WILD!
- The Marigolds (Zip)There's a surfeit of information on the liner notes so you'd probably never know that this is a retrospective collection from a group of Perth
powerpopsters
who were a live drawcard but never quite scaled the same heights elsewhere as
contemporaries like The Stems and the Chevelles. On the strength of this, the
Marigolds are at least deserving of attention from fans of both. They actually ventured to Sydney in the '80s, but I never caught the Marigolds live (or if I did, I don't recall.) A little bit of history: Stems leader Dom Mariani produced them and their singer Jamie Parry went on to vocalise for The Neptunes. It'd be unfair to group them with either band. The Marigolds' roots might be in '60s punk territory (the naive "Little Black Egg" by the Nightcrawlers is a notable cover), but they spread to tap distinctively country/folk sources. "Ain't It Hard" finds them in "Let It Bleed"-era Stones/Gram Parsons mode, while "Shame on You", "Dreams" and "Valentine" will win fans of folkish country-pop. This is a band not afraid to mix it up with splashes of organ and violin.
It's not all hayseed stuff, however. "Chains" is an absolute 60s punk powerhouse, with Martin Moon's frantic drumming and Mark Hemery's rippling guitar cutting it up sonically. "Girlfriend", with its "Batman"-style rhythm guitar, and "Sticks and Stones" are instances of country giving way to rock (with second guitarist Dean Graham handling vocal duties on the latter.) I'd hazard a guess and say this is more recent material. For mine, its distinctively garage nature scores best.
All things considered, "Wild!" is a pretty decent listen, if falling a little short of fulfilling its name. For these tastes, the Marigolds material works best when the band forget their table manners and belch quietly before digging in. Full marks to a trans-global label like Zip (they have a presence in San Francisco, Perth and the UK) for continuing to adventurously push the powerpop genre. Perth's status as Powerpop City doesn't lose much by this. - The Barman
