aka The Vinyl Villain incorporating Is This The Life?
#2: Docking The Pay by CVC
There are too many people in the UK who wish it was still the 1970s. You know, casual racism and homophobia, the Three-Day Week, terrible clothes, the birth of Thatcherism, the fucking Austin Allegro… Why? I mean really – WHY? I’ll tell you why – the music! Bowie. Punk. Reggae. The Ska revival. Abba. Yes, Abba. SHUT UP!
You see, us lot in Britain seem to have a perverse love of nostalgia. Everything was apparently better back in “our day”, whenever that was. My generation loves the 80, another really awful decade. But it’s the culture we hold dear, not real life. Wales wasn’t in a good place in the 70s, like the rest of the UK, yet musically we seem to be finding guidance in the decade that fashion forgot, despite the fact that many of those forging this trend weren’t even close to being born back then. CVC, for instance, look and sound like an episode of Life On Mars. Yet, for some reason – probably because the best bands in Wales have traditionally been rooted in psych-rock – they sound so NOW.
Hailing from Church Village – a tiny town on the southern edge of the Rhondda Valley, halfway between Llantrisant and Pontypridd – CVC (Church Village Collective) released their debut album ‘Get Real’ in 2023, catapulting themselves into the national spotlight thanks to BBC 6 Music going absolutely ga-ga for them. It probably doesn’t hurt that their guitarists are also related to Welsh music royalty (I’ll give you a clue – their names are David Bassey and Elliot Bradfield…) so there’s more than few good genes kicking about in there.
Depending on when this piece is published, CVC may have a new album out, or it may still be pending. Docking The Pay features on the debut though.
MP3: Docking The Pay – CVC (from ‘Get Real’, 2023)
An album of off-cuts called ‘B-Real’ also snuck out last year, and from it, you can listen to this cover of a song by the best Welsh psych-rock band ever. Yes, EVER!
MP3: Juxtaposed With You – CVC (from ‘B-Real’, 2023)
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 