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REVIEWS:
Bleed
Music ,UK (Rough Guides)
I wonder what the new trends and fads will be in 2003. I don’t have the requisite imagination needed to guess what possible past creative endeavour could be recovered, redressed and resold. Last year we pretty much got through the whole gamut of popular culture From the last century. We seemed to have stopped looking into the future for inspiration, even science fiction couldn’t be any more retro. But no worries because looking forward isn’t necessarily any better than looking back. That’s where Grand Mal come in because they don’t seem to care about anything other than peddling their laid back rock’n’roll. This is a good thing because Grand Mal have style and an appealing slacker-lad sassiness.“Bad Timing” is a love letter to rock’n’roll. Every track seems to pay some homage to most of rock’s great white hopes from the past thirty years. Instead of lazily plagiarizing from their heroes they provide vitality to some old tricks. The warm production by Flaming Lips/Mercury Rev producer, Dave Fridmann gives the record a coziness and intimacy that is often missing from a lot of modern rock records. It is pared down to the bare bones-the instruments can be heard crystal clear and Bill Whitten’s louche vocals provide a great counterpoint to the more urgent musical business going on behind him. “First Round K.O” and “Bad Timing”, the latter featuring Flaming Lips Steven Drozd are driving simple rock’n’roll tunes with smartly throwaway lyrics like a lordly Lou Reed joining Delta 72. They gallop along on a fulsome tide of fuzzed out guitars while drums rumble on powerfully helping to keep a steady rhythm along with some punchy bass. All the while Drozd’s pianos tumble down an imaginary set of New York stairs before heading to the nearest bar for some boozing or perhaps some brawling. Neil Young would have been proud of the jagged solo on “Get Lost”. And how can anyone not laugh at a lyric as cool as, “She says I look like a fascist/with my black moustaches: on “Old Fashioned”. The quieter, more reflective moments also stand out among the more hard rocking numbers. “Lay Right Down” is tender and supple, a lamentations of love gone wrong or maybe even rock’n’roll going wrong. Grand Mal are very much a band in love with a certain period of time and are just enjoying being able to channel their influences into the eleven great songs...
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