Medway
garage legends take a trawl through their own back pages on new
album.
Don't look back. So
have said such wise luminaries as John Lee Hooker, Bob Dylan and
Oasis through rock's history. Admirable sentiments, but in their
defence they probably weren't familiar with the recorded output one
Mr. Graham Day. As a member of The Prisoners, The Prime Movers and
The Solarflares, as well as more recently in The Buff Medways and
Graham Day & The Gaolers, Day has lit up the garage rock
firmament for over 3 decades.
For the Medway
mod-rocker's latest LP he's teamed up with two of his old musical
cohorts to breathe new life into some of the best songs of his
30-year career. New band Graham Day & The Forefathers sees Graham
re-unite with bassist Alan Crockford (also ex-Prisoners/Prime
Movers/Solarflares) and drummer Wolf Howard (Prime Movers/Solar
Flares/James Taylor Quartet/Buff Medways).
After a debut single
earlier in the year (Love Me Lies on State Records), the band are now
releasing Good Things, an album that's made up of newly
recorded versions of Day's songs from his time in The Solarflares,
The Prisoners and The Prime Movers. There's also room for a couple of
tracks from Day's most recent band, Graham Day & The Gaolers.
Good Things is
the first LP on the newly resurrected Own-Up Records and is
everything you'd expect from a Medway garage record. A mix of '60s
R&B, mod-rock swagger, and incendiary power trio bite. With the
backing tracks recorded quickly and live in one session and vocals
added later via computer, (the one concession to modern techniques),
it has that eternal raw garage feel that never seems to lose its
appeal.
There's a rare level of
intuitive playing and understanding between the trio that can only
have come by having shared countless gigs. By covering songs from
your own back catalogue there's always a danger of treading water,
but there's more attitude and sonic attack on this album than most
bands half their age could muster. Make no mistake, this is no
half-arsed re-hash.
It's an album that
works well as a alternative greatest hits set, though if this is your
first experience of the Graham Day sound it will certainly whet your
appetite for a more detailed delve into his previous records. You
could argue that by re-visiting their own songbook Day & The
Forefathers are resting on their laurels, but when the results sound
this good frankly who cares.
Click here for more on
Graham Day & The Forefathers.
