derek's essentials #12: the eighties matchbox b-line disaster - horse of the dog
 

the eighties matchbox b-line disaster - horse of the dog
"no death records", 2002

Gutter-blues punk rock from a small English band that no one's heard of. When I was younger I would hear this band on the TV and think how amazing and crazy it was, after collecting their two studio albums they seemed to have just faded into obscurity. Anyway, I've been listening to their two studio albums a lot again recently and thought that this is indeed essential. Though they take their sound from the 80s art punk of bands like Bauhaus, they mend them into a more modern non-dated sound. I actually think their other record 'The Royal Society' is better than this due to it's more mature sound but I chose this for it's insane replay value. So yeah, check it out.

OBSCURE!

yes!

i think you mean this:

Not exactly. Listen to this people!

I wouldn't call them that obscure. They even appeared on TV a few times, plus the music press regularly reviewed (reviews?) their records. They're not as obscure as, say, The Electric Bunnies, or bands like that.

True. But how often are they on TV or get reviews now? I didn't really say they were obscure... I just said that they faded into obscurity.

Are they still going? Weren't they some ''NME Darlings'' kind of band, at one point?

They do small tours so yeah.

They were I think, not that it effects my enjoyment of them. They don't sound like The Kooks or Arctic Monkeys that's for sure.

I don't know them well. They have 2 or 3 songs I remember liking, though.

obscure because they plummeted like a lead plummeting machine!!!!

i like the horse album a lot especially that track where it fades out and kicks in again..... man i havent heard it in ages!!!! must pull it out... the second album was fairly crockshit tho! saw em live....terrible terrible terrible!

they were crap, a hype band that never caught on. i remember picking up the nme one time and they had a competition to win a haircut in the same branch of toni & guy that 80s B-Line went to.
anyone remember tiger? ultrasound? terris?

^^^I remember Tiger well, with "My Puppet Pal" - a song that really did not put a smile on my face. I actually laughed out loud the first time I heard this on the radio, adding, "Are they taking the fucking piss?". As for Underworld, me remember them too, with that song, "Stay Young". They gave good interview, I'll give them that. T&B - I'm sure you know that Tiny whatsisface was once a member of Possession, Stephen Thrower's pre-Coil band (anyone here got their LP?)

Okay, I honestly couldn't care less about the NME. I like this band a lot and people should just listen to them and make their own judgements.

The best thing about this album is its 10 songs and half an hour long and fits everything it needs to into that time, its good honest fun. Their second album fell down by being 15 odd songs, far too much padding for 5 or 6 decent songs.

Mister Mental was on the Shaun of the Dead soundtrack, apart from that i cant remember them having any profile or hype at all, possibly because i never got the NME. But im sure Tony and Guys are pleased to see their NME marketing campaigns still stick in the mind.

Yes. I liked that Tiger first single.

I saw them at Glastonbury some years back. I didn't think much of them.

"i drink all night, and i sleep all day..."

what about matchbox 20?