GUARDS are living proof that this Twitter / Internet malarkey actually works! Closely affiliated CULTS (you don’t get any closer than your own sister) tweeted an update to their mighty list of followers a few months back that they feature on a new EP by GUARDS. Cue media explosion that sees the band reach record downloads on Bandcamp (the future - Richie Follin), and start a frenzy of label and booking agent war. The truth lies in the fact that intrigue in this very day and age with the immediacy of social networking is still as relevant as it has always been inside the music industry. Cause a stir, then a buzz, a maelstrom will surely then ensue. BANG! - we have the next big thing, right there, on your laptop, iPod or iPhone before you even know what hit you. Imagine if Marty McFly in Back to the Future opted to wig out on Earth Angel instead of Johnny B Goode. If so, the resulting frenzied prom doom waltz could have been sound tracked by GUARDS. Tell Laura I Love Her? More like Tell Laura I Drugged Her. What we do know of GUARDS is that they formed in New York City, New York, USA when Richie returned from a European tour to a recording studio with nothing in it but a broken electric 12-string guitar and an omnichord. He wrote and recorded a few songs for his little sister to sing on, but ended up singing on the songs himself. Enlisting the help of his friends (Caroline Polachek of CHAIRLIFT, James Richardson of MGMT, Loren Shane Humphrey of WILLOWZ) and family (little sis Madeline Follin of CULTS) to guest on some songs and they cheekily spread the word without his knowledge via Twitter and the Internet. So this is where 3 Syllables Records gladly step in. GUARDS are too good a band to ‘just’ be slapped on your MP3 player, and lost somewhere between GENESIS and GYPSY KINGS (not guilty) in your iTunes library - stuck somewhere in the unfathomable virtual cosmos of your bookmarks to never be found again.
