sound of the suburbs

Gallon Drunk, great name, great band. I had what I would consider to have had the good luck to have seen them live, they were only the support band but after their full frontal audio and visual assault on the unsuspecting audience the headliner PJ Harvey had her work cut out to follow them! They hailed from London and started gigging at the beginning of the 90's and displayed a spiritual fondness of North London pubs as their chosen venues being particularly fond of Camden Town. Musically speaking their sound was a tense, nervous, violent soundtrack to an imaginary film noir set in 1950's London. Retro maybe in influence but still very much up to date in spirit. It came as no surprise that band leader James Johnston was requisitioned by Nick Cave as live guitarist in 1994, finally becoming a fully fledged Bad Seed in 2003. The band have been out and about playing selected gigs for the last few years, and their first three albums, the early singles compilation 'Tonite.... The Singles Bar', 'You The Night And The Music' and their 1993 masterpiece 'From The Heart Of The Town' have recently been given the CD re-looking treatment along with the obligatory bonus tracks by Satorical Records. During the broadcast of Their only Peel session in July 1981 the DJ felt moved enough to say "Why? Because they don't sound like anyone else". here are the four tracks to let latecomers judge for themselves.
1. 'Ruby'
2. 'Some Fools Mess'
3. 'Drag 91'
4. 'Two Wings Mambo'