Today marks
the beginning of BSTV’s weekly recommended Jukebox, compiled and composed by Trash.
1. Bubblegum Screw – ‘Play Some Fucking
Stooges’
Electric
Owls has worked with Bubblegum Screw on a number of occasions – shooting the
band’s music video for ‘I Was A Teenage Fuck Up’ and, more recently, working
with them on the pilot episode of TV programme ‘Bandter’ filmed at the Alley
Cat on Denmark Street . As part of this latter shoot, the band also took part
in a pretty hilarious interview which we hope to be able to upload fully in the
coming month.
‘Play
Some Fucking Stooges’ is the band’s latest single and a key feature of the
Screw’s eagerly awaited second album, Filthy!
Rich! Lolitas! which saw them cross over the Channel to record it, having
spent a considerable amount of time gigging in France in 2013. The excess of ‘!’
in the title instantly reminded me of The Dictator’s Go Girl Crazy! album title from 1975. Furthermore, the band clearly draws it
influences, at least in part, from the garage and proto punk scenes of which
Handsome Dick Manitoba and his crew were a part in New York, as well as the Detroit
scene and its practitioners, of which this track plays homage.
Bubblegum
Screw has always worn its influences on its sleeve. Having watched them gig for
over five years that’s always been clear to me, though I find their punchy,
sometimes playful, and other times darker, fusion of glam, garage, punk and
rock ‘n’ roll utterly credible. Appraisals on Bubblegum Screw’s material have
often commented on its authenticity as an example of garage rock band that sounds
like it could well have been kicking around Max’s Kansas City or CBGBs. Furthermore,
in spite of changing line ups over the years (and indeed, since the filming of
both the linked videos), there is a stick-to-its-guns rock n roll spirit in
Bubblegum Screw that is totally unique within the contemporary music scene.
Watch
the official music video for a fast-paced and punchy piece of footage filmed by
Graham Trott and then veer over to the BSTV video, which was filmed by Electric
Owls, for a vintage Top of the Pops circa. 1975 feel (only 100% live) and which
sees the tiny stage at the Alley Cat only just big enough to hold them!
2. Healthy Junkies – ‘Cat Story’
Although
an older example of the Healthy Junkie’s addictive brand of grungey punk rock,
Cat Story is probably one of my favourite songs by the London-based quartet.
The band was formed shortly after vocalist Nina Courson met guitarist Phil
Honey-Jones in Soho, both of whom were in other bands at the time. Having tried
to play their existing material from these bands together, the pair soon
decided that they were keen to write brand new songs together, and so it was,
with the drafting in of TJay Tarantino on bass and Steve Nightmare on drums,
that the Healthy Junkies was formed four years ago.
The line-up has changed a
little since then – and it’s actually Adam Lewis on the sticks in Cat Story. The
Healthy Junkies have gone onto produce two singles and two albums, and The Lost
Refuge is their latest effort and an excellent contribution to the roster of
artists on Manchester-based STP Records.
The
Healthy Junkies’ angsty rock songs, executed with great passion and conviction
through their relentless gig and tour schedule, have earned them a bevy of
bans, many of them dawning on the band’s home turf at its ‘Punk N Roll
Rendez-Vous’ at The Unicorn in Camden, arguably one of the few unpretentious
boozers left in the area. Although a sort of ‘punk community’ has ‘adopted’ the
band in the words of Courson, its members are keen not to be pigeon-holed into
being labelled simply ‘punk’ and have similarly challenged lazy comparisons to
the Sex Pistols and Blondie. Neither of these are accurate in the slightest.
Although
the band often employ full-throttle guitar riffs on faster, ‘punkier’ tracks
like ‘Resistance’ (The Lost Refuge), ‘Trash My Love’ and ‘Manifesto’ (Sick
Note), Honey-Jones’ background in Industrial psychedelia in the form of
previous band HiroshAmour (also worth a listen), means that the soaring guitar
passages are often prone to wonderful, deconstructive freak-outs. The effect
isn’t unlike Killing Joke, musically speaking, although a little more complex
in their arrangement, and ultimately, more comparable to the grunge bands like
Hole and Nirvana that inform their music in a very central way.
Furthermore,
Courson’s vocals are unique and versatile: spitting and angry one minute (‘Play
Me’), softer and dreamy the next, as demonstrated by a gutsy cover in the form
of ‘La Vie En Rose’, also on The Lost
Refuge, as well through the narrative that unravels in Cat Story.
3. STASH – ‘Time Will Tell’
STASH’s
headlining slot at the ‘Stranger than Paradise’ live music night at Brixton’s
Hootananny opened with this killer track from the band’s eagerly-awaited album,
Resistor, which is currently in the
recording stages. The under-stated musical introduction comes courtesy of Nick
Stash’s bluesy guitar; a sparse chord sequence that echoes some of the more improv-orientated
Stooges recordings like ‘I’m Sick Of You’ or ‘Delta Blues Shuffle’ made in c.
1974 just after Raw Power (see The Stooges, ‘Original Punks’ LP).
Top-hatted
glamazon Becky Stash brings not only unprecedented style but incredible rang
and power in her vocals, which add richness to the song before picking up pace
as the song gathers momentum and Cristian Stash’s drums feel the full force of
his powerhouse tempos. The drumming is the absolute backbone to this and other
songs in the STASH set, and completely critical to the way the band is able to
quickly speed up and then deftly deconstruct to slide into
blues shuffle territory.
Although
fundamentally channelling garage rock elements, the psychedelic focus within
STASH is profound, which serves as a perfect counterpart to the trio’s mixture
of more playful and hard-edged material. Time Will Tell ultimately feels like a
strong sentiment or proverb in manner of ‘ce sera sera’, but then STASH quickly
raises the volume and quickens the pace, rendering it instead a mighty, impatient call
to arms and an admirable nod to the band’s varied set of influences.
