“If you feel like you’re not good enough then you’re probably not / And you know what / You never, ever will be.” Singing this silently for a whole week may seem to be disparaging to the extreme, but after listening to Music’s Not For Everyone, it could hardly be helped. Chain & The Gang have written 14 catchy blues and garage rock tunes, each one with clever and simple lyrics that you will find yourself singing incessantly. On the surface, the defining themes of these lyrics would be drug taking, and music making, however, these guys are not some superficial rock & roll losers. When you listen to the lyrics of “Detroit Music”: “With all these factories closing down / Who is gonna make that sound!” You’ll realize that these guys have political and philosophical convictions. “Music’s Not For Everyone” is a Jim Morrison type psychedelic spoken word-and-musical piece about the appreciation of music. “Does a moth know a flame just because it’s drawn to it? / Does a body know a bullet just because it got hit? / Do people who are listening to music even like it? / Do people deserve it, even when they buy it?” Also notable is the theme of self-loathing in “Not Good Enough” and “Can’t Get Away From Myself.” This album is the band’s second full-length and I would be remiss if I did not mention that these guys are a bunch of filthy Marxists. Their first full-length album is Down With Liberty…Up With Chains! “Liberty” is used as a symbol of Western greed and capitalism. Ian Svenonius, the lead singer of Chain & The Gang has released a book called The Psychic Soviet which might well be worth a read through! I love every single track on this brilliant album. (K Records, www.krecs.com) Kyra Leib
Winnipeg music & culture since 1989