“You Lie” / “Gonna See Me Again” (Dirty Water Records DWC-1030) 2009
Thee Vicars | You Lie | Dirty Water | 2009 | I missed out on discovering Thee Vicars when they were around during the mid to late 2000s mainly because I didn’t bother with MySpace and it appears that they used that platform to promote themselves. Remember, this was pre Facebook and other platforms era.
So, a little bit of background information about them. They were a youthful ’60s garage influenced combo, all teenagers at the time they started gigging and making records. And I believe they all hailed from Bury St. Edmunds.
The thing I like about the songs on this single is the creation of beaty riffs. They’re harking back to the type of numbers The Kinks and The Sorrows would power through during 1965/66. The guitars are all very clean, no fuzz mutations or any other electric pedal enhancements. This is furious Beat music.
I’m going to highlight “Gonna See Me Again” on the flip because not only is it teen punk mayhem, it never appeared on any of their albums and was only available as a B-side on this 45rpm.
“Gonna See Me Again” was written by the prolific Mike Whittaker, who ended up in The Baron Four, then The Jack Cades and a few others I believe. I’ve reviewed his solo LP operating under the moniker The Paper Lips.
The manic “You Lie” sounds to me like a re-write of “Born Loser” by Murphy & the Mob. Some real cool Kinks riffage here, caveman screams and machine-gun drums from Will Pattenden.
Thee Vicars didn’t get over the tragic death of their bandmate Chris Langeland in July 2012 and more or less stopped recording / performing at that time.
Line-up:
Mike Whittaker (lead vocals / bass)
Chris Langeland (guitar / backing vocals)
Marcus Volkert (guitar / backing vocals)
Will Pattenden (drums)
Follow this blog on Mastodon or the Fediverse to receive updates directly in your feed.
Leave a Reply