Pinky Beecroft & The White Russians-Somethin’ Somewhere Better
Pinky Beecroft & The White Russians
Somethin’ Somewhere Better
Gigpiglet Recordings/Inertia
Some context: back in a past life, say about three years or more ago, Pinky Beecroft was the frontperson of the Australian…whatever the hell they were…band Machine Gun Fellatio. During this time period, I almost met up with him when they played New York (blast it, I got sick…), but managed to get an email interview out of him after the fact (Pinky currently has the dubious distinction of being the last person I interviewed for the site, at least until the next proper opportunity comes along…), and through the magic of all these friggin’ social networks we’re both on, I’ve kept in touch on and off since. Since then, MGF have broken up, Pinky’s gotten himself a new band called The White Russians, and I got offered a copy of his new CD by his publicist. “Fuck yeah”, I said, and here we are. To be fair about it, and it probably shows in that interview I did, while I liked and like what I’ve heard of MGF, I’ve never really had quality time to spend with the catalog, but given that for Pinky, this is a new band, a blank slate, a fresh start and (hopefully) a morning without a hangover, not having my opinion of “Somethin’ Somewhere Better” completely colored by what he used to do is probably a good thing. If you’re not familiar with Pinky or Machine Gun Fellatio, great, no worries. This is a perfect jumping on point, as it’s totally new shit.
Moving onto the matter at hand, “Somethin’ Somewhere Better” was recorded live in the studio, but you probably wouldn’t guess it by listening, unless you follow along with the lyrics and catch all the parts where Pinky changes them on the spot. And oh, what lyrics they are. They’re smart, biting, and they’ve got a feel and a voice all their own, telling a story of a whole lot of hard livin’, regret, longing, survival and even defiance, in the album-ending “My Haircut Will Come Back Around”, perhaps the most unlikely name ever for a defiant song. I’d quote some of the lyrics to you, but that would ruin the surprise, now, wouldn’t it? The closest, but not entirely accurate point of comparison I can come up with (remember, I said “a voice all their own”) is to ask you to imagine what would happen if you put Ray Davies, Robyn Hitchcock and Warren Zevon (especially evident on “Real Good Time”) in a roomful of life’s indulgences then said “Write, and pretend to be Australian while you do it.”
Stylistically, the White Russians (most prominently featuring Nick Stewart’s guitar work, though drummer Christian McBride, and bassist Ben T also do a solid job of supporting Pinky’s vocals and keys) run a gauntlet of sounds from moody noir (“Fabulous Driving” and an eerie country reading of Blondie’s “Call Me”) to garage psychedelia (“Sunflowers” and an uptempo new reading of MGF’s “Unsent Letter”) and back, with Pinky’s voice offering shades of a more diverse Ian Astbury (damn it to hell, I swore to myself that I was going to keep the namedropping to a minimum in this review and now I’ve named four people…serves me right for fucking swearing, I suppose…) throughout.
About the only criticism I can level on “Somethin’ Somewhere Better” is that, on first listen, “Someone For Everyone” and “Floor”, which hit about midway through the album, didn’t grab and hold my attention immediately (and it is tough to get people to the great home stretch of a record if the middle loses them), but on a repeat listening, the lyrics carried the songs where the music didn’t jump out immediately. It should be noted, of course, that my opinion of a record can evolve significantly in any number of directions over the course of many listens, and this is being written on my second go (trying to get this out on something resembling release day in Australia), so there may be more to hear in there than I’ve picked up so far. It will also probably help listeners more local to The White Russians that “Someone For Everyone” appears to be the lead single, so they’ll probably be more familiar from hearing it on JJJ (Australia’s big alternative music radio station), whereas I’m just some schmuck from New Jersey in the middle of an album.
Overall, I’d call “Somethin’ Somewhere Better” a solid first full outing from The White Russians with some genuinely great moments (“Fabulous Driving”, “My Haircut Will Come Back Around” and “Real Good Time” being my favorites), and hopefully an encouraging sign of things to come. If you’re a fan of the lyricists I mentioned above or a MGF legacy fan, this is definitely worth a listen. Pick it up wherever insanely expensive Australian import CDs are available, or, thankfully, on iTunes, Amazon and the like (it’s available on at least the first two already).