it seems like a bit of an injustice to pick out any tracks in particular for individual praise. However, if I was to do so, 'Tonight Only', 'Dirty' and 'Spaceman' would certainly get a mention!
For Tonight Only is a stomping rock record that's dead-cert to get people talking about Plastic Toys in the kind of excited tones that have been missing from the mainstream scene for so long.
Big Cheese Magazine - Album Review
Plastic Toys
For Tonight Only
Rated 3.5/5
"These Southampton based glam disco rockers have come across something pretty differen with this creepy, glitzy synth and distortion filled sound. Tracks such as the crunching single 'Let Me Feel The Love' and the dark pop rock of 'The Tragedy' show their NIN and Marilyn Manson influences and why they're supporting My Ruin in January. This gothic/glam rock debut album has enough big choruses to gain a black clad army of fans."
Organised Sound Interview
Read an interview with Plastic Toys on the organised sound website.
The Mag – online singe review
8 out of 10
Plastic Toys are a band that aren't afraid of a bit of hard work. Whether they're touring Britain's educational establishments or setting up their own record label, they seem to draw from an admirable reservoir of energy.
‘Let Me Feel the Love’ is a sleaze-fest of electro glam-rock with really fuzzy bass, a pumping drum beat and a fist-shaking ‘shout it back’ chorus. It's the kind of song that fits into that industrial-disco that only exists in The Crow or Blade (we only seem to have sticky-floored shite-disco in my neck of the woods!)
‘Superfreak’ has just enough time to slip in an excellent and haunting breakdown amidst the floor-filling drive and the persuasive call to dance should reap results at any alternative disco.
Plastic Toys have proved live that they deserve an audience. Now they've done it on record too.
Unpeeled – Let Me Feel The Love single review
“Gloriously or tragically retro-glam funk that's as black as Michael Jackson. We love it. Plastic Toys are great, as a product, group or as a band. This track kicks arse, and it's licking, not ticking all the boxes. There really is nothing other to say than buy it, buy it, buy i again and hope that they get to eat Simon Cowell's liver live on primetime.”
Losingtoday.com – Onlise single review
Plastic Toys ?Let me feel the love? (Hill Valley). You can call and accuse of us most things (and people do believe you me and not all nice I can tell you – in fact some words casually flung in our direction have us digging out the dictionary and blushing in embarrassment at their meaning and quite frankly some are physically impossible) – however never let it be said that we ever forget a corking slice beastly boogie. Plastic Toys first caught our attention way back in September 2004 (see Missive 46).
Formerly Karmic Jera in another life, a band who were at one time championed for greater things by none other than the esteemed rock publication Kerrang and sadly disbanded amid scenes of acrimony leaving one full length idly gathering dust in a major label vault.
Produced by Andy Gray (better known for his work with Gary Numan – and frankly the best thing to happen to the alien one since ?Telekon?) ?Let me feel the love? oozes more sex, sleaze and sassiness than a basement bar in a 70?s era Soho. Desirably decadent and dirty with it, this fuzzed out grinding funk laden horny mother salaciously struts, swaggers and pouts like a cat walk Queen, packed to the hilt with wah wahs and housed in an buzz sawing electro clash meets industrial face off this dirty little mother slinkily files itself alongside those equally super charged slabs of sleazy sexual tension crafted out by the White Rose Movement. Flip side features ?Superfreak? sadly not the x – rated funked up floor trasher by the late Rick James but a super charged hot ?n? horny blood rushing roller coaster hip grinding bastard of some measure which we still maintain sounds like classic Jesus Jones running on empty and at the edge of their tether. Recommended without question. http://www.plastictoys.co.uk//
Rock Midgets online single review
4 out of 5
Nowadays there are plenty of sleaze-rock bands out there with frontmen who try to capture the essence of the ?Rock God' but come off more like a perverted uncle.
