I somehow have caught wind of the Band of Love and their debut disc Folk Fever, where disco meets trad arr head on, uncertain if any survivors. Is this a monster or a monstrosity?
Shit or shinola?
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And they have even played live……
I think even @thecheshirecat would baulk at this.
That is heartbreaking. I am on a lot more than nodding terms with most of the people on that stage. I was even dancing with one of them on Friday night! That almost puts me in the position where I could be the honest friend to give the harsh but fair advice.
Anyway, whaddayamean even I would baulk at this?
I accidentally caught them a couple of weeks ago on radio2 with Michael Ball. I heard them described and thought ‘I have to hear this’. I heard them and thought ‘I never want to hear them again’.
I thought of you when I saw this one turn up at work! My considered opinion (without having heard the thing, obviously) is that it sounds absolutely bloody ghastly.
Shit sandwich
Vaguely amusing on first listen. Would pale very quickly. Have to say, the lead singer is doing a strangely convincing Simon Nicol impersonation.
With a passing reference to Ian Anderson
(needs more cowbell … and flute)
I think it is guest vocalist Steve Knightley on Night Fever. I would get it if Show of Hands did it as a song mid set or even an encore, but it is the sheer relentlessness of the whole album. (Yes, I made myself listen to every track, or some of every track, on spotify, seeking any saving grace. It starts like eating the first choc in a box of All Tray, not too bad, but by the time you have had a few it is all too much, yet still you have to go on, until even the orange cremes on the second layer are exhausted and you are sick, ashamed and feeling guilty.
NO. That is all.
Didn’t click. Won’t click.
Not Shinola.
The little known follow up single by The Knack
Grit or Granola?
I’m not even going to listen to that!
You hit the nail on the head, Retro. I wanted to at least find them mildly entertaining but no. And I am a sucker for slightly wacky covers bands,
I don’t even know what Shinola is.
Didn’t he play as a forward for Newcastle?
The only Shinola I’m familiar with is a brand of watches from the US.
They have a little shop in London, too. It’s off Carnaby Street.
https://www.shinola.com/mens/watches/all.html
https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/114000.html
Shit
They even sound bored themselves! To make a musical Frankenstein’s monster come alive, you must add some thunder and lightning to the process, or it’ll end up sounding like this; a mix between the blandest kind of 90s Nashville stadium country and a first pre-recording rehearsal at the Muzak factory. Shameless shite.
Playing a folkie-acoustic cover of a rock/disco/punk/metal hit of yesteryear for a chuckle on a gig is a fairly reasonable idea, although a bit “old” nowadays. A whole album of them (with presumably whole shows of them to follow if said album sells) smacks of desperation and a complete lack of good taste.
They may have got the idea from “The Bunch” and their album “Rock On” from 1972. That one included the folk-rock stars of the day playing classic Rock ‘N’ Roll in a fairly-authentic style but was not a great commercial success, to put it mildly.
You’d think this lot would have noticed that A.) it’s already been done, B.) it flopped, the last time and C.) the stuff they’re covering can only be realistically re-done as tacky novelty songs with their instrumentation. Unless they intend to ham it up totally at festivals and make it a comedy “turn”.
The Bunch was a, um, bunch of, initially, at least as far as the instrumentalists were concerned, rock musicians playing some old fashioned rock (and roll.) Similarly the later and broadly similar conceit of Twangin’ and a Traddin’, which was more, and some of the same, rockers turned folkies, along with Clem Cattini, gracing instrumental surf-guitar music of the early 60s, that Cattini had often played on originally, if with folk instrumentation joining in. The most similar comparison would be Rubber Folk, all-folk covers of Rubber Soul. But that was a host of different artists, so palled slightly less. Slightly.
This just in, courtesy some researching about some background to a scribble about Thea Gilmore, discovering a 2002 oddity by a so called Reel and Soul Association. Put together by “Mr” Gilmore, Nigel Stonier, this was another bunch of folkers, along with ex-Pretender Robbie McIntosh, exposing their soul roots. Strangely this seems to work better, the whistles and pipes of Mike McGoldrick to the fore, as the late Maart Allcock provides aggressively rockist bass. Not all good, but mostly.
Before clicking, the cover of that compo does not inspire confidence. Putting it very very mildly.
Yeah, I don’t know why or where that came from, as the cover of my cd is completely different, yet the youtube for 6 of the 10 or so available tracks (11 on the record) feature that ghastliness. Maybe someones joke? There actually seems to be no such album (but many close.)
No such album? Spoof? Sigh of relief.