Brave Captain
Go With Yourself CD
Witchita.
by Keith Mclachlan.
January 16, 2001.
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Brave Captain, my Captain! Thie record is a fearful
mess. These ears have weather'd every track, and I feel like
a loser. The past was clear, the Boo Radleys were gear, the
people all agreed. While this music sounds so uncool, this
unimaginative pile.
But O once! Once! Once!
O the booming songs of old
Filled this sir with joyful love
Now old and boring.
I kept my ten Quid!
Thank god for listening stations,
Go with Yourself, no really.
Brave Captain, how can I explain, total disappointment, My father wouldn't like this either, and he likes Tony Bennet. The record is a lead balloon, crashing on my ears ouch, A fearful mess but at least I didn't buy it.
Let's celebrate the feeling!
Of not buying this record!
Walk the plank Brave Captain,
Where is my Eggman cd?
Brave Captain
The Fingertip Saint Sessions Volume 1 CD
Wichita. webb03.
by Keith McLachlan.
September 2, 2000.
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Martin Carr's new project is not a great leap from his
old stint as head Boo in the Boo Radleys. The music
is on a rather large scale and it is a bit wobbly and
off kilter yet still utterly and classically pop.
Well it is slightly different because it is a bit
Olivia Tremor Control actually, and that really is not
a good thing in my mind these days, but where as they
were hicks that wished they were as English as King
Crimson, Mr. Martin is actually English so the
proggish efforts exercised on some of the songs here
are maybe more easily excused as part of an
unavoidable cultural drift net.
I think I would have preferred the name Brave Shadow over Brave Captain though, if only for the comic book hero appeal of anything shadow. Alec Baldwin could have played Martin in the movie about the making of the upcoming Brave Shadow errr...Captain record and Tyra Banks could play Gorwell Owen the wizard with the fancy knobs. Oh but the name is not the real problem I sorta have with this record though, for it is the clear opinion that it does not really thrill me that underlies my slight disappointment. Martin sings and that is definitely not a problem as he is nearly indistinguishable from a real singer, but rather the tunes he croons are all meandering and pastoral but without any shards of beautiful cacophony that used to catch up on your ears and make a beautifully tangled mess of everything.
He recorded this mini-lp mostly with the aid of the previously mentioned Gorwell Owen who does all the recording for Gorky's and Super Furries but as where due to overt familiarity and similarity of daftness he has a common wavelength established with those bands, here he might be employed simply to institute a new direction for Martin and it is not been a completely successful enterprise. Maybe the best tunes have been saved for the album, maybe the dopey politics have been exorcised, maybe his stint as acoustic balladeer will last just for the one song (the truly dreadful 'starfish') and just maybe if he had chosen Brave Shadow then he could have become the summer's second victim of irony (see all the Baxendale non-love) for soon every rock critic and supposed serious music fan with a miner's helmet will be crawling up every crevice of Thom 'with the redundant pretentious h' Yorke's rectum searching for the meaning of his truly banal self flatulating lyricism and leave Martin alone with his William Blake quotes and paintball goggles. The mere thought makes my skin itch.
Bressa Creeting Cake
Bressa Creeting Cake CD
Flying Nun. fncd-385.
by Keith McLachlan.
May 26, 1997.
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This release may in fact turn out to be a crossroads for Flying Nun
Records. In the past decade or so the number of new bands (by new I
mean bands that didn't form out of the ashes of previous nun bands)
signed that might be considered anything other than tragic have been
few, and other than Garageland, those few are barely worth
registering. But hey this is a brand spanking new band, well at least
I haven't any knowledge of their connection to the extended family of
Flying Nun, and wow they are quite ace.
The first song on the LP is a calypso sounding number indi cating these boys are on a different track than the rest of us. Throughout its span, the record encompasses bouncy, spongy pop forms like "Palm Singing" and "An Early Microscope" and eerily bizarre ballads like "A Chip That Sells Millions" which seems to be about telling everyone in school about a brilliant new flavour of potato chips. The vocals are highly stylized, and varied, from high pitched dawdling to swinging pop mode. Their wit is undeniable, and it is matched by a dazzling inventiveness of musical textures and well spun patchwork of ideas. Acoustic songs blend into more electric ones, that sometimes are augmented by electronic percussion and eclectic keyboard shunts.
Also, a recent package from Flying Nun included a postcard from Ed Cake (singer/guitarist) and he recounted the remarkable similarities between the story told in the fabulous tune "Rocketship" and the Heaven's Gate cult--he modestly admitted to his stunning soothsayer abilities, and you will be cheerfully surprised by his supernatural abilities as well.
So here it is, Flying Nun can either use these guys as a springboard back into meaningfulness or this record can serve only as a reminder of what once was and may never be again.
Brian And The Teenagers
Digital Vasectomy Martial Arts 7" vinyl
C.U. Next Tuesday. tu01.
by Crayola Summer.
October 12, 1997.
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The name suggested to me that this would be sort of Garage punky. I was
well and truly fooled. In fact it's OK indie, nice scratchy guitar sound
and some clever lyrics but no......y'know.......feeling.
the Brian Jonestown Massacre
Give It Back! CD
Bomp. BCD 4068.
by Keith McLachlan.
November 15, 1997.
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Sometimes you just need to ROKK!!! and well in those times you need a
band like Brian Jonestown Massacre cause you know Anton Newcombe was born
to shake his thing and make you groove and bust a move.
This record really was telepathically transported from 1967 to 1997 by some strange means of Soviet mind control, as the sitar is turned up high, the vibes are brought down low and man the groove is smoking as BJM delivers a nice set of blues inflected pop gems that sound either like T. Rex or the Stones, take your pick as I have had disagreements over both comparisons mostly cause truly I am not that familiar with either of those bands works outside of the hits.
But well when you take aim at the much lauded and very empty-headed Dandy Warhols with a track like "Not If You Were The Last Dandy On Earth" even with the sole intention of creating some contrived pseudo-controversial rivalry that doesn't really exist well that is almost what most would call rokk'n'roll baby.
Brideshead
Some People Have All The Fun CD
Marsh-Marigold. Mari 15.
by Keith McLachlan.
March 3, 1999.
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Exactly how large were the Smiths in Germany? I mean did I fail to
notice as all the hooligans were tearing down the Berlin Wall their
singing, in unison, 'Some girls are bigger than others' and turning up
their hearing aids while being careful not to crush the flowers in
their back pockets? If I did not then what is with the fascination
with them now? I mean every band on Apricot sounds either like the
Smiths or like a band trying to sound like the Smiths but ending up
with a sound closer to the Housemartins. Sure most of those bands are
from outside of Germany but the home market must be keen on that sound
for the purveyors of good taste there at Apricot and Marsh Marigold to
continue their endless fixation. Not that I am complaining, the
Smiths voice was heavenly and salvation for me as much as the next
wallflower and well Brideshead really are top notch students of the
Morrissey/Marr school of jangly melancholy. Brideshead, in fact, are
german but all the songs here are sung in English with English accents
and English disaffectedness/charm. What is lacking is pretension and
you know that is not really missed as you get a sense of wide-eyed
innocence instead of stern seriousness. The occassional horn
accompaniment adds to the whimsy and so it is more 'Ask' than 'I Know
It's Over' and well here at the threshold of spring what more could
you ask for? Melancholy boys with guitars, you gotta love it.