I Am the Object of Your Desire

Album review

Thee Headcoats -- who put out their first album in 1989 -- have recorded raw, primordial romps that seem inspired by American Delta blues musicians like Sonny Boy Williamson or the Southern swamp rock of Hasil Adkins, while maintaining a decidedly English sound. They've recorded under a slew of monikers, and issued an amazing discography of full-lengths, EPs, 7"s, and what-have-you for virtually every cool indie label since they formed (including U.S.-based labels like SubPop, Get Hip, Sympathy for the Record Industry, and K, among others). Whether he's covering songs with a Bo Diddley beat, garage rock chug, or playing one of his angry young man/dysfunctional family rantings ("The Day I Beat My Father Up," for example), Billy Childish has built up a solid and somewhat rabid fanbase by releasing songs that you wouldn't normally think would attract a huge audience to begin with. However, I Am the Object of Your Desire has the distinction of being the last album by this band, as their prolific leader Billy Childish moved on to a new band; they're called the Buff Medways, which is apparently an ancient and now extinct breed of chicken which had feathered legs. It's also the name of the U.K. imprint this record was released on. This collection kicks right off with the album-titled track reveling in pure Headcoats fashion: that warm, fuzzy vibrato guitar with Childish's fuzzy, electronically distorted voice (an effect repeated throughout the album); Johnny Johnson's soft, flowing bassline; and Bruce Brand's primeval drums. The group keeps this sort of mid-tempo riffage going for the next couple of tracks. Johnson plays a mean harp on "Hurt Me (Slight Return)," but things don't really take off until "In a Dead Man's Suit" and the swaggering, Texas blues "Chatham Town Welcomes Desperate Men." The band's punk roots show up in songs like "An Image of You" and "Your Crying Means Nothing to Me" while "Come Into My Mind" has a definite Kinks influence. All in all, an excellent album from this soon to be sadly missed band.

© Bryan Thomas /TiVo