Yeah! This band! This record!

Is it really august since i last put pixel to screen?



It's august since i last went to a gig.. and you know what? I am not missing it as such. I have done more than 30 years gig-going and i am wondering if i have done my time?




The irony was too much when i stood upstairs at the Prince Albert, ear-plugs in my ears.. looking around at an audience likewise equipped and then spotted that the band were entirely wearing earplugs too! WTF! Am i missing something here? Sure rock n roll needs a visceral power but this is where the nonsense stops for me.



I am not missing the live experience currently.. but i AM loving listening to music. Listening at home or in car has become almost a purer and more intimate joy.



Some sounds and rhythms and tunes are doing it for me.



This re-issued disc is really doing it for me: ( record company trailer)



I have a soft spot for early 80s skate punkers The Big Boys ( !). I only became aware of them 2000 or so.. but they slotted right in to my Minutemen/ Tar babies/ Meat Puppets /sst thang. I consider myself pretty lucky to have seen Biscuit, or Randy 'Biscuit' Turner play our very own town, Brighton somewhere around 2003, a year or so before he died. Us few attendees at the Freebutt had a treat. Mainly for me, the singer is the band.. and Biscuit, Like Jello Biafra, has distinctive voice and big presence. Anyone forming an openly gay punk band in 1980 in Texas either had a death wish or balls the size of monster truck tires! An early band to combine punk n funk sounds.. and historically early use of a pink toutou as frontman attire. I saw Scratch Acid working the ballet get-up in the 80s, but to be fair they came from Texas too and had probably seen the Big Boys in their neighbourhood. It was great to see Biscuit perform ( even if the band were a bar-band friends of his and not the big boys themselves) -- 20 years on from his heyday he had big presence and a manner almost like a shakespearian lovvie.. Camp as! and hilarious! Kind of a tubby punk Leo McKellern!!



Back to vinyl--- Skinny Elvis and Fat Elvis are great compilations, but this new product isa proper cohesive LP. Which to me is a nice thing. The instruments sound superb, plenty of space.. and vocals are urgent and rasping and yet with a touch of .. well: what? A touch of pathos.. or something forlorn? Maybe i am picking up on 'loss'. Gets me everytime. Nothing is too overworked, it is what it is and it is great. Recorded cheaply in 3 days, minimal overdubs ( ie virtually live) and i enjoy it just a little bit more with every spin on the turntable. Reader! You need more clips to see: ( nice history lesson coming up)



and this is a fun video clip to watch:



There's other nourishing discs too: " Lullabies make the brain grow" for one.. and such a great title..
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