Senseless
Things
This article originally appeared in NFH #20 in
the winter of 1991.
The state of British
rock has been grim for quite a long spell since 1982 or so, with only an occasional band
worth spending time with, but there are signs that this may be starting to change now.
Bands like the Mega City 4, the American Ruse and Snuff each play with a conviction that
hasn't been seen in the old isles in quite some time. One of the best of this new breed of
bands is the Senseless Things. They play poppy punk in the vein of the Buzzcocks with
lyrics about teenage love. Catchy tunes seem to roll effortlessly out of the record plants
when these guys are recording. The lineup consists of Mark Keds and Ben Harding handling
the guitars and most of the vocals, Cass Browne on drums, and Morgan Nicholls playing bass
and doing backing vocals. Mark does virtually all of the song writing. The band got
together in their manager's office and zipped off some quick answers to my
questions...most of the talking was done by Mark and Ben.
Mark, Cass and Morgan
come from the town of Twickenham in West London where the three of them lived within a
hundred yards or so of each other. When they were about 11 they started playing on their
parents instruments and subsequently got a band together in which they did what Mark says
were "dirgey cover versions of Cure songs and the like". Ben joined in 1987 and
the various members swapped instruments around...apparently they've done this so many
times that nearly everyone has played every instrument at one time or another during the
life of the band.
I asked them what
influenced their sound the most, and Ben's response was: "EQ, echo units, reverb, a
bit of delay, a couple of samplers, some compression, and fucking really loud
guitars."
Ever the voice of
reason, Mark approached the question a little more rationally: "No everything,
Northern Soul, funk, Red Hot Chili Peppers, heavy metal, Urban Dance Squad, mod stuff like
the Kinks, the Small Faces, the Jam and Secret Affair, punk bands like the Buzzcocks and
the Clash."
Their first real gigs
came in 1987 after Ben joined, when they started taking everything a bit more seriously.
In 1988 they released their first single, the Up and Coming ep, which came out on
Red Records. Financing for the record came from Pete Buttle, who ran what Mark calls a
bootleg store in Camden Market in London and subsequently started the label Way Cool,
which released three more Senseless Things records. Pete had seen them play and offered to
help them do a low budget 12" ep. The band went for the deal, and the record did well
enough for a debut, breaking the top 30 in some indie charts. To support it, the band
played some 30 gigs in England or Scotland...mostly small places where they got paid 20 or
30 pounds a night, but it was a foundation from which better things were to take off.
In December 1988 they
recorded the "Girlfriend"/"Standing In The Rain" single for Way Cool.
It's a brilliant piece of hyperactive pop with racey, motoring bass lines, Diggle-like
guitar and good vocals with some rough edges but lots of melody. Ask Mark how they
recorded then and he replies: "Quickly! Like the Up And Coming ep we did in a
day and just did it all live...overdubbed the vocals, did it in a small studio. And at the
time we were not quite chuffed with it. "Girlfriend" was recorded in the same
studio in about a day."
In addition to
logging 150 live dates in the UK over the year, by the end of 1989 they had put together a
more ambitious vinyl project, an lp called Postcard C.V.. It's got nine originals
and one cover, a warp-speed version of the Slits' "Shoplifting". Says Mark:
"For Postcard C.V. we moved to a slightly bigger studio, which probably wasn't
a good idea. It came out really clean...it was basically a sort of clinical sound. I mean
a lot of our songs had been exhausted by then...we'd toured too much. It's really dead
sounding...not very live."
Frankly, I haven't
got a clue what he's talking about...I'd rate Postcard C.V. as one of the best UK
records in the last 8 years. Everything has a brilliant kick to it that brings to mind a
combination of the first Undertones lp and the Buzzcocks' Singles Going Steady. The
technique of recording the music live with limited overdubs gives it a spark that's
missing in all too many records.
Two tracks were
lifted from the lp for a third single, "Too Much Kissing"/"Trevor",
which cracked top ten in the indie charts. Hard working as ever, the band went out on the
road for their largest headlining tour yet, and then subsequently supported the Buzzcocks
for their UK reunion tour. This seems like a perfect match as far as music and spirit go.
The halls were the biggest the band had played and everywhere the shows were sell outs.
As for the pairing,
Mark says: "It was good, but they are very old now. It was really good because there
were loads of people. There were disadvantages, too because the door price was pretty high
because they were getting paid so much money so a lot of people who would have come to see
us probably couldn't afford tickets, but nevertheless all the dates did sell out."
But did the fans pay them any attention in all the elation over getting to see the
Buzzcocks again? "I don't think the fans are too single minded; I think the stuff
we're doing isn't a million miles away from what the Buzzcocks play...we were a lot faster
and there's more energy in our set, while they were just doing their songs from the late
70s. But they're pretty cool."
After this tour, the
band made a label switch to Decoy, a UK indie that includes the Mega City 4 and Les Thugs
on their roster. Seems a natural place; Decoy has a lot more resources to back them as
they continue their climb. In April of this year they recorded a 4 track ep called Is
It Too Late. It marks a substantial change in recording style for them...much more
produced with lots of echo and backing vocals, but there's no change in the songs...still
walloping turbo charged pop punk, and still fabulous tunes and cool singing.
