The Spying Game
They’re a bunch of hot new rockers with an iconic frontwoman and the stadium sized sound. Meet Sleeper Agent, the coolest thing to come out of Bowling Green, Kentucky since John Carpenter.
Ed Power, 16 Jan 2012
By the time you read this, up-and-coming Kentucky power-pop ensemble Sleeper Agent will likely be in the middle of what sounds like the strangest pleasure cruise in history – a breathless jaunt around the Caribbean in the company of Dinosaur Jr., Sebadoh and Weezer. Whatever else, it should make for a fascinating cocktail-hour conga.
“It’s going to be awesome, man,” enthuses the band’s Lee Williams, brimming with the gee-shucks amiability particular to American heartlanders (even the hipsters). “We’re going to be on this cruise liner, playing to a bunch of fans. We’re on the same bill as Yuck. In fact we go straight before them. We cannot wait. From what we hear, Weezer are really great guys too. It’s so exciting to think about. The whole thing blows our mind.”
Should their popularity continue soaring at the current rate it won’t be long, you suspect, before Sleeper Agent have better things to look forward to than going on before Yuck in the middle of the afternoon. With a sound that skips lithely between Kings Of Leon, The White Stripes and Pixies – it’s rawk, but with a lot of DayGlo – and a front-woman icon in the making in the shape of 19-year-old Alex Kandel, this six-piece look to be going places in a hurry. They’re signed to the same management as The Strokes, have been championed by the American music press (such as it is) and are mentioned in the same breath as The Black Keys and Yeah Yeah Yeahs. That whooshing sound is their profile ascending towards the stratosphere. Six months from now, everyone is going to know who they are.
Which is probably just as well, considering Kandel and Williams each dropped out of school to join the band – a move their parents were not best pleased about.
“Initially there was a lot of stress between us and our parents,” says Williams. “The first couple of months after we left education, not a lot was happening. We hadn’t been signed. Sure. we’d played some great shows. That was about it. Getting a deal and knowing we’d be touring for the next two years – that was a huge relief to us. Since then our families have been nothing but supportive. We’ve all moved home – what’s the point paying rent for an apartment if you’re on the road all the time?”
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