Right, so now it's the mammoth Bongwater run. I'm going to enjoy this but I don't think anybody else will. I love Bongwater, I think they made some of the most interesting and smart indie records of the last thirty years. It's all psychedelic nonsense for the most part, but it's such clever and entertaining and downright funny psychedelic nonsense that I just love it. First mini-LP, Breaking No New Ground (1987) is a tough listen because it concentrates more on the guitar workouts than it does on Ann Magnusson's brilliant stream-of-consciousness lyrics and theatrical delivery. They did a large number of covers over the years and Breaking No New Ground has a fun version of 'Ride My See-Saw' and a complete psychedelic demolition of Zep's 'Four Sticks'.
Next up was double album, Double Bummer (1988). Nobody in the world agrees with me but I think this is the best record the band made. It's an absolutely unholy mess of thick, gloopy psych freak-outs and spoken word narration, with the occasional pop song thrown in for good measure. But there are so many ideas, so much irony and so much outright smart-arsery that I think it's a truly awesome achievement. And Magnusson's stories this time out have developed into some genuinely hilarious and genuinely frightening things. Apparently she made a lot of this stuff up as they recorded, on the spot. If that's true then she's even smarter than I already thought. The whole record is summed up in many ways by 'Dazed and Chinese', another sludgy, muddy, psyched up Zeppelin song with the lyrics screamed and muttered, for no particular reason that I can make out, in Chinese. It's utterly brilliant. In fact everything about Double Bummer is brilliant. The only single the band ever released was a double A-side with covers of 'You Don't Love Me Yet' and 'Porpoise Song', both of which are more restrained than usual, and all the better for it. In fact both songs are done in an absolutely lovely style, lovely not being a word you would often apply to Bongwater's records.
1989's Too Much Sleep I don't like quite so much, in fact I think it's my least favourite Bongwater album. It's too disjointed and too many of the songs feel like experiments in listener endurance. There is some fabulous stuff (the album ends with two gorgeous songs in 'One So Black' and 'No Trespassing'), but songs like 'Mr and Mrs Hell' and 'The Psychedelic Sitting Room' are too abrasive for me, and the album on the whole isn't quite tuneful enough. Penultimate album The Power of Pussy (1990) is generally regarded as their best record. It's certainly a brilliant one and has a more certain cohesion than Double Bummer, but it doesn't have quite the same bizarre sense of internal logic. The songs on The Power of Pussy are really stylistically experimental and the sludgy psychedelia has given way to a large extent to other kinds of musical style. There's a flute on the title track for a start... The songs are really strong, and Magnusson's imagination is absolutely on fire (bearing in mind the whole album is an ironic concept album about sex and Los Angeles, her filthily toned narration of stories that are no more salacious than being about trips to the museum is absolute genius), Kramer's production is better than ever and the whole set is great.
Final album, The Big Sell-Out (1992) is another sterling piece of work. The sludge is almost entirely gone by this point but the psychedelia certainly hasn't and once again Magnusson's awesome feats of characterisation and narrative are in full effect. There is possibly the slight sense that things weren't quite right in the Bongwater camp and the record can sound a little strained at times. But there's tons of it, and it never drags for a second, there's not a wasted minute. Again, like The Power of Pussy, there are all kinds of disparate musical styles employed throughout The Big Sell-Out, but it never feels any less than a unified whole, or any less than a highly ironic, exceedingly witty retort to music and to culture generally. It's a brilliant, occasionally disturbing record, that is a fantastic end to a truly singular career. The incredibly acrimonious split between Kramer and Magnusson that brought the band to an end not only ruined their relationship forever but also the legal fees incurred by their various dragging each other through court broke Kramer's label, Shimmy-Disc and they went bust. A sad end to a brilliant label and a remarkable band really.
See youse all next week.
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