Might the plight of the humble Yellow Pages be seen as a sign of the times?
Once a household essential, it has been rendered worthless by the internet.
If it is to have a future beyond a doorstop it needs some creative thinking.
So its owners will be pleased to hear four former art school boys have applied a little.
In fact, Django Django, tipped as the best breaking band in Britain, might actually have made the pages’ lasting contribution to cultural life.
“The album does not take itself too seriously,” says bass player Jimmy Dixon, of the self-titled record his band released in January.
“We weren’t thinking about it being successful or not. The idea was to make it fun.
“We recorded most of it in Dave’s bedroom and we didn’t have a full drum kit. We had a floor tom and a couple of other drums.
“We would find things to mic up: Firewater is a Yellow Pages book with a drum beat hit on it.
“It sounded really good, so we stuck with it.”
Django singer, drummer and de facto leader David Maclean is the son of acclaimed visual artists Marian Leven and Will Maclean.
His older brother John was in the Beta Band and is a BAFTA-winning film-maker.
He is great friends with Andy Wake of The Phantom Band.
Perhaps most importantly, his cousin goes out with one of Super Furry Animals.
No surprise then to hear coconut sounds on the albumand to discover the bandmates have previously hit the stage in medieval smocks with tassels and bamboo leaves.
Dixon, originally from Leeds, was introduced to Maclean in Glasgow through a mutual friend.
Maclean met singer-guitarist Vincent Neff and synth-player Tommy Grace at art school in Edinburgh.
Maclean, who used to DJ and remix underground records, began to write with Neff under the Django Django moniker four years ago.
A year later the band got going, when the friends reconvened in East London.
Befitting the art school vibe, shows have become happenings and they design their own sleeves.
At a recent gig at the Roundhouse, London, there were swinging lightbulbs and Venetian blinds.
They have even supported Mr Motivator.
“We played at this festival, up in Yorkshire, maybe two summers ago. We were on at 3pm on the main stage and Mr Motivator was on right before us.
“He totally worked the crowd. They were absolutely loving it. He came off after 20 minutes and everyone was pumped.
“We went on and everyone was stood staring, thinking, ‘What an anticlimax.’ Everyone got on with eating their ice creams.
“I suppose at least we can say we’ve supported him.”
The artwork for Django Django is a Daliesque psychedelic desert scene, which Dixon says Maclean had done before they began to play together.
It became a touchstone for the adventurous, kaleidoscopic stew of an album.
“It was always in the back of our minds when we were making the record,” he explains. “It helped make the feel of the record.”
Grace, a graphic designer in his spare time, did the WOR 7” single and the visual side has always been important.
Dixon remembers buying Stone Roses records when he was 15 after seeing John Squire’s splashes.
“That was the first time I made the link between making artwork and making music.”
The reason they’re already being hyped as a band to take a punt on for the Mercury Music Prize is the record.
Five stars from The Guardian. Eight out of ten in NME. Heavy rotation on BBC Radio 6 Music.
Dixon believes their maximalist approach, being truly open to all influences, means the sound is difficult to pin down.
Fans of other groups with a similar ethos and knack for a hook – Hot Chip, Animal Collective – will find much to admire.
Dixon says with YouTube and the internet one can go from Dwayne Eddy to post-dubstep just by flicking through hyperlinks in a few minutes “We’d spent time writing a song, perhaps three or four weeks, and start by listening to surf rock from the 1950s and 1960s.
“By the time we finished we’d be listening to electro.
“We never questioned if we should or shouldn’t be doing something, we just had faith if it did come from one of us, it was going to have some kind of cohesion.”
Pavilion Theatre, New Road, Brighton, Thursday, May 10, 11.45pm, and The Blind Tiger, Grand Parade, Brighton, Friday, May 11, 10.15pm
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