1. Teeth And Tongue
2. Charnel House
This is the debut release from this mysterious Southampton (on the south coast of England) quintet. Imagine an unholy meeting between Oxbow, The Jesus Lizard and the Stooges in the philosophy / adult aisle of your local library, and you might be halfway there.
Ltd. to 300 copies on black.
The Good Wife | Emile Bojesen, Dan Hunt, Nick Sharp, Russ Vaughan, Tom Winter |
Drowned In Sound
Though aggression is a highly valued trait for a punk/hardcore band, weirdness is also a very valuable commodity. The Good Wife, who hail from Southampton, are as weird as a band could be whilst still remaining a “hardcore band” at their core. They released a 7” on SuperFi Records last year and it sounds truly deranged. Should you be looking for a lazy flyer style description, feel free to use any of the following: “Think Captain Beefheart meets The Jesus Lizard but without the harmonica”; “Like Racebannon when they were good” or simply “lurching, jazz infused hardcore”. The Good Wife are a lumbering beast of weirdness, of insane wailing rants and jarring chords. The Good Wife are a whole lot of good. If you need any more convincing, the front of the 7” depicts not one, but five penises. That’s value for money.
Hellride
When life gets tough, the tough keep reviewing! To be honest, I thought about quitting my whole world for an unhealthy spell of time. From my job to Hellride to just about everything…but as I sit here transcribing this from a piece of paper, I realize I have to trudge on. My dad wouldn’t want me to just throw in the towel, and I have to forge on, despite my will cracking at the seams. I’m sorry to turn a review, into a journal entry, but I’m so proud of that guy, and don’t do this by any tradition, or technique other than my own ham-fisted free thought process, that it’s going to come out sometimes. And somewhere between sadness and revelation, a mind-boggling, aural beating feels just about right…that’s where this debut 7” from UK quintet The Good Wife comes in, simulating the feel of a buffalo herd stampeding across one’s eardrums. Immediately my foggy senses were aroused by scattershot drum patterns, and the sinewy, slide guitar riffs of “Charnel House.” Somewhere between The Jesus Lizard and Qui, David Yow got lost in Washington state joining up with The Melvins, after making a brief pit stop in the NOLA swamps. The energetic, bull-rush first half, congeals into a break of withering, psychedelic texture with reverb-drenched, blues-minded guitar licks, melting into a vibrant pool of crystalline bass groove all the while a straight-jacketed maniac howls at you in insane, and ancient tongues. “Teeth and Tongue” occupies the flipside, and is the real winner here, even thought its counterpart is anything but a slouch. Opening with a hailstorm of dizzying, electrified aggro-sludge, shifting from scathing and guitar fronted, to dirty, and overflowing with nasty bass dirge, it isn’t long before the band slips into some nimble, noise-rock acrobatics, and a surprising section of clean, crippled blues. The slide licks are fuckin’ immaculate, soaring over skyscrapers of jagged, spike-y rock n’ roll, delivering a groove that the Jesus Lizard might have if they hailed from England, and grew up on a steady diet of Black Sabbath, and Iron Monkey. This shit lacerates, heals, and downright swings from front to back cover, and the deranged vocals cook up some memorably devious hooks, and esoteric lyrical themes. That bluesy, creepy chorus would have won me over on its own, but it turns out that the whole track is a perfect piece of debauchery to these ears! I’ll definitely be on the lookout for a full-length from these lads. These tracks are guaranteed to split your nuts like a Thanksgiving wishbone, and anyone who can jive with The Jesus Lizard, and The Melvins, as much as they can with Sabbath, Among the Missing, and Iron Monkey, will find The Good Wife is yet another highly intoxicating export from the UK’s fertile, artistic soil. And they’re also another UK band to feature prominent usage of penises on the front cover. Amen! Ha!
The Quietus
Superfi, since you didn't ask, has basically been one of the best labels operating in the UK in the 00s, no fronting – so why don't you go and find it on this very internet and buy the debut single from The Good Wife as well? They are a band from the south coast of England who have been in some other bands of varying note (Chariots, the vocalist Emile's old posse, kicked it in their day) and have assembled to satisfy their lust for The Jesus Lizard, Oxbow and old Skin Graft Records oddities. Two songs, keywords 'lurching', 'guttural', 'jazz-inflected', 'hacky reviewer'.