Event: Easter Happening clubnight, Saturday April 7

HAPPENING
SATURDAY APRIL 7TH

Let us present some Easter bunnies...

Live:
LES BOF!
MELODY NELSON
THE RAZZ

Then resident DJ Phil Istine and guest DJs from Toy will spin your world via ’60s/’70s dancefloor psychedelia, garage, beat, and general rock’n’roll wondermints!

‘Happening’ has now established itself in London as the grooviest place to sample the delights of the Shindig! universe. The leading magazine for ’60s and ’70s music, in conjunction with Sweet but Deadly Promotions, have made a corner of Stoke Newington their own little subcultural haven, inviting the best bands and DJs to stoke the sonic fires. Come meet, greet and party with like-minded souls ’til your head explodes with delight!

@ The Waiting Room (formerly The Drop)
below The Three Crowns, 175 Stoke Newington High Street London N16 0LH
8pm-4am. Free before 9pm, then £6 entry, cheaper after midnight
Buses: many. Train: Stoke Newington (from Liverpool St)

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Record Review - Doug Tielli

DOUG TIELLI

Swan Sky Sea Squirrel

Tin Angel CD

‘Woozy’ is the word that best describes this debut album by Canadian avant garde musician Doug Tielli, a well-known face on Toronto’s underground scene. The multi-instrumentalist spent three months at an artist retreat centre on Toronto Island putting Swan Sky Sea Squirrel together, writing and recording whenever he felt like it. The resulting music, which features Tielli on everything from guitars to trombone, is strongly impressionistic.

On the opening ‘Yes I Am Lonely’ you can see him sharing a late evening camp fire with mates, as they embellish Doug’s folky croon (imagine Bon Iver on acid!) with their making-it-up-as-we-go-along background vocals. It sets the scene for a more focused meander through Tielli’s minimalist tunes, some jazzy, some trippy. A highlight is ‘Riversea’, which sounds like an lost Os Mutantes nugget that’s begging to be used in an arty stoner movie.

Chris Twomey

Record Review - Death By Chocolate

DEATH BY CHOCOLATE

Bric-a-Brac

Darla CD

Anyone who remembers él Records’ campy English pop from the late ’80s is going to love this! The third Death By Chocolate album, their first for a nigh on a decade, is quite possibly their best yet. The formula hasn’t changed a great deal – twee girly vocals, funky keyboard-driven instrumentals and bizarre voice interludes still abound – but on Bric-a-Brac they sound better and smarter than ever.

It kicks off with a spoken word menu from an Italian restaurant in the ’60s before launching into a very funky version of the theme tune from ‘Are You Being Served’. A few moments later and you’ll have learnt the names of Russian astronauts on the Stereolab-esque ‘Kosmonaut’ and sped round the South Coast on the album’s pure pop highlight, ‘Bantam Motorbike’. Alas, it’s all over way too soon. Here’s hoping they don’t leave it so long next time.

Ashley Norris

Record Review - The Cathode Ray

THE CATHODE RAY

The Cathode Ray

Stereogram CD

Despite trends coming and going, Scotland has always maintained a strong tradition of songwriting in its purest form. Although singer-guitarist Jeremy Thomas and former Josef K front man Paul Haig originally wanted to fuse late ’70s New York and Manchester influences, their own character soon emerged, taking in a much broader spectrum after the latter left to concentrate on his solo career. After Haig was replaced by former Scars/Mike Scott guitarist Steve Fraser (who also joins ex-Bluebells/TV21 bassist Neil Baldwin and drummer David Mack), Thomas wrote more songs and the group recorded its debut album.

The set is a beguiling mixture of Postcard-style pop (‘Patience Is A Virtue’), Joy Division-Magazine drama-cruise (‘Get A Way’), subtle post-punk dissonance-meets-Magazine (‘Get A Way’), Bowie balladeering (‘The Race’) and Velvets-style rhythm guitar underpinning gems like first single, ‘Around’.

Absolute quality – this deserves some attention.

