Can Spice Girls make music with iPhones?

Critics will say the Spice Girls and Go-Go's never made music. Certainly, those bands never made music with iPhones.

A funny, creative YouTube video is starting to go viral. The clip, viewed more than 147,000 times, showcases an all-female band from Great Britain, called The Mentalists, re-creating "Kids" by MGMT with only their iPhones and iPod Touches.

Kim-Leigh Pontin, the band's singer, told CNET News on Friday that she came up with the idea while she and her band mates were messing around with their Apple handhelds. They acquired all of the instrument-simulation software from the iPhone App Store.

"I'm the band's biggest geek," said Pontin, 30, whose day job is working as a designer for an interactive TV company. "I'm really a want-to-be geek. Is that worse?"

On the video, titled "Live iPhone musical performance," Pontin plays a software version of the ocarina, a flute-like instrument. The Ocarina app was created by Smule.

Alice Offley, 27, the group's bassist, uses her device to play the miniSynth, a keyboard synthesizer app from Yonac Software. Kelly Appleton, 26, the band's guitarist, plays the Retro Synth application from Iconic Apps. Lyndsay Evans, 28, the drummer, uses the DigiDrummer Lite application from developers Magnus Larsson and Nick Rudolfsky.

According to Pontin, they weren't paid or encouraged by any of the app makers. Nonetheless, the companies involved like the attention.

Jessica Peters is a public relations representative for New York-based Yonac Software, which makes the miniSynth. She said the company couldn't ask for a better demonstration of its wares.

The Mentalists

(Credit: Duane Melius)

Pontin, who said the band struggled slightly with software latency problems, did have some suggestions for software makers.

"There's a tiny little delay when hitting (the screen) that doesn't happen all the time," Pontin said. "It makes it hard to adjust for it a little. There's just a tiny bit of uncertainty."

"We're working on improving that," said Peters. "There used to be more latency. We've definitely improved it."

Pontin said not to worry too much about the delay: "The fun factor of holding a musical instrument with you wherever you go makes up for it."

[SlimGem]

That was cute. It made me happy. Then again, girls make me happy just by existing.

[pentest]

Why would you compare SG with the Go-Go's?

While the former sucks and has no talents, the latter at least has some. I think you meant to compare SG with Bananarama.

What is next comparing backstreet boys with The Damned?

[sandonet]

I loved the Go-Gos, but they were controversial because they were accused of being weak musicians. There's no question in my mind that Belinda Carlisle had the voice of an angel. ;)

[3rdalbum]

I object. The Spice Girls did have talent. It was raw talent at first, and over the years it became more and more polished. The studio recordings do not do justice to the group - if you want to hear them really sing, download the recordings of one of their London concerts in 2007.

Also, can I point out: In 1995, the music industry was in the red. In 1996, the Spice Girls came along and the music industry went back "into black". In 1999, the Spice Girls take a year-and-a-half break, and the music industry starts losing money again.

[SlimGem]

I liked them all, including the Bangles. I don't get hung up on the whole "talent" thing.

If I like the song, that's all that counts for me.

[SeizeCTRL]

Impressive! Very close sounding to the original with the exception of the vocals. MGMT are great! They deserve more credit than they get and hopefully this will give them a few new fans.

Very cool that they did all of this using iPhones and apps and did it live.

[dascha1]

Simon says... so another GB band to make it in the U.S. though doubt to make it from the U.S.

[bob_dango]

Why does the headline reference the Spice Girls? This article is about the Mentalists, not the Spice Girls. Seems unnecessary, but whatever.

The Mentalists rock (check out their site, free mp3 downloads).

[sparrowhyperion]

Now THAT was cool....

[cvaldes1831]

Clever and cute. Well done!