Month: July 2024

Some of my favourite bands have had two drummers: Adam and the Ants, Osees, Melvins, Swans, Butthole Surfers, The Fall… and Beachbuggy.

To some, they were merely a band that borrowed from Mark E. Smith’s group but I think that does them a disservice. Sure, they had driving, repetitive rhythms, but with their creative nod to car/drag racing and Americana (very much the concept, not the musical genre) they couldn’t have been more different. They could easily have been a novelty act, too, and yet their ability to write great punk-pop songs and deliver them, very loudly, with aplomb, lifted them above and beyond such easy-to-apply labels.

Their debut album owed a lot to Pixies in terms of sound, so it was an obvious choice to work with Steve Albini – and to even write an entire song for Sport Fury about Black Francis finishing Kim Deal’s sentence while Albini had the tape rolling during the Surfer Rosa sessions: Touch My Stuff (You Can Die). This sort of in-joke is usually hidden in the liner notes, so to get it committed in song – and a great punk rock one, at that – was sublime songwriting from singer, Jack Straker.

Jack Straker? That name might ring some bells, even though it’s a pseudonym. A stalwart of the Doncaster music scene, Straker played and recorded with The Wedding Present during the 90s, leaving to write and record Sport Fury. In fact, one of Beachbuggy’s first gigs was supporting David Gedge’s band, and this is also their link to Albini.

There is an American surf sound to a lot of tracks on Sport Fury, notably on Bad Guys Wear Black, and Science Fiction. That’s the 50’s racing car aesthetic coming through again – although, one could argue it’s also the late 80’s Boston sound. Yet, this album is unapologetically punk rock, with only Godspeed My Friend and Cuba offered up as anything other than head-down thundering guitar-led tracks.

If you ever caught Beachbuggy live, which I was lucky enough to do several times, you knew there was a sense of fun running through everything they did. While there was an obvious punk snide to the songs, it was all part of the act. They’re entertainers – as Sport Fury proves. This is the band that once played from the back of a lorry outside The Leadmill where they had a support slot with ‘And You Shall Know Us By The Trail of Dead’. And they were a loud band, as these songs deserved being turned up to the max just like the noise of the racing cars from which they took their sartorial pointers. (I can confirm my insides felt like they were being liquified when I caught the band at their Death Disco appearance in Notting Hill.)

The band were signed to Poptones, so while they put out singles on vinyl all their albums were CD only. Shame. Like a good vintage, they’ve bettered with age. But you’ll need to get searching to hear their songs as they’re not available to stream. Enjoy a low quality video of Kickin’ Back, the opening track from Sport Fury, on YouTube and a separate playlist of the remainder of the album (except the Italian radio ad at the end).

Bonus content: check out the Beachbuggy fan site for more on this great band: https://teambb.wordpress.com/

Totnes. A place that stands up for itself, that stands out for taking a stand. It’s a creative town, one that refuses to bow to the mainstream. And for that reason it flourishes. It’s also home to one of the best record shops in the UK, Drift Records.

If you know Drift Records, you’ve probably met Rupert as he’s one of the co-founders. I would guess I have, too, yet at the time I had no idea of his musical output. Then recently, I spotted a post by Neil from the excellent band, SHOPFIRES that had an album in his ongoing ‘Unloved Vaults’ series on Instagram. That photo was of an album and that album was Learning About Loathing. It had the look of something I thought I might like – and to be honest, when I see something I don’t know my first instinct it always to go and play it.

I’m so glad I did.

Learning About Loathing gives you chills. Recorded on vintage, analogue equipment in a rural church in St. Melnus, Cornwall, it has an emotional heft within the eight songs that were captured to committed to the record. More than many records you’ll ever get to hear. It’s raw, yes, but these flaws are what gives it that heft. Somehow, the atmosphere of that church has been imbued throughout.

Think of the early Palace Brothers, or some of Nick Drake’s output, and you’ll be close. Especially on tracks like Honestly Now and Summer Bride. Yet, the songs that resonated most with me were those where that atmosphere I mentioned earlier is upfront and present, such as my favourite track, Night Falls. It’s haunting, especially as the distorted drone shifts into the following track, Funeral For A Foe, with its eerie drum beat.

For such a simple album it’s incredibly complex. There is a thrum to these songs; what I mean by that is that they hang in your bones, becoming part of the energy that sustains you in the days following each listen. Rupert’s voice is like a mirrored pool that draws you back for another look, because it’s impossible to not wonder what lies beneath the still warm waters of his voice, about the stories that led to these songs being written and recorded.

I would suggest it’s impossible not to be moved by this small, tight collection of songs. For all their lightness, they’ll weigh on your conscience. From the opening drums, detuned guitars and gentle vocals of the title track to the final harmonies in alt-love song of In Out, this is an album that captivates the listener. If it were available on vinyl, I could imagine someone pulling it off their shelf, perhaps finding a small crackle as the needle finds the groove, and that person settling back into their favourite chair, eyes closed and a smile breaking on their lips like a wave across a beach.

Try it.