Heads - Everybody Knows We Got Nowhere

  by Anthony Strutt

published: 14 / 11 / 2014

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Review

This very delayed remaster and reissue was originally promised back in July 2013, following on from a cassette remaster for Record Store Day that year. The third album of Heads, Bristol's finest makers of Stooges-infused psychedelia, first came out in 2000, its title being a pun on ‘Everybody Knows This is Nowhere’, Neil Young's 1968 first album with Crazy Horse. The group consists of Simon Price, on guitar and vocals (who has also released two solo albums under the moniiker of Kandodo), Hugo Morgan on bass, Wayne Maskell on drums, and Paul Allen on guitar. ‘Everybody Knows We Got Nowhere’ has been reissued on both double CD and LP, and also as an amazing five LP box set featuring an unreleased album. The bonus CD on the double CD features early takes released on the Man Ruin label, topped up with some Mark Radcliffe and John Peel sessions. The album itself, which meanwhile, originally came out on Sweet Nothing uses up most of the eighty minutes disc space a CD has to hold. ‘Legavaan Satellite’ is pretty much a rewrite of the best sonic attack that the Stooges could ever produce, and Simon's vocals even recall Iggy too. It is heavy, mean and very savage in its assault. ‘Thumbs’ on the other hand is based more in the blues, like earlier ZZ Top, but with added wah-wah guitar effects. ‘Fuego’ is another savage, gritty track. ‘Kraut Byrds’ has elements of jazz, but also throws in hints of the Doors in places. ‘Could Be...’ has an initially creeping sound. It could be the film soundtrack to a killer building up to attack his victim, and eventually explodes with furious energy. ‘#75’ is meanwhile as manic as the Jimi Hendrix Experience, the Heads playing on it as if their lives depended on it. ‘Wobble’ is a short, chilled-out interlude. ‘Barcode’ sounds much more indie than the other tracks, and is like the Wedding Present in a thrashy mood, while ‘Song No 1’ is restrained and slow. ‘My My’ sounds as if it is being played backwards, like the magical moments of ‘Revolver’ and ‘Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band’. ‘Stab Railroad’ is both brutal and compelling, while ‘Chrome Plated’ is like a filthy, dirty outtake. ‘Motor Jam’ is a true wah wah experience, an infusion of wild beatnik guitar that both the Jimi Hendrix Experience and the Stooges would be proud of. ‘Dirty Water’ is fuzzed up heavy psychedelia, recalling at first a tight and groovy Inspiral Carpets but by its end it is more reminiscent of an extreme Loop. ‘Pill Jam’ is a heavy jamming number, which sounds like it was recorded at a rehearsal. ‘Long Gone’, which ends the album, is a twelve minute piece of Stooges-like psychedelia. An album of very cool rock ‘n’ roll, the way it used to be recorded.

Track Listing:-

1 Legavaan Satellite
2 Thumbs
3 Fuego
4 K***t Byrds
5 Could Be…
6 #'75
7 Wobble
8 Barcoded
9 Song No 1
10 My My
11 Stab Railroad
12 Chrome Plated
13 Motorjam
14 Dirty Water
15 Pill Jam
16 Long Gone
17 Delwyn's Conkers (Mark Radcliffe
18 Gnu (Mark Radcliffe Session)
19 Could Be (John Peel Session)
20 Legavaan Satellite (John Peel Se
21 You Can Lean Back Sometimes
22 Post Relaxation (John Peel Session
23 Demonizer 48/48
24 Snakepit (Man's Ruin Version)
25 Dirty Water (Man's Ruin Version)
26 Mao Tinitus (Man's Ruin Version)
27 Legavaan Satellite (Man's Ruin Ve
28 You Can Lean Back Sometimes (M

Band Links:-

https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Hea