Phinius Gage and Squirtgun – two bands from two separate continents, separated by the best part of a decade. This E.P. is the solo efforts of the former’s bassist and the latter’s guitarist, Mike Scott and Flav Giorgini respectively. It’s a surprisingly good marriage of musicians from seemingly two different worlds.
Giorgini kicks us off with his five songs, which have a strong Southern-American feel to them. Imagine a man sitting on the deck of his Indiana home, guitar in one hand and whiskey in the other, the sun setting over corn fields as far as the eye can see; that’s the image that songs like ‘Dead, White and Blue’ and ‘What a Difference’ create in the listener’s mind. He’s heartfelt in his lyrics, in the way that Tim Barry was on The Laurel St. Demos – each line a little glimpse into his soul. A world away from the sound of Squirtgun, it’s an impressive display of the man’s talent for writing a darn good song or two.
One of the best qualities of this E.P. is the two artists have such a completely different sound when you strip them down to just guitar and vocals. Flav’s American style is counteracted by Mike Scott’s quintessentially British approach to how he sings – he has a relaxed
London twinge, in the same way all the best punk bands of the 70s and 80s did. He’s lyrically matter-of-fact (
you catch me sitting on the pavement by the wall/smoking a cigarette as if cancer hasn’t crossed my mind at all/) and above all, soothing to listen to.
Split EPs tend to rarely work, but Mike and Flav compliment each other well here. There’s only a certain amount of longevity in an all-acoustic release, that’s inevitable, but before you’ve sung all the songs to death in a few weeks time, you’ll probably find you enjoyed each one a hell of a lot.
Andy R
