TRASH CITY

Last Saturday I saw the Faux Kings first gig, these masked men play nothing but the simplest, stupidest and most glorious music - a new style they call “wrestl’n’roll”. They hark back to the halcyon days of the 1990’s when wrestling was at it’s peak and bands like the Mummies and Thee Headcoats roamed around blasting peoples ears with trashy guitars, trashier attitudes and thee trashiest songs.

Their set was good and short, their two-chord tales of wrestling prowess and luscious-limbed-luchadoras mixed in with a few frat-rock staples and most appropriately ended with the greatest song ever written about wrestling, ‘The Crusher’. 

I tried to catch the lead singer for an interview after the gig but they had disappeared so we’re still in the dark about where they’re coming from. I guess wrestlers have to have a hobby too, eh?

https://twitter.com/FauxKings

https://soundcloud.com/fauxkings

https://www.facebook.com/FauxKings

The Bonnevilles are a band close to my heart. The first gig I ever booked myself was above an aul lads boozer in Rathgar called The 108, a real shithole, and the Bonnevilles were gracious enough to come down and play it on the promise of ‘hopefully we’ll make some money on the door’. They are true believers and they have been dragging themselves and their two man wrecking machine all over this world spreading their punk blues gospel for many years.

This, their second album, sounds like the fruit of their labours. Their first was record was recorded on cassette, all screaming lo-fi hellfire and hoodoo. ‘Folk Art and the Death Of Electric Jesus’ is the sound of a band that has matured over the years, it is the sound of a band that have been lifting copies of the bible in a dark corner for months and are about to pull your head right off your neck.

The Bonnevilles are Hound Dog Taylor and RL Burnside using Black Sabbath’s equipment. They are also Andy McGibbon and Christopher McMullan, respectively a deeply soulful vocalist, delta surfing guitarist and powerhouse drumming man-mountain.

Recorded with producer/engineer Walter D’Goon, the record is clearer than their debut effort, not a single cassette was bothered in the making, but their latest offering has heaps more heft and power. The songs are still raw as a flung egg but you can hear the time was put in to let them grow a little.

Opening salvo “You’re Not Alone” is a mission statement, all grinding guitars, howling vocals and thunderous drums.. but the whole album doesn’t carry on this way. A few songs in, things get a little sombre with “Kneel at the Altar Pt. 1&2” and kinda carry on along that tack for a bit which is where things get interesting.. “Separate Ways” is haunted by the not yet dead ghost of Morricone and “Hell” keeps you on edge for the duration.

The next song, ”10,000”, is my pick of the whole album It is the release from the tension of the previous songs. Things stay heavy til the last track, a thoughtful acoustic murder ballad.. yup, the Bonnevilles did an acoustic murder ballad. You heard it here first.

So there you have it, folks. The Bonnevilles do not suffer from second album syndrome.

Keep your ears peeled for song samples and that!

http://www.thebonnevilles.co.uk

I first came across MFC Chicken playing in a dank pit in London last year, the place was hot, I was drunk and it sounded like I’d wandered into the Spanish Castle Ballroom in Seattle. They play the kind of loud, greasy, sax-driven white boy R&B that was heard in halls all over the northwest of America in the early 60’s.

I knew it would only be a matter of time before somebody scooped them up for a record..

Dirty Water got there first and ordered a platterful of deep-fried northwest raunch with a side of souped-up intros. The album opener “Chicken, Baby, Chicken” begins as it means to go on.. ‘One chicken, two chicken, one chicken, two chicken, three chicken, four chicken..’ Who needs meaningful lyrics when you’ve got Col. Spencer wailing on sax?

The whole album reeks like a Holloway Rd chicken shack of the sounds the godfathers of grind, The Sonics, would have cut their teeth on.. from the nutty instro of “Wild Safari” to the straight up Fabulous Wailers buzz “Royal We”. That’s not to say it’s derivative, MFC definitely have their own spin on it, the whole album is filled with the kind of raw humour that would make Chuck Berry blush.

There’s not much else I can say about this record other than that I fucking love it and you are going to love it too.

One million stars.

http://www.facebook.com/MFCChicken

http://www.dirtywaterrecords.co.uk/

softpowerrecords:

Monorail Glasgow (12 Kings Court) 

Norman Records  

Big Love (Japan) 

Soft Power 

(via septembergirls)