"The "Is It
Too Late" single was done in about three days", says Mark. "We did about
six or seven songs for that session, and practically everything was live on that."
The next single "Can't Do Anything", took even more time. "We spent a lot
of time working out the arrangements and there's a lot of overdubs. "Can't Do
Anything" was played to a click track with just basic drums put down first, and Cass
wanted us to get a drum machine and do it over and sample the drums and that stuff, so
that was more of a step up. A bit more indulgent. Loads of backing vocals and all that,
and a producer as well."
"Can't Do
Anything" is a little more complex than their other records...it includes a slower
part for the verses, but then breaks into their traditional rampage for the chorus. There
seem to be about ten tracks of vocals on it with loads of "Woah-oh" bits and a
lot of reverb on the vocals. The three tracks are all excellent again...the simpler vocal
mix on the earlier records is a bit better, but otherwise the new stuff is another step in
the right direction for the Things.
Always busy, the
Senseless Things have no problem describing where their schedule will take them next. In
October they play support for the Dickies for six dates as part of a 15 gig tour. Looking
forward to it? "Yeah!", says Mark. "The Dickies are a brilliant
band...really good and they write really good songs, and they sing about real
laughs." "We'll share needles with them", says Ben.
They've written an
lps worth of songs, about 20 altogether, and they're going to record them at the end of
1990. The hope is to get worldwide release for the new record and then head off to tour
overseas. Plans are for Japan, Australia and Europe first and then maybe the US in the
summer of 1991.
Talk turns to the UK
press and their reputation here for being notoriously fickle. I asked if their experience
supports my impression that it is good to have press like that from the standpoint that
new bands get coverage quickly, but it also hurts in that there is a desperate search for
something new all the time and that tends to make a lot of bands think in terms of
trendsetting rather than making good solid music. Ben jumped quickly on that comment.
"I haven't seen
any of that actually. I haven't seen any kind of bands switching allegiances as it were in
order to gain more press attention (laughter). It NEVER happens. It's a complete
lie."
"Well, no",
says Mark, "it is the nature of the music business over here as I'm sure it is
everywhere else; if there's money to be made there are certain people who are going to go
out and make it."
The Senseless Things
have made out quite well with the press, though. "We've been quite lucky,
really", says Mark. "Mainly just cos we've toured so much and we've got a bit of
respect out of that, although working hard doesn't necessarily mean that people are going
to respect it. There are a lot of people in the press who just will sing the praises of a
band that comes out from cover for one month every four years and knock off an lp. But
there are some good writers around the national press, and we've done all right. But they
could do so much more for new bands rather than just picking up on who's just been signed
to the latest hip label, and who's got the money behind them. Because it still does
revolve around money. It could be so much better than it actually is."
Aside from feeling
that the press situation is significantly better than tolerable, Mark and Ben also seemed
to feel that there's no shortage of good music in the UK right now. "There's loads of
brilliant British bands at the moment", says Mark. "Carter The Unstoppable Sex
Machine, the Mega City 4, Snuff, Love Junk, the Hysterics. Bands that are just into what
they're doing and are into it for the right reason. Bands who play good music, make good
records, and stick to what they believe in. Sweat Driver, Silverfish."
How about overseas?
"I like a lot of the bands on the Sub Pop label like the Afghan Whigs, Mudhoney, or
Nirvana", says Mark. "Or the Melvins. In Holland there's the Urban Dance Squad.
In Australia you've got bands like the Hard Ons and Celibate Rifles. Yeah, there's
excellent bands and a lot of them are coming to Europe, so it's really good."
Ben joins in:
"Yeah, I've seen so many cool bands recently that I've completely lost count and I'm
getting so bored of seeing good bands, I want to see some really crap bands."
Listening to the
Senseless Things immediately brings to mind Pop Will Eat Itself, a band that in the mid
eighties started out with a string of great Buzzcocks flavored singles, but then went
through a rapid evolution into some kind of horrid rap-metal-electropop thing. I asked if
the Senseless Things had any desire to try diverging into other vastly different types of
music. "I think we will develop naturally", Mark replied. "We don't go out
of our way to change what we do. We just kind of drift along and hope that what we do is
good. Obviously the more we play the more experience we get, so we're experimenting more
and trying new things out. Showing off a bit more, and trying to make songs more
interesting."
I pressed a little
more...like if they do a fourth lp, is it likely to still be something in the realm of
revved up pop love songs? Or is it something they even think about? Ben jumps in first:
"Well, I know that we'll be working the realm of folk rock by then, and we'll have
change our names to the Sexless Gandalfs or something. My Kind Of Rabbi. We'll definitely
be a folk rock band by then."
"That was Ben's
cynical view of the world, there", says Mark. "We're taking each record as it
comes. Progression is really big at the moment, I think like "Is It Too Late" to
the "Can't Do Anything" single is a really good progression, and I think there's
going to be a big jump for the album."
Not to be stifled so
easily, Ben quips back, "I just want to know how far we can progress without falling
into a gap in quantum physics. How far can we progress without actually progressing
ourselves out of existence?"
So where will the
Senseless Things realize success? "Well, one day we'll get to eat as much pizza and
bagels as we want and can afford to buy all the comics we want and go to all the countries
we want to see and have suntans all year round." Helluva master plan.
