For about six months in 1994, These Animal Men were pretty much my favourite band in the world before I discovered the Wildhearts at the end of the year. I was 15 years old at the time and it's fair to say that since the era of the Senseless Things and Carter USM a couple of years previously, not much had come along that had really grabbed me. The charts were full of boring anodyne dance music and mass manufactured boy band crap like East 17 and Take That. And even if you were into guitar music, the majority of it was taken up by whiny grunge second wavers like Stone Temple Pilots. Even Nirvana had gone completely downhill with the over-rated "In Utero" album.
Desperate times. And then this happened.
Okay, I'll admit it, "Speeed King" (replete with a cover featuring a bowl of white powder with four straws sticking out of it) hasn't maybe aged as well as some of These Animal Men's other songs have but in the tepid musical climate of late '93 to early '94, it really did feel like a massive breath of fresh air. It felt dangerous instead of whingy. It felt like it was celebrating life rather than hating yourself and wanting to die (message to the grunge hordes - at the time I was 15 years old, hating school and having problems at home. I didn't want to listen to music to make me feel worse thank you).
It was one Saturday morning watching "Going Live!" (I think) that I realised this band were something special. They'd been on the show playing the single and the gormless presenter (I'd like to think it was that irritating berk Andi Peters who I couldn't stand) asked them what it was about. Their admittedly honest answer (taking loads of amphetamines and having a really good time) quickly got the interview cut off a few seconds later!
I was quick to snap up "Too Sussed?", the mini-album that followed "Speeed King" and it was this that quickly made me realise that they were my new favourite band. Yeah, the lyrics were still very nihilistic but this was angry rather than mopey, it had an energy behind it, it made you want to channel your frustrations with life into doing something rather than sitting in and feeling sorry for yourself. Their third single "This Is The Sound Of Youth" was pretty much my soundtrack for that whole summer that year. I really was "stacking shelves to live for the weekend" working Saturdays in Netto at the time. Oasis may have been the band writing the tunes that were turning the heads of a nation at the time but looking back, These Animal Men really were capturing the frustrations of a whole generation of angry mid-'90s teenagers in their lyrics.
It's just a pity nobody really noticed. "Sound of Youth" just to say grazed the Top 40 as did their debut album proper "Come On Join The High Society", a storming breakneck collection of punk tunes in the vein of the three singles. But by the autumn the tide was already turning against These Animal Men and other groups like S*M*A*S*H* and Mantaray who'd been lumped in with the "New Wave of New Wave" scene that had sprung up around them in the NME and Melody Maker. August saw Blur release "Park Life" and Oasis put "Definitely Maybe" out thus signalling the official arrival of the more commercially friendly Britpop. A few of the more tuneful NWONW bands like Elastica, Shed Seven and Ash managed to quickly switch bandwagons but for These Animal Men who were so closely identified with NWONW (guitarist Hooligan had admitted "even if it is a bandwagon, we're probably driving it" in one interview), the game was pretty much up.
They stuck around for a while afterwards though, putting out a mini album "Taxi For These Animal Men" in the first weeks of 1995 (the name came from a festival appearance where their gear conked out ten minutes in leading to the band simply sitting around on stage for the remaining twenty minutes of their set and angry fans chanting the above slogan). It showed a more reflective side to their work but didn't really make a lot of sense. Mind you, the following year would see them drift even further from their punk roots to startling effect...
It would be 1997 before the world heard from These Animal Men again - in the meantime they changed drummers, got a new keyboard player and were undergoing something of a musical transformation. By the time they returned in 1997 with the "Life Support Machine" single, they sounded (and looked) pretty much nothing like they had previously. And it was brilliant.
"Accident And Emergency", TAM's 1997 comeback album, really is a lost gem of an album that I'd advise everybody to track down. It's the sound of a band knowing their time's up, shrugging their shoulders, saying "fuck it" and making the sort of album they've always wanted to make. "24 Hours To Live", probably the closest thing to their debut, rushes through on sheer adrenalin like the best end of the world party song you ever heard while elsewhere they tackle sinister dark reggae ("Going Native") and poisoned sea shanty murder ballads ("Riverboat Captain") among other things. Seriously, get this one now.
I seem to remember the B-side for the single being the most awesomely sinister cover of "Wichita Lineman" ever for some reason as well but unfortunately that one isn't on Youtube.
Anyway, predictably These Animal Men weren't too long for the world afterwards and they'd split before 1997 was out. Frontman Boag and guitarist Hooligan would resurface a couple of years later with soul power rock 'n' rollers Mo Solid Gold. They were great live but couldn't quite capture that energy on record. Anyway, have a listen and judge for yourself.
Boag and Hooligan would also resurface in garage rockers Thee Orphans a few years back (with Hooligan now taking over vocals) but a few months back, it was announced that TAM would be reforming for a one off gig to mark a new documentary being released on the band. And I'm happy to say that gig is tonight, I'm going and I can't wait personally. See yas down the front.
I'd say this band were probably to me what the Manics circa "Generation Terrorists" were to those who came a couple of years earlier or King Adora were to those who came along a few years later. Do we dare dream a third These Animal Men record might surface one day? I think it's probably unlikely but we can always hope. In the meantime, go give this band a listen.
