We'll be fucked when we're drunk!
Here we have a split EP like some of the famous collaborations that we have seen many times over. My personal favourite is the Rancid/NOFX one, and it's always interesting to hear songs sung by other bands. Here were have two Folk/Punk bands that play one of each other's songs, three each of their own and then one collaboration.
From the start you can tell that this is a fun album/EP. Through the opening song by Time And Place, Above The Law you can almost see the broad smiles that must don the faces of the band members. The ukulele picks its way through the melody of this jig, and the joint vocals sing out like the band couldn't have more fun if they we dancing naked on a bouncy castle full of flying £50 notes. Brownstone is a foot-tapper and one of The Old Edison's tracks. There is definitely a nod towards Dusty Rhodes & The River Band here with the earthy, but well produced song, then in Standing Up you get a little hint of Port O'Brien. The band finishes with the catchy There's No War Like A Class War which has that shuffling beat of strumming guitar and Upright Bass plod with the smiling vocals, and even a little harmonica. And why not?
The collaborated song, Watered Down Wine sounds like a bunch of bikers took a time machine back to when The Flying Pickets were peddling their a cappella sound; beating up the band and singing themselves with gruff vocals, and handclaps as a beat. In fact I get the feeling that The Old Edison are the bad boys of the two! I admit that this is a wild assumption, but the band's first song here is called, Hail Thundercunt!, and whilst it doesn't fall too far from what Time And Place has warmed us up with, Rory's vocals sound whisky-soaked and slightly full of menace. In ...And The Lucid Dreams Of Us we have the band's take on a Time And Place song which sounds a little like a Chuck Ragan track. Ukulele Night's Sleep rattles of like a beautiful alcohol-induced poem with some great lyrics in a touching song. The last song, This Machine Kills Fat Chicks shows the fun side to the band. The opening line sings out, "We'll be fucked when we're drunk!" It's a nice catchy song and with the fiddle sounds a little like something you may hear from Dropkick Murphys in one of their drunken ballads. Great song.
This is a nice clash of the rough and smooth of Folk/Punk, but both bands seem to enjoy what they are doing and without doubt you can't help but pour yourself some drinks, get your friends around and dance the dance of a crazy horse to this EP. Now where's the barman?