ARTIST: Brakes                                  

TITLE:  Give Blood

YEAR RELEASED: 2005

CHART ACTION: None

SINGLES: Pick Up the Phone (#82 UK), All Night Disco Party (#76 UK), Ring a Ding (#86 UK)

OTHER SONGS YOU MAY KNOW: They cover Jackson

LINEUP: Eamon Hamilton, Marc Beatty, Thomas White, Alex White

WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT: A super-group of sorts with members from Electric Soft Parade and British Sea Power that’s a raw-ish throwback to earlier punk times.

SOME WORDS, PHRASES AND CLAUSES ABOUT THIS RECORD: Veterans of two independent-minded bands in the UK come together to form a loud, rattly punkish band with short songs and long attitudes.

It’s a nice throwback, tribute, whatever, with some very short songs. The whole thing is over in less than a half hour. It sounded like a blast to record and write .To listen, I don’t know really.

There are glimpses of things, but it’s a little too unfocused and clattery to me. They loved it in the UK press, but I’m going to hedge on it for a while.

NOTES & MINUTIAE: They recorded this in a week with very little overdubs.

IS THERE A DELUXE VERSION: No

GRADE: C+: I’m not convinced. It may take a while for me to get through the clatter.