The Worst/Best Band ever? The Obvious Books @ Death To Music in Shoreditch

I have just woken up with the most violent hangover I have ever experienced and I feel like I am about to die. As I wander about the flat with my first cup of tea I try to piece together the previous nights escapades in an attempt to justify my chronic headache. My eye falls upon The Obvious Books CD cover and I feel as if someone is excitedly dancing on my grave. My mind slips into focus and I start to remember the sonic hell of the previous night.....

Roughly 14 hours ago I was in The Old Blue Last in Shoreditch to watch a new band that I had heard about through a friend of mine who works for XFM (opening letters, making drinks...nothing exceptional). They are called The Obvious Books and they are most certainly a strange bunch. I pick up one of their seemingly free CD's that are lying about the venue. The cover suggests a punk band with ransom note style lettering and a shabby photocopied look. Inside the CD cover is a psuedo-press pack (a sheet of paper) that goes some way to explaining what The Obvious Books are all about. They state that they are a genre-less band that cannot and will not be pinned down to any fixed style, they have also described themselves as 'the worst band in Britain' and they certainly seem proud of this statement. For a start they refuse to soundcheck as not all the members are present (the drummer was arrested earlier that day) and they seem to have misplaced a guitar and all their amplifiers. After a few frantic calls from a phonebox (Do none of these people own a mobile phone?!?) they manage to locate the lost items and they arrange to have the stuff dropped off at the venue. I notice that none of them seem to be drinking alcohol like the other bands but their red eyes betray their sobriety. An hour later a battered old BMW pulls up and the equipment is dragged into the venue and onto the minimal stage. The band then promptly vanishes claiming that they can't watch other bands play as it wears them out and disrupts their focus. I choose to stay and watch two decent bands play Libertines-esque sets clad in the standard leather jackets and scarves uniform of East London, The Grimes and Three Foot Fall, both of which are fairly rock and roll and get good responses from their friends in the room. By this point my lack of lunch and dinner is starting to effect me and the two pints I have consumed kick in. I felt a small tinge of excitement and put it down to lack of sleep.

At exactly half past ten the band return to the venue dressed in what can only be described as 'chav' regalia (a burberry scarf, a pair of reeboks....a cap at a jaunty angle...is it ironic? Is it some kind of fashion statement?) and they appear to have found their drummer who refuses to explain his brush with the law. I ask them about the CD and they dismiss it entirely. Soon enough they take to the stage and immediately start attcking their instruments at random with gleeful abandon. Several people in the crowd look at each other with amusmement and disbelief. Just as the tuneless dirge starts to get uncomfortable the bass player nods to the angry looking drummer and they dive into a song that sounds like some sort of outer space Duran Duran with way too much delay and woefully out of tune guitars. The song lasts all of a minute before they come to a grinding halt and ask if anyone has a tuning pedal, much to the amusement of several members of the other bands. Before one of these eager musicians has a chance to fetch the pedal out of his guitar case the band are off again. They play a few songs and I am really starting to enjoy the set and am fast becoming a fan of this bizarre group. The sound-girl is shaking her head and stamping about behind the mixing desk in anger. The singer introduces the third song with some tale about a boy he knew hwo was half computer and they clatter into another noisy and out of tune racket with strange harmonies and no recognizable structure. The best way to describe this would be to play an old blues record at twice the accepted speed whilst hoovering. People seem to be enjoying the spectacle and my mind conjured up images of public hangings. There is even some drunken dancing and a man with a tie wrapped round his head mounts the stage only to be greeted with a bass tuning peg to the side of his head. At this point the sound-girl has evidently had enough and switches of the microphones. The singer announces that the next song is instrumental much to the amusement of the rest of the band. They tear through a minute and a half of rickety punk disco before leaving the stage and a grinding wall of feedback. From the stage they immediately head for the doors and are gone, leaving the audience stunned for a second or two then there is some applause and the DJ drops The Ramones classic 'Blitzkrieg Bop' to indicate that he understands what he has just seen. I am not so sure that I do. One thing is for sure, they really are quite hard to pin down. I listened to the CD and it is really rough and jagged but I have to say that it is indeed brilliant music.....

If you have any interest in hearing this band then dash over to their myspace page for words, music, some writing, pictures etc...

www.myspace.com/obviousbooks