WOW, DO SNOW PATROL HATE AMERICANS. HALFWAY through this record, buried under a feedback avalanche at the start of ‘Little Hide’, they’ve included an answerphone message from bassist Mark McClelland to the abode of singer Gary Lightbody and drummer Jonny Quinn, dropping the bombshell that they must change their name from Polar Bear or face death by big writ from the American band of the same name.
Which not only explains the two-fingered title of their debut album but also throws light on why it sounds like every influential American band of the ’90s being chained, in turn, into a spin dryer and having brain-eating robot bugs drilled into their heads by a grinning Thom Yorke. Easy targets first: The Breeders are mashed to a gibbering, glistening pulp on ‘Starfighter Pilot’, ‘The Last Shot Ringing In My Ears’ takes the Black & Decker to Lou Barlow’s torpid whining and ‘Absolute Gravity’ garottes every wide-trousered rock-rap tosser it can find with a ball of trip-hop razor wire. Seven Gadaffi-friendly tunes in, however, they come over all [I]faux [/I]flattered, as if realising that any more Yank baiting and they’d be questioned by the CIA about the embassy bombings. ‘NYC’ is a humble homage to Screaming Trees and ‘Days Without Paracetamol’ is so Pixies it gains seven stone halfway through.
A-ha! But it’s all a trick! For as they’re about to be handed the keys to Buttfuck, they set about REM with jack hammers on closer ‘One Hundred Things You Should Have Done In Bed’. Revenge is sweet when scuzzy around the edges.
LIVE REVIEWS
Slayyyter played her take on Turnstile’s ‘Birds’ onstage for the first time in Atlanta. You can watch footage of the performance below.
Slayyyter is currently touring with her ‘Wor$t Girl In The World’ show. She added the cover to her set at The Eastern on Monday night (September 21).
She sang ‘Birds: Slayyyter Version’ near the end of the main set, following ‘Brittany Murphy’. She then came back for an encore featuring ‘Brand New Chanel$’ and ‘Beat Up Chanel$’.
It was her first live performance of the song. She originally recorded it for Turnstile’s ‘Never Enough: Versions’, a collection of reworked tracks released on August 28.
The 22 track release brings together new interpretations of songs from Turnstile’s fourth album. Contributors include Elton John, Hayley Williams, Blood Orange, A. G. Cook, Faye Webster, Four Tet, Oklou, Floating Points, Nourished By Time, Alex G, Julien Baker and Mustafa.
Panda Bear recorded a new take on ‘Magic Man’, while Dying Fetus gave ‘Birds’ another interpretation rooted in death metal.
See Slayyyter perform the track live and listen to her studio recording here:
Slayyyter trades the original song’s hardcore intensity for a bigger electronic sound that feels at home alongside her latest album, ‘Wor$t Girl In America’.
Turnstile first released ‘Birds’ on their 2025 album ‘Never Enough’. The song won Best Metal Performance at the 2026 Grammy Awards, where the album also won Best Rock Album.
In its five star review of ‘Never Enough’, NME pointed to ‘Birds’ and ‘Sole’ as reminders of Turnstile’s hardcore beginnings. It also praised the album for “furthering their unique, pop-facing take on hardcore”.
Slayyyter will join Turnstile on another stage next month. She and Die Spitz are set to support the band at the University of Kansas in Lawrence on October 6 for the ‘Never Enough Tour Pt. 2’.
It has been a big year for Slayyyter. Her third album, ‘Wor$t Girl In America’, came out in March, and NME’s review highlighted its mix of “brash, sleazy pop” and late 2000s indie sleaze sounds.
Last month, she performed Hole’s ‘Violet’ for triple J’s Like A Version. Courtney Love called the cover “a delight” and encouraged Slayyyter to “keep wiping the floors with us”.
A few weeks later, Slayyyter took ‘Wor$t Girl In America’ to Reading Festival. NME’s live review declared that there was “undoubtedly a star before us on stage” and praised her “rasped, rocked-up delivery” and growing confidence as a performer.
