Among a chosen circle of fans, this is one of THE long awaited debuts. Some of you might remember them under their previous disguise of Bang!, a name the graces some super cool picture sleeves of the three singles released on Teen Sound/Misty Lane and Corduroy.
If their initial moddish pop art aesthetics, delivered through power-chords, fuzzy solos, Ox-ish bass bravados, Moon-iacal rhythms, with Shel Talmy’s shadow all over the place, seems like what you might call your own cup of tea, then you’re in for another twenty-plus minutes of your life.
Actually some of the Bang! tracks are present in their newly recorded superior versions, like the opening title tune, which gets a full-blown re-Creation, sometimes reminding us of what might’ve happened had Eddie Phillips accepted Pete Townshend’s (supposed) invitation to join his band, just as it’s the case with another Bang-ing piece of ‘66/’67 Who-mor called The Unknown Band, or the quirky little Entwistling tale about Roger The Quiet.
Yeah! and Closet Pop Star (included as a CD bonus track) is a pair of tunes that could’ve been heard on last year’s demo-CD, here given an updated fuzz-laden-audio-pop-artistry treatment, and what’s left are the two covers of which the first one is the post-mod heavy Britsike arrangement of The Litter/Electras nugget Action Woman, and the other one is a pretty cool choice of the Fresh Windows’ ’67 MODernistic single b-side Fashion Conscious.
An additional tiny little detail that should be mentioned, is the beautifully designed, fold out, super-hard cardboard slipcase, making this an absolute collectors’ item, and is also another proof of the band’s utter dedication to the concept.
[Released by Beatball 2005]
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