Thursday 16 February 2017

Jackdaw With Crowbar ‎– "Monarchy Mayhem And Fi$hpaste" (Ron Johnson Records ‎– ZRON24) 1987


From the mean streets of Leamington Spa sprung forth this bizarre quartet of lunacy on the great Ron Johnson Records in 1987. The year before the end of rock's Golden era.
I don't remember Jackdaw With Crowbar ever stooping to shaking a Tambourine, wearing a stripy top and dancing like an idiot in order to remain relevant.....oh no....they just disappeared along with every other great band in the Ecstasy haze. Probably a shadow government plot to finally silence dissent and subversion......and it worked.
Just have a listen to "Crow" and imagine what that would have sounded like in the hands of those awful Rave DJ gods post '88's '2nd' summer of love nonsense; the Andy Weatherall mix. That fucking James Brown funky drummer loop shuffling away behind the clucking chicken, with some black female gospel session singer busting a blood vessel in the background, and a velvet underground clone dancing like a prat shaking a pair of maracas.......by faaaaaar the worst era in modern music.When 'The Chav' really took over.They always flock willingly to any Nuremberg rally that will have them. 
Apart from the inappropriate 'Dub' track that ends this EP, this is as far away as you can get from government inspired homogeneity.
My mouth still drops open whenever I hear "Crow". Foghorn Leghorn and Captain Beefheart's bastard son; it is completely Nuts.

Tracklist:
A1 The Night Albania Fell On Alabama
A2 Siren
B1 Crow
B2 Fourth World


4 comments:

Unknown said...

Hey man, just to let you know we didn't exactly disappear...

all the best

JwC

Anonymous said...

holly shit, shout out to jwc

Unknown said...

Great EP - saw them a few times in the 80s - underrated

Jonny Zchivago said...

Not underrated here m8.