OPPOSITES attract, so are you ready for the ska-core attack? Ready or
not, it's on its way. We've already witnessed the extended courtship
between the polar extremes of rap and plain old heavy metal . . . now
it's the union of primal reggae with hardcore speed-metal.
How do we define hardcore? Bands with names like Fetid Excresence and
Pus-Coated Sausage of Death creating 100mph music for boys to jump on
one another to. Ska? Much mutated from its lilting Jamaican origins into
an angular Anglo dance form; somewhat tainted by its having been taken
up by fascist boneheads.
And how do we define ska-core? Simply by listening to the Mighty
Mighty Bosstones and their current clang-skank-tastic EP: Ska-Core, The
Devil and More (on the Mercury label). Existing in a noisy wonderland
they've created for themselves in the gap between Madness and Metallica,
the Bostonian Bosstones are a plaid-clad, non-racist skinhead dance band
for skinheads of all genders (and the length of your hair is also
immaterial, actually).
''We played across Europe for the first time last year, and sure, we
attracted a lot of skins, but not Nazi skins,'' drawls gravel-voiced
vocalist Dicky Barrett. ''How can we possibly appeal to racists when the
band's line-up is as big a melting-pot as the US? Black, Jewish,
third-generation Irish, and English.''
How did you hit upon your blend of disparate musics?
''We're eight guys with a lot of influences, everything from Madness
to Motorhead, and it just happened. We decided we didn't want to limit
ourselves. It's not just this or that, or just funk. We go all routes.
We turn it up, we turn it down. Slower, louder.''
When and how did you start out?
''Forever. We've been saying we've been together for three years for
about eight years now. We started getting attention about four years ago
with our first two indie LPs, Devil's Night Out and More Noise and Other
Disturbances. We all grew up together. I never foresaw a career in
music. It was more 'Hey, Dicky -- you're funny, stand in front of us and
shout.' I just lay that horrible voice on everything, and the guys do
all the hard work. I figure we've four or five more years -- so that'll
at least be six years when I'm not roofing houses or doing any of the
hundreds of menial tasks I did before.''
Message for the world?
''Naah. We tackle some issues, but we're not overly heavy. Lyrically,
I can describe the problems, but I don't have the answers.''
And your recent plaid-draped appearance at Glasgow's King Tut's? Why
plaid?
''Ah, the Scottish angle! We wore suits on stage at first because even
if we couldn't play, we could dress up well. And I made the guys laugh
by looking like a used-car salesman . . . bad plaid trousers, jacket,
hat. And in Glasgow, even though we were jet-lagged because we'd arrived
in Britain a day late, I think our music and our plaids worked well
enough to bring two feuding clans together . . . the MacDonalds and the
MacTavishes had come down from the hills for the gig after two centuries
of war or something. OK, OK . . . I made that up. But we do want our
music to bring people together.''
We believe you, you grizzly-bear-throated charmer, you. But how best
to define the Mighty Mighty Bosstones? Think of Louis Armstrong and
James Hetfield getting together to hymn the Clash and Bob Marley. Think
of massed shouty voices roaring a meaty punk-rock chorus of ''Think
again! Think again!'' at 200mph as pianos and crash to the ground behind
them. Think again, think again! Knee the paradox in the gonads! Headbutt
the subtext!
Mighty Mighty Bosstones. Their upcoming LP was produced by Tony Platt,
who has worked with both Bob Marley and AC/DC; it's called The Mighty
Mighty Bosstones Don't Know How to Party. This is an ironic assertion,
rather than a question. They do know how to party. Boss. Mighty. Mighty.
EXCLUSIVE revelation! Probably because they want to sook in with me, I
have been granted sole merchandising rites to Runrig's Fleadh appearance
on June 5! Huzzah! I'll be doing a nice line in inflatable plastic
claymores that glow in the dark (#19.95, with Runrig inscribed). And
shields! And sporrans! And three-metre-long fingers of shortbread! An
emotive sight on Glasgow Green after dusk, I'm sure you'll agree.
Various: People Get Ready -- A Tribute To Curtis Mayfield (Shanachie)
-- The creator of soul riches beyond price is now a quadraplegic,
disabled by the on-stage collapse of a lighting-rig. America being
without a free national health service, Curtis Mayfield's wealth has
been considerably reduced. Hence this benefit album featuring sundry of
Mayfield's admirers -- Jerry Butler, Bunny Wailer, Huey Lewis and the
News, Delbert McClinton -- performing some of the epics he crafted for
the Impressions and as a solo performer. I know that Curtis Mayfield's
music has made lots of you out there cry; made you happy; given you
consolation or exhilaration, so you all know what you have to do. We owe
Curtis Mayfield more than we'll ever be able to re-pay: make a start by
buying this LP today.
Nicky Holland: Nicky Holland (Epic) -- A classy, breezy, jazzy, folky
LP from an urbane songstress. Not quite in the k.d. lang/Nanci Griffith
league yet, but one to watch. Lloyd Cole helps on vocals; LA-domiciled
Blue Nilester Robert Bell plays on, co-writes, and produces one song. We
are happy to have new Nicky Holland LP; we await Blue Nileys' with
intense anticipation. Haste ye, laddies, haste ye!
New Order: Regret (New Order/
London) -- Ageing glam-gloomsters cheer across the land! Our four-year
wait rewarded with a fab single! Misery you can enjoy! Muscular and
melancholic bass! Spikey guitar! Plangent tune! Bez's maracas! Bernard
Sumner's blankly-dolorous tones! Hurrah!
Mouth Music: Mo-Di (Triple Earth) -- Much frothed about in more
excitable sectors of the media, Mo-Di defies easy categorisation.
Repeated listening is a must. It's an organic, propulsive kinda
ambient-Gaelic-Afro-world-house-trad groove-thing, and it seduces you,
and it's got godlike ex-Swamptrash skin-thrasher James Mackintosh on it.
Its list of instruments includes ''Arab warble, beer bottle, firegrate
and enigmatic priest''. Check Mouth Music out on tomorrow's Talkin Loud,
the last in the current series of the info-taining Scottish chat show
that makes Nyghte Flyghte look like a bunch of dull old jossers asleep
on a sofa.
David Bowie: Black Tie White Noise (Savage) -- ol' unevenly-sized blue
eyes is back, successfully re-inventing himself as a Sinatra for the
electro-pop nineties. I shame-facedly retract my previous criticisms,
Dave, me old mucker: you can still do it.
Nanci Griffith: Other Voices, Other Rooms (MCA) -- a belated thumbs
aloft to Glasgow's special favourite, planing some of her favourite folk
songs down to a state of emotional perfection. I'll be the one weeping
joyously throughout Nanci's three nights at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall
in June.
COMPETITION WINNERS
THOUSANDS of Depeche Mode fans knew that Vince Clarke was the one who
left the 'Mode in 1981 for success with Yazoo, the Assembly, and
Erasure. Alas, there could be but five prize-winners: Sarah E. Lee of
Crieff, Ewan McDowall of Kilmarnock, Lynn Curran of Mount Florida,
Hillhead's Helen Aitchison, and Kevyn Whitelaw, of Stirling.
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