29 Mar 2024
UsernamePassword

Remember Me? | Join | Recover
Click here to sign in via social networking

Brooklyn State Hospital - The Doctor will Record you Now Album Review

09 Aug 2011 // A review by Peter-James Dries

If you’re a regular listener of Massey University’s Radio Control 99.4fm, or have tuned in at all over the past month you’ve probably heard Pottsy shamelessly plug his band, Brooklyn State Hospital, and their Album Release Gig at the Celtic. If this is news to you, you’ve missed the gig but thankfully the album has been released. Add some sweat, beer and dance floor graunching and the CD feels just like the gig – minus the shirtless Pottsy.

The Doctor Will Record You Now is the product of two hundred bottles of beer, one thousand cigarettes, a cigar and some sausages. Replete with inside jokes and leaking Delta Blues as dirty as the Mississippi itself, Brooklyn State Hospital deliver music even your mum will dance to, as proven at the recent Celtic gig. It’s the music Bob Dylan would be making if he was still with us (what do you mean he’s not dead?).   The music is straight forward and easily digested, more visceral than cerebral. The singing is a mix of both, with much fun and time put into deciphering Black Willie’s metaphors and allusions. It’s going to a great listen once the weather warms up; it’s perfect for warm beer, bbqs and drunkenly singing along.

There was plenty of beer and drinking along at the Album Release Gig. A bit of dancing too. At first it was only mums, but into the second half of the set there were women, gorgeous women, everywhere. At one point the band refused to continue until the women stood back up and continued to dance, with the promise of Pottsy removing his singlet. The Celtic was packed that night. There were people all over the seats, the walls, the bar, the floor. Palmy’s regular celebrities were there; Kane Parsons, Brendon Hartley, Sam from Kiwis in Control with Pottsy and Sam, those attractive extras from the music video. There was also an overpowering aroma of spilt Guinness, drunk sweat and too much cologne; the kind of thing you’d expect from a place like this. A flourishing scene of sophistication, far removed from the meat market the concurrent Six60 gig promised, with more refined emotional sensibility than the Screamo gig at the Royal. Plus it was free, a fact not passed on to the homeless that watched on thru the windows of the pub.  If cognac was on the menu it would the perfect chaser to a Guinness and the appropriate form of social lubrication.    

Cognac would have been the perfect accompaniment to the inaugural screening of the ‘She’s a Ghost’ video that night. It’s one of the quieter tracks on the album, more finger-picked folk pop than banging blues. It’s a good place to sit down for a breather before you’re thrown back against the wall by ‘The Breakwater Blues’. Be sure to look up the video for ‘She’s a ghost’, which features a few familiar Palmy places and faces and reflects the subject matter of the song. It’s on their Youtube and Facebook.

For fans of the man of the ‘One Bourban, One Scotch, One Beer’, George Thorogood, listen intently to side A thru B. For fans of the guy that sung that song before Thorogood, John Lee Hooker, put on ‘My Love’s an Open Sewer’ and have an introspective moment. As the last track it gives you time to reflect on everything you’ve learnt over the last fifty minutes.   

Sadly missing from the album is the crowd favourite ‘Tuning Song’, which is an integral part of the live gig. With a song that’s never quite the same as the last, it’s difficult to put on a record and say, “this is the tuning song! It goes like this.” If anything, it’s another reason to go to a live show.  

The Doctor Will Record You Now has been in Winamp for a whole week, yet the album still raises more questions than 1987’s The Lost Boys. Why is William the only one without a nonchalant face? Why is Rob so eager for a digital examination by Dr Caldicott? Why is Pottsy the only one ever pictured in a hat? Is that bass player secretly the emo from the Fish? Would you like these guys being a part of making love to you? It’s got a few more consecutive listens yet, let’s see what other mysteries I can unravel.

 

Other Reviews By Peter-James Dries

Yann Le Dorré - Album Review: The Circus is Closed
19 Dec 2023 // by Peter-James Dries
“We are Sex Bob-Omb and we're here to make you think about death and get sad and stuff!” - Scott Pilgrim vs.
Read More...
Sanoi - Album Review: Echoes Of Home
25 Nov 2023 // by Peter-James Dries
Electronica offers no escapism for me. It’s more of what I already have.
Read More...
Throng - EP Review: Decoherence
20 Oct 2023 // by Peter-James Dries
You know that thing where the letter B has a personality, or words have textures and colours? That’s called synaesthesia.
Read More...
Fortress Europe - Album Review: Old World
10 Oct 2023 // by Peter-James Dries
Have you ever been torn between listening to Mozart or Periphery? Does Epica have too much of that darn singing for your tastes?
Read More...
Yurt Party - Album Review: Yurt Party
07 Sep 2023 // by Peter-James Dries
It sure isn't summer, and this is really not the Balkans, but Yurt Party’s new self-titled album refutes that. Back with another one of them Balkan rocking beats, Yurt Party’s debut is jazzy, erratic, and full of zest and energetic grooves, with flavour notes of ska, dub, and bergamot.
Read More...
day13n - Album Review: /7/13/7/
06 Aug 2023 // by Peter-James Dries
I’m too old for this world. We’ve devolved to the point where music is only as good as the soundtrack to your 10 second TikTok, and the thirty thousand copies recycling the idea.
Read More...
The New Existentialists - Single Review: Invocation
16 Jul 2023 // by Peter-James Dries
The New Existentialists, a doom metal band known for their dark and atmospheric soundscapes, have just… Wait a minute… No. The New Existentialists are really not a doom metal band, and they’re really not known for their dark soundscapes… They’re more known as stalwarts of a bygone era.
Read More...
Samuel Philip Cooper - Album Review: Journey to Sobriety
01 Jun 2023 // by Peter-James Dries
Samuel Philip Cooper sits on the brink of social media stardom, with videos of his belting out pop music piano covers from behind a pair of thick spectacles racking up views and likes on Insta. Little do any of the mindless doom scrollers swiping through his reels know, but percolating behind his eye brows is the very key to their very salvation.
Read More...
View All Articles By Peter-James Dries

NZ Top 10 Singles

  • WE CAN'T BE FRIENDS (WAIT FOR YOUR LOVE)
    Ariana Grande
  • BEAUTIFUL THINGS
    Benson Boone
  • END OF BEGINNING
    Djo
  • LOSE CONTROL
    Teddy Swims
  • TEXAS HOLD 'EM
    Beyonce
  • STICK SEASON
    Noah Kahan
  • PRAISE JAH IN THE MOONLIGHT
    YG Marley
  • CARNIVAL
    Kanye West And Ty Dolla $ign
  • SATURN
    SZA
  • LOVIN ON ME
    Jack Harlow
View the Full NZ Top 40...
muzic.net.nz Logo
100% New Zealand Music
All content on this website is copyright to muzic.net.nz and other respective rights holders. Redistribution of any material presented here without permission is prohibited.
Report a ProblemReport A Problem