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Post by webm@ster on Sept 23, 2003 18:44:54 GMT -5
What year is it again? Oh yeah, 1966. The Beatles have gone all weird on us and we've just won the World Cup. Cue grainy colour footage of Carnaby St, Twiggy, Harold Wilson and Nobby Stiles dancing in the centre circle. "Hair is going down and skirts are going up!" quips the commentator in a perfect Oxbridge accent.
Up in Liverpool a young group called The Bandits are plying their trade in a small club called The Bandwagon. Having outgrown last year's skiffle boom, these young guns play some new-fangled take on the Merseybeat sound - some call it R'n'B, others garage (as in where you'd park a car). But the most popular term seems to be CSM, or 'Cosmic Scouse Music'.
CSM is an inward-looking genre confined to a 20-mile radius around the Wirral. It's about holding your acoustic guitar like a weapon at proud vertical angles. It's about finding a 12-bar groove and sticking with it. Finding spirituality in a bag of weed. Of standing stock still while the world moves around you. Of rejecting the future - CSM disciples have been known to physically attack fans of The Human League. The patron saint of CSM, Mr L Mavers, is currently missing in action.
These staunch values of grit, sweat, guitars and mysticism are proving increasingly popular as the public searches for an antidote to the manufactured pop being mucked out from the stables of Cowell & Fuller.
Yet, some say The Bandits are merely a second-rate Coral - another Mersey band making waves at the moment. That they are riding the tails of the ironically-titled 'New Rock Revolution'. That there is no future in playing music that was old hat when your dad was a boy. But that would be unfair. Their current long-player, 'And Then They Walked Away', does have moments to appeal to those other than CSM's staunchest supporters.
The single 'Take It And And Run' is a pleasant enough strum, with the charm of the Rolling Stones. Early Stones, of course. '2Step Rock' has some fire in its belly, the folk of 'Once Upon A Time' is nicely embellished by harmonics and 'Chaos In The Courtroom' is pure vaudeville. The rest is 100% CSM to the bone.
Like one of those organisations that dresses up to fight the English Civil War every other Sunday, The Bandits are history come to life. They don't so much refuse to reinvent the wheel as chase away the thought with washing boards and ukuleles. Obviously Noel Gallagher loves them.
Unfortunately this is probably the result of the A&R scrum that followed The Coral - when the shiny nuggets have gone, all that's left are a few flecks of gold on the floor. They're probably great live, but dotmusic would suggest you save your money for a 'Nuggets' compilation instead.
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