Miaow Cow!

Consider for a moment the fate of my copy of Senseless Things Got It At The Delmar EP.  I bought it for £1 in a sale bin at Crash Records in Leeds after reading about them a lot and liking the Jamie Hewlett (of Tank Girl and Gorillaz fame) cover, got my mate to tape it for me, didn’t like it very much and then just put it away for 25 years.  Not much of a life for a record is it?

Senseless Things were an indecently young band from Twickenham* who played a band of loud, tiptoeing-towards-rock indie that was common for a while when I was at university.  They got heavier still when Seattle happened and cut a great track, with an even better title, ‘Homophobic Asshole’ but this is before all that.

The best thing about this EP is a dead heat between the cover art** and the first B-side ‘Fishing At Tescos’, which adds a strident acoustic guitar into the mix to great effect.  It’s either a tale of stumbling around the titular^ supermarket off your face on drugs, or robbing free stuff out of magazines in the aforementioned titular supermarket.  I really like this tune, it’s rather sunny and a bit devil-may-care, both of which appeal to my jaded old sensibilities.

The title track is good, yet slightly more run-of-the-mill thrashy indie, the sort of stuff that I’ve wobbled around many a student dance floor to in my time – it’s absolutely fine, has a very good bassline and a decent tune, but it just lacks the more obvious peaks and climaxes of rock.  But, hey let’s not criticise cats for not braying (he said, cryptically).  Absolutely the same comments apply to the second track ‘Beat To Blondie’ too, except I might change the end bit to something like ‘hey, let’s not criticise seals for not chirrupping’.  The final track ‘Can’t Remember’ is a bit crap though so let’s damn that cow for not miaowing!

The band chugged around for a good few years afterwards and then split, but half of them enjoyed an incredibly successful renaissance with illustrator Jamie Hewlett’s flatmate in the Gorillaz – drummer Cass Browne and bassist Morgan Nicholls (the muso talent who does really stand out here).  Let’s see if I can remember my Latin – They came, they flailed around, they split – Veni, Vilent, Vimusicaldifferencesaverunt.  Close.

731 Down.

*home to the very epitome of all that is poxy, wretched, pus ridden, loathed and evil, the England Rugby team.

**that’s not a slighting comment, it s really good – gotta love indie chicks in stripey tights.

^never get tired of that word.