Luckily now and then there's a band that gets it right. With a frontman that sounds at times like Marilyn Manson with just the right amount of sex and big, catchy guitar and synth driven choruses, Plastic Toys have hit on just the right formula. Sure, with song titles like ‘Let Me Feel The Love’, and lyrics such as “shake it baby, like a superfreak”, it's not the most intellectually stimulating listening experience but you can't listen to Jon Plastic's infectious bravado cut through the groovy funk-rock riffs without seeing the crowd jump up and down, having a f**king brilliant time. And yes, these guys might sound like they're going to invite you backstage to indulge in all manner of sin, but once you've heard them play, you'll think they deserve it.
Room Thirteen – single review
More of that electro-rock cross over, this time it's from Southampton's Plastic Toys and it's got an almost stadium/ glam rock feel; it's the kind of tune that makes you want to get up and stomp your feet. ‘Let Me Feel The Love’ has been produced by Andy Gray, the man behind bands like U2 and Tori Amos so it sounds really slick but keeps a nice rough edge.
The Plastic Toys sound is part tranced up dance tune and part 70s rock – a sexy, fuzzy mass of catchy, anthemic choruses and dirty guitars. They have a much more accessible sound than many electro-rock bands out there and they can definitely write a decent tune, so this blast of mashed up styles is bound to be a dance floor classic before you know it.
Komodo Rock – Let Me Feel The Love single review
Southampton's Plastic Toys reek of sleezy, drunken rock and roll. This is what Nine Inch Nails would have been had Trent Reznor not been so pissed off and had rocked out on the Strip with Motley Crue, swaggering along with a bottle of Jack Daniels in one hand.
With their latest single, the Toys wanna feel the Love, and after you've heard this, you'll wanna feel it too. We can feel the love of the twisted industrial glam maniacs talking of lesbians, being abused in the name of love, and loving every minute. With industrial esque synths firing off in the background, huge guitars, and a frontman in Jon Plastic who can actually pull of the sleazyness that the band desire.
The Toys are building up a damn fine live following, and with the release of “Let Me Feel The Love” they have the chance to catapult themselves into the hearts and dirty thoughts of rock fans everywhere, and with a video included as well, you can rock out in your bedroom, complete with scantily clad ladies!
Komodo Rock – Live Review
The Joiners – Southampton – 23rd June 2007
By the time the other local band hit the stage, the Joiners is rammed to the rafters. The Plastic Toys have built a huge local following and as they launch into their set, it's no wonder. They're tight, they look great, move like rockstars on stage, and know how to work the crowd, and you know what, their songs aren't bad either!
From their new single ‘Let Me Feel The Love’ to fist fucking anthem ‘Dirty’, the Toys have the crowd going crazy, arms in the air, screaming back at Jon Plastic, and the he loves it, revels in it, and it feeds the live performance. By the time the sets winding down with the majestic cover of ‘Fever’ you know you've witnessed a band that are about to be huge, and their fan base in Southampton are right there to help propell them there.
The Fly Magazine – Live Review
The Joiners – Southampton – Feb 2007
Plastic Toys are tight and fast, imbued with an effortlessly cool mix of testicle contracting metal licks, grooves and disco sleaze. Recorded, they're exactly the kind of band you want to see live. Live, they're exactly the kind of band you want to keep plaing until your legs give way, and then some. Matt Golding – The Fly Magazine
Jon Plastic interview on Komodo Rock site
Subba Culcha online single review
Glam rock for the noughties? Superbly produced mixture of Marilyn Manson?s metallic glam stomp, the anthemic brute of INXS and as much fun as the Darkness once were, great stuff!
Thetalkmagazine.com online single review
Plastic Toys – Let Me Feel The Love (Single)
Plastic Toys mix of glam aesthetic and synthetic machismo gives them something that separates them from the current crop of British rock music. This effort is fundamentally different to their other work, and has a bucket load of commercial appeal that may see them to chart success. This is more Shiny Toy Guns Indie-electro masterclass or Transmission-era Lost Prophets than heavy melodic Stabbing Westward style Industrial and it works well for the band. With some catchy lyrics and blues infected guitars the band really “hit the jackpot” on this confident offering: “I'm the cute little voice that keeps saying you should. I make the good things bad and the bad things good.”
Sexy, sassy and full of rock heavy glitz and glitter, this latest single is the start of the bands commercial onslaught on your ears?get ready to feel the love and put on some eyeliner while you're at it.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
