Labels: Boss Tuneage
Review by: Andy Malcolm
This one came in from Boss Tunage on 12″, rare to get a 12″ for review in the mail. So thanks Aston! Nice weighty blue and white vinyl too. The cover drawing is waaaaaargh though – some kids and a dog playing in the garden with a robot/alien that has an old school TV for a head and tentacles, and a bird emitting smoke from it’s beak, very peculiar.
Bionic rock out in a guitar fashion. It’s the kind of thing I was into back when Collective started, i.e. it sounds like the Wildhearts! Such us on chuggy opener “C’Mon C’Mon” which has lyrics about going to the indie show. The vocals are very ROCK in a Ginger style and they have many melodies and harmonies that would have fit quite nicely on “Earth Vs”. Chris Thrash told me he met Ginger backstage at an Electric Frankenstein show and that Ginger was a twat. Ha!
I could play low slung air guitar to “Mission”, no problem. That’s a good track. Apart from at the end where he shouts “Oh fuck you!” over and over. At least I think that’s what he’s saying? What else? Well, “Greatest Hit” has chugga-chug riffs like Far. Overall, this is distinctly a rock record that I found endearingly listenable, and without any absolute clunker tracks. The funniest bit was the song where the singer goes “You got what you wanted, all the punkz and skinz are united against you” – apparently cos they wear “Silver Pants”?. Ha! This song also has some Far riffs.
I suppose, if post-grunge, melodic brit rock (played by Canadians) is still your bag and you were put in a cryogenic chamber a la Han Solo after reading Collective in 1997, and have just come back around to read Collective again for the first time since then, you might still believe it is 1997 upon hearing this record. But it’s not, it’s 2002. Though the Wildhearts are back together you’ll be pleased to hear. Erm, yeah! Fun for a little while, and as a neat reminder of what I listened to before I became a jaded old emo bastard. They are certainly good at what they do and it didn’t piss me off to listen to this record, in fact I am not ashamed to admit I enjoyed it! It’s much better than wimpy nu-emo shit I can tell you that! These guys are ex-Doughboys and two members have awesome big ole fuck off beards! Rock on Bionic, I hope Ginger gets you a support slot on the next Wildhearts tour! And get a good design for your cover art next time instead of this atrocity!