Monday, January 4, 2010

Guitar Gangsters: Lord of the Dance


And now, everything I know about football (a.k.a. soccer):




Doo-di-dooo





Well that was informative wasn't it? I'm glad some of my well-spoken readers like a bit of footie (okay, okay no more attempts to use the lingo) and they can fix any mistakes I'm about to make. Speaking of mistakes, "Badge of Honour", the latest single from London's the Guitar Gangsters, belonged on my Best of 2009, it just got lost in the (iPod) shuffle. Thanks to Angry over at the delectable Days of our Youth for the recommendation.


I've known about the Guitar Gangsters (whose name always makes me think that English is their second language for some reason) for years. After all, they've been around since the late eighties neo-punk scene with such bands as Mega City Four and Red Letter Day. However, despite their slick Kray triplets image, their Cocksparrer-ish brand of punk always sounded a bit workmanlike to me.


After hearing the defiant roar of "Badge of Honour", I dug into their back catalog (including the scorching Razor Cuts compilation) a bit and pulled out this plum from 2000. It's a roughing-up of Sidney Carter's 1963 hymn, "Lord of the Dance". It might be a bit gospel-punk (a genre I've spent years trying to prove exists) but this is primarily religion as a metaphor for sport. On track four the GG's, never big on subtlety, strip the metaphor away for the so-called "Euro-Mix 2000" in which the words to "Lord of the Dance" are changed to being literally about football (and that's my cue to stop writing).



Lord of the Dance
CD EP




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2 comments:

  1. very anthemic- sounds sorta like this band American Steel.

    ReplyDelete
  2. A friend was really into them a few years and played me an album of theirs that sounded good. I still can;t think of them without thinking of the Social Unrest song of the same name.

    ReplyDelete

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