eMusic Review 0

eMusic Contributor

04.21.06

A two hour celebration of the life and musical works of Chatham, Kent, England's most prolific garage-rocker.

1998 | Label: Damaged Goods / state51

This two hour celebration of the life and musical works of Chatham, Kent, England's most prolific garage-rocker (as well as a hyper-productive painter and writer of prose and poetry) demonstrates that artistic evolution does too exist: this devoted primitivist had to learn how to make his primitivism stick — and we hear him figuring it out at the end of the punk epoch on early tracks by the Pop Rivets and the Milkshakes. It's when Thee Mighty Caesars come along that Childish really finds his voice, perma-snarling over readymades of varying shades of mid-'60s stomp, spoken word ("The Noble Beast") and acoustic pub sing-alongs ("One More Bottle to Drink") mixed up with girl-group hymns (The Delmonas '"I Feel Like Giving In"), teeth-gnashing rockabilly ("Get Out of Here Pretty Girl") as well as Childish's twin defaults, post-Stones garage rattle (Thee Headcoats '"All My Feelings Denied") and high-mod Who ("Wild Man" by the female-fronted Headcoats, Thee Headcoatees).

Childish, indeed

Starting with the lowest of Fi, namely the Pop Rivits, sounding like the recording came from a tape you found in the park, this is a fantastic introduction to Mr C's homemade world. I have a particular fondness for the Milk Shakes, but this set led me to search out other recordings. The Buff Medways are criminally excluded on this disc, but then thats the thing with Billy Childish. There's so many albums, singles and performances you've just got to go out and find things for yourself. As stated on the album sleeve, he believes in bicycles and reintroducing the horse as a means of transport. So i daresay downloading is a thing of the future yet to be realised. Fantastic stuff

Master Billy Childish in an afternoon

I'd been hearing the Billy Childish rumors for a while. Further investigation revealed a large and confusing catalog of Childish music. Then there's the Childish books, the Childish paintings and The Childish broadsides, or should I say Thee Childish... Where to start? Start here. Some of it's great. Some of it's not so great, but all of it is "interesting". If, like me, you have no taste to speak of, interesting counts for a lot and Billy Childish is always interesting.