Kris Needs

New video from Welsh pop wonders The School

Record Review - Sleepy Sun

SLEEPY SUN
Spine Hits
ATP Recordings LP/ CD

This San Francisco band of five brothers (fact or clever backstory fiction?) release their third album on the new ATP label. Having opened for Arctic Monkeys, Black Angels, and Low Anthem their hard yards are done and some time with the exposure of focus is due. Their biography calls them a “heavy pop machine” and that’s a pretty accurate description of where they are heading now. Their previous Zeppelin-flavoured work has been toned down on Spine Hits, though not completely eradicated. The effect of recording in the desert with Queens of Stone Age and Eagles of Death Metal alumnus Dave Catching is apparent in the tones heard. I also immediately picked up a restless feel running through the album, as is they are playing for their lives, as if saying ‘it’s do or die for us’. Many songs have segments of differing tempos and feels, making for a disjointed feel. Still, the playing is muscular: overloaded guitars, big drum sound, and the gentle vocals creates a smart opposing dynamic.

‘Stivey Pond’ sets off with a foreboding brute of guitars before lightly skying into a wave of post-coital tenderness. ‘Siouxie Blaqq’ is a dreamy, brushed love letter superbly rendered with melodic deftness. "Boat Trip" has that spidery Velvets whimsy playfulness we all love, yet without the emotional impact a wayward junkie can have. ‘V.O.G.’ could be a Humbug off-cut - a good or bad thing depending on your love for Alex Turner and co.

Albums are usually so front-loaded with the best material it’s a strange sensation to find the opposite happening here. The last five tracks are all different and all mesmerizing. ‘Martyr’s Mantra’ is twisting, broody modern psychedelia a la Tame Impala/The Horrors. You sense Spiritualized/Verve in the long slow hazy opening to ‘Still Breathing’, though it makes way for a countrified yearn and strum and plaintive harmonica passage. It is five minutes of beauty beyond words. ‘Yellow End’ has a slight music box melody intro that blossoms into a blues rock-pop song covered with a black veil of melancholy. ‘Deep War’ drifts in, a wounded broody animal shot through with an arresting drunken voice of pain. We finish with ‘Lioness (Requiem)’, an approaching storm of Gilmour-y squalling guitars.

These cosmic travellers should not be lumped in with the current new wave of shoegaze bands (despite the vocals being pretty much recorded exactly as the Black Angels do). They have a strong identity, one steeped in progressive pop-rock of the early 70s and the alt-rock and shoegaze of the 90/00s. I foresee this album being played a lot in my house this summer, probably whilst lying back in the garden with friends. I can’t wait.

Phil Istine

Live Review - Horisont / Graveyard / Admiral Sir Cloudsley Shovel

Graveyard + Horisont & Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell

Camden Underworld, London 22nd March 2012

It’s retro rock time at the Camden Underworld as denim and leather swamp the subterranean venue for some uncomplicated ‘70s metal style thrills.

“You guys at the front might want to stand back,” intones Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell frontman Johnny Gorilla, “Because the last time we played this song the Devil appeared”. Despite such comical stage patter and antics the band actually look like they’re playing for their lives in front of the large Underworld crowd. Tracks like ‘Red Admiral Black Sunrise’ showcase their straightforward yet hugely compelling take on the proto-metal sounds of the early ‘70s. OK – so perhaps they play one self-indulgent guitar solo too many but no one in the venue seems to think this is an issue.

Horisont have diverged from their original Deep Purple/Mountain style hard boogie workouts to progress to rock that sounds more like Uli Jon Roth-era Scorpions but still retains some of the doom-laden quality of their earlier material. Live they’re even more headbanging than on record with dynamic dual-lead guitar lines suggesting an appreciation of NWOBHM and proto-power metal acts. Where you stand on this development in their sound depends on your appreciation of the raw juvenile elements of heavy metal music. Personally, I love it. To the outsider it might appear strange to see these five young Swedes on stage looking like Status Quo roadies and sounding terminally unfashionable but in rock music you sometimes have to suspend disbelief and just nod your head to the mighty songs and riffs – and those songs and riffs are utterly sensational.

Headliners, Graveyard have an altogether more serious take on retro music, playing a blend of Zeppelin/Sabbath hard rock that’s taking them out of the underground and rapidly towards mainstream success. Playing the pick of their material from their two albums, including killer versions of ‘The Siren’ and ‘Blue Soul’, the band alternate between sinister slow numbers and all-out pulverizing rockers. The outbreak of moshing and crowd-surfing in the eager Camden crowd just serves to prove that this band is the real deal.

Austin Matthews

Record Review - Alabama Shakes

ALABAMA SHAKES
Boys & Girls
Rough Trade CD/ LP with bonus 7”

Hype alert! Following an EP last year and recent live 7" on Third Man Records has come sold out debut gigs in the UK. This time hype comes in the shape of a gospel-soul rock quartet from Athens, Alabama, who are hot on the lips of all the cool media outlets (us included!). Fronted by Brittany Howard, her voice sits somewhere between Aretha Franklin and Amy Winehouse and there’s no denying it dominates proceedings. The music isn't shy on the quality front neither, as the guys play as steadfast as any classic Muscle Shoals line-up you care to mention. Ringing guitars and precise metronomic rhythms never put an earthy foot wrong.

