Len Price 3: Kentish Longtails (CD on JLM Recordings)

Band: Len Price 3
Label: JLM Recordings
Title: Kentish Longtails

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Band:Len Price 3
Title:Kentish Longtails
Reviewed By:Benjamin Howarth
Date Published:19/11/2017

Label:JLM Recordings
Format:CD
Release Year:2017
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Shortly before sitting down to write this review, I was scrolling through the latest music coverage, which included a blow by blow account of the latest Twitter spats between two of the UK’s biggest grime stars (Wiley and Dizzee Rascal). No doubt this will give both artists plenty of material for their next records, with both no doubt keen to add to the legacy of hip-hop take-down songs.

While dressing down other rappers forms a key part of that genre’s musical output, it’s a lot less common for indie bands to document their various spats in song. As the Len Price 3 found out recently, the same reluctance does not, however, tend to apply when people are speaking to biographers. Having found themselves on the wrong side of some criticism in a recent book about the Medway music scene, they took a leaf out of Jay-Z’s book and penned a ‘put down’ song to kick off their fifth album. The song in question, ‘Childish Words’, is a pent-up ball of rage, and as a result, its as good as any guitar rock song you’ll hear all year. No words are minced are as Glenn Page sneers, “Childish words are all I hear/Floating in the atmosphere/Billy told the writer that we play for the cash/Malicious allegations thru a droopy tache / You say your motives are higher/But I don’t understand ‘Cos you’ve been selling paintings for Fifteen Grand.”

This is far from the first time the Len Price 3 have taken to writing put down songs, but this one has a bit of extra spice to it and is the first time they’ve given the target for their ire a name. Billy Childish, though a cult figure in the grand scheme of things, is the biggest fish in the relatively small pond of Medway rock bands and is never short of an opinion. The Len Price 3, though operating on a similar (ish) musical landscape, have never given the impression they much care about being in the ‘Medway scene’ (it’s just where they come from). Quite what motivated Childish’s original comments is unclear. As far as I know, the ‘3’ have no obvious money issues, and would happily get their round in at the bar, but the notion that their semi-regular shows at the Water Rats and the Half Moon in Putney betray a desperate lust for wealth is clearly insane.

You can make your own minds up. Some may decide that Childish’s godlike status makes him immune to criticism. As a longstanding fan of the band, I’m of course inclined to side with the Len Price 3. And why wouldn’t I? Because, once again, they’ve delivered a brilliant mix of bust-a-gut blues rock, mixed with snappy mod singalongs and the occasional sun-drenched ballad. Unashamed of their Sixties and Seventies influences, the Len Price 3 write songs that smash their way into your subconscious and stay there.

There is plenty of anger – with song after song going after trendies, vacuous scenesters, cash flashers and fashionistas. The insult of choice on this record is ‘moron’. But, as on previous albums, the anger cuts through because it is tempered with a much more loveable side – wistful and nostalgic. That’s most obvious on the paean to the ‘Saturday Morning Film Show’ (a wonderful institution wiped out when the various megabrands came to town and put local cinemas out of business before immediately jacking up their prices), but there are plenty of other references to raise a smile (though you will need to have been sent to a Kentish primary school in the 1980s and 1990s to get the reference to KMP cards – a peculiar attempt by our local authority to put an entire generation of schoolchildren off learning maths.)

‘Kentish Longtails’ represents something of a departure for the group. Though they still wash everything through a haze of Hendrix, Who and Kinks influences, this is less rigidly applied than on their earlier efforts. Page has said that he deliberately let go of some of the rules that defined earlier records and attempted to imagine he was writing songs for a different band. Where previously they had always worked with a producer, on this one, they recorded everything in a garage. Some tracks are rough and ready – they sound like a demo tape from the 90s. Others are pristinely recorded. The effect is like listening to a mix-tape compiled by the band, interrupted with snippets from the studio and bursts of feedback. You can’t help but think of the first true ‘indie’ bands of the late 70s – recreating the sounds of their mod and pub-rock heroes in the no-rules environment of their own homes.

Songs flash by breathlessly, as they always do on Len Price 3 records, but ‘Kentish Longtails’ has the highest ratio of true stand-out moments on any of their records. Close your eyes, swear it is 1978 and this is a band that would be borne for the kind of commercial success Billy Childish claims they aspire to. Of course, this is 2017 and bands like this have no hope of mainstream acclaim, but that doesn’t make this record any less valuable or enjoyable. Even Billy Childish would probably have to concede the point on that…

Track Listing:

01) Childish Words
02) Sucking The Life Out of Me
03) You Can't Say Goodbye
04) Telegraph Hill
05) Saturday Morning Film Show
06) Nothing I Want
07) Pocketful of Watches
08) Ride on Coat Tails
09) Meaningless Mouth
10) Lisa Baker
11) Stop Start Lilly
12) Paint Your Picture Well
13) If You See What I See
14) Man in The Woods

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Related Links

http://www.thelenprice3.co.uk/
https://twitter.com/thelenprice3
https://www.facebook.com/thelenprice3

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