The Manhattan Love Suicides

The Manhattan Love Suicides set out to recapture the spirit of 1986, centering their approach on C86, the influential NME cassette that defined the era for Britain’s independent music community. Their guitar-driven sound draws explicit cues from the Jesus and Mary Chain, the Shop Assistants, and the Primitives, while their visual style favors black-and-blonde contrasts and their songwriting favors concise, three-minute bursts of noisy pop. The group openly embraces this retro posture, positioning themselves as a deliberate echo of the UK indie landscape from two decades earlier. Even the band’s name comes directly from Richard Kern’s 1985 short film; the New York director was already known for his provocative work.

The quartet assembled in Leeds during January 2006. In keeping with longstanding indie custom, the members appear in interviews and on releases under first names alone: Caroline handles vocals, Darren plays guitar, Adam takes the bass (though his MySpace page lists the full name Adam John Miller), and Eddy sits behind the drums.

Since 2001 Caroline and Darren have operated the small Squirrel Records imprint, issuing a stream of vinyl LPs and 7-inch singles that feature punk, garage, and indie-pop acts, among them their own earlier project, Pop Threat. Magic Marker Records issued the band’s self-titled debut album on CD in late 2006; a restricted vinyl pressing that added two further tracks appeared on Squirrel the following year. In July 2008 the 27-song collection Burnt Out Landscapes gathered earlier 3-inch and 7-inch material plus radio sessions and introduced four newly recorded tracks to satisfy ongoing interest in the group’s catalog.