HUNTING GROUND - The Outside (Beast Records)
The new installment from The Outside is here and it's several degrees dirtier and ballsier than the first. While "Hunting Ground" won't win the band membership of Mensa for its lyrical content or get them labelled 'prog rock' for pushing into new musical places, it's not meant to. In fact, if "Hunting Ground" were a girl you'd ask her to wipe the drool off her chin before taking her inside to meet Mum. Or at least have a shave.
The French aren't meant to rock but there are lots of bands from that part of the world that prove it doesn't have to be so. The Outside are another and while 66 percent of the membership claims a local birthright, guitarist-vocalist Greg "Birdman" Bowen is from Sydney and grew up on a steady diet of Spiders and Rifles. That little fact apart (which probably gives them a slight head-start), you can consider them as French as Johnny Halliday - only 100 times more rocking and rolling.
"Hunting Ground" lays out its calling card in the opener "Nightchild" with its stuttering guitar and beefy backbeat and keeps hammering away with those credentials for the next 11 tracks. Only on the closing "I Said Ireland" does it diverge from the rockin' straight and narrow, with bandleader Bowen bringing in a bunch of mates for a singalong lament. I think you had to be there for that one, presumably well-fueled.
"Nightchild" and "You Runaway" are an effective opening one-two combo while the title track drapes toasted feedback over the intro before getting down to more of that serious rocking business. Most of the balance are blunt girl-boy statements (I Want The Girl") or tunes about nightspots and people dropping by a drink ("A Night At The Spectrum", "Down At The Epicrie"), while "Shooting the Waves" is a country-ish rocker about surfing.
Like Steve Jones at his Berry-fied best, Bowen's guitar-work is relentless and his lead-work meaty and fluid with a good command of sustain and feedback. Some might say he's an even better judge of a glass of Jack Daniel's. While I have to declare a conflict of interest here and state that I've enjoyed the hospitality in the Bowen-owned Funhouse Pub in the Brittany town of Morlaix, I can't say I remember much apart from losing my backpack and falling asleep in a roast chicken supper. So if bassist Carol Rotch and drummer Lolo were there, here's an aplogy for not acknowledging them. Chinese was the official language by that stage of the night anyway.
Anyway, is it kosher to say their playing on "Hunting Ground" is about as tight as a Scotsman's grip on his wallet when it's his turn to buy a round? That's an analogy that's probably incomprehensible to the French, so I'll cut my losses before I insult any other nationalities. Or get a new gag writer.
Did you hear The Outside played a French festival in front of 60,000 people on a bill with Status Quo and Marilyn Manson? True story.
While Bowen's a singer in the Fred "Sonic" Smith mould it doesn't matter much in the scheme of things. Plus, if you're digging records like "Hunting Ground" and its predecessor "Rocket Ride" you're probably not a fan of The Polyphonic Spree anyway.
It's the guitar you're undoubtedly here for and Bowen leaves fellow ex-tennis pro Pat Cash for dead. He carves out his finest moments on "The Counting Song" and "I Want The Girl", again ably assisted by the deft production hand of Johnny Cat.
Rock solid effort, best consumed with a few Kronebourgs and Jack chasers. – The Barman
1/4
ROCKET
RIDE - The Outside (Beast Records)
That's the not so subtle sound of impartiality being tossed out of a window
from a considerable height, because this is a record by a mate's band. Having
said that, rest
assured that this is a F.G.R. (Fucking Great Record), any way you cut the
cloth.
Singer-guitarist and writer of a dozen of the 13 tunes on "Rocket Ride"
is Australian-born, French-based tennis pro-turned-publican, Greg "Birdman"
Bowen, a guy with whom I've imbibed the odd cold drink or three over the years.
Many will know him as the webmaster of fansite www.radiobirdman.com,
so it wouldn't surprise to know he was brought up in Sydney on a steady diet
of Citadel-styled bands in the '80s. The Celibate Rifles, the Lime Spiders,
the Hitmen, the Trilobites and the Screaming Tribesmen all rocked Greg's world,
in the shadow of the late, great and thankfully resurrected Radio Birdman.
So a CD of gentle ballads, this is not.
What it also isn't is a collection of rip-offs of the above influences. Granted,
The Outside are peddling a fairly orthodox brand of straight-up rock and roll
- but sometimes simple is best - but there's no singularly obvious precursor.
Rather, they tap into similar energy lodes and pull it all off convincingly.
If pressed, I'd have to say there's a latter-day Exploding White Mice sensibility
running through these songs, sans their Beach Boys harmonies. On second thought,
the Mice in their dotage might have have been hard pressed to maintain this
sort of pace. The album title is fitting.
Greg's last band, the ironically-named Kings of the Surf (France having a
rep for world class surfers - not), served up a pretty fair album a few years
back but asked him to move on as they wanted to be "more commercial".
Their loss is The Outside's gain.
One of the outstanding things is the way Monsieur Bowen wrenches a beefy,
full-throated tone out of his white, 1964 Epiphone Crestwood custom-made copy
(formerly owned by a certain rockin' Doctor). Bearing in mind its lineage,
you gotta have chutzpah to own one, let alone play it, and Bowen knows his
way around a fretboard. Check out his fave song "Rockin' Down All the
Way" for evidence.
Now it must be said that Gregory is blessed with a "guitar player's voice"
- but then so do the majority of people whose music we spin at the I-94 Bar.
Drummer Lorry Darth Vader (ex-TV Men) and bassist Miss Carole Rotch have similar
musical outlooks to the bandleader and lock in as tight as a drum underneath
these songs.
Some real knee-shatterers here, too, like the aforementioned "Rockin'
Down...", "Bored" and "Take Me Back the Stone", a
trio of barn-burners strategically placed in the middle of the tracking order.
A strutting "All Around" and another medium-tempo, "Claire",
vary the pace, both allowing for some especially fine lead guitarwork to bleed
through the mix. The solitary cover is easily recognisable and you'd be right
if you thought "Route 66" is a well-travelled road. In these hands
it's undergone significant roadwork to differ significantly from the version
Radio Birdman used to play. I'm sure there are lots of other odes to smallish
Brittany towns out there but "Living Back in Morlaix" is the first
to enter my lexicon. (Next he'll write one about his pub).
And the production by Johnny Cat at his own Rock On Studios in Rennes is first-class;
lots of bottom end to anchor the firestorm and a live-sounding room. Minimal
overdubs means you hear what The Outside would sound like live.
Here's the inside info on The Outside: They rock righteously. So don't let
unfamiliarity stop you joining this party. One of the best things I've locked
ears onto in 2005. –
The Barman
