Eine Underground-Institution: bereits seit 1992 sind Comet Gain ein Fixstern der DIY-Szene in Großbritannien. Oder wie Pitchfork die Band mal betitelte: „one of the most underrated contemporary indie bands in the UK“. Die Band um David Christian steht in der Tradition der Television Personalities, hat aber gerade in jüngsten Jahren ihrem Sound noch mehr Indie-Soul der Marke Dexys oder Style Council beigefügt. Anfang Juni veröffentlichen sie ihr zweites Album auf Tapete Records, „LETTERS TO ORDINARY OUTSIDERS“.
* Your three favourite Punk singles/songs?
– SWELL MAPS -LETS BUILD A CAR/PATRICK FITGERALD
– PATRICK FITZGERALD – SAFETY PIN STUCK IN MY HEART (its like folk punk but its still punk)
– NEON BOYS – THATS ALL I KNOW RIGHT NOW
* A record that will make you dance?
RAZZY-I HATE HATE
* Your favourite song lyrics?
oh jesus i dunno – the last song that just came on my computer has pretty beautiful words LILAC TIME-THE LAST TO KNOW: „stuck in a scrapbook we’re keeping things / cuttings as yellow as wedding rings / why are we so sentimental when life can be so brutal“ – my favourite recent lyric was actually wrong – its on the new MOZART ESTATE LP and i thought it was „he’s got a penis in his pocket“ but it was actually „peanuts“, oh well…
* The best “new” artist / band right now?
i like AUTOCAMPER – those kids have spark and vigour
that they have spark, and they also have vigour, plus tunes and attitude, and they appear to not give much of a shit – all key things
* Your favourite song about rebellion/revolution?
i should say something hip and visceral like SONIC YOUTH ‚YOUTH AGAINST FASCISM‘ which IS pretty powerful but although its so so trad rock i imagine denim clad angry brigade supporters in the early 70s thought THE WHO ‚WON’T GET FOOLED AGAIN‘ was pretty fuck you
* Your favourite movie about music – and why?
‚DIG‘ is pretty funny but my favourite is this obscure Rip Torn film ‚PAYDAY‘ – he’s a fucked up country singer – that, and ‚STARDUST‘ with David Essex – pretty bleak 70s film about a right arsehole lead singer – i can relate…
* Your favourite book about music – and why
JULIAN COPE ‚HEAD ON/REPOSSESSED‘ is wonderful – written in a great gonzo style – it helps i’m a huge fan but even if your not its a wild ride – LUKE HAINES‘ books are always good value too -irreverent, funny and scathing…
* Your favourite song by Television Personalities?
oh so many so i’ll give you 3 ‚ENGINE DRIVERS SONG/HAUNTED/BABY YOUR ONLY AS GOOD AS YOU COULD BE‘ as they are all simple on the outside but beautiful vignettes of melancholic real life and properly not as feted as there more popular songs-shows what a great songwriter he was.
* The Wedding Present, The Pastels or Orange Juice – which one do you prefer and why?
i don’t like wedding present and never did even when you were supposed to – i don’t know why – just nothing connected. Both pastels and OJ were important to me and the band – the Pastels made it ok to be wayward and random and low fi while Orange Juice made it ok to be effeminate, erudite and be into soul music as well as the velvet underground – if you held a gun to my head i’d say OJ because that first LP beats most first LPs so the juice win
* Your favourite song this year so far (or last year)?
MYSTERY LIGHTS-MIGHTY FINE AND ALL MINE – great elevators style loose garage psych and i can’t remember if its this year but PETER PERRETT’s ‚FOUNTAIN OF YOU‘ was great
* The best song you’ve ever written / recorded?
i haven’t written any songs as good as all the ones above-on the new LP i quite like ‚WE WERE PAINTERMEN‘ and ‚THREADS‘ because there not like each other and are about real things
* Your favourite german song/record?
i’m a big fan of CAN so its gonna be an obvious nugget ‚MOTHER SKY‘ the longer the better – i also love their only pop song „TURTLES HAVE SHORT LEGS‘ so you get 2
* Your favourite record of all time?
i have about 325 favourite LPs but i couldn’t live without BIG STAR 3rd, THE ACTION ‚ultimate‘, SOFT BOYS underwater moonlight‘, BYRDS ’notorious‘, THE FALL ‚grotesque‘, 13TH FLOOR ELEVATORS ‚easter everywhere‘ – basically i’m just looking over at my records and these are the ones i can see and would want to play RIGHT NOW but theres a million more. Anyone who says they have a definite favourite record is probably not to be trusted…
