The 1981 Listening Post - Performing Ferret Band - Performing Ferret Band LP

 Reviewed by Brian Kushnir

Released: August 1981 Performing Ferret Band Performing Ferret Band LP Genre: Twee To The Extweem Rating: 3.9 out of 5 Highlights: Howler Monkey Field Of Yellow Flowers The Rush Bar Room Bottle Fruit Disco One (II) Great Duos Of Our Time In 1983 when I was in high school the nearby college radio station held a Maximum Louie Louie event, where they would collect as many versions of Louie Louie as possible and play them in a marathon session on the radio. This was exciting. Some friends came over to my house and we recorded ourselves in my bedroom singing Louie Louie, with me on electric guitar and a cheapo Panasonic drum machine to supply the beats. We called ourselves the Generic Zombies and sent in our tape. They collected over 800 versions, we listened to the 60+ hour marathon on KFJC as much as we could and sure enough, there we were on the radio. We sounded like perfectly charming kids playing Louie Louie to a cheap drum machine that had made it to the big time. There’s something charming about this Performing Ferret Band album that appeals to me as a failed songwriter. My wife and 17 year old son walked in while I was listening and we all three agreed it has something going on. He says it sacrifices some of the finer aspects of music in order to convey emotion and I have to nod in assent. The name, Performing Ferret Band was what hooked me in the first place. Turns out these are punk DIY kids who have song ideas (okay, maybe not necessarily fully formed, but they are interesting ideas, some of them) even if they are just one phrase or part of a song, along with the ability to get these ideas down on tape, in a way that just makes you pause and admire what they have done in their own absurd, cheeky and idiosyncratic way. They are multi-instrumentalists not really appearing to be proficient on any of them, but their ‘just give it a go’ spirit shines through and you forgive them because it's cute and they sound like they are true friends who completely trust each other. They have things to declaim, often in the form of provocations about the state of their 1981 world, and from what I can decipher they manage to tackle weighty topics like environmentalism, disease, relationships, in addition to more mundane topics like kissing, drinking, and the occasional goof. The Ferrets are also genre skippers, dabbling in blues, minimalism, punk, power pop, all with little regard for tempo, tuning, melody, it don’t matter, they are getting their ideas down. It's fun, it's a lark, it's got a wee bit o’the twee. Give it a spin. Turns out they hail from Maidstone, England, which is a town that may not be famous for much, but there was apparently a bit of a 1981 music scene there which means more on the horizon for us, so watch this space…