The Bonnevilles are the 200 proof rocking real deal
A few years ago I was looking for a good set of headphones to use while recording at home. I did quite a bit of research and, as many of you will already know, good headphones can be expensive.
Quite expensive, as in “How much ya got?” expensive and the audiophiles of the world will fight to the death over why you must either have such and such brand or just poke a sharp stick in your ears.
I wound up going with a far less expensive set, partly as a matter of economy, but largely based on an interview with a famous musician who said, “Nah, we like to use this good but inexpensive model because we figure this is what most of our fans will be using, so it’s more important that the mix sound good on those instead of a $500 pair of Sennheisers.”
There’s some wisdom there in wanting to hear the music the way the fans will hear it and I try to take the same approach in writing about bands I’m hearing for the first time. I don’t look at the press kit, I don’t go digging for the band’s history online, and I especially avoid anyone else’s review of the same music. I want to be able to hear it the way anyone else would for the first time, without expectations or bias so whatever impression the music makes on me is strictly from the music and not a clever bit of marketing convincing to hear it a certain way.
This is how I approached Dirty Photographs, the latest album from The Bonnevilles. My first impression is that here is a classic, blues-based power trio circa 1967. Even the album’s engineering sounds vintage, all fat fuzz and distortion. It is exceptionally well done as a period study it is magnificent.Then I read the press kit.
The Bonnevilles are, in fact, a power duo from Northern Ireland. Much as I’d like to avoid the obvious comparison to the 1991 film, The Commitments, it sure reminds me of The Commitments, a flick about a group of Irish kids with R&B aspirations who pull it off so well, you’d never know they weren’t born and raised in Detroit forty years ago.
It’s also, along with This Is Spinal Tap, one of the most accurate cinematic representations of what’s it like to be in a band, but I digress.
The band’s lineup is Andrew McGibbon Jr. on guitar and vocals, Chris McMullan on drums, and that’s it. Simply stated, their minimalist approach knocks it out of the park. Should there be a bass and a second guitar? Well, there could be, but it clearly isn’t necessary.
Somehow with only one guitar and a set of drums they create a wall of sound more impressive than a band twice the size and you don’t even notice the lack of more conventional instrumentation.
The album’s ten tracks (eleven if you have the CD) are a tour de force of authentic late-sixties blues rock, the kind of uncomplicated power that punk music would revive some years later after rock became a tad bloated and navel-gazing.
With the ‘phones on and your eyes closed, it’s easy to imagine these guys opening for Cream or The Jimi Hendrix Experience, they’re that good and here’s the thing: if they weren’t that good (they are), their sense of humor would still earn them a special place in my heart.
From McGibbon: “Most of the tracks are upbeat, or have a positive message, a message of love or even just plain, old fashioned sex. I know others have written a world of songs about those things, but we haven’t, so we thought it was our time to jump in.”
Explaining the title track: “It’s a poem of tribute to my wife’s ass. She’s very pretty and does have a lovely bum.”That’s rock right there, kids.
Dirty Photographs is currently available in multiple formats from Alive Naturalsound Records and while it may be a while before the Bonnevilles make it to the Scenic City, they can be found on Facebook and YouTube as well as at thebonnevilles.co.uk