17th May, 1998
Last night a PJ saved my life
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"Broken Homes" by Tricky"Anti Histamine" is scarier than anything you have ever heard, with Tricky's mad-eyed psycho babbling over the top of a brooding beat whilst Blondie's "Heart Of Glass" is kept captive in the basement in a gimp suit. "I keep telling them I don't give a fuck about the millenium" snarls Tricky and you realise that it's true - he would be making this kind of gloriously disturbing and unique music no matter whether it was five seconds to midnight or quarter past four in the afternoon. "Money Greedy" is last up, a speed rhythm over a Public Enemy sample that fills your head like a migraine. Whereas Massive Attack make innovative and fascinating music that feels full of the weight of the world and intensity of depression, Tricky treads a similar path, yet far more menacing, like some insane and dangerous Deep South preacher man who's sold his soul to the devil. Well, would YOU mess with him? Rating: 10/10
The Rest"Ava Adore" by Smashing Pumpkins"Czarina" is the first b-side, a mellow narcotic-paced track that relaxes on the beach at sunset as tides of softly-strummed guitar gently lap at its feet. "Once In A While" arrives last, dragging an off-kilter rhythm and a velvet-draped tune along with it by the scruff of the neck. US rock may be a little on the serious side now (cf Pearl Jam), but it's grown up gracefully, and the Pumpkins are the most downright graceful of them all. Rating: 9/10
"Universal Plan" by Earl Brutus"TV Tower" takes disco by the throat and beats it into submission with a baseball bat, then steals its wallet. "Bonjour Monsieur" gatecrashes Eurovision with distorted guitars and guttersnipe vocals, taking Plastic Bertrand for a joyride and shagging Katie Boyle. Nil points, but it doesn't give a toss. "Gypsy Camp Battle" sounds like the soundtrack to someone's stoned nightmare, with ultra-violent Sputnik meets Moroder sci-fi synth and drum machine noise making an assault on the BBC radiophonic workshop. Dr Who Gives A Fuck, in other words. Bring your pale indie kids to Earl Brutus. They will educate them into the ways of the world - or at the very least shag them senseless. Which is why the world needs them. Rating: 8/10
"Lonely, Cryin', Only" by Therapy?"Kids Stuff" is the first extra track, another relatively tuneful Husker Duish (there's a word you don't write everyday) offering that, were it by any other band, would blow you away. Here, it merely diverts. "Disgracelands" is last, a slow building goth metal old track that echoes The Mission and Metallica. There is also a video of "Lonely" on offer here, but - as usual - my CD driver can't cope. I would imagine it does not involve the boys sitting around doing their crochet however. Rating: 8/10
"I Love Rock And Roll" by The Jesus And Mary Chain"Easy Life Easy Love" is the kind of song the Mary Chain churn out effortlessly, that barbed wire rock and roll strum typified by "April Skies" and "Darklands", where the Reid boys fantasise they are living in sun-bleached deserts and snake-infested swamps in the good ol US of A. Which isn't that much different from East Kilbride when you come to think of it. "40,000K" sees them back with one foot on the monitor, all "hey hey"s and distortion pedals. "Nineteen666" is a weird road movie of a song, speeding across the US with Hunter S Thompson and Jack Kerouac and a sky the colour of drug-fuelled nightmares. The Mary Chain are as likely to stop making this kind of disgruntled adolescent rebel music as Bill Clinton is to turn celibate, but - like Wild Bill - that's why we love em. Rating: 8/10
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