"Caught Wanking" by Concrete Fun House
Review
As my reviews of Concrete Fun House do make abundantly clear, as a live act they hit the ground running (I was honoured to witness their debut) and audiences near & far (they recently made their London debut) have been won over as I was.
This has all been achieved off the back of no recorded material with which to whet appetites: perfectly possible of course but harder work when appearing before audiences with no prior experience of what you sound like.
This is an encouraging position for the band to find itself in: already formatted to be a cult band with an appropriate following, the lack of records to date just adds a bit of extra mystique.
That is about to change with the looming on the horizon of their debut album ‘I Guess It's Time We Got Into This' (no comment on the title really necessary) and as a taster their debut single comes out on June 1st and is therefore the subject of this review. (You can get it via Bandcamp as part of Dammitrecords' June edition of their Dam-Nations series).
I imagine that "uncompromising" and "provocative" are descriptions which reviewer reach for in relation to Concrete Fun House (I find them helpful) but launching your recorded career with a single called "Caught Wanking" is one bold move and can't be faulted in terms of setting your stall out and making clear who you are.
This song was in their debut set so I've heard it several times live (most recently when they were part of the lineup at the "Hot Music Live Presents" fundraiser for The Tin last month). The issue I would think for a band like this with so much attack and verve in their live performances is less of honing tracks ready for recording but ensuring that the process captures the qualities potential purchasers have already detected in the songs in concert.
This may explain why the band have taken a little while since recording the songs to get the mixes & final sound just as they want them & it's time well spent: "Caught Wanking" conveys on record what it does on stage. That Jon Webb produced & mixed it at The Moonbase and Mason Le Long mastered it indicates the level of help they got achieving sonic veracity.
Apart from ensuring that the BBC will almost certainly not play the song (I hope someone will) and giving people a firm nudge when they see the name (I wonder what will be the effect when it appears in the headline of this article?), like their other songs, "Caught Wanking" is a perfectly respectable & thoughtful track dressed up in lurid clothing: not just its name but constituent lyrics and ruthless instrumental performance.
The words were written by lead vocalist Tom Gibbs and concern his demolition of those engaged not just in bureaucratic and oppressive but down-right Philistine jobs. He's not so much sympathising with those so caught up in mind numbing employment that they seek relief in their own hands to get through the day as equating their interference with the creative and progressive in the course of their duties to something (self) abusive and solipsistic: those rejecting community in favour of selfishness and self absorption. It comes close to that ideal of "execute executives".
To his massively impressive delivery of all this (and his charismatic live persona is a glory of the group: it was remarkable how at the gig I just mentioned he picked up the challenge thrown down by preceding group The Caroline Bomb and went full on) is added enthusiastic vocal support from all his bandmates: Andrew Macan-Lind and Joe Wilson (guitars), Sarah Croom (bass) and Sarah-Beth Gilbert (drums), far from all of whom had much previous experience as singers.
As you'll know from what I've told you before, the range of instrumental playing experience (and of being in a band) is also considerable. Concrete Fun House have found ways to make these diversities work for them: at least while relative inexperience lasts: this band are already so tight that anyone unfamiliar with their story could be forgiven for not noticing them. The most obvious is the zeal and freshness which are brought in and which these songs benefit from. The presence of members relatively more time playing in a band is all the anchor necessary to stop the various exuberant component elements each flying away on its own excited & exciting trajectory.
Of course you can't equate band member history to life history: they all have sufficient of the latter to suggest that part of their zest is that they endorse Tom wholly and there is a sense of emancipation present: that finally they have the platform to say what they've always wanted to.
I keep coming back to The Stooges I'm afraid (this may simply be a failing or obsession on my part): I asked Joe if there was an intention to channel that band to some extent when I'd only heard the planned name & nary a note of music from them. He passed on that and they certainly merely refer to themselves as a ‘grunge/punk quintet' which is their prerogative. However in the sheer relentlessness of the riff driven arrangement and Tom's apparent desire to start a physical altercation with the targets of his words, the comparison remains with me through the shows right up to and including this single.
It's valid too in my opinion to extend this sense of incitement to everything surrounding the debut: Concrete Fun House want you to sit up and take notice, they not only don't seem to care if it upsets people they disdain: in fact it comes across as being precisely what they are aiming for. These are values writ and played large and loud. Polemical music to knock the world off its complacent equilibrium: perhaps even true acts of detournement.
However you want to process "Caught Wanking", the one thing you can't do is ignore it. It'll simply follow you and keep bellowing in your face if you try to walk away. Concrete Fun House are here & they aren't going away so get used to them & better still embrace their message.