On dramatic opener 'Hold On' Howard tries to out-Followhill king Caleb himself in the sandpaper vocals department, and the signs are good. 'Heartbreaker' is straight from the church - dominated by a down-on-the-knees gospel vocal delivery, ably supported by some glorious Hammond layers. It could have been on 'Back In Black'. And 'Hang Loose' is cracking, a dirty little piano-pounding rock'n'roller with life-affirming punchy chorus. It’s these heights that only elevate the disappoint for much of what’s left. 'Rise To The Sun' whirrs along in a cacophony of drums and scratchy guitar, but left me unmoved. ‘Boy and Girls' is an indistinct ballad, the sort Etta James used to fill her albums with once the hits had been written. 'I Found You' and 'You Ain't Alone' demonstrate what is fundamentally wrong. Nothing much happens at first, then a crescendo is built up...but the emotional pay-off is sadly lacking. 'Goin To A Party' feels no more than a demo, an outline sketch of something that you'd expect to developed. Closer 'On Your Way' returns to the Kings Of Leon arena, with gutsy defiance at an unjust lover. We see a peak into their qualities again here, even if it is borrowed wholesale from another band!

They seem like a record company's wet dream, for they should appeal to both fans of 'gritty' rock'n'roll like KOL and the tortured retro-soul of Winehouse and Duffy. Do they get the best of both worlds with their investment? Perhaps. I can't help feeling though that this is neither rocky enough for the former, nor heart-wrenching enough for the latter. Falling short on both fronts, I'm left wanting a lot more from this album.. All the ingredients are there for this band to really produce some killer material. For now though Boys & Girls doesn't rise above. But if they just refine their songcraft a little we perhaps could expect some consistently good rock’n’roll soul in future. If this was homework and I was teacher I’d mark it ‘promising’.

Phil Istine

News – Tompkins Square's Luther Dickinson 78 for Record Day

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Tompkins Square Rolls Out Line of 78 RPM Discs Record Store Day Exclusives from Ralph Stanley, Luther Dickinson San Francisco-based record label Tompkins Square announces the first in a series of releases in the 78 rpm 10" vinyl format. The first two will feature previously unreleased recordings from Luther Dickinson (North Mississippi Allstars), and Ralph Stanley. Both 78's will be released as a limited edition of 500 copies on Record Store Day, April 21, 2012. Luther Dickinson plays medleys of Southern melodies on his 78, including "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah/Beautiful Dreamer" on the A side and "Nobody Knows The Trouble I've Seen/Peace in the Valley" on the B side. Ralph Stanley's 78 features "Single Girl", with "Little Birdie" on the B side. Tompkins Square owner Josh Rosenthal comments, "A lot of new turntables play 78's, and many 78 collectors listen to their records on modern equipment. Tom Waits, Elvis Costello and Nick Lowe have all recently released 78's. So I thought it would be fun to start a line of them." The label will also release a white label 45 of Hiss Golden Messenger's "Jesus Shot Me in The Head" from the forthcoming album 'Poor Moon', b/w the unreleased "Jesus Dub," on Record Store Day. Hiss Golden Messenger's album "Poor Moon" is set for release April 17th. Hear Luther Dickinson's "Nobody Knows The Trouble I've Seen / Peace in the Valley" Hear Hiss Golden Messenger's album "Poor Moon" VISIT TOMPKINS SQUARE DOT COM

Live Review – White Hills, Bristol

WHITE HILLS + THOUGHT FORMS & DIN MARTIN

The Croft, Bristol, 19^th March 2012

This was my first visit to The Croft and, unfamiliar with the layout of the place, I stumble into a side room and witness a young punk/metal band performing a rousing fist-pumping rendition of ‘Am I Evil’ by Diamondhead. As it turns out I was in the wrong place but the young chaps playing (The Hellcats?) raise my spirits before the night’s proceedings proper begin.

Now in the right room I’m just in time to see catch the first number of opening band, DIN Martin’s set. The young Germans are extremely competent though something about their experimental art rock fails to strike a chord with me. Occasionally they whip up a righteous effects-driven maelstrom but many of their songs just left me cold and I’m left wishing quite frankly that I was still watching the shambolic charm of The Hellcats.  

