The phrase “Happy place,” became all the rage the other week when some “celebrity” yelled it on some tv show I’ve never seen. He got honoured with a billboard outside Burnley FC after claiming that their home ground was his.
On that basis, I want them to honour me in Tallinn, Estonia, because Dead Furies (natives of that city) do something that is so far up my street that it might as well be called “Andy’s Road”.
“Midnight Ramble” is their fourth record. In the interests of full disclosure, I haven’t heard the other three, but right from the off of “Lets Get Loaded!” its clear what this is. Ragged, kinda punk, with the low-slung attitude of Dog’s D’amour covering The Stones.
If that’s not good enough. Which it is, then I also enjoy the fact they mirror this no frills approach with the same on their promo material. Most bands give it large. Not here. It literally came with a link to the album and the words “here’s an album you might like”. That’s the way to do things. Because that means one thing: The Music matters, nothing else.
Anyway, there’s three of them. Vocalist/guitarist Ardo, bassist Robert and drummer Erik (they all claim to have the surname Fury, which makes them a gang in my book), but that’s kind of superfluous – all that matters here is the sound.
“Follow You” – given bonus points straight away for having a guitar solo at the start – sounds a little like The Hellacopters (and by extension, therefore, a bit like Kiss circa 1977, I guess) is built around a bass groove which has echoes of Backyard Babies in the Stockholm Syndrome era.
“Mesozoic Rock” doesn’t even try and hide the idea it wants to be “Whole Lotta Love” and the vibe throughout is that of rock fans who are merely living their dreams. You just know really, that the Bonafide type flavours of “Gold Digger” are done with tongues in cheeks and that it’d sound ace live, and equally you can be damn sure that the more punk strains of “9-5” were written while they were at their day jobs dreaming of stardom.
Side two – if you will, and I hope that this was to come out on vinyl one day – begins with the punchy groove of “Candlewax On A 7 Inch” and there’s just like a wave of enthusiasm that engulfs “She Said, She Said”, right down to the hook of “come on, let’s have some fun!”
As soon as “Lady Jane” starts, you know that somewhere in Wolverhampton (although I think he lives in Spain, these days?) Tyla J Pallas is proud that someone loves his boys as much as me, while the stamp of Hanoi Rocks – or at least Michael Monroe – is inked into the sax of “Please Tell Me Now”, and that thunderous and more expansive sound on the last one “Red Wine And Alone Time” with its taste of The Cult, prove that whatever they turn their minds to, Dead Furies are superb.
Look at the bands I’ve referenced above, some of my favourites and even though I am prepared to guess that they are some of the favourites of DF too, it almost doesn’t matter, because this is merely the work of fans.
“Midnight Ramble” is a good old walk through the wild side of the last 40 years of rock n roll.
Rating 9/10
