24/09/01-30/09/01
This week's PlayLouder Single Of The Week is, in fact, SINGLES of the week! Yes, folks, there's just too close a call between the two - well, four, in fact - finest platters on offer this week to pick just one.
First location for the trophy is East London for 'Mosh' (Fierce Panda), a six-track, double-vinyl outing that kicks off the wash with 'Love Can Wait' from unsung UK punk outfit Caffeine, follows through the cycle with The Parkinsons' 'Bad Girl' (if you haven't seen these Portuguese trash-rockers yet, you really ought to - a vocalist from another band recently told me of a live performance, telling me in reverential tones "the singer sat on a speaker, got his knob out, and... well, wanked! In front of a crowd! That's real rock'n'roll for you..."), and closes on spin with The Suffrajets' 'Universal Superstar', the prime cut on the collection - a dirty, down-to-earth outing reminiscent of 70s New York punk.
But, wait! There's more! Another single contained within this glorious package... Tung kick off the second chunk of vinyl - one of the UK's best unsigned bands, they give us 'Kidney Failure', which comes off as a hybrid between Rage Against The Machine, Slipknot and Marilyn Manson, but in an English kinda way. Reuben are another splendid band, this time from Aldershot way, and their 'Wooden Boy' gives us shivers as it veers from noisy rock to quiet bits before exploding in our faces in a climax (oo-er, missus...), and closing the proceedings is 'De-Change' by Elviss, another blast of power-pop... who needs Blink 182 when we've got all these guys on our doorstep?
Well, for a start you could check out the other Single Of The Week, the d®eftly-titled 'Go!' (Fierce Panda). Yes - the very same label, warm and cuddly that it is, have generously unleashed another six-track, double-vinyl single upon us. Whilst having played it to pieces all day, however, comments on individual tracks are nigh on impossible as the constant switching between 33rpm and 45rpm for these cheeky chappies has forced our loyal record deck into an early grave. However, by attaching a length of cotton to a tin-can and a safety pin and scratching the pin through the grooves we can make out the stage-trashing strains of Jimmy Eat World, San Quentin, Stapleton, Econoline, the great-named Kids Near Water and Irish noiseniks Jetplane Landing, the last of which actually went ahead and played a gig on the night of the World Trade Centre disaster. Kids, huh?
Give yourself a clean start to the week and buy 'Mosh' and 'Go' - and while you're down the shops, I'll have a new turntable as well, please...
Also worthy of your coppers this week is 'Androgyny' by Garbage (Mushroom), in which the lovely Shirl sings of her confusion between blokes and girls - "Boys in the girls' room, girls in the men's room...", it's all so confusing nowadays, isn't it? 'Androgyny' comes on like a lushly-produced hip hop track before kicking into singalong chorus, but then confusingly shapeshifts into a poppy bit in the middle. One might say almost androgynous...
Under normal circumstances I wouldn't piss on Blink 182 if they were on fire, but it would be remiss of me not to champion their new single, 'First Date' (MCA). While they may well be a dynamic tour de force on stage, their lyrics piss me off greatly - no, I'm not offended, just bored shitless of their puerile outpourings about dicks, asses and their mum's tits. BUT... miracles of miracles, they've managed to write a song that doesn't refer to any genitalia whatsoever, and it's damn fine. Singalongapunk in the way they do so well, it makes Green Day sound like Elbow - and for those who buy Blink 182 so you can hear naughty words, then you can buy it for the third track, 'Mother's Day'...
Crackout have had a couple of singles out previously on Precious Cargo, but they've obviously been saving up their best for their new label as 'You Dumb Fuck' (Hut) is excellent, a wild, passionate, multi-tempoed beast that carries a perfect balance - a la Idlewild - between pent-up aggression and radio-playabaility. (Huh? Whaddyamean they can't play it on the radio...?)
Finally, a young UK band that Mr. Panda missed out on, and he is probably kicking himself right now about it. Thoria's debut single, 'Keep 'Em In The Attic' (Red Crust), is awesome - a big, gloriously-produced noise that knocks ten shades of shit out of most of these big-name US metal bands taking over our charts'n'hearts. Maintaining melody and riff factors throughout, 'Keep 'Em In The Attic' is a mini-masterpiece, and I wanna hear more, you Coventry tykes. As they say on the radio... "definite ones to watch"!
Nik Moore
