I’ve been told that a live album is usually the wrongest way possible to get introduced to a band (the Who’s Live at Leeds perhaps being the exception). So this band, this bunch of old, English punkers, release this platter I’m holding and hearing, and I like it a lot. Very much the jam-style rock plus the Fall’s repetition and abrasiveness (plus sung by a guy who can keep a solid tone). They’ve got their three chorders like “Viva la Rock ’n’ Roll” (which sounds more evil than pop) and “Urban Kids” and a whole whack of others that wouldn’t be outta place among the Buzzcocks and banks of their kind. Y’know, snotty and fun. Their run-throughs of the Ramones’ “Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue” and their piss on “Louie Louie,” titled “Plastic People,” is spit out and played with that middle-finger-up barre chord sass that punk used to be about. There are some longer songs that show another side of the band, a noisier, experimental, avant garde band that played how they wanted to play. “Release the Natives” is bleak, Glenn Branca-style guitar noise. “Splitting in Two,” this one too surpassing the six-minute mark, builds for a few minutes before exploding into a Mission of Burma-like rock assault. This live album, full of tape hiss and audible audience chatter, captures a band lighting fires on whatever stage they play. Shit, man, if this is how these geezers sound now, I’m gonna step into the wayback machine and hear how they sounded before I was born. If anyone ever tells you that the live album intro is the wrong way to go, slap ’em across the head with this one. (Bongobeat, www.bongobeat.com) Patrick Michalishyn
Winnipeg music & culture since 1989