This is at least the third time that I’ve featured a track from this particular compilation as part of the series – previous entries have been Pennycress and Youngstrrrr Joey. Here’s some background:-
It was back in October 2015 that Song By Toad Records decided to issue a sixteen-track compilation album called David Cameron’s Eton Mess. Almost all the singers and bands were, at the time, unknown with very little more than a few tracks available online or via a limited physical release, most often cheaply done on a cassette. Label owner, Matthew Young, said at the time:-
“Most of the bands are friends and a lot of musicians feature on several of the album’s tracks, one of the reasons why we’ve put the compilation together. It feels like there’s this pool of really talented musicians bubbling away and all sorts of excellent music is starting to emerge from the mix. Bands are forming, breaking up, and starting again all the time. When you see a loose collection of bands connecting like this you never know what is going to happen. A few will disappear, some will do okay, some might pave the way for others, and a few of these bands could go on to do really well.”
I can’t find much about Alan Smithee, but given the name the performer has taken, that’s not really a surprise.
From wiki:-
Alan Smithee (also Allen Smithee) is an official pseudonym used by film directors who wish to disown a project. Coined in 1968 and used until it was formally discontinued in 2000, it was the sole pseudonym used by members of the Directors Guild of America (DGA) when directors, dissatisfied with the final product, proved to the satisfaction of a guild panel that they had not been able to exercise creative control over a film. The director was also required by guild rules not to discuss the circumstances leading to the movie or even to acknowledge being the project’s director.
I’m guessing, without any facts to back anything up, that this one is the work of someone who is perhaps reasonably well known and simply wanted to put something out under an assumed name.
mp3: Alan Smithee – The Almighty Alan Smithee Blues
There’s a really good review of the album, penned by Chad Murray for the Echoes and Dust website back in October 2015, in which he breaks it down song-by-song. Here’s what he had to say about this one:-
The bluesy waves of reverberated guitar and chimes of hi-hat accompany the assumed Alan Smithee as he croons through each verse in a vocal so relaxed it’s almost spoken word. The most dissonant moments in the track become almost jazz-like with stabs of guitar and deserty blues-rock solos flying through with a similarly suppressed aggression to the tracks seen elsewhere on this compilation. I can easily picture Alansmithee as a support for QOTSA, Yuck or the more recent Arctic Monkeys; the track makes for nice cruising music or background music for the final hours of a party.
A lovely piece of writing that I’m happy to concur with.
There will be a few more from David Cameron’s Eton Mess in due course as part of this series.
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 