the of mirror eye

* The Singing Loins: Hauling In The Slack (4.0 mb) | We Got Lurve (4.0 mb) | The Ghost Of Old Rose (5.5 mb) | One More Bottle To Drink (5.0 mb)
From The Complete And Utter : Damaged Goods : DAMGOOD231

Ok, so The Singing Loins might not sound exactly like some sea faring punks (they’ve got the “Hum-dum-a-hey-ho” refrains working for them), but they don’t really sound like any sort of genre out there. I suppose they could vaguely be classified as folk by virtue of the acoustic instruments used, but that wouldn’t really be correct either. Or maybe we can just use the genre that the band so cheekily coined for their own music: Authentic raw folk from the Medway Delta”.

We formed around Christmas time l99O. I’d been fronting various line-ups of a group for ten years, but after a couple of scrapes with wanky major labels I became fed up and decided to strip it all down to an acoustic duo with our then bass player Chris (Arfur) Allen. He hadn’t written before, but was a fine acoustic player with a genuine rootsy feel, stemming from his Irish upbringing. We just wanted to write honest, bare songs, outside of any particular style, just songs, whatever that means. The first thing we came up with was “Hauling In The Slack”, so, that set the precedent. Now, of course, you can’t operate in England without being pigeonholed, so we coined the phrase ” Authentic raw folk from the Medway delta” and started playing what local pubs and clubs would have us. It was good fun, getting up people’s noses. We came across some truly bigoted deadheads who thought new folk songs were an anathema; these idiots tended to be chartered accountants by day, and at the weekends whined in nasally tones about working down the mines. They really believed they were protecting sacred texts and that the whole folk genre was complete & pickled and never to be tampered with. There were also a few good souls who at least admitted they couldn’t decide if what were doing was “either shit, or brilliant.”

(from the liner notes)

At any rate, all this “genre” talk is nonsense anyways. What really matters is that this is some great music. Sure, there’s nothing really complex or groundbreaking about their songwriting. But that doesn’t matter either, because these are songs that go straight from their hearts into yours.

The Singing Loins have been on permanent rotation in my various players since I got it a month ago. I remember the first time I heard this, about two years ago. I had been flipping through the cd racks at my local emporium when the band name caught my attention. I also saw that it was on Damaged Goods, which is a great label for all things garage rock related. Since the store had some listening stations, I decided to take a listen. I remember thinking “what the hell is this!!?!” I thought it was total crap and I couldn’t wrap my head around the music. I just didn’t get it. So, I decided not to buy it. But then about two months ago, they came back into my head. They had been incubating there for awhile and finally decided to come out again. It was weird. I was just sitting there one day, when The Singing Loins just popped into my head. So I went on a search for them and finally came across their cd again. But this time, their music sounded like some long lost friend. And I finally realized just how great The Singing Loins are.

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Holy Crap!!! I just found out (thanks rah) that due to visa issues with the Acid Mothers Temple who were supposed to headline the concert, that Jandek is playing tomorrow night at the Empty Bottle in Chicago. That’s September 22nd, 2005. Holy Crap!!!! I can’t believe it.