Saturday 28 March 2020

Patrik Fitzgerald ‎– "Subliminal Alienation" (Crispin Glover Records ‎– BEAG3CGRCD010) 2013


There comes a time in life when you wish you had an young actor to represent you at social gatherings,or, if you are a musician, at gigs.
All those re-formed bands, all squeezing their fatter bodies into black suits,all with male pattern baldness hidden under a black trilby, sweating profusely, busting a bloodvessel to recreate their glorious youth for a few thousand quid in front of a crowd of similarly shaven heads......who wants to watch that? The sad demise of a childhood hero, like a performing monkey who's lost his teeth. No thanks.
I've seen pictures of Patrik Fitzgerald performing in recent years, and he was wearing shorts for fucks sake!!!!..... and sandals,with long curly hair!!!?...at least he hasn't reformed,mainly because he really hasn't stopped,and hasn't resorted to the popular reformed punk band uniform of suit and trilby.
You may have noticed that that isn't our Pat on the front cover,but an actor playing the role of Fitzgerald as a street musician in what seems to be Norway?
This album may turn out to be his last.(although facebook friend Stephen Surreal,a chum of patriks,was supposed to be recording his farewell album a few years ago.....i dunno if that actually happened or not...but i hope it did,and it will appear someday soon?)
With a title like "Subliminal Alienation", this could have been a greatest misses compilation, but no, its, nearly, all new or unheard stuff. It could have been recorded in 1980 as far as i can hear.His voice is just as youthful as back in the day,and the guitar work uses the same barely tuned chords that he uses in all of his songs,usually with a droning E-string.....a technique that Lemmy from Motorhead made a career out of.
This album could be even bleaker than "Drifting Towards Violence" i'm not sure? There are a couple of tracks that appeared on his demo tape and a peel session back in 1977/78, but there are many new, unheard tracks that are classic Fitzgerald. 
"The Company Bus" tackled the uncomfortable theme of Racism with his traditional honesty.
"Routine Never Stops" revisits the mundane regime of dream crushing normality, a much explored theme in the works of our favourite 'Punk Poet'.
It gets bleaker...."Inside Me There Is Nothing"......i think the title tells it all?
"Pilgrimage" seems to sum up the Punk Nostalgia industry very nicely indeed.
"Teacher Teacher" is another exercise in the pointlessness of trying to better yourself....the message is 'Give Up'?
I won't go through all the songs one by one, like most modern music journalist do.....you know i hate that shit?I'm just treading water here!
Play them for yourself without me dribbling out my silly analyses'.

Tracklist:

Company Bus
Routine Never Stops
Junior Gangstas
Inside Me There Is Nothing
Knockabout
All The Splattered Children
No Cause For Concern
Teacher Teacher
Laughter Far Away
Amateur
The Serving Classes
Acid Wisdom
The Next Revolution
Pilgrimage


6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Love all of this PF stuff. Many thanks!

RebelliousJukebox said...

These are great! New to me,

Speaking of, have you posted the Crispin Glover record? That shit is up the tree.

C

Wolfgang said...

Listened to this twice today. Hard to believe how good and mature this is, nothing but a great and flawless piece of art. Thank you very much for uploading this, I did not know of its existence!

Pisŧöff said...

You on a roll son.

Jonny Zchivago said...

@Wolfie....Yeah good innit?...@ unknown...this happenes to be a crispin glover record by the way?

RebelliousJukebox said...

The Big Problem ? The Solution. The Solution = Let It Be.

That shit is REAL... bad. But good too. But bad mostly.