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My life with Swamptrash
22 Jun 2006, 10:05
Back in the late 80s/early 90s, my musical world revolved mainly around gloriously theatrical flour-abusers Fields of the Nephilim - a perfect complement to the bleak brownness of the north of Scotland where I grew up. While I was walking around in my long coat and scarecrow hat, on my radar appeared another band which was particularly popular amongst my friends - it was called Swamptrash. At the time I thought they were just a local band; I didn't even know what kind of music they played.
Fast forward about a year, I'm sitting in someone's rusty Mini Metro in Whithorn, southwest Scotland - where you can stand on the burnt stumps of The Wicker Man's legs, trivia fans - and the tinny car stereo is playing an equally tinny but very fast psycho bluegrass version of Johnny Cash's Ring of Fire. It's fantastic and it's by Swamptrash. I instantly resolve to buy everything they've released when I get home. According to some guide to Scottish music I remember picking up, they have an album (It Makes No Never Mind) and an EP (Bone).
Except I can't bloody find anything, can I? It must be a band that doesn't exist. The only two good record shops in Scotland at this time are One Up in Aberdeen (100 miles away) and Fopp in Edinburgh (which may as well be on Mars) - no hope of me going to either of them on my bike. Instead, I went to university in Bournemouth, which was free of both bluegrass and floury goths, but full of crusty prog fans and fey types timidly waiting for the advent of shoegaze. The unlikely twin attack of Slowdive and Ozric Tentacles soon made me forget about Swamptrash.
Until about a year later when I found a vinyl copy of It Makes No Never Mind in a record shop in Poole, next to a fish stall. I've never ever seen another copy of it, but any time I get asked for my top 10 albums (argh!) it's straight in there - a great frantic Deliverance swamp stomp of an album.
From there I went backwards to the backwoods moonshine-and-hammocks banjo (because I love the banjo) folk of Roscoe Holcomb, Dock Boggs, Bascom Lamar Lunsford and Flatt & Scruggs, then forwards to the more contemporary American gothic folk of 16 Horsepower and Slim Cessna's Auto Club.
Now, looking at last.fm's records for Swamptrash, they have 4(!) listeners, including myself. It's very strange that a band which has become a household name for me also appears to be one of the most obscure bands on the planet.
Fast forward about a year, I'm sitting in someone's rusty Mini Metro in Whithorn, southwest Scotland - where you can stand on the burnt stumps of The Wicker Man's legs, trivia fans - and the tinny car stereo is playing an equally tinny but very fast psycho bluegrass version of Johnny Cash's Ring of Fire. It's fantastic and it's by Swamptrash. I instantly resolve to buy everything they've released when I get home. According to some guide to Scottish music I remember picking up, they have an album (It Makes No Never Mind) and an EP (Bone).
Except I can't bloody find anything, can I? It must be a band that doesn't exist. The only two good record shops in Scotland at this time are One Up in Aberdeen (100 miles away) and Fopp in Edinburgh (which may as well be on Mars) - no hope of me going to either of them on my bike. Instead, I went to university in Bournemouth, which was free of both bluegrass and floury goths, but full of crusty prog fans and fey types timidly waiting for the advent of shoegaze. The unlikely twin attack of Slowdive and Ozric Tentacles soon made me forget about Swamptrash.
Until about a year later when I found a vinyl copy of It Makes No Never Mind in a record shop in Poole, next to a fish stall. I've never ever seen another copy of it, but any time I get asked for my top 10 albums (argh!) it's straight in there - a great frantic Deliverance swamp stomp of an album.
From there I went backwards to the backwoods moonshine-and-hammocks banjo (because I love the banjo) folk of Roscoe Holcomb, Dock Boggs, Bascom Lamar Lunsford and Flatt & Scruggs, then forwards to the more contemporary American gothic folk of 16 Horsepower and Slim Cessna's Auto Club.
Now, looking at last.fm's records for Swamptrash, they have 4(!) listeners, including myself. It's very strange that a band which has become a household name for me also appears to be one of the most obscure bands on the planet.
Comments
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Iridescence wrote:
Very nice; Well written entry. Slowdive and the Nephs have also been great influences on me, maybe I will look for some Swamptrash :)
Keep writing :) Journals need more things like this and less How Emo am I? type crap. -
nibus wrote:
Thanks :)
Death to pointless memes! -
hdickins wrote:
Swamptrash! Yay!
I first cam acorss them on TV(!) - sometime in the late 80's I suppose. They were pictured standing in a cornfield with big broad-brimmed black hats and playing strangely anarchic punk-bluegrass. And I heard nothing more for a few years...
