How about some laconic post punk with no aspirations towards the grandeur of middle aged respectability? How about Flies on You and their album “Etcetera”?
If that is where your tastes reside then you will indeed find songs to your taste and Flies on You – being mostly Andrew Watkins & Doug Aikman – still find time to throw in some wry humour and, glory be, even some moments of artistic pretension just to liven things up.
There is, of course, the obligatory demonisation of Margaret Thatcher song this time called, somewhat ironically, “Thank You St Francis” but sitting right there alongside to provide a culturally bankrupt counterpoint is the cunning reverse pretension of “Ugly Cousins” that, of all things, is sung in French.
However, that welcome wry humour is never from the surface and that saves many of their songs from being mere re-treads. Taking a couple of those songs as examples, “Poor Excuse” shows just how influential Half Man Half Biscuit were while the larceny of “All Out Of Proportion” reaches into the pockets of both John Barry and British hard rock and, given that sort of musical literacy, you sometimes wonder if the Flies On You have spent more time in the arts centre than in the company of the downtrodden proletariat.
All things considered though, “Etcetera” made me feel kind of nostalgic for the days when the people had something to revolt against and I, for one, would actually be disappointed if their home town isn’t somewhere like Scunthorpe or, preferably, Salford.
Available from Bandcamp.