Commentary

So I’m flying back to London tomorrow morning, leaving the delights of northern Italy behind. Leaving my wonderful girlfriend behind. Needless to say, I’ve been doing my level best not to think about it all. My bags aren’t packed. My CD collection is scattered about the house. And I’m doing everything within my considerable imagination to procrastinate and not submit to the inevitable.

And it was with great delight and relief that I decided to do a bit of MySpace-surfing, to see what new bands that there London town had in store for me upon my return.

Now, awaiting your discovery, let me introduce you to the band I stumbled upon in my Random-Myspace-IndieRock-Band-Review…

Band name: Dirty Do Goods
From: Harrow, northwest London, UK
mySpace: myspace.com/dirtydogoods

Loyal readers will remember my article about 4 Axid Butchers, where I mentioned the Camden-Indie sound that all bands in the London suburbs aspire to. This is an example of one band who have hit that nail on the head.

Only time to listen to one track? Choose “Undecided Man,” for the beautiful lead in and intro. Intelligent rhythmic chord play and harmonics set the stage for dissonant vocals, which lend the sound its distinctive London flavour.

The second offering on their MySpace player is “Oh Baby.” The bass line is so fruity, it could be juiced to provide a nectar, used only by secret funk covens and mixed with the crystallized tears of Bootsy in mystical rituals for communicating with the deceased greats. Unfortunately, a noisy chorus with unchallenging lyrics disappoints. Still, the pace and drive of the tune must guarantee that it’s a great song to hear live.

The ska feel of “Overnight Loan Only” will keep the dancefloor jumping, but offers little for anyone searching for incisive social commentary with its gloriously-screamed finale. It does also offer an opportunity to hear backing vocals – which appear to be somewhat more tuneful than the lead.

Personally, one of the things which irritates me in life is when artists eulogize the 1960’s without having lived through them. But as I also didn’t live through the sixties, I’m probably not in a place to comment. Yet the creative genius that was prevalent in that era (not to mention the lessons learned in safer sex practice) surely doesn’t deserve the over-simplification and condescension in the mire of contemporary ‘tributes’ to the decade. Still, despite all that, “Magic of the 60s” is a pretty little stripped-down acoustic song. You’ll probably like it.

Overall, the abrasive vocals provide quite a counterpoint to the instrumentalists’ tightness and fluidity, yet I can’t help but feel that their level is too high in the mix. As TommyDski points out, Brian Eno “recognised that Talking Heads were a band of rhythmic players and mixed them as such,” crushing David Byrne’s vocals down in the mix “to sound like the rantings of a paranoid nerd.”

Dirty Do Goods are no Talking Heads, but if you like your Camden-Indie, you’ll love this.

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OK. So that’s that done. Now I’m looking at my case. I’m looking at all the stuff I have to take. I weigh 56 kilos. I’m wondering why I have the same baggage allowance as everyone else. I’m sure I should have a skinny persons’ extra baggage weight allowance. Maybe I should just eat all of my clothes.

Right. I’m going to sort it all out and finally prepare to leave.

But first, after reading TommyDski’s excellent review, I’m going to dig out and listen again to More Songs About Buildings And Food by Talking Heads.

Any more procrastination tips welcome!

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