This week’s e-mail comes all the way from New Zealand…..from a long-time friend of the blog, Craig Neale.
Great idea for a series JC, hope you get some more contributions.
I’ve agonised over it for ages – (would’ve done ‘Revolutionary Spirit’ if you hadn’t – great choice) thought of some classic songs but found they weren’t released as singles, or weren’t the a-side, thought of others but couldn’t think of anything to write, so have gone with ‘Son of Mustang Ford’ by Swervedriver.
I really love this band, and this, their first single put out in 1990 is one of my ‘wow!’ songs… yes, I have a playlist on my ipod labelled ‘wow songs’, which as the name suggests are all songs that i thought “wow!” when i first heard them – my variation on the ‘desert island discs’-type lists people make… not necessarily my favourite songs of all time, or even my favourite track by that artist (i restricted it to one song per band) they just all knocked my socks off!
Anyway, the first time I heard this song was the classic cliche – browsing in a record shop, it came on (very loud), I ran up to the desk asking who is this? what’s it called, I’ll buy it, what else have they done? (which unfortunately at the time was nothing, but this kept me going till their next one ‘Rave Down’, which was also a ripper, came out) raced home to listen to it again and was rapt to find the b-sides were awesome too. these guys were doing exactly what my band at the time were trying to do (only much, much better) – they seemed to be a perfect blend of most of the influences we were trying to incorporate into our sound: my bloody valentine/sonic youth/dinosaur jr/cyberpunk/J G Ballard novels/road movies etc … great stuff!
Hailing from Oxford, they released 4 albums and various ep’s/singles (another of those bands noted for the quality of their b-sides), split up in 1999 and did solo/side projects, then reformed in 2008 and are still playing. a really good live band, I saw them with a friend who was only familiar with their first album ‘Raise’.
They played ‘Son of Mustang Ford’ as an encore, after which my friend said “How do they top that!”. They then launched into a scorching version of ‘Kill the Superheroes’, after which i said “That’s how!!!”
I hope at least some of you might enjoy these
Cheers, Craig
mp3 : Swervedriver – Son Of Mustang Ford
mp3 : Swervedriver – Volcano Trash
mp3 : Swervedriver – Kill The Superheroes
mp3 : Swervedriver – Juggernaut Rides
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 