I am not sure if I have shared this information in the past, but here is a snippet you may find amusing: In my days at the Glasgow School of Art my friends in the studio called me 'Shambles Al'. It was all down to my love of the jangling Pop groups of the time, many of whom were somewhat disparagingly described as 'shambling' by the music press. Hence 'Shambles Al'.
You can imagine my delight then at discovering the artist known as Shambles Miller. How could I resist? And how too could I resist a song with a line like "There was something between the two of us that was never going to work / I always thought your time travel theories were pretty absurd / How on earth would we have raised the kids? / Would they be Tardis or De Lorean?" Not to mention the David Bowie impersonation. No, the world doesn't really need another break-up song but when it's this fine we can make an exception.
Now more mature readers (by which I mean readers who have been following this blog for more years than is probably healthy for them rather than age or the degree of their seriousness) will know that I rate 'Freaks And Geeks' as the single most important cultural event of the past few decades and possibly ever. Okay, maybe that's overstating the case, but it's certainly the best telly show of all time, bar none. So no surprise then that whenever I see a reference to the show a grin breaks out and I find myself inexorably drawn in. So it was with ONSIND and their inspired 'Kim Kelly Is My Cognitive Behaviour Therapist'.
I tried ONSIND a couple of years ago and didn't really get on with what I heard so it is likely I would have let their 'Anaesthesiology' set pass me by if not for the Kim Kelly reference. I'm glad I let myself be intrigued too, for it really is a fine record filled with sharply observed politically charged snapshots of contemporary British society. And the Kim Kelly song? Nothing to do with 'Freaks & Geeks' at all, but a smartly focused piece about the outrageous Tory assaults on the National Health Service.
If I were to be horribly critical I might raise an eyebrow and wonder if some of the energy expended in righteous indignation might better be channeled into devising well crafted policies that encapsulate what the opposition DO believe in rather than endlessly shouting about what they don't. But then I'm no longer an angst-ridden twenty-something marching the streets of Glasgow with banners held high, and if you can't do righteous indignation at that age, when can you?
Comments