Wild Billy Childish & The Buff Medways - Steady The Buffs

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Wild Billy Childish & The Buff Medways - Steady The Buffs

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Wild Billy Childish & The Buff Medways - Steady The Buffs
Year/Label: 2002 Transcopic | CD#: TRANCD016
FLAC-5 image | Mp3 VBR-0 (tracks) | Artwork (JPG, 400 dpi) | File-hosts: HF & RS
Punk-Rock/Garage-Rock | FLAC: 223 MB | Mp3: 52 MB | Artwork: 6 MB | 5% WinRAR Recovery

EAC Secure-rip with LOG+CUE+COVERS | Source: My CD-collection

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Wild Billy Childish & The Buff Medways - Steady The Buffs

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"One of the most prolific and overlooked of the original British punks, Billy Childish has spent nearly 20 years recording scores of no-budget albums for tiny, penniless record labels the world over. Under his own name and with Thee Headcoats, The Pop Rivets, Thee Mighty Caesars and The Milkshakes, he has recorded upward of 80 albums, every one of them in a stripped-down, cockney-accented anti-style that casts the timeless rock 'n' roll raveup as a traditional folk form." [James Sullivan, SF Weekly]

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"If you get off on rough, real music, then Billy Childish is your man!" [Kerrang!]

Frankly, Britain does not have to look over to Detroit for their dose of garage punk that's sending the musical trend-followers into a much-hyped frenzy. For 25 years, a certain cult legend has operated under the media radar, self-financed his own independent releases, published 30 collections of poetry, written two books and exhibited more than 2000 of his paintings. He's a poet, a painter, a punk rocker that influenced people from Kylie Minogue to Kurt Cobain to Jack White. And he's none other Billy Childish.

Responsible for now-defunct underground bands like Thee Headcoats, The Mighty Ceasars, and The Milkshakes, Billy Childish returns with his 100th release "Steady The Buffs" with his new three-piece The Buff Medways (who debuted last year with their first LP "This Is This") on Graham Coxon's label, Transcopic.

Considering the fact that it's Billy's 100th release and yet, none of the stripped down garage spark has been lost, "Steady The Buffs" is an instant classic rock 'n' roll album without a doubt. Unpolished with an honest simplicity, it's impossible to resist the infectious immediacy emitted by less-than-three-minute stompers like "Troubled Mind," "Dawn Said," "Vanessa Does Flavours" and "Archive From 1959." Humor is not absent too. The Edwardian-clad, moustache-donning Billy delivers the implicating working blues with exaggerated theatrics on "Times Up," hollers "you piss me off" on the second last track "You Piss Me Off" only to rectify the problem with "Ivor" — their interpretation of the "You Are Forgiven" verse from The Who's "A Quick One While He's Away" — on the last. Sure does sound like Billy's having more fun than the listeners on the record!

The current trend of back-to-basics rock 'n' roll and The White Stripes plug might levitate Billy Childish and The Buff Medways a step higher from the underground, but it will always be the raw and powerful music that will see Billy Childish into another 25 years and perhaps, another 100 releases. [Blogcritics-org]

Over the last 25 years Billy Childish has banged out more than 100 albums of rough and ready garage-rock and this latest offering Steady the Buffs is more of the same but with higher than usual peaks.

When the White Stripes broke through with their peculiarly intense brand of lo-fi mayhem, it was fitting that they should cite Billy Childish as a major influence.

With the Milkshakes the Thee Headcoats and solo, Childish has produced all of his material on a shoestring budget–all heavily stylised, openly humorous and loyal to the wild spirit of rock & roll.

Now with a bassist and a drummer they are the Buff Medways (presumably named after the East Kent Regiment of Victorian times). Childish opens the album with his best track in years. "Troubled Mind" is a simple rock & roll riff backed by constantly seething drums with Billy sounding about 18 and as sexually desperate as it’s possible to without a terrible mess being made. It’s nearly matched by other bluesy moments like "Well Well" and "Time’s Up" as well as "A Strange Kind of Happiness"–a sparse but ebullient take on 1960s summer-pop. As ever, Childish falls down when resorting to punky thrashes like "Vanessa Does Favours" but that’s to be expected. Billy likes punk and Billy does what he likes. He’s very rock & roll like that.

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This is the second album from the Buff Medways, and their first for Graham Coxon's Transcopic label. 'Steady The Buffs' is reputed to be the 100th album in 25 years for Billy Childish (aka Stephen Hamper), the former frontman of various post-punk acts such as Thee Headcoats and The Milkshakes. The single, 'Troubled Mind', is featured. [Amazon-co-uk]