Thought Forms take the stage in an unassuming fashion but proceed to deliver an absolutely storming set of droning noise rock. Powered by muscular rhythms, their slacker soundscapes are both raw and monumental. Here’s a band that deserve a headline slot – I could have watched them for hours.

White Hills are absolutely at the top of the game currently with a superb new album Frying On This Rock and a live show so monstrous it could open up a new rift in the time-space continuum. Their riff-heavy multi-dimensional spacerock is shot through with the spice of dark glamour and nerve-shredding psychedelic joyrides from guitarist/vocalist Dave W’s fretboard. On the opposite side of the stage, bassist Ego Sensation is the epitome of astral allure and the band are never too far way from lift-off to the stratosphere on another megalithic jam. Catch them on this tour while you can, less these star children are planning to one day return to their own solar system.

Austin Matthews

Record Review - Dean Allen Foyd

DEAN ALLEN FOYD
The Sounds Can Be So Cruel
Crusher CD, LP and download

This Stockholm trio, featuring former members of Roachpowder and Mother Superior, have had their debut in the can for nearly two years before a record label saw fit to release it. Thank heavens they did, for we would be poorer without it. Nine tracks of acid rock and beyond always brings a smile to the Happening universe. What’s on offer you ask? Epic opener ‘Please Pleaze Me’ has plenty of cliches you come to expect from psych rock: fuzz guitar, splashy drums, dramatic female backing vocals, and a slight air of something not being quite right with the world (“sky keeps burning” etc.). Yet still it is swirly magnifique. ‘Lovely Sort of Death’ is all Cream-indebted heavy riffage, with some blistering bass runs to get you on your feet. The short ‘Steady Rollin Man’ has a familiar slide guitar intro, and what you think might be a Stones-aping blues roller also comes with the Creedence magic Delta boogie too. ‘Revelation Blues’ is the most commercial number on here, a blues-pop ditty reminiscent of both fellow Swedes The Soundtrack Of Our Lives and band du jour The Black Keys.

On a different tack is pastoral beauty of ‘She's So Blue’ - all flute lines, wah-wah guitars and stoned vocals, building to a mid-song frugging crescendo before returning to its original state. As if to say ‘Hey, everything is cool with me after all’. ‘Into The Pearly Gates’ and ‘The New Dawn’ have that Led Zep/Wolf People hairy prog-rock vibe, 1971 guitar tone, loose frenetic drums, etc. The strings come out for closer, the yearning ‘Witches’. It’s almost perfect, but it holds back slightly. Actually this album probably shows too much respect for the musical past for it’s own good. Who know whats could be achieved were they to let loose a bit more. This album has lots of different sounds, and is the work of excellent musicians creating a coherent whole. Don’t expect originality, but do expect an excellent 45 minutes of Hendrix/Hawkwind/Page-inspired retro rock’n’roll.

Phil Istine

News – keith Christmas Returns

KEITH CHRISTMAS 

RARE APPEARANCE FROM ORIGINAL GLASTONBURY PERFORMER!

March 23rd at The Village Pump, Trowbridge

http://www.villagepump.org.uk/FindUs/directons.html

Keith Christmas has a long and storied career spanning six decades! He performed at the original Glastonbury Festival in 1970, recorded for ELPs' Manticore and Nick (Bevis Frond) Saloman's Woronzow imprints, and played guitar on Bowie's Space Oddity album. Mighty Baby was the backing band on his ’69 debut album, and Cat Stevens, Rod Argent, and members of ELP, King Crimson, and Hawkwind have contributed to his albums!

This is his only gig currently in the South West. He will be playing 2 x 45 minute sets, performing some of his older numbers for the first time in many years ('Travelling Down', 'The Fawn', 'Evensong' and 'Forest & The Shore' will be in the set) as well as songs from the last two albums and the next one. Don't miss your opportunity to see this legendary performer!


Visit keithchristmas.co.uk for more information.

