The omens have never been good for Boy Kill Boy. Their first gig was cancelled, and its replacement was a poisoned chalice: headlining over a then-unknown Hard-Fi. Since then, the support band's wild success has dragged their east London contemporaries in its wake like a startled horse pulling an empty cart. Often touring partners, Boy Kill Boy have quickly become the Ocean Colour Scene to Hard-Fi's Oasis.
It's a comparison at least one band member might enjoy. Drummer Shaz, who formed Boy Kill Boy with singer Chris Peck in 2004, is unabashed in his love of 1990s indie music. His favourite band are inelegant rockers These Animal Men, of the short-lived New Wave of New Wave, briefly fashionable in the early 90s, before Britpop killed it.
But the problem with having people who know music obsessively in bands is that they might be tempted simply to emulate what they know, rather than create something that is indisputably their own. And that is the trap Boy Kill Boy seem to have fallen into.
So, take the current template for indie crossover success, the Killers. Boy Kill Boy obviously fancy being them, and they try to conjure up some stirring keyboard-led intensity from beneath the requisite rush of stabbing guitars. But Ivy Parker, their attempt at replicating the welling emotion of All These Things That I Have Done, falls far short of the mark set by the Las Vegas band.
They have a bash at being the Kaiser Chiefs, apeing their northern counterparts' runaway keyboard rhythms and agitated vocals, but can't match them either. Their latest single, Suzie, even tries to follow the lead of Seaside by the Ordinary Boys. But the band Boy Kill Boy resemble most isn't one of today's chart-botherers: it's a bunch of long-forgotten indie also-rans. As with Shed Seven, each song is enthusiastic but underwhelming, bogged down by bluster and the belief that a frequently repeated chorus is enough. There's no laddish arrogance, however. Insecurity is the force behind Peck's big notes and masticated vowels.
Yet there are a few moments here that belong to Boy Kill Boy alone. On Friday-Friday, a tale of small-town violence, Peck's clipped, aggressive style works well with the grinding rock guitars. The woah-ohs and la-la-las of Six Minutes turn obvious indie-pop into something that's at least fun. But Boy Kill Boy too often drown in a shark-infested sea of influences. These Animal Men, anyone?