The Second Hand Marching Band – A Dance to Half Death
I’m going to get this out of the way right now: the centrepiece of this album, the title track, sounds way too much like Beirut to me (go to their MySpace to hear it). This will no doubt piss the band off something chronic, and they’d have a point. ‘Which fucking Beirut song, then?’ they would ask and I would have no specific answer. But it’s true, and the resemblance is so uncanny that I find it just a little annoying every time I find myself humming along.
Why did I start with that annoying nit-picking, you ask? Well because it is the solitary complaint I have about this whole EP which is brilliant start to finish, including the aforementioned song. Maybe because of my own label, maybe because of seeing a handful of demos coalesce into full releases, I am starting to become very aware of sequencing these days, and here it is accomplished perfectly. I wonder if Bart, who plays in both this band and eagleowl, had anything to do with it, as the approach feels quite similar to eagleowl’s own EP for some reason.
Whilst they may touch on Beirootyness at one extreme, there is a really wonderful diversity to this, which is especially impressive for such a short record. Ghost folk, collective clappery, it’s all a little bit different on every song, which makes it all hard to describe and very, very rewarding to listen to.
I’ve seen these guys play before, and they are some sort of mad twenty-odd-strong assembly of stray members of all sorts of other Scottish underground bands, and it is easy to dismiss this kind of thing as some kind of a novelty act. Why the fuck would you need twenty members, for Christ’s sake, it’s a band, not a fucking rogue religious sect? But then you hear an EP like this and it pretty much extinguishes that kind of snarky thinking, replacing it with the simple truth that whatever they are doing and however they are doing it, it is being done very right indeed, so best just butt out and let them get on with it.
The Second Hand Marching Band – Mad Sense
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Let’s be honest, if you’re going to assemble a band from twenty-odd Scottish musicians, simply by the law of averages the chances of not including Bart are pretty remote.
I really enjoyed that little song. More please!
It’s only half a dozen songs long, so I thought more than one would be a little cheeky. The whole thing’s streaming on their MySpace though.
No, of course not, I couldn’t agree more. My comment of “More please!” was simply a cry of delighted anticipation, not an instruction intended for you to follow..
I shall away to their MySpace post-haste!
Ooohhh I’ve just ordered it,… damn there goes my allowance for last week, but who could possibly resist 21-25 Scottish musicians? Well not to mention Bart?
Seriously, very nice sound, I loved it, thanks for drawing attention to it. It’s very “provincial” in exactly the way that folk music should be but tempered with enough indie to be accessible to those folks who think they’re allergic to folk music (the fools!). So thanks xoox
There’s a press quote for their website: “20-25 Scottish musicians. And Bart.”
I am quite allergic to folk music of many types. Rinky-dinky-diddley-dee folk music makes me want to stab a set of bagpipes to death.
If you put that on a t-shirt I’ll sue you for misquoting me.
Bart made me say that :-p
Thanks so much for this.
I didn’t realise it was similar in order to the eaglowl EP till i thought more about it. It could be made more similar by changing the last song to “we walk in the room, mother-funner”
Well it’s quite a subtle thing. Just the feel of the opener, for example, and then something about the way the mood rises and falls. It’s not that obvious, and I am not explaining it very well, but it may also be related to the way songs with very different atmospheres are put together on a single EP.
I have no idea what I’m talking about, do I?
There is, of course, the entirely plausible possibility that I would never have even considered this for a second had I not know that Bart was in both bands. People are always a little too keen to see connections and patterns.
aye
There’s a mammoth project for someone to take on; compare and contrast all the bands Bart’s in relative to each other.
How many? Rob, the Flickers, eagleowl, 2HMB, formerly the Kays although recording with them. Erm… Spandau Ballet? Small Town Boredom, or is that just a mate’s band?
Wasn’t he the ginger one in Girls Aloud?
i’m sure i could add a couple more