Coming across like a less-mopey version of The Killers or The Bravery, Electric Touch has spent a lot this year on the road playing high-profile festivals and creating a lot of buzz. The band formed just over a year ago and spent this year playing SxSW, ACL, Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo Music Festival, V Festival in addition to touring with The Fratellis. The band's self-titled debut came out at the end of the summer on Justice Records.

Electric Touch's CD is a solid piece of 80's new-wave crossed with 90's indie-rock. The band is composed of three Texans (guitarist Christopher Leigh, bassist Ross Dubois, and drummer Louis Messina) and a British transplant (frontman/guitarist Sane Lawlor). The band has a distinctive sound as Lawlor has a tendency to sound a bit like late-period John Lenon (thinking specifically of Lenon's work with Cheap Trick) and the band's rhythm section falls somewhere between Cheap Trick and a more aggressive version of Duran Duran. Producer Chris Smith (Meat Puppets, Built To Spill, The Dandy Warhols) adds a clean feel to the band's sound where the vocals and instruments are equally highlighted and he also gives the disc a "big rock/arena" sound.

This is one of those CD where, if you like one of the cuts, you'll likely enjoy the whole disc. While the band's sound is consistent across the disc's ten tracks, none of the tunes are repetitive and Electric Touch's debut is engaging from end-to-end.

Six of the disc's ten tracks are streaming on the band's MySpace page (link below) and here is the promo video for "Live In Our Hearts".


Electric Touch just finished an East Coast tour and are currently playing a few shows around Texas. Upcoming tour dates are:

Dec 8 2008 8:00PM, Scout Bar, Beaumont, Texas
Dec 9 2008 8:00PM, Scout Bar San Antonio, Texas
Dec 10 2008 8:00PM, Dos Amigos, Odessa, Texas
Dec 12 2008 8:00PM, Warehouse Live w/ The Secret Machines & Perry Farrell, Houston, Texas

Links:
Electric Touch's MySpace Profile