MISINFORMATION OVERLOAD – TV Smith (Boss Tuneage)
Sharper than a sackful of sea urchins and proof positive that the best punks don’t fade away, they just get more pissed off. A veteran in most senses of the term, TV Smith is a founding member of first-wave 
Pommie punks The Adverts (“Gary Gilmore’s Eyes”) and an Australian tourist in February 2007, so this CD’s arrival couldn’t be better timed.
Since his original band’s demise after two albums, TV’s churned out another six long players under his own name (including one with Germans Die Toten Hosen as his backing band, reprising songs from The Adverts’ “Crossing The Red Sea” LP). Smith’s now something of a live institution, playing upwards of 120 shows a year and generally keeping himself busier than a Beirut bricklayer after another outbreak of car bomb smash ‘em derby. Bit of a contrast to many of his former contemporaries and what’s more he sounds amazingly fresh and relevant, on the strength of “Misinformation Overload”.
Call it old age or complacence but most politically-inspired punk passes me by these days. “Misinformation” manages to be the exception with a dozen songs getting stuck into everything from Big Brother over-regulation of personal freedom to class subjugation, sensory overload and media manipulation. Smith sounds impassioned with his world-weary and at times desperate man vocals. If most people don’t know the clock is ticking down then it won’t be for TV’s lack of telling. The playing is muscular and in your face, all bristling (Smith-played) guitars coloured by occasional keyboard wash. Punk might have been about One Chord Wonders but Smith’s backing band can play a couple more without getting all fancy on us.
Smith’s compositions have a nice streak of melodicism running among the sonic landmines. That there’s loads of guitar overdubbing in evidence on “Misinformation Overload” is neither here nor there; the production is lean and full-powered with nary a wasted note or an aural indulgence to be heard.
It’s as a lyricist that this old punk has made his critical mark, however, and there’s plenty to like about the words. “Good Times Are Back” (a tyro of an opener with a hooky chorus and a tidal wave of guitar) sets the scene from the get-go:
I was thinking about my holiday
The one I spent at home
With a vapour trail suntan, depression and a cold
I was hiding from the terrorists, bird flu and SARS
Headline in the paper said ‘Water found on Mars!’
Perhaps…the good times are back
You’ll no doubt find your own lyrical gem to either shake your fist or rock your chair to - as the mood or demographic takes you. Rest assured that the vibrant and intelligent music on this disc will do its part to keep you from an early grave, global media masters and warlords notwithstanding. –
The Barman
