March 2003 • Rockbites Alternative Daily
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Legendary Buzzcocks return with a modern day classic 31 March 2003
Punk quartet Buzzcocks emerged from Manchester on a wing and a prayer in 1976, inspired by New York city’s The Ramones and London’s The Sex Pistols. Over the past 27 years, Buzzcocks have themselves inspired too many neo-punk and emo bands for the good of the planet. But last month they released a new, killer album, helping to re-align the alternative-rock world with what it means to write a good song. The band began as a hormone-driven venture conceived by schoolmates Peter McNeish (who took the stage name Pete Shelley) and Howard Traford (aka Howard Devoto). Devoto was to sing and write songs, Shelley was the guitar player. Scrambling to practice in a friend’s kitchen, they got themselves a drummer (John Maher) and bass player (Steve Diggle, who would later pen some of their most enduring songs, such as Autonomy and Harmony In My Head) and put together a label called New Hormones to release the now legendary, four song Spiral Scratch EP—which they managed to get into stores and onto BBC radio months before The Sex Pistols released their debut Never Mind The Bollocks. But even before Spiral Scratch appeared on the street, the mercurial and profoundly creative Devoto was gone and putting together what could rightly be dubbed the first post-punk band, Magazine. The move impelled Shelley to take up songwriting and vocal duties for Buzzcocks, under the shadow of Devoto’s lingering influence. Buzzcocks’ first album, Another Music In A Different Kitchen, was a young person’s Magna Carta of exuberant, contemptuous defiance. Unlike most of the grittier, primitive punk of the same era, Buzzcocks’ music was highly romantic (viz Get On Our Own, the only yodeling punk love ballad I know) and often poignant (16 Again) or thought provoking (Nostalgia, I Believe) or hilarious (Orgasm Addict). The new album, which after all these years turns out to be their self-titled one, is the first since their initial breakup in 1980 to entirely forego any pretension of the avant garde or of jumping fashion trains. There’s (almost) no synth, no disco beat, no reaching for some radio-friendly, melodic-punk image. Just high-energy, fast guitar rock with plenty of Buzzcocks-trademark, refreshingly-simple guitar interplay. What sets Buzzcocks apart, though, is the quality of the songs. Fuck style, instrumentation, pace, and production values. It’s the song, stupid. Never mind that the New Hormones kids are approaching grandfather-age. Their songwriting—with its uncanny symbiosis among romantic/sardonic lyrics, raw vocal delivery, frighteningly perfect melodic structure, and compelling rhythmic foundation—has only gotten better. On Friends, Shelley sings (managing, as only he can, to turn this lopsided bundle of syllables into perfect 4/4 rhyme) “It’s a mixed-up world, these are mixed-up times/ And the recipe of life’s mixed-up too/ But if it’s the quality of the ingredients that matter/ I would award myself a Cordon Bleu.” One song on the record, Stars, comes from the recent collaboration between Shelley and Devoto—which gave rise to their remarkable Buzzkunst LP. Maniacally affecting as sung by Shelley here, it appears ultra dark as sung by Devoto on Buzzkunst as the more prosaically titled ’Til The Stars In His Eyes Are Dead. There’s one other Devoto/Shelley song on the new Buzzcocks LP, an out-and-out punk blast titled Lester Sands which last appeared, sung by Devoto, on the legendary 1976 rehearsal tape known as Time’s Up. In the humble opinion of this writer, the new LP confirms that Shelley, Diggle, and Devoto ought to be mentioned in the same contexts as other great songwriters of the modern era including Lennon, McCartney, Dylan, Young, Wareham, Pollard, Merritt, Berlin, and the Gershwins. The band recently finished a tour of Australia, and will hit the road for at least two more tours in 2003, beginning 10 April in Wrexham, UK and then crossing the water for a US/Canada tour with Pearl Jam starting 21 June. Their lineup since the early ’90s has been founding members Shelley and Diggle along with Tony Barber (bass) and Phil Barker (drums). Buzzcocks came out on 18 March for North America on Merge Records, and appears 7 April for the UK on Cherry Red. Meanwhile, EMI Records will release a comprehensive Buzzcocks singles box set, titled Inventory, on 12 May. And you can get the Time’s Up tape now as a CD on The Grey Area label. | Buzzcocks | | Merge Records | | article on Buzzcocks/Howard Devoto from Stylus mag | | essay on Time's Up | | tour dates | | CD from Amazon.com | | top of page | |
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