The Tics – Get Away
It’s a wild life that nobody should be able to convince you to have. The working musician doesn’t just need to put in a colossal amount of work to simply get on a stage and not be laughed off by mean audiences.
The working musician also has to do the work of carrying around heavy pieces of equipment from one gig to another, and, after playing the songs, won’t even get a thank you for their troubles or the fee that they were due.
Nah, the working musician also has to spend evenings in the company of drunkards and chemical experimenters excited by the sounds coming out of the speakers. It would all be a rotten deal if there wasn’t some kind of magic involved, as happens on the newest single by The Tics.
“Get Away” is disco-influenced indie-rock, the kind that, if you strip it away from the lyrics, feels like it belongs to an expensive beach club somewhere in Spain. However, once you add the lyrics about fist fights at local rock gigs, what you end up with is a kind of picture of reality that feels more exciting than even the real thing, and the general feeling that you’re hearing a modern indie classic.
Ranting – Snakes & Ladders
Look, I know you’ve been worrying about the state of the world and, albeit selfishly, about the state of English as lingua franca now that the Americans seem so intent on self-destruction before the next Olympics.
Don’t worry just yet! You’ll still be able to order a beer (and call it a pint) for some time left. And if you’re travelling, or fortunate to live in one of those islands with the sunnier climates around Europe, you’ll have to.
Turns out that Nelson was a fool for trying to win Tenerife using cannons. He should’ve just used vouchers for free lager. The English have politely assembled, occupied and turned everything into a chippy. But can you really blame them? Just listen to Ranting telling it like it is.
“Snakes & Ladders” sounds like a tale of 19th-century London. But it’s actually a modern news report told through the medium of indie rock melodies and post-punk anxiety. The Golden Age came and went, and few people even had the prescience to enjoy it. You’re more likely to build yourself a medieval castle in Spain than buy a one-bedroom flat in London. It’s terrible, darkly hilarious, and it’s full speed ahead down South!
