Getcha Headcoat On

THEE HEADCOATS - Brother is Dead... but Fly is Gone!

Billy Childish is a genuine Patron Saint of Rock & Roll. Toiling away in obscurity since 1979, he has been thee most inhumanly prolific underground artist you can imagine, releasing 100's of albums with countless bands & collaborators, as well as at least 50 volumes of poems/screeds. All of this while suffering from severe dyslexia... did I mention he also paints? A True Renaissance Man, he lusts for neither fame nor fortune, and stubbornly adheres only to his own unique vision without compromise. I firmly believe there'll be a religion formed in his honor where deerstalkers will be worn by the inner council who decide what to put in the Kool-Aid... if there isn't one already.

On "Brother is Dead", Billy & Co. pay homage to some of their icons: Richard Hell, Johnny Moped, Dave Berry and Satan Wept... the Electric Eels! Yes, it takes a hardy soul to tackle "Agitated", yet tackle it they do in their glorious lo-fi way-- mark it down as my second-favorite version of Thee Greatest Punk Song Ever Written (no one but no one can touch the original).

What is even more impressive is that:

1. They make the Clash sound like like a band capable of decent songs on their versions of "1977" & "What's My Name"-- something I would've previously pfft'd at as a statistical impossibility.

2. They deliver a rendering of "Louie Louie" that is so absolutely blistering, it annihilates at least 89, 673 of its previous adaptations.

3. Thee Man From Chatham, Blighty even has the unmitigated audacity to cover himself (in this case, Thee Mighty Caesars' "Loathsome & Wild").

This is garage rock in its purest and most potent form Kats 'n' Kitties. Look in thee comments if thou wishist to worship.



DOWNLINERS SECT - Definitive: A's & B's

Speaking of icons, here's another in the admittedly narrow canon of Mr. Childish and his fans-- the Downliners Sect (in fact, they formed an alliance in the early 90's as Thee Headcoat Sect). Arriving in the same fertile British R&B era that produced the Stones, Yardbirds, Them, ad infinitum, the Sect stood out for a few reasons: Most distinctively, they never abandoned their love for simplistic, three-chord Bo/Chuck revamps. While their contemporaries moved on to the various trends of the day, be it the first blooms of psychedelia or blue-eyed soul, the Sect remained firmly rooted in their original inspirations. Their ouevre also had/has a sloppy, let's-get-it-the-fuck-on-tape-now!-Now!-NOW! urgency that eschews instrumental proficiency for spur-of-the-moment immediacy (something else Billy Childish would adopt).

This 29 (!) track career overview begins with their first-ever (1963) demos recorded in mainman Don Craine's basement, and ends with their 1967 Pye single, "I Can't Get Away From You" b/w "Roses". In between, not only are you treated to their deliciously unkempt honky blues, you get their beatifically shambling attempts at pop (the immortal "Glendora" for one) and their crucial "Sing Sick Songs" EP that finds the Sect in novelty song territory-- but don't let that put you off; all of 'em are odes to Old Man Death.

Need I say look in the comments? Dare I ask for one?