The Time Between

Brinsley Schwarz. I always loved these guys (and still think Nick Lowe is a genius) and being able to hear their first few albums (Silver Pistol is terrific all the way through) is great – what’s almost better is the live stuff. My favorite is the Greasy Truckers album – this includes some hard to listen to Hawkwind and Man but also a full Brinsley’s set. It’s soulful and rocking. It’s not hard to hear their influences – Clover (listen to Harvest off the first Clover album for the Brinsley’s blueprint sound) and the Band (especially lyrically Nick seemed to be trying for the gothic Americana feel that Robbie Robertson did so well – interesting given their English upbringing. Elton John did something similar on Tumbleweed Connection) but they have their own style and sound. There’s also a great live set from Cardiff in 1974 – which has more cover songs on it. Very soulful – for Brits.

Another English band that I had the pleasure of seeing numerous times years ago was the Kursaal Flyers. Their Choc’s Away album is flawed but has some great songs on it – and great playing (the pedal steel and guitarist are particular good). They go from faux country to faux 50’s rocking doo wop to English music hall. They were a pretty funny looking band – Paul Shuttleworth seemed to model himself George Cole spiv character in the St. Trinians movies. Definitely worth checking out. This album was before their big hit single “little does she know” and shows. Great as some of these songs are it would be hard to imagine them in the charts.
Obviously this was all pre-punk stuff – and both of these bands had all but disappeared by ’76 – the year Punk broke - and were amongst the many bands who were destroyed by the three chords wonders. Only Nick Lowe managed to make the change from pubrocker to punk royalty – producing the Damned’s first album – and having the first single (So It Goes) on Stiff.

McDonald and Giles
As a youth I remember gazing at the groovy clothes and gorgeous women on the cover of this album and marveling at how cool life could be. I never bought the record as these guys were in King Crimson – and prog was not for me. What a fool I was. It’s a great record – it has the same summery feel as Wildwood by Paul Weller. You hear it and you’re in the middle of an English summer (well the one day when it’s not raining). It’s a terrifically atmospheric record – with great moody songs (and Steve Winwood on a couple of tracks) and it sounds totally fresh today. If you hear this without knowing it’s pedigree you’d think it was a new band – like Midlake for example. Well worth checking out – and look at the cover and tell me you aren’t jealous! Nice to see this in the Mojo best Island disks list too. I guess it’s prime for re-discovery.

There’s a number of albums I’ve heard recently that I never heard the first time around and am finally catching up with – Mason Proffit – for one. I have to say most of them are disappointing. Maybe because they don’t have the familiarity of the stuff I grew up with or maybe because they’re just not that good? Sure the playing and singing is generally terrific – but the tunes just don’t make it. Maybe there’s a reason I never heard this stuff then.