Reviewed by Brian Kushnir / LISTENING POST DISCOVERY
Released: 1980 Live Wire No Fright Genre: Dub Rock Rating: 4.25 out of 5 Highlights: Don't Bite The Hand Competition Broken Glass One More Show First Night Every Night Red Light Is On Yaogote. Pronounced: Yow Goat. As in, Yet Another Obscure Gem Of The Eighties. You haven’t heard of Live Wire. They were on A&M so definitely caught someone’s ear, but didn’t go big. The album has less than 100 plays on YouTube which is the only place it streams. You can buy it for a dollar on Discogs. Plucked from the dust bin of humanity we are here to shine a light on the yaogote that is “No Fright” by Live Wire. It’s got the goods. The songs quickly become old friends, played by a four-piece shifting between tight, poppin’-funky dance beats and dubby ska, evocative of a time, place, attitude. Come-what-may lyrics delivered with a confidently imperfect swagger. We all got another TV spectacular. Can’t take it for anudder day. You win. I lose. Driving around all night looking for a light in the window. A man with a violin asking me for money. Hey Brubeck, yeah he wrote this one for me. Maybe he did; one can dream, and just revel in the sparse, well defined production. Confidently breakneck playing, little to hide behind. Pulsing tremolo. Grooving bass. A lazy Strat teases out country licks on a porch, a sweet little slide guitar solo, a honky tonk piano. Trainspotters, note the subtle homages and winks: a Clash reference in “Castle in Every Swiss Cottage,” musical Springsteen reference in “One More Show,” police siren guitar in “Don’t Bite The Hand That Feeds.” Probably more if you dig around. And maybe you will think of other bands of that era, the befores and the afters in the melting pot of styles and steals. And guess at who nicked from them in years to come. Just listen and appreciate "No Fright" from Live Wire. Mike Edwards on the tasteful slide guitar and vocals, Simon Boswell producing, now a prolific horror and fantasy film score composer via works with Dario Argento, Danny Boyle etc., Jeremy Meek on the grooving bass and German Gonzalez on drums. "No Fright." Yaogote.
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