Parkinsons - Long Way To Nowhere

  by Olga Sladeckova

published: 12 / 2 / 2002

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Review

The Portugese-Scottish band, The Parkinsons, only began “bothering” the music scene at the end of last year, but have already started attracting a lot of attention. Their music has literally blown away British and US fans with its wildly emotional punk rock sound, and their habit of stripping themselves naked on stage has gained them much notoriety. Now the band have emerged with their first record, a seven track mini album, ‘A Long Way To Nowhere’, which, released on the London label Fierce Panda records, has been produced by Ben Lurie and Jim Reid (ex-Jesus and Mary Chain, now Freeheat). The first guitar strum on the opening track 'Primitive' seems shy, but then the air is quickly heated up by a fiery sudden storm of sharp guitars and drums, played at a rebelliously fast speed.‘Primitive' has a great density and volume , which drops down only when frontman Alfonso sings: “Oh Baby, it’s a long way to nowhere!” When he sings about the ‘Universe’ on the fourth track, the music becomes deeply gloomy and his vocals moisten with melancholy. The songs controversially jump back and forth from visceral assertivity to drowning desperation, but the band, however, never lose their energy to fight. ‘Bad Girl’, a secret track (Sorry guys I revealed it but I thought it was worth it.), catches attention with its creative use of guitars which drift round the vocals in a clear sound. The sound of ‘Long Way To Nowhere’ is definitely punkish, but it wouldn’t be punk if it only repeated history and the Parkinsons definitely bring something new with them. The whole record is designed to provoke you to keep moving and to get your adrenalin flowing. Do you think you can you keep up?

Track Listing:-

1 Primitive
2 Too Many Shut Ups
3 Angel In The Dark
4 Universe
5 Hate Machine
6 Nothing To Lose
7 Scientists
8 Bonus Track