Then I met a guy called 'Schluppy' (great name eh!?) who lent me a tape of [album]It makes no never mind[/album] and I was hooked. I've never seen a real copy of the album though.
I gather Swamptrash broke up and the fragemnts went on to form a succession of bands including Hex, Bongshang and the trippy-hippy Shooglenifty
And later I came across a white-label vinyl LP by Hex in Spillers Records in Cardiff (which claims to be the oldest record shop on the planet.) So when I got it homw and played it; I found that Hex were kindof a slightly more 'mellow' version of Swamptrash - but one track in particular engaged me... a strange Gothic-Bluegrass-Waltz !!! Describing the assassination of JFK. Wierd - but good. And very unique. (How many other Gothic Bluegrass Waltzes do you know!?) -
hdickins wrote:
Thanks Nibus
The Avatar came about a couple of month ago. You can imagine it can't you - sat at the dinner table and there happened to be raspberies for pudding and a few minifigs to hand. When I put the raspberry on his little head it was so funny I nearly fell of my chair...
As for Swamptrash, I have [album]It Makes No Never Mind[/album] on tape - and the strange Hex album I mentioned too.
I have tried encoding the Swamptrash album to mp3 - but that was a few years ago and the results weren't brilliant - I must have another go. (And do the Hex album too)
Howard -
hdickins wrote:
Ooops. I should have said Thanks Quadrireme I guess.
Well, hey - thanks to everyone. -
Lord_Viracocha wrote:
Greetings fellow Swamptrash fan!
I first discovered them on 'FsD' the Scottish indie music program on tv of which I still have one copy on video. My only thing by them on vinyl is the album, which I found on eBay.
The only other band like them must be the Bad Livers, who are also superb! :-) -
slinkjadranko wrote:
Hey, just listened to some Swamptrash, who I discovered via my brother, who lives in (and went to Uni in) Edinburgh, back when they were still going.
I had a copy on cassette of the album, but that wore out about 5 years ago and I'd been wishing I could find it ever since. Eventually I went on a long internet mission and managed to pull u pa copy on some rare vinyl. That of course left me to rip it all to mp3 and whatnot, but damn was it all worth it.
I remembered it as being one of my favourite albums, and I was so right.
So anyway, I got round to having them show up on my last.fm profile at last, after listening to some Rautakoura (if you like Swamptrash... check 'em out.) who're a Finnish bluegrass band with some quite similar vibes to Swamptrash.
Good to see at least someone out there still listens to them at any rate! -
hdickins wrote:
Yup. I've heard a few bits of Rautakoura & they're good. (But then there are some other good Finnish bands around too...)
H -
campag wrote:
Another Swamptrash fan. I used go see them a lot in edinburgh when at Uni. I have 'it makes no never mind' and 'bone' on vinyl. Also have We Free Kings 'hell on earth and rosy cross' on vinyl plus a very old VHS of swamptrash and WFK on FsD.
Swamptrash gigs were a top night out, but needed to be pissed before we got there. -
Stooshie wrote:
Richard Horne/Harry Horse just died in Shetland in a seeming suicide pact with his wife. Really sad story. I'm listening to Bone now in memory, & remembering how influential it was in getting me into other stuff, & following the subsequent rise & rise of the brilliant Shooglenifty, as well as the Humpff Family from Glasgow & some more obscure Celtic fusion/acid croft stuff. They WERE a great night out - I tended to get pissed during their gigs, it helped me come down a bit but involved too much bog-trotting! RIP Harry & Mandy.Venus in Tweeds -
nibus wrote:
That's really very sad. I had a message from Harry/Richard only a few days ago. Devastated.
http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/display.var.1115816.0.tributes_to_dead_author_and_wife.php -
oopagloop wrote:
Yes it is sad and I wans't even there for any of it- until I remembered reading the lost polar bear as a kid, tho thats not quite the same as going to a gig . Through a mention at optimo.co.uk I was curious enough about his name to begin the bread trail and what sweat soaked riches... Sad to have missed the moment but am grateful for what can be scrounged on youtube. An internet never forgets! I have got tape rips of the captains song and jerusalem ridge. Anyone who has more on vinyl owes it to the great music god to make some decent copies before the wax melts. If anyone is interested in the songs I have got I found them at: www.lazypict.thehighlands.co.uk/acidcroft/acidcrofthistory.htm. Please let me know if anyone comes across some more. The Opogo book is in the post and I'm looking forward to giving it to my niece so happy days. Thanks Nibus
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hdickins wrote:
Got the Hex/Hexology vinyl out at last to do some ripping. There's a beautiful gothic bluegrass waltz on it. (What a bizarre genre!)
