In the mid ’90s David Williamson embraced middle-age with a series of self-indulgent plays that lamented the decline of the white male – once the subliminally revered dominant political and economic influence in western society, Williamson’s white male was lost in a sea of special interest groups and culturally sensitive government programs. It was, sadly, a pitiful and pathetic cry for help.
There’s nothing pitiful and pathetic about The Men – in fact, New Moon, The Men’s new record, is every bit as brilliant and powerful as Williamson’s contemporary social commentary is cheap and dull. It’s eclectic – Open The Door is a whimsical piano track for a Sunday night sing-along, Half Angel Half Light is a country rock track worth of Drive By Truckers’ salutation and Without A Face has got Rob Younger’s cathartic anger written all over it. The Seeds dances around the edge of George Harrison’s My Sweet Lord – or should that be Ronnie Mack’s He’s So Fine – and has everyone in the aisle kicking up a storm, I Saw Her Face takes the romantic passion of the average obsessed adolescent and shoves it in a pile of Talking Heads records and High And Lonesome is just that.
If it’s rock’n’roll that you’ve come to hear, then get thee straight away to The Brass and lie back and think of Detroit, New York and Geelong. Electric channels the ’70s rock goodness of Baptism Of Uzi; I See No One is the best New Christs song never written and Bird Song does for the memory of Bob Dylan’s nascent electric period what Freaky does for Husker Du’s pop-perfect take on punk rock.
But the best comes last: Supermoon delves deep into the rock’n’roll canon and finds itself centre stage at the Grande Ballroom in front of a room full of spiced and pinned Detroit kids waiting for the call to revolution. Eight minutes later, and you’re a convert, waiting to scoff all the dope you can, and procreate with anything on the street. This is rock’n’roll in all its glory.
BY PATRICK EMERY
Best Track: Supermoon
If You Like These, You’ll Like This: ED KUEPPER, THE NEW CHRISTS
In A Word: Superb
