One thing about small towns is that they’re all the same. Everyone knows everyone else and everyone wears the same clothes and drinks in the same pubs (called something like Deep or Kudos or Vogue). Usually it is the kind of pub with £3 house trebles before 11 p.m. and then £5 entry charge after.
But in every small town there’s always that small hardcore of odd kids who don’t. They’re usually the ones with fringes and skateboards. They’re always a minority, but you always notice them. But there’s usually a smaller harder-core of hardcore odd kids. You don’t really see them until they form bands like The Fall, Minutemen, Oneida, Slint or McLusky. These are the kind of bands whose raison d’etre seems to be annoying everyone else (including the rest of the band) as much as possible.
Given that Shooting at Unarmed Men were formed from McLusky’s fetid remains (this being hopefully the last time I mention the connection) the same small town antagonism encapsulates their sound. Take track two "A Horse by Day is a Horse by Night" as a prime example. Repetitive thuddy and jerky drums give way to a buzzing fuzzy guitar and a vocal refrain unlikely to leave Morrissey with much to worry about: "All the King’s horse/ Stuck their dicks in my sister." The music itself is pure Mudhoney, but it works, and as the band build to the agitated chorus of “You can’t say ‘fucker’/ Can’t say I was gonna” it’s hard not to get carried along.
Similarly the Shellac-inspired rhythm section and nourish chord structures of “Pathos Ate Bathos” give way to desperate and nervous two-part vocal howl that rushes you off your feet. “Pat Yourself on the Proverbial” continues the downbeat paranoid vein later on, drawing you in like an extended version of The Jesus Lizard’s “Pastoral” and “Get on Out and Come Right In” sounds like a Minutemen outtake, all awkward funk and spastic harmonics and shouting.
Article comments
1 - Steve C.
Mmmm, Mclusky...
This suddenly became my number one must-buy album.