Cave Weddings, Again.

So I downloaded five songs by The Cave Weddings the other night. Dunno where they came from, what releases they’re sourced from – just saw a link next to the band’s name in some dark corner of some dark comment box in a dark corner of the interweb and hit ‘GO’. Two of the songs are home demos, so I don’t even know whether or not these tracks have been released into the world with the band’s consent. Either way, I will refrain from posting any mp3s or pointing the curious in the right direction.

Point is though: boy do I love The Cave Weddings! They really are just awesome piled upon awesome. Since these songs have been in my possession, I’ve listened to nothing else. I suppose grumblers and those of an anxious disposition may be apt to claim that bands like The Cave Weddings sound contrived and generic, that they’re just writing catchy pop songs to a formula, reducing lyrical/emotional signposts of unrequited (boo!) vs requited (yay!) love to a near abstract gesture. Well claim away dudes; that’s what Buddy Holly and The Ramones were doing, and when the formula is turning out a 100% hit rate to rival Buddy Holly and The Ramones, criticism is futile. These songs are SO GOOD.

How do they get it so right? Just a gallophing great rhythm guitar, a twangy, catchy lead line, some simple, enthusiastic drumming, a real likable wasn’t-made-for-singing voice straining to hit the right notes, some ba-ba-bas, tried & tested melodies of elephant-killing power…. it ain’t rocket science. But when all the elements are in alignment, when the band sound so damn happy to be here… you can’t beat it.

Drummer Nathan’s playing is pretty conventionally kick-ass, but just listen to the breakdown bit in ‘When The Lights Go Out’ where he lays down a series of fabulously WRONG fills (THUNKy THUNK-a THUNK?) that would make any drum-bore spit in despair, yet he and the rest of the band know he’s ten times more awesome than those squares are ever gonna be, and more capable of powering them through to the end of the song in style too…. man, it almost sounds like they’re laughing uproariously through that whole section – that’s rock n’ roll, right there.

It seems like other press about The Cave Weddings keeps mentioning Buddy Holly, just like I did. I dunno why really – it’s not like they really sound much like Buddy Holly. I guess it’s just…. a glimmer of the same attitude maybe? – yeah, that’s the key to it. That little, winsome Buddy Holly grin - the one he’s got in all the photos that let’s you know there’s nothing to worry about - that’s the feeling you get from The Cave Weddings. Like the way he was basically playing the most jagged, primitive, sexually charged rock n’ roll imaginable at the time, but somehow transmuting it via his own earnestness and good nature into something that sounded so wholesome and spiritually fulfilling and indisputably RIGHT that Mother Teresa probably could have tapped her toes in approval in a spare moment without thinking twice…? Same deal here, maybe.

Not that I’d ever try to score cheap points from the fact that two thirds of the band are married, or draw a lame journo-link from the fact they’ve got ‘wedding’ in their name, but The Cave Weddings really do sound like different musical elements coming together in a joyous union, spreading happiness wherever they turn through the realisation that they all fit together so damn perfectly – the garage/punk/pop equivalent of domestic bliss.

UPDATE: It turns out that the songs I downloaded make up the band’s tour EP, previously out of print but repressed this very week and now available from their myspace for $7. It’s hard to imagine $7 or nearest local equivalent better spent: http://www.myspace.com/thecaveweddings

Labels: I like, pop, punk, The Cave Weddings