Crivvens! A new TTOTDOWOHOHCBATCI - and it hasn’t even been a full month yet! Anyone would think that I was sitting at home on a Friday night with nothing to do and no prospect of entertainment apart from watching fifth-time-repeated back-to-back episodes of “Mock the Week” on Dave (or the snooker*.)

Ahhh, but summer is looming, my sap is rising, and I’m once again breaking out my Kula Shaker collection for sun-kissed top-down bucolic in-car listening. Please be stifling that giggle; Kula Shaker were a seriously good band. Part of the second (or maybe third) wave of Britpop in the mid ’90s, they were breathtakingly exciting live, with an extremely tight and talented band playing classic rock riffs under the trademark roar of lead vocalist Crispian Mills - imagine a cross between Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd, with a soupcon of “All Things Must Pass”-era George Harrison thrown in. Ultimately, though, they were stymied by a) the “Indian mysticism” theme running through their music and lyrics, which became something of an albatross around their collective necks, and relegated them in the minds of many to “Darkness” novelty stakes, b) a lot of inverse snobbery surrounding Mills (son of actress Hayley and from an undoubtedly very privileged background) and c) a fairly vicious right-on press campaign following some ill-judged comments from Mills about swastikas. Although that sort of thing never worried Bowie.

This offering, “Govinda”, is one of many outstanding tracks from their debut oeuvre “K”. The album sold by the bucket-load, so you can undoubtedly pick up a copy on Amazon for 1p - and it’s a worthwhile investment, despite having possibly the worst cover art since Whitesnake’s “Love Hunter”. Note a) the rock-tabulous beginning and ending, and b) the fact that, rather cleverly, the song SUGGESTS the major third in the 1-3-5 triad of the main chord, but (apart from in the vocal part) only uses it very sparingly, and indeed repeatedly teases us with the MINOR third. (Riveting, eh?)

(* - Don’t worry, things haven’t got THAT bad yet…)

This entry was posted on Friday, April 23rd, 2010 at 9:37 pm and is filed under Music, Taf's Tune of the Day, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.