Mothman And The Thunderbirds – Gazer EP
Mothman And The Thunderbirds – Gazer EP
Self-Released
Release Date: 23/06/23
Running Time: 11:28
Review by Dark Juan
5/10
Here at Ever-Metal.com Towers, we are champions of the underground. This means we try to accommodate those bands and artists who are doing their best to put their art out there as well as dealing with the daily grind of parenthood, day jobs and having to be a proper human being rather than a cocaine-fuelled 24-hour party monster. Hence, Editor-In-Extremis Simon “You ARE Writing About This, Otherwise You’ll Be Being Introduced To Ol’ Painless” Black (we have no idea who or what Ol’ Painless is, but as a team we are decided that we don’t want to find out as Simon travels worldwide for his job and Dark Juan is privately convinced he is a private military contractor and has a set of skills, a very particular set of skills that he has spent years perfecting and that his daughter will not get kidnapped); and Owner/ Progenitor/ Metal Mum/ Presider Over Mayhem (normally of my making) Beth “Recently Married, So Get My Fucking Name Right This Time, Saesneg Scumbucket” Morait have highlighted section on the review list for bands that are doing it all themselves – this means that there will be releases (like this one) that are late for review, because the poor overworked sods who have recorded them have only just got round to releasing them for review. This is why I am reviewing something that was released in June. It is now August.
The Platter Of Splatter™ has been repainted in the gaudiest yellows and purples and is merrily whizzing round and round and playing the latest four-track offering from Philadelphia, USA courtesy of Psych-Rockers Mothman and The Thunderbirds. “Gazer” is supposed to serve as a musical amuse-bouche for the fans of the band until they have finished recording their new album in 2024. And this is where my problems begin…
Opening tune, ‘Gazer’ is actually pretty awesome, decent chorus, nice arrangement, super chilled out Space Rock vibe going on with a groovy undertone of Psychedelia and it’s all pretty good fun. Dark Juan liked it although it was not exceptional.
My teeth were very much on edge for the cover of Smash Mouth’s ‘All Star’ that the band had chosen to inflict upon Dark Juan’s fragile and gentle sense of hearing. Smash Mouth were a fucking terrible band and ‘All Star’ the inexplicably popular nadir of a rather less than stellar career. See Groop Dogdrill for comparison. It’s a fucking shit song anyway and Mothman and The Thunderbirds do nothing to make this stinking, rotting sow’s ear of a song into a silk purse. It managed to annoy me on a cellular level. With every passing second my fury mounted and the desire to book a flight to the US and butcher Mothman and The Thunderbirds grew until it was an all-consuming desire and it wasn’t until Mrs Dark Juan intercepted my phone and my bank card and whacked me several times round the head with her current art project (it is some kind of doll into which she is incorporating her OWN hair and some fleece she found on Ilkley Moor inside a Neolithic stone circle. Fuck knows what magick we are letting through the veil this time) till the feeling passed, to be replaced with a concussion and a headache. The lesson to be taken from this is that no-one should ever cover a Smash Mouth song because Smash Mouth were unutterably shite and in the same pile of foetid rat-wank as Hoobastank, and everyone needs to forget that Smash Mouth ever existed and Mothman and The Thunderbirds are now guilty of crimes against humanity and must be punished. GAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH I HATE IT SO MUCH!!
Thankfully, the second cover on this EP, being a version of The Byrds’ ‘Mr. Spaceman’ is vastly superior, both in choice of song and execution thereof. A very engaging, calliope-like, Psychedelic carnival rendition of the 60s classic offers a serious contrast to the horrors of the previous song. It sounds like The Byrds if Arthur Brown was in them. Not literally penetrating them. Or maybe. Whatever floats your boat. Dark Juan doesn’t judge. Love is love after all.
There is a bonus instrumental track too, entitled ‘Liminal Spacetime Continuum’ and it is the best thing on here, being a kind of Psychedelic Grungey version of some kind of alternate universe Cure song. It zips along at a jaunty pace and has much to recommend it, like a bizarre 1960s where synths and solid-state electronics were available along with the free love and all the LSD rather than Moogs and valves…
The Patented Dark Juan Blood Splat Rating System was slightly disappointed by Mothman and The Thunderbirds based on this EP. The original tune and the instrumental were good. Any band who covers Smash Mouth deserves to have their equipment taken away from them and made to listen to Staind records until they have learned the error of their ways. The carny version of ‘Mr. Spaceman’ was spectacularly groovy though. 5/10 for the EP and Dark Juan hopes the album is superior.
TRACKLISTING:
01. Gazer
02. All Star
03. Mr. Spaceman
04. Liminal Spacetime Continuum (Bonus – Instrumental Demo)
LINE-UP:
Alex Parkinson – lead & backing vocals, guitars, bass, mandolin, synths
Joe Sobieski – lead vocals, whistle solo
Egor Lappo – mixing, mastering, production, drum programming
LINKS:
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