The Next Big Thing

People have been asking what I make of the “new” Stooges track on their Myspace page. The answer is not much. I’m far more intrigued to hear Mike Watt’s contribution to the new Kelly Clarkson record.

Far more worthy of your dinero is the Eddy Current Suppression Ring on Dropkick Records. They’re making the kind of energised rock’n’roll that isn’t trading on anything but a jolt to the parts that don’t get too much fizz these days. Mr H first brought the band onto my radar some weeks ago and Glenn Terry of the fine Vicious Sloth Collectibles operation was kind enough to send it all the way from their native down under. As you know, the aussies have a way with this kind of thing. Imagine John Otway fronting a skewed approximation of Television, The Fall and maybe The Scientists. It’s punk rock but not as we conventionally know it. Or try this, Wreckless Eric duelling with Compulsion (remember them?) via the Feelgoods? By all accounts this is the closest the band has come to transferring their live jizz to the recording studio with anything approaching the intensity of a live show. The ECSR is an unexploded bomb and if they get closer to splitting their particular atom then stand way, way back or just bathe in that lovely noise. Quite what is being suppressed evidently isn't treatable by conventional medication. I get the impression that “Having A Hard Time” could last somewhere between 2 and 10 minutes depending on their mood swings, not to mention roundabouts. I’m thinking of adopting their “Insufficient Funds” opus as my theme song. It’s good that this particular incubation jar is out in Australia. That means it can gestate before the contents can be tampered with by what approximates a music press here. By the time they get here, the virus will be unstoppable. By all accounts of the cognoscenti in their part of the world, it’s pretty chuffing virulent as it is. Like the guy says "It's all square, even when it's round".

Available in the UK via Cargo.