The differences between Billy Childish’s various projects over the last three decades are subtle, as they’re all pretty much in the same range along the garage-punk-blues-rock spectrum. I count myself as a fan and don’t mean to sound dismissive, but you might generally characterize his music as scrappy and primitive. With snarling, charismatic vocals, thick British accent and often bitingly funny lyrics, Childish taps the raw power of traditional rock and roll and transcends recycled riffs to create some truly exhilarating music. Of course not everything he records is choice material. The guy has put out dozens of albums and hundreds of songs after all. This latest three song EP is pretty good though and serves as a fine farewell for his most recent project.
As the title of suggests, The Last of the Buff Medways is the final recorded efforts by the band. It starts off with “1975,” a rough edged mid-tempo rocker about rejection and longing with a very catchy chorus that makes absolutely no sense in the context of the song. Maybe I’m missing something but the lines, “1959 I was just in time/ 1965 I was still alive/ 1969 I nearly died/ 1975,” have nothing to do with being dissed. Oh well, it sounds good. Next up is “Albion,” which sounds vaguely like Hendrix’s “Fire,” a song that Childish has covered in the past. The title track rounds out the set and is the real attention grabber. In the course of this swaggering pseudo-history of the Medways (with some truthful nuggets), Billy takes swipes at “Jackie White,” John Peel, and Kylie Minogue among others. I’m as puzzled as he is when he sings, “You’d have thought John Peel would be our friend / But there was only silence on his end.” It includes a nice bit of trivia that tells about the band’s name too: buff medways are an extinct breed of chickens!
As prolific as Billy Childish has been in his musical career, I’m sure the end of the Buff Medways merely marks a transition to working with a different group of musicians. Whatever incarnation he assumes next, I’m sure it will be similar to his past work but no less exciting.
Austin’s The Lovely Sparrows, produce sweet soulful harmonies backed by breezy acoustical guitars, combined with a multitude of various instruments on their latest five track EP Pulling Up Floors, Pouring on (New) Paint. This is their second release, the first being a 7″ released earlier this year. They have a similar sound to fellow Austinites American Analog Set, as well as influential mixture of The Kinks and Big Star in a similar fashion to way The Shins set up their compositions but more carefree. Lead singer and songwriter, Shawn Jones provides illuminated narration to the bands open and airy landscape. The setting is soft around the edges, like a fluffy cloud mixed with mini bursts of tiny explosions of percussion.