Live Review - Y Niwl, Bath

Y NIWL 

The Royal Oak, Bath 
Saturday 17th March 

Pic credit: Owen Davies

It can be quite disarming to watch a band take to the stage (such as it is in this cosy Bath ale house) without a microphone or stand in sight; it also poses a problem for anyone in such a band attempting to introduce their songs. Not that Y Niwl are concerned with such fripperies. Arming themselves with space-age guitars, a low-slung jazz drumkit and a reedy sci-fi organ, the four shaggy-haired Welshman have blasted into their rocket-powered opening number within seconds of ambling onto said un-stage and the heat doesn't let up for the next 40 minutes. They're routinely labelled as a surf band – not least by themselves – but these ears picked up on a myriad of reference points beyond the speedfreak Joe Meek/Jack Nitzsche-heavy instrumentals. Shades of Nederbeat, Sunset Strip garage, British beat and B-movie soundtracks are in abundance, and of course there's that indefinably out there Welsh thing going on too – a curious and endearing quality that pitches them halfway between tea-drinking mummy's boys and mushroom-chomping psychedelic warriors. It's no wonder Gruff Rhys has seized upon Y Niwl's prowess to back him up on occasion – he no doubt recognises his own early musical adventures in Y Niwl's raw prowess.

With last year's debut album still picking up plaudits at every turn it'll be interesting to see how they get on opening for The Jim Jones Revue next month in venues considerably larger than tonight's. I have a feeling they'll be blowing plenty of minds along the way.
Andy Morten

Record Review - The Freddie Steady 5

THE FREDDIE STEADY 5
1000 Miles EP
Steady Boy 7” /CD

As it's currently SXSW time in Austin right now let me introduce to you a local five-piece. Freddie Steady Krc has been bashing out music for many a year and the maturity of his song-writing is clearly evident. The drivetime AOR of the title track covers all the bases of classic rock with a nifty melody to boot. The gloriously dark 'Twisted Smile' is covered liberally with cheesy 60s organ, which can't detract from it's loveliness, and the unexpected Byrdsian guitar break in the middle takes it to another level. The quality dips a bit now, 'My Whole Word' being an automaton plodding rocker, but finishes sweetly with the lovelorn folk-rocker 'I Will Wait For You'.

The two bonus cd tracks couldn't be more different: 'Crackin' Up' is a super smashing great Sir Douglas-style Texan country fuzz rocker (originally done by The Wig), before they stink the place out with a novelty country-rock song about a bear. All in all this EP is the proverbial mixed bag, which should have something sweet inside to suit you.

Phil Istine

The Felice Brothers free download & tour

New York desperadoes The Felice Brothers have just completed the successful release of their fourth album Celebration, Florida and begin their European tour tonight. To preview the shows their label Loose Music is giving away 'Cus's Catskill Gym' for download via Soundcloud here.

A band of two brothers and three longtime friends, The Felice Brothers are highly revered for their live show, having been described as being “probably the most enthralling band currently to be seen anywhere in the world right now”. Adding their take to a long list of classic boxing songs (think Simon and Garfunkel’s ‘The Boxer,’ Warren Zevon’s ‘Boom Boom Mancini,’ or Bob Dylan’s ‘Who Killed Davey Moore,’) The Felice Brothers underline their darkened aesthetic on their track ‘Cus’s Catskill Gym.‘ The song carries much like an actual fight would, with momentous riffs and electronic thuds echoing throughout the story of Mike Tyson’s career.

EUROPEAN TOUR - MARCH 2012

14 BIRMINGHAM Institute

15 DUBLIN Academy

16 BELFAST Spring & Airbrake

17 GLASGOW ABC

18 MANCHESTER Academy 2

20 LONDON Koko (*SOLD OUT*)

22 BRUSSELS AB Box

23 NIJMEGEN Doornroosje

24 GRONIGEN Oosterpoort

26 BERLIN Postbanhof

27 UTRECHT Tivoli

The Felice Brothers on Facebook.

Live Review– Earth, Union Chapel, London

EARTH

Union Chapel, London, 11^th March 2012

Earth playing live in The House Of God? It’s a peculiar blend given that the spiritual proclivities of mainman, Dylan Carlson, but then again the band have always inspired (and sometimes required) a kind of devotional worship over their varied career.

With a line-up of bass, drums, guitar and cello, this latest incarnation of the band wring an incredibly mournful exaltation from these base elements. Recent material has moved away from the drone of old towards an astonishing electric pagan folk, highly repetitious and patient in developing simple song structures into something enveloping and bewildering. An additional element to the show is added by the venue itself – so hushed that you can hear the unamplified conversations of the band between songs and the clang of strings during a tune-up.

Playing material primarily from latest album, Angels Of Darkness, Demons Of Light II, the band have a weird kind of telepathy, playing with huge sympathy to each other across the dark instrumentals. Two tracks stand out particularly – the weird experimental downer funk of ‘The Rakehell’, and the martial stomp of old track, ‘Tallahassee’, which brings to mind some sort of Old Testament liturgy.

