HOME

REVIEWS

SoundsXP Presents

Next show:

BAD FRIDAY!
Peluché,
Dead Coast,
Les Sueques,
Calva Louise,
Flights of Helios,
Videocean,
Dirty Blondes
+ SoundsXP DJs

The Windmill, Brixton
Good Friday, 14th April 2017
3pm till late

Buy tickets here

On Our iPod

Latest Forum Posts

[an error occurred while processing this directive]

Album Review

The Boggs
Forts Tangled Up! Recordings

Article written by Ged M - Jan 29, 2008

I’ve told this story before but I was watching an early incarnation of the Boggs play the ICA four or five years ago and I was nearly deafened by the red-faced bloke next to me screaming out words of what he thought was advice for the band. “Slow down; sack the drummer; play some songs” he blustered, before staggering off drunkenly. Andy Kershaw (for it was he) wouldn’t recognise them now if they came on the radio while he was sewing prison mailbags because they’ve undergone a transformation, along the lines he recommended. For their third album, the Boggs is now just Berlin-based Jason Friedman, working with various friends like Heather D’Angelo (Au Revoir Simone) and Matt Schulz (Enon & Holy Fuck) plus a collection of European musicians.

The Boggs always mixed up their Americana heritage with other forms into some weird melange of screamed out punk, folk, country and blues. This time it sounds like the Pogues meeting Buddy Holly with a sprinkle of Afrobeat (the choice of every Brooklyn band these days it seems). There’s still a really percussive beat that anchors every song but with a greater variety than before, helped by a variety of female singers. The pop-tribal rhythms of ‘So I So You’ could be Native American-inspired while ‘Remember The Orphans’ takes the same drumming pulsebeat and covers it with a post-punk coating that could be Combat Rock-era Clash. ‘After the Day’ appears in two versions, Friedman’s spooky, minimal country-folk death song and Heather D’Angelo’s sweeter and more indiepop reading that is included as a bonus. Especially memorable are the stream of consciousness lyrics, rat-a-tatted at speed and full of vivid imagery: “chatter on grannies – wheezing withered fannies – counting all your pennies!”

The Boggs were weird before it was hip to be nu-weird. Even if others have caught up, they’re still different, still unpredictable sonic imps. It’s further evidence, if you need it, of the challenging and innovative sounds that are making New York bands so exciting right now.

Links:
http://www.myspace.com/theboggs