In an age where musicians are increasingly recounting the mundane details of their life on twitter, it’s nice that some bands want to create an aura of mystique around them. Step forward, Jacob Yates and the Pearly Gate Lock Pickers. Apparently the current line-up has been together for nineteen years and this is their first release. Make of that what you will.
The first track is a doom-wop epic about the day Yates’ father died, and clocks in at a radio-unfriendly 7 mins. That’s all part of its charm, however, and its hard to resist lines like ‘I remember when I stood on your oxygen tank/Your face turning blue from across the room’.
Second track ‘You Started at The Bottom’ follows a Maryhill resident as he makes his way back home after a night on the tiles. This time things are kept short and sweet with some raucous rockabilly guitar as Yates taunts: “The man from the boudoir took photos of your wife/Made her look real pretty even though she’s only got one eye”
The beauty of Jacob Yates and the Pearly Gate Lock Pickers is that they’re basically a shambolic garage band, yet still manage to sound good. How they make it work, I have no idea. Maybe it’s the deranged poetry of the lyrics, or maybe it’s the way they hark back to rock n’roll’s blues-steeped beginnings. Whatever it is, it works for me.