The night feels unsurprisingly more like a mass than a rock gig. In this high-vaulted chapel we’re left in little doubt that the spiritual channels have been opened and we’re receiving a transmission from somewhere beyond.

Austin Matthews

Record Review - Jouis EP

JOUIS

Kaleidoscopic/Psychotropic EP

self-released CD / download

Hailing from Brighton and onto their second release, the “Psychedelic Progressive Jazz Pop” combo are firmly in ‘up-music’ territory. It’s muso rock for jolly people and I’m sure it will divide Shindig-types into the traditional love and hate spheres, with no room to overlap.

Louis Pavlo’s organ dmoinates Jouis’s sound, and considering he’s an excellent player it’s understandable. Opener ‘Who Shot The Monkey?’ sounds like the result of a challenge to come up within 15 minutes your best Kaiser Chiefs/Arctic Monkeys impression. Plenty of energy but nothing stays in the memory banks. ‘Medicine Man’ is much more agreeable, building in a swirl of hazy vocals and kicking with a mighty bass and organ riff that is pure Dodgy meets Supergrass (I mean that in a good way!). ‘Medicine can make you swirl, make you spin, make you sweat, make you forget”. Amen to that. More like this and you’ll go far guys. ‘5878’ is a whimsical piece of harmony circus-pop, all changing time signatures and keys, with a touch of the Doors about it (especially in the jazzy middle improv section). It probably requires a certain sense of laconic humour to properly appreciate (I don’t possess one alas). Finally ‘Hallelujah Ukulele’ lays on the stop-start drama, a strange mix of funky pop and English psychedelic melancholia. Sounds interesting, but it just left me cold.

Progressive, bluesy indie music. It’s not man-the-barricades inspiring but they deserve more attention in future. Definitely catch them at a summer festival if you see them on the bill.

Phil Istine

Record Review - Janey & The Ravemen

JANEY & THE RAVEMEN
Stay Away From Boys
Soundflat CD & LP

Following The Trashbones effort, another debut Soundflat release hotly anticipated by yours truly comes courtesy of Londoners Janey & The Ravemen. The line up reads like a who’s who of fine beat merchants - including founding members of 90s beat combo The Kaisers (George Miller and Johnny Maben) and former Rapiers bassist Brad Dallaston. Hell there’s even Ed and Rosie from new doom-psych and Happening favourites Purson on here! Here is an exceptionally authentic take on classic British beat. No reinvention or innovations were attempted on this LP! It evokes a time where the Joe Meek roster was in charge of the charts and every teenager in Britain seemed to have a copy of Beatles For Sale in their bedroom. ‘63-’64, the glory days of innocent British pop music.

Partially recorded at the analogue Mecca that is Toe Rag Studios, the album contains more covers of hits of the day than Miller originals. Let’s deal with the latter first, for they are first-rate. ‘I’m Gonna Have My Way’ is pure Merseybeat with a perfectly measured, teasing vocal from Janey. ‘I Know’ is the centrepiece ballad, a real beauty, making comparisons to The Hollies or Gerry & The Pacemakers at their chart-bothering artistic peak. ‘I’m Alright’ brought to mind The Roulettes and The Dave Clark Five, whilst ‘She’s A Raver’ ups the tempo and is my favourite cut on here, with it’s Manfred Mann and Fentones qualities (not to mention some fun backing chants and smokin’ harmonica). The title track is the most American-sounding number here, and as a result comes across as a bit cheesy I’m sorry to say!

The numerous covers are expertly done. In fact the playing on this album never deviates from being just the right blend of beat-y energetic spikiness and harmony-rich janglesome restraint. We’re treated to a fine reworking of an old Kaisers song to make ‘He’s Gonna Two Time’, and the bouncy Sandra Berry song ‘Really Gonna Shake’ (with excellent drum runs) was an early favourite on first listen. Also pleasing is the faithfully swinging rendition of ‘It’s So Right’ (The Swinging Blue Jeans), the Honeycombs-recorded Meek classic ‘If You’ve Gotta Pick A Baby’, a not-too-wet take on ‘Snakes, Snails & Puppy Dog Tails’, and finally a sublime go at the Ann-Margret classic ‘I Just Don’t Understand’.

Overall then a fine effort that all beat fans should grab hold of. Playing safe on a debut album with this style of music makes sense, but I’d like to hear more originals on the second LP, as the songwriting is not just 60s style, but 60s quality.

Phil Istine