The Thousands

So when I was a little kid in New Zealand, I used to love this show called Peppermint Twist, basically a low-budget local Happy Days. Mods and Rockers slicked their hair back and fought over who had the fastest Hot Rod, everyone wore roller skates for some reason, floral skirted teens danced the short-lived dances of the day and radiant girl groups performed songs of lost love and tears on the dance floor under a single shimmering mirror ball.

The Icypoles were made for Peppermint Twist. They’ll fix your heart and then break it again because they can. They’ll trip the cheerleader at the hop just to see how hard she falls. But they don’t have hard hearts, and this, their first 7”, tells the story. What do you do if the boy won’t stick around? Sometimes they sound like Sylvie Vartan in the year 3000, all the wide-eyed innocence of young love shot through with a hint of something more sinister… they’re tough girls deep down. Bop-shoo-wap indeed. Perfect pop music even the squares can dig.