A short one today...

“Terribly Sorry Bob” is a compilation of Mega City Four’s early singles. Side One covers the three that I’d bought while waiting on the release of “Tranzphobia” which is what really attracted me to this as I no longer own the 7”s. As with “Tranzphobia” there will be no surgical breakdown of what’s here. Click on the link below, if you don’t like it move on, but know that I find it hard to understand anyone who can’t find complete satisfaction in the Mega City Four.

Distant Relatives - https://youtu.be/24B0EClRAT0?si=XTVT3UjMsn2CGP2n

I first encountered the Mega City Four when my band, The Libertines (ya see Doherty and his bunch of musical junkies didn’t have an original name either !), were booked to open for them at The Dial in Derby in early 1989. I was positively disposed toward them even before I heard them due to my being a big 2000AD/Judge Dread fan and the connection with their name (for those not in the know Judge Dread polices Mega City One). But that night at The Dial I think they convinced me they might just be the greatest band on the planet at that very moment. Their amalgamation of Punk-rush and bloody fantastic, melodious songs had me hooked straight away.

Their debut album, “Tranzphobia” was released just 3 months after that first encounter. I’d hoovered up their first 3 singles in the interim and this album proved to be an extension of those and the handful of gigs we did with them. I’m not gonna do some microscopic breakdown, none of this is complicated, you write great songs and you play them with some fire and skill. Walls of buzzsaw guitars and thumping drums back up Wiz’s high pitched vocals, and it works. The so called Pop-Punk bands of the US all sound like they very much over-familiarised themselves with the Mega’s before setting off on their way.

I got to see them quite a few times as the Mega’s did some gigs opening for The Wonder Stuff and a few years ago I reconnected with bass player Gerry Bryant when he turned up as the bands driver on a TWS tour. Those that are fans are fanatical about the Mega’s, still. If you’re yet to experience them just click this link.

Paper Tiger - https://youtu.be/EAKCL3vrAAg?si=0d9yusvmUM0LPVIf

In the days when we all used to swap comp tapes of the stuff we were digging amongst a group of us my brother Miles included “Fanfare” from this album on one of his. It was in the period he was working at MTV if I remember right and had heard it as part of research for his show. When I came across this album a couple of years ago I had to have it. Eric Matthews is a singer, composer and record producer. He had been in the band Cardinal in the early ’90’s and he has worked with the likes of Sebadoh’s Lou Barlow. This, his debut solo album, was released in 1995.

“Fanfare” is a mid-tempo, horn driven anthem sung in a dreamy, low-fi style by Matthews. It’s bloody great and to my great surprise was released by Sub-Pop Records. Now I associate Sub-Pop with the likes of Mudhoney, Nirvana, Tad, Screaming Trees, ya know, noisy, grungy bands, not with orchestrated crooners, but that’s what we have here, an album as un-Sub Pop as it’s possible to imagine.

After “Fanfare” it all gets very much more sedate. The vocals are what can only be described as breathy and the music is a mix of dreamy lo-fi (in style rather than sound, it’s a lush sounding record) Indie with a healthy dose of folk-ish-ness. It’s a very “lying in bed on Sunday morning drinking good coffee and reading about the matters of the day” kinda record, I think that’s the best description I could give it. Have a listen to “Fanfare” below and bear in mind that this is as raucous as it gets. 

Sub Pop…really !

Fanfare - https://youtu.be/brhiO6m6lxw?si=kJbh1HpWcNQMyYLX