Can’t Get Enough – Mean Mr. Mustard

Mean Mr. Mustard – Mean Mr. Mustard

Naming themselves after a Beatles’ track, Mean Mr Mustard were one of the leading rock bands of late 90’s in South Africa. And listening to ‘Can’t Get Enough’, their debut single, it’s not hard to see why. The song rocks along nicely with a catchy chorus and melodic guitars.

There is a slight grunge edge to the vocals, but the track is too laid back to be grunge. It feels a bit more like some of the US rock bands who looked like grunge but were never noisy enough to reach nirvana in that realm. I am thinking of groups such as Counting Crows and Hootie & The Blowfish.

Hailing from East London, Mean Mr Mustard relocated to Johannesburg where they signed a four year deal with David Gresham Records and listening to the strength of this debut single, it is not surprising that the record company were prepared to do the 4 year deal as it is an accomplished debut which sounds a fresh today as it would have back then.

Where to find it:
Mean Mr. Mustard – Mean Mr. Mustard (1997), David Gresham Records, CDDGR1379N

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Wasted – Big Sky

Going Down With Mr Green – Big Sky

One could be forgiven when hearing the intro to Big Sky’s ‘Wasted’, to think you had put on an old rare lost Beatles track from the era when they were into Eastern mysticism as the song starts off with a sitar playing a somewhat hypnotic looping sound. But after the first few seconds, the drumbeat comes in and you start thinking, have Counting Crows time travelled back to an old rare lost Beatles recording session.

So now you’re completely confused, not  knowing if you are in the sixties or the nineties. But then you think, so what, lets light a joss stick and lose ourselves in the beauty and mysticism of the song. And there is a lot to get lost in. Aside from the mesmerising loop of sitar which weaves its way into the fabric of the tune, there is the laid back drumming and Steve Louw’s honey-mellow vocals, that you can float along beside. It is a relaxed ride.

Then, once you have been blown away by the music, having listened to the track a couple of times, the lyrics start to come into focus and you realise, you haven’t got the feelings wrong as the song starts with the lines ‘Seems like we’re just so damn old/For this old rock and roll/Take my hand baby, and follow me/Let’s take a walk into history’. And that’s what Steve Louw and Big Sky do. They take a wander down memory (or should that be Strawberry) lane, but they view the past through contemporary eyes and fuse the past with the present to dish up a slice of modern/retro rock and prove that, despite what he sings, Steve Louw is not too old for this old rock and roll.

So, go on and put on this track. It will be time well wasted.

Where to find it:
Going Down With Mr Green – Big Sky (1997), Polygram, BPCD2

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Turn On You – Matthew van der Want

Turn On You – Matthew van der Want

‘Turn On You’ was Matthew van der Want’s debut album and the title track opened the album. And if this was your introduction to Mr van der Want, it’s not a bad one to start with. It has a sort of REM sound going on, which sounds uplifting and melancholic at the same time. It’s pop, but not pop. It’s rock, but not rock.

The song comes from that period in South African music where the big bands were no longer looking to local sounds like eVoid, Hotline and such like did in the 80’s, but were looking to the rock and grunge sounds coming out of the US. Bands such as Counting Crows, Hootie and the Blowfish and the Spin Doctors come to mind when listening to ‘Turn On You’.

But there is a dark side to the lyrics which talk of ‘rummaging through your private things’ and which go on to say ‘I’m not sure what’s wrong with me’ and ‘I turn you on, I turn on you’. Given van der Want’s history, its not too difficult to see why he is insecure. He’s had a tough life and, from what I read somewhere, was living in a tent at some stage. However, the boy come good and produced some seriously good music once he started recording. He would go on to make even more polished and probably more immediate music alongside Chris Letcher, but this track marked him as someone to watch.

Where to find it:
Turn On You – Matthew van der Want, Tic Tic Bang records

Buy:
https://shiftyrecords.bandcamp.com/album/turn-on-you

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Saving The Scenes – Van Der Want & Letcher

Saving The Scenes – Van Der Want & Letcher

Bignity

Chris Letcher and Matthew van der Want have teamed up a couple of times to make music and this has produced some great results. Both ‘Low Riding’ and ‘Bignity’ are worth having in any self-respecting SA Rock fan’s album collection, and their solo projects are also worth checking out. But when they get together, there is a synergy that makes it quite special.

‘Saving The Scenes’ is one of the stand out tracks on 2002’s ‘Bignity’. It sound a little like those whiny but laid back grunge acts like Counting Crows but without the angst laden vocals. The song seems to float along on the back of a head-nodding beat and if there was such a genre as chilled-rock, this would slot into it nicely. On a lyrical front, there is a reason why the song did not make it on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US. Consider the line ‘O silver stars make me nervous, make me wanna run join the Taliban.’

‘Bignity’ made the Mail & Guardian’s list of the top 20 albums of the first decade of this millennium, and with a track like ‘Saving The Scenes’ on it, I am not at all surprised that it did.

Where to find it:

Bignity – Van der Want/Letcher (2002), Sheer Sound, SHIF004

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