Rack Monkey swinging from the 7" shelves

09/01/03

Paid-up members of the New York “anti-folk” scene Pre-War Yardsale offer four tracks of the very lowest Fi on their She Used To Be Cool EP, acoustic drones made for makeshift stages in bookshops. PWY don’t seem to be able to write lyrics, play, or even keep time in places, but you have to love the deranged intimacy of something this shambolic being pressed up, sold and listened to on the other side of the world. It’s more like receiving a chain letter than buying a record, and on that basis it’s not bad… www.a-ok-records.com If I’m buying that in London, perhaps New Yorkers are buying the Selby Tigers / The Kitchen split on Croydon’s Wakusei Records. Perhaps not. Either way it’s a good burst of just-hard-enough indie punk on both sides – the Selbies gaily splice Kat Bjelland with These Animal Men for a quick-fix singalong on Snoball, while The Kitchen's Legion Of Mary Team goes newer wave with three-plus minutes of gummy chug and shudder. Plus they have a singer who sounds like Madonna bitch-fighting Cyndi Lauper in a helium plant (in a good way). www.wakuseirecords.co.uk Just over the Watford Gap, Doves session pianist Martin Rebelski has gone solo in true Mancunian style; Scarecrow sounds like an Atlantic soul instrumental recast for the Grand Central set, starting with a live drum and building up on a strong, funky guitar riff capped with organ warbles and raygun blurts. Best of all, you can twitch to it like the living dead – all back flips and baggy trousers, it’s the sound of a rock-literate clubber reared on Northern Soul. As Oldham Street as a Bench anorak. www.rebelski.com Finally and very briefly, the white 7” pressing of Audio Bullys’ We Don’t Care. I know you’ve heard it. But: a) it’s a white 7” b) it’s fucking ace, a, big, nasty-sounding pile-up of solid beats and blood-spitting punk vocals. It's also the first record ever to use the phrase "what tha faaaaak" as a rhythmic device. Yeah, they're probably about as tough as the Chemical Brothers in Real Life, but this still makes that High Voltage business look like the pile of novelty shitmunch it quite obviously is.

www.the-echo.com/ Click here to discuss these reviews on our forum. Previous Rack Monkeys: November 2002 October 2002 September 2002 August 2002 July 2002

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