Not really original, but an extremely groovy band name, an album title suggestive enough to make you get a ticket like now (!), a kaleidoscopic art work, four guys hanging round the seaside that might as well be in Brighton (even though Spain is much more likely, considering the band’s own origin :-)).
In full on military mod regalia (a more visible photo somewhere inside the booklet might’ve been cool), and a swinging set of tunes with just an occasional peep out of the ’65-’66 time frame, though all of them sounding just as contemporary as they are MODern.
The ones that make the trip most colourful for me are You Said Goodbye, a garage-punk “steppin’ stone”, the freakbeatin’ pair of You Know and Oh No!, the Hammond organ-ized mod stomp of I Got A Hole In My Soul that should make you not only “shake”, but shout’n’shimmy as well, and Something Real, adding some “black paint” to the otherwise “colourful” soundscape.
The remainder of the “trip” is made out of a couple of tunes recalling Lennon’65 at his r’n’beat-est (Still Haven’t Seen The Man On The Moon, Do You Love Me Too?, Stop The Show), just about to start “revolving”, which The Shake actually do, at first more in a Harrison kind of a way in She’s My Girl (I) and then back to Lennon with it’s supposed sequel (?) She’s In Black (II).
And another kinda “transitional” piece is Don’t Like Summertime, finding Ray Davies halfway between the mid’60s beatster and the forthcoming society observer, the closing Can’t Fight Your Loving sounds like a long lost surf instrumental, dug out from the imaginary vaults for an additional vocal session, while Now I’m Alone provides us with a dose of Merseybeat innocence.
Now all that’s left for you to do is to put this on and SHAKE !!!
[Released by Florynata 2006]
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