- 1977
So the year is 1996, it's summer outside and I'm sitting in
some cafe sipping my third coffee getting all jumpy and probably miserable because
I don't have a summer job. I'm most likely thinking of some girl, or trying
to understand the Yiddish jokes that this Jewish comedian told at a Klezmer
jazz concert the college newspaper previously sent me to review. I have a copy
of Select magazine in front of me and glance at these drunken yobs on the cover.
"Ash: Meet The Band That Make Supergrass Seem Old" the caption reads, so I turn
to the feature and see the same dorky guys backstage somewhere, in various stages
of undress, beer bottles everywhere, a broken guitar on the ground. God, I thought,
I hope I never get a photo of my pants around my ankles published in a magazine.
I read the article...Irish hmmm...Britpop...yes very interesting...next page...ooh
Shirley Manson photos! So I forget instantly about Ash and that's it.
I don't really have many Irish artists in my c.d. collection. Always hated U2,
Sinead's cool, I could go either way with the Cranberries, Undertones are awesome.
I love potatoes and stew and Guinness and even have an Irish name - spelled
the proper way too (what my English dad was thinking by giving me this Irish
name I couldn't imagine - talk about your symbolic internal struggles). My local
boozecan the Tara Inn is about as Irish as can get and Roddy Doyle and Patrick
McCabe books are da bomb. So as you Irish folks reading this shake your heads
and mutter "what a fookin eejit", let me ask you all a question...were Ash Ireland's
sole contributors to Britpop? I mean both Northern Ireland and the Republic
too. I'm sure there were more obscure bands, but Ash were really the only ones
I can think of that made it across the pond. Wasn't there a band called Scheer?
Anyway, I mean recently, since in my mind Them with Van Morrison were the kings
of garage soul in Ireland and still are. Let's drink to Them!
But this is an Ash review so I'll get on with it. Fast forward to early 2002.
I'm on the subway coming home from work, 1977 is in my discman, and I'm saying
to my co-worker sitting beside me "c'mon you gotta hear this...it's hilarious".
She puts on the headphones and what she hears is the album's "bonus track" of
the band barfing their guts out probably after hours in the recording studio.
For those of you who own the album, you know that this is serious alcohol induced
VOMITING. And the band are pissing themselves laughing. "Neal, that's disgusting",
my co-worker says, throwing the headphones back at me.
Ok, so Ash take the music more seriously on their debut, but not much more seriously.
I only did acquire this album about a year ago so my overall impression now
is that these songs are noisy, bubblegummy anthems. Nothing too serious here.
Vocalist Tim Wheeler has one of those shaky voices that still somehow carries
a tune even with the loudest feedback screeching in the foreground as on the
opener "Lose Control". The band really seems to work up a storm of that one.
"Goldfinger" is a great pop song in which the opening verse pauses before they
unload the great chorus. "Girl From Mars" is absolutely charming, being the
kind of song you'd write for a girl you like when you're 15 and you're just
learning to play guitar, and she kicks you and says she hates it, but secretly
she likes it. "I'd Give You Everything" is kind of a throwaway riff rocker best
left for Oasis, but "Gone The Dream" is a pleasant enough ballad. "Kung Fu"
is the band's tribute to Jackie Chan and chop-socky flicks and pretty much kicks
ass as a song too. "Oh Yeah" again showcases Wheeler's shaky but melodic way
around a pop song. Good song but crap lyrics: "she's taking me over/it was the
end of the summer". "Let It Flow" is another Oasis sounding rocker no doubt
courtesy of former Oasis producer Owen Morris. The sugary song doesn't sound
like something Oasis would write, but the production sure as hell sounds like
total "Morning Glory".
"Innocent Smile" finds the band getting more sonically interesting, with a sudden
tempo change and loads of feedback, and "Lost In You" seems to lift a melody
somewhere from the score of a James Bond flick, but damned if I can remember
where it's from.
So Ash were kids rocking out at this point, getting drunk and doing the things
kids do. They were living out their rock and roll fantasies, writing dumbass
lyrics, and exploring pop music and many other things that start with the letter
P I'm sure. Great harmless fun and top blokes these Irish lads are. Let's drink
to Ash!
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