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| The Bad Joke That Ended Well |
The Bad Joke That Ended Well – The Bad Joke That Ended Well
(Stolen Body Records)
After a long trip-hop hangover,
Bristol seems to be finally re-emerging as a real musical force to be reckoned with
in the UK. My recent joy at discovering the debut offering from Velcro Hooks
has now grown at hearing the delightfully badly named The Bad Joke That Ended
Well. The Bristolian Sextet (now that’s a
band name) trade in dirty, gritty, nasty garage blues covered in swirling
organs and throat shredding vocals that send uncomfortable shivers down the
spine – the kind you get when a creepy colleague invades your personal space at
the office Christmas party and you realise everyone else has gone on to the pub
and it’s just the two of you left..........Anyway, the music. Sounding
somewhere between the Animals, Grinderman and Lou Reed, the album opens with
the wall of sound that is ‘Journeyman’ before the rhythmic and organ heavy ‘I’m
Not There’ kicks and really get things moving. There is a deranged quality to
this music that I can imagine creates something of a frenzy in the live arena
but on record is the aural equivalent of watching a madman thrash about in a
cage, all wild eyes and foaming mouth.
‘Hold My Hand’ is almost a
Country-Blues lament with ‘House Of The Rising Sun’ style keys slathered all
over it whilst ‘Mountains’ is a perfectly titled tune that creates images of a
lone-ranger ambling through the Rockies on the back of a weary steed. ‘Dance of
The Dead’ reminds me of Listen With Monger favourites The Clench with its Wild
West tinges but it’s on ‘Sundown And Out’ that TBJTEW really explore their
sinister side as the hypnotic and slither keys work gives the song a seductive
swagger that is the soundtrack to the Devil trying to buy your soul. To finish
up with, ‘Strangler’ belts out like a tune the Rolling Stones wish they could
still produce if only Jagger had taken a more Shane MacGowan approach to his
vocal performances. A foray in to North American pastures is surely on the
horizon in 2013 and, with any luck, some success. My only word of caution is
that I can’t hear any obvious stand out tracks on here that would suggest
commercial success. Then again, it took The Black Keys a couple of albums to
properly crack it and now look at ‘em!?
More information:
Live Dates:
15th December - On The Rocks, Bournemouth (Vinyl launch)