Another Box of Hammers

Box of Hammers is a bit like that ubiquitous number 42 bus. You wait years for your talented mate to release the sort of work he’s most passionate about, and then next minute, two EP’s come along at once.

Tides of Sand is an immediate follow-up to Garage Zen - which itself was released just a few weeks ago - for John Kingston’s solo project, Box of Hammers.

The EP offers five FX-drenched excursions into the netherworlds of drone and ambient guitar ... and according to Kingston himself, “a series of short film music for guitar ... only the films don't exist yet.”

The Strummer Files continued: Joe Strummer - Earthquake Weather (Epic, 1989)

A belated fourth addition to the three-part Strummer Files, as Craig Stephen’s lockdown listening defaults to the tried and trusted …

It’s 1989, and, four years after the remnants of The Clash fizzled out like a dud sparkler, Joe Strummer was back in the driver’s seat for his first full solo album.

Six years previous, Strummer had lost his McCartney when Mick Jones was unceremoniously booted out of The Clash just as the movement towards a bona fide stadium band was taking place. In a year they could’ve been on a par with The Who. But, largely on his own, Strummer bundled together the hopelessly inept Cut the Crap. He really needed Jones’ spark to get it back together but Jones was firmly ensconced in Big Audio Dynamite, which reached for the sky and caught it with both hands.

Strummer’s life had been upturned after The Clash: both parents had died, and he had become a devoted father and family man. Acting, soundtracks and the what-have-you were part a way of exercising the ghost of The Clash and a way to forge a new path.

Earthquake Weather lacks a few basic things, not least a strong wingman. The line-up for the album was guitarist Zander Schloss, bassist Lonnie Marshall, and two drummers Jack Irons and Willie McNeill – this being the uncredited Latino Rockabilly War.  Other than Schloss, who Strummer knew from his soundtracks and acting, the others were located in jazz clubs and small-time clubs of LA.

There’s a lot to take in. The War immersed itself in everything it could find and Earthquake Weather straddles funk, rock, reggae and folk. The best three tracks are all at the start, leaving the album as a whole as a lopsided venture.

‘Gangsterville’, the first single, and ‘King of the Bayou’ are both rock stompers, with the former visiting a place few want to stay: “Down in Gangsterville/ Where any sane people already crawled under the house/ Yeah Gangsterville, the television is always thinking about/ Real people, especially when it's hungry.”

‘Gangsterville’ was re-released on 12” for 2016 Record Store Day with three variable B-sides; but the album itself has only ever been given a poorly designed and promoted re-release about a decade ago.

‘Slant Six’ is another three-minute rock’n’roll-fuelled fast mover, on the ways and methods of the record industry – perhaps a parable of The Clash itself. “Youth, money, success and power/ Expressing your soul to critical acclaim/ Now you're insatiable -- there's no stopping you/ If something lasts for a minute -- it's scored a hit with you/ What are you gonna do for an encore?/ C'mon baby after an act like that/ People are gonna scream for more.”

Elsewhere, it is a mixed bag. ‘Boogie With Your Children’ is reminiscent of what Prince was doing at the time, going as far as to have a backing singer with a Princely falsetto. The emotional ditty ‘Leopardskin Limousines’ is recorded at about the slowest pace that Strummer could go; ‘Highway One Zero Street’ sounds rush-recorded; ‘Ride Your Donkey’ is the obligatory reggae-infused contribution to a Strummer album, and certainly one of the highlights of an album that contains more standouts than it does lemons.

While I have come to appreciate it far more on these lockdown listens, Earthquake Weather wasn’t received well at the time. I can see how that was, it was neither commercial and has too much filler. It was followed by a fallow decade; but you can also see how it lead to a reappraisal of his career, which of course, would eventually lead to the Mescaleros.

Strummer’s other post-Clash, pre-Mescaleros LPs:

Sid and Nancy soundtrack (1986)

Strummer only contributed two tracks – the brilliant ‘Love Kills’, which was issued as a single, and ‘Dum Dum Club’, but it is said that he composed much of the other music.

Straight to Hell soundtrack (1987)

As well as starring in this spoof spaghetti western, Strummer contributed two new tracks, ‘Evil Darling’ and ‘Ambush at Mystery Rock’. The other contributors were familiar from the Sid and Nancy adventure: the Pogues and Pray for Rain while Zander Schloss, later to join Strummer’s band, provided ‘Salsa Y Ketchup’.

Walker (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

Alex Cox’s 1987 historical/satirical film starring Ed Harris in the eponymous role was based on the life of William Walker, the American filibuster who invaded and pronounced himself president of Nicaragua in the mid-19^th century with all the chaos and violence that is imaginable with such a scenario. Strummer, who had a cameo role in the film, composed the entire soundtrack – with 11 of the 14 tracks being instrumentals. It has a very Latin sound, as you’d expect, and is surprisingly engrossing.

Permanent Record (1987)

Joe Strummer and the Latino Rockabilly War contributed most of the soundtrack – namely ‘Trash City’ which was good enough to be a standalone single, ‘Baby the Trans’, ‘Nefertiti Rock’, ‘Nothin’ Bout Nothin’’ and (credited to Strummer alone) ‘Theme From Permanent Record’. This grim movie starred Keanu Reeves and it isn’t regarded as his finest hour and a half. The other half of the record included Lou Reed, The Stranglers, the Bodeans, The Godfathers, and J.D. Souther.

Introducing ... Buffalo Bunny

There’s a lot of great lockdown-specific music projects underway at present. Whether it’s the live streaming of solo gigs put together from the comfort of locked down lounges, “Zoom” and/or other forms of live collaborative efforts, or simply the abundance of isolation-inspired music being released on digital platforms, there’s plenty of fresh stuff out there to sate the appetite of music lovers across the globe.

This track, ‘2 Meters’ from the Wellington-based duo Buffalo Bunny, comes brand new and direct from my own coastal neighbourhood, somewhere near the bottom of the world. But it could be from just about anywhere for the way it captures that almost surreal not-quite-apocalyptic vibe we’ve all been involuntarily lumbered with under Covid-19 lockdown realities.

According to one half of Buffalo Bunny, Victoria Singh – the other half of the duo being Jamie Scott Palmer – it was inspired by much travelled local muso/music teacher Peter Jefferies (Nocturnal Projections, This Kind of Punishment, brother of Graeme) and will appear on an upcoming (Italian) indie compilation after they “were asked to do a piece in response to the lockdown - specifically isolation …”

Grab it from the Bandcamp link below, and if you like the otherworldly experimental nature of this track, then I’ll suggest that you might also enjoy the similarly spooky David Lynch-esque feels of Buffalo Bunny's ‘Outta Dargaville (somewhere)’ on the same platform.

 

Introducing ... Box of Hammers

My good buddy John Kingston of the Hairy Lollies (and others), a 30-plus-year veteran of the Wellington music scene, has released a solo project EP under his Box of Hammers moniker. If ambient guitar vibes infused with tension and cinematic imagery is your thing, you’ll probably love Garage Zen ...

Discovering ... Féroces

I really know very little about French band Féroces, and I realise I’m probably a bit late arriving at the party, but I’m totally loving the band’s mid-2019 EP, Paul, right now. At home. In “lockdown”, feeling dark and a little disconnected from the world we used to know.

If Paul seems like an odd title for an EP, being a singular name without much context for any blind newbie, then it’s worth noting that four of the band’s five earlier releases on the Bandcamp platform (dating back to 2016) are all similarly titled … see Juliette, Donna, Victor, and Josephine.

I’ve yet to check out any of those older releases but if the dramatic dark angsty pop music I’ve found on Paul is any sort of reliable guide, it won’t be too long before I revisit that online goldmine to excavate further hidden gems from the band’s archives.

I was first introduced to Féroces through Fabrizio Lusso’s wonderful White Light//White Heat website (here) when a terrific cover of Chris Isaak’s ‘Wicked Game’ featured on one of Lusso’s very informative weekly digest posts.

That Féroces version of ‘Wicked Game’ - and admittedly, I’m a big fan of Isaak’s original as a starting point - went on to become one of my most thrashed tunes through the final few months of 2019. It features on Paul, but what was more surprising when I started digging deeper after downloading the EP, was just how good the rest of the material was. Including a very decent cover of My Bloody Valentine’s ‘Sometimes’.

All of the “vocal”/narrative is in French, a language I have absolutely no comprehension of beyond a few swear words, but that hardly matters … it’s seductive and sexy and every bit the earworm to accompany this intoxicating music.

You can pick up a copy of Paul and/or have a listen to the rest of the band’s work here.

And here’s ‘Wicked Game’:

Peach Milk's WONK ...

I’ve written a little bit about local producer Peach Milk (aka Madison Eve) previously. She’s back, with another EP - three tracks - full of the same uplifting warm house(y) vibes that flourished on past releases. WONK was released just in time for the great 2020 lockdown. Something for the dancefloor in your lounge, your kitchen, or your bathroom, perhaps, and a reminder of those good times when we used to be allowed out. You can get it here, name your price: