Or the Portugal weeks? Presumably thanks to his work with Morrissey, Boz Boorer has managed to build himself a studio in the Algarve mountains, but how much far his hospitality extends is unclear. Certainly the guitarist got the Glasgow-based band Johnny Reb out to record these ten tracks thta frm their debut album, and the man even features on some of the tracks himself (saxophone and harmonica rather than guitar, while former Ruts drummer Dave Ruffy chips in with tambourine.
Anyway. I said “Glasgow-based“, a crucial point as the vocals here are neither thickly-accented Glaswegian, or (from Ruffy’s era) mid-Atlantic, as the Reb’s vocalist is clearly not from round these parts. Their style of music is therefore decidedly uncommon too, a least cmopated to the current crop of FRabbits and TSads – there is a little Scots 80s indie jangle here, Orange Juice filtered through the Scars perhaps, but exhibits much more of the feel of southerners like Hefner or Morton Valence. And, a decided smattering of The Libertines and (whisper it) The Smiths. There’s a certain urgency to all the tunes here, a jittery kind of nervous tension, as spidery guitar lines underpin agitated vocals that seem to want to convey much in as short a space of time as possible. There’s no duff tracks on the album, though ‘Emile’ is the standout track, its insistence that “Cold War’s coming again” delivered in Doherty style, while ‘Brown Paper Bag’ is a bit more considered (apart from Boorer’s moothie giving it that Libs feel!) Boorer himself has described the band as “Like Dire Straits on speed” – harsh on all concerned, though if Mark Knopfler had delivered his admittedly catchy tunes with the ragged enthusiasm of Johnny Reb then the 80s might never have happened. As it stands, the 90s and noughties are still alive in the music of Johnny Reb, and as they’ve cherry-picked the best bits, this is an album worth checking out.
www.myspace.com/johnnyrebsound