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Marge Simpson:
What's 'brunch'?
Jacques the bowling instructor: It's not quite breakfast, it's not quite lunch,
but it comes with a slice of cantaloupe at the end. You don't get completely
what you get at breakfast, but you get a good meal.
(The Simpsons
- The Bowling Lesson Episode)
Prior to his woefully
premature demise, a spin on the John Peel radio show had become a kind of
quality-assurance stamp for new music: Peelie's passing has left behind a
small tribe of musicians who are the sad, proud bearers of one of the most
sought-after signs of recognition in the business, a thousand times more valid
than the Mercury or anything similar with an awards ceremony tacked on. And
it's easy to tell why he did love The Neutrinos so. Loud, crass, raunchy,
sassy, sexy, careless as a carrier bag in a vortex, these guys deliver where
so many fake, and Peelie had no time for fakers, no time at all. Goodness
me no.
So we're talking music as train-crash here - a jangle-mangled head-on heap
of rock-historic hooliganism where magnificent oldies like T-Rex, Blondie,
Patti Smith, and Bowie share a smoking, demented crush-fest with people like
Sonic Youth, Polly Jean Harvey, and Prefuse 73. And, rising above the carnage,
lead singer Karen Reilly's voice - a Bulgarian choir condensed into one throat
- belts out the sort of classic art-rock lyrics - "too much too soon
too fast too bad too fat too thin too hard to cry - BUILD HIM TILL HE BREAKS"
- that aren't going to disappoint anyone with a penchant for the lady-punk-blues
schtick. Think a female Nick Cave fronting The Pixies, or Goldfrapp meets
The Fall, and you're not far off.
Ahead of their new album - One Way Kiss - due in the New
Year, The Neutrinos release this tasty appetiser going on brunch - a five-track
'single' that's about as single as a polygamous parson, but considerably less
wobbly-chinned.
Their 2004 début on Wet Nurse - Sick Love - demonstrated
the confident musicianship that comes from that easy familiarity of an ensemble
that's been together a while. The Neutrinos have been big in Norwich since
1998 with a live set that makes waves on The Wash, by all accounts. On this
hearing, One Way Kiss should rock a few boats a lot further
away. Break out the lifeboats. Adopt the safety position. Brace.
August 2006
