Braw Books: Do You Feel Lucky, Skunk Rock! Here's Regular Fries....

"Everyone always talks about The Beatles and The Stones... but what about the Romans?"

The next bunch of misfits operating with blown minds are Regular Fries. Led/corralled/dosed by ex-NME journalist Paul Moody ("Live by the sword, die by the sword.") the Fries were less a 'garage band' and more a 'garage sale band' (or should that be a surreal, avant garde, experimental collective art installation as history lesson?)....

Like The Beta Band, Regular Fries were somewhat dogged by their initial promise and speedy rise and, like The Beta's forever being harked back to 'Dry The Rain', they too struggled to better their first release, never again quite hitting the absolute highs of the 'Dust it, Don't Bust It' 12" (released on Fierce Panda offshoot Rabid Badger)....

Dust It (Album Version)

In the Fries case it was the knob twiddling mix mastery of Richard Fearless (Death In Vegas) that truly aced it, further elevating (or should that be 'horizontalizing'?) their already excellent 'Dust It' track and in turn providing what just might be their shuddering, groovy, stoner peak (as well as the ultimate 'Skunk Rock' statement). This truly Fearless epic puffed along like the class-B brother to (Primal Scream's) equally excellent 'Trainspotting' title track, the muffled slow-build and languid, rattling beat a favourite of Mary Anne Hobbes (and therefore myself too)....

So how do you follow that? Easy, you release the excellent freeform fug of the liquid manifesto that was 'Free The Regular Fries EP' and the subsequent mighty tasty, 'Mars Hotel' featuring, 'Fries Entertainment' single....

Accept The Signal

Not that their debut album 'Accept The Signal', which celebrates its 20th birthday today(!), suffers hugely by comparison, the band streamlining things a little to turn in a surprisingly wistful and thoughtful collection of songs (of sorts), hidden (un)comfortably behind the excess of fuzzy dreams, sonic fogs and arch concepts....

Write to Regular Fries and Cornelius Hope writes back....

If there's one thing that united the (not actually all that similar musically) quartet of 'Skunk Rock' bands it was a feverish devotion to DIY - they all were heavily involved in their own artwork, videos and promotional 'stuff/things to be chucked out for free at gigs. (Unfortunately I cannot find my handwritten letter from mysterious band guru Cornelius Hope that accompanied the above 'Fries Entertainment' 'zine....*)

Currently worth more than the "Great" British Pound....

'zine number two....

The fries Live experience* was something akin to aged students invading the stage and trying to play whatever busted equipment they could lay their hands on, overdosed on dry ice and camouflage netting, crackling TVs tuned to the cosmos, beaming back static.... and not forgetting the giant FRIeS letters ("Eff! Arr! Aye! eeeeeeeee! Ess!") and the percussion birdcage full of, er, keys. Certainly the gigs were closer in spirit to the perpetual flow of their 'Free The Regular Fries EP', everything merging together into one glorious, chaotic, cacophonous whole....

(*There must be a few cassettes of Breezeblock gigs languishing somewhere in Rob's 'Archives of Doom'....)

At this stage 'Mash Maybe Mashed Man' was teased on Radio 1 as some sort of cascading 20 minute epic. Sadly it appeared (heavily truncated) as a less than memorable b-side to the above 'King Kong'. You can make your own (out of your) mind up as to its quality by munching on the far juicier 7 minute slice below....

This overly harsh trimming perhaps sums up the moment when the Fries wacky (baccy) ambition began to run away from them, their much touted 6(!) album deal with Junior Boy's Own - the home of the mighty Underworld at that time - grinding to a halt after (an admittedly rather refinely focussed) album number two, 'War On Plastic Plants'. Heck, it even has Braw favourite Kool Keith on there! - what's not to like, as they say....

The Fries were undoubtedly Rob's b(r)and though and, having met them across the road in Glasgog's infamous Variety Bar (following a stellar support slot with The Beta Band at the nearby Garage), he forged something of an ongoing relationship with the affable bunch (mainly thanks to clicking with Rich Little) and was happily inducted into their space military/cadet programme, thereby allowing him to catch them up and hang around Fries HQ at subsequent shows....

"Would you like fries with that?" Unfortunately it's a shame that not many people did and despite rambling rose Ian Brown cannily selecting them as his support on his 'Golden Greats' tour - an unexpectedly awful, neddy, violently charged gig at Barrowlands Ballroom where, by contrast, Rich ("No one gets to meet Ian Brown.") kindly introduced me to Cressa and handed me a free t-shirt - it was clear their skunk rock was of a quite different, less commercial strain....

In 2001, when Rob honestly thought/assumed it was all over, the band suddenly reappeared, returning for one last album and tour, 'Blueprint For A Higher Civilisation', (released on their own Soft City Recordings label) giving him a chance to don the dusty spacesuit for one final mission to King Tuts, happily knocking back beers with themselves and The Toes before crashing back to earth, a man alone....

Signed 'Accept The Signal' poster too big to scan!

By this small stage their powers were definitely waning somewhat but to their credit, although the album feels a little out of shape, the tracks presumably slimmed down to get them on tape while (the very last) time allowed, it never feels hastily assembled or slapdash. Indeed, it gently pushes out from 'War On Plastic Plants' and there's a clutch of excellent spacey (not-by-the) numbers to be found thereon, with both 'United States of Mind' and 'Pink India's expansive atmospherics harking back to their glory daze. Of course, all this was shortly before they were reassigned to Theta 3, becoming the house band for Quing Alcon III. As Rob understands it they're still entertaining his court to this day....

Vitamin X

Not that this was to be the last word, their final recorded transmission coming in the form of the 'Phone In Sick' (Unreleased, Rare & Classic Tracks) compilation - the only place you'll hear the fantastic 'Fearless' mix on cd - from 2004, complete with one clattering new track, the virtual wobble and tumble of 'Vitamin X'....

Oddly enough one of The Fries finest moments was their 'reshuffle' of 'Stoned Island Estate' by Glamorous Hooligan (which is, odder still, essentially a reworking of their very own wonderful 'New Moon' track from 'Free the Regular